COVID19 Prep: How to Safely Access Your Storage Unit
Preppers or survival enthusiasts have been creating supply caches for centuries. Many bury protective tubes filled with supplies underground where only they can find them during times of need. While this works well and a solid plan, it's also pretty inconvenient. That's why many survivalists are turning to self-storage facilities to hold their extra gear, and why many with compromised immune systems are relying on the social distancing-friendly option of self-storage.
It's beneficial to have a cache of supplies in these tough times, but with issues like flu and Covid19 concerns, it's important to maintain storage sanitation and social distancing requirements while resupplying. Keep the following considerations in mind when accessing your disaster preparedness essentials.
Know what Survival Equipment to Store
The first step to prepping a self-storage container at Wise Space™ Storage is to decide on the equipment you can wisely store in your unit.
While it's tempting to put away containers of non-perishable food items, it's best to stick to other survival supplies that won't have to be rotated as frequently or attract rodents. In fact, many facilities prevent renters from maintaining food storage for your own safety, as it can spoil, attract rodents and if often left neglected.
Consider instead investing in a complete first-aid kit including a selection of bandages, quick clot packs, disinfectant wipes, medications and more. Package the supplies in a durable and sealable container with multiple sections. It’s also wise to get familiar with accessing the supplies so you know where all the different items are in an emergency situation. Also, add in water purification tablets, a water container, and a simple filtration system so you have a way to get water if your local supply becomes tainted.
Consider stashing gardening supplies, such as survival seeds, and a few basic shovels to help you grow crops wherever you want to survive long-term. Consider including some basic maintenance, camping and survival equipment as well, such as a gun cleaning kit, a few lightweight tents for shelter, fire starter in the form of a Ferro rod or matches and some fishing equipment to help you prepare for a range of survival situations.
Grab Supplies As Infrequently as Possible
During times of illness, such as the COVID19 outbreak, social distancing is important even when prepping storage supplies and accessing your items at a storage facility.
To reduce your risk of coming in contact with others, you should access your supplies as infrequently as possible. That's part of the reason why your food prep and storage supplies should be kept at home or other private locations, so you don't have to expose yourself to access these commonly used items.
Keep supplies you will only need once a month or less and you'll be able to limit your exposure as much as possible while accessing your equipment.
Visit During Off Hours and Disinfect
Whether you're adding new supplies to your storage space, or you're grabbing items that you need, it's important to take a few simple steps for sickness prevention with every visit. The first is to access storage during off-hours when others aren't likely to be at the facility. At Wise Space™ Storage, where access is available 24/7, you could easily visit in the middle of the night to limit your exposure. Once at the facility, you should wipe down the handle and the lock of your unit with sanitizing wipes in order to eliminate traces of any viruses left on those surfaces by others.
Carefully practice storage sanitation rules like disinfecting any new supplies you add to your unit and disinfecting your hands or wearing gloves each time you access your stockpile of goods. These simple actions will limit your exposure to sickness while giving you access to any supplies that you need throughout a quarantine period or just during flu season when you're more likely to become ill.
Self-storage facilities work well for storing survival supplies, but you must take care when accessing your supplies. By following simple disinfecting strategies and maintaining a healthy distance from others, it's easy to protect yourself from contracting a virus like COVID19 or any other major illness.
