Pandemic Preparedness: Meeting Your Family’s Hygiene Necessities

After food and water, hygiene products are the next items that disappear from shelves when a pandemic strikes. So your odds of getting what you have to have during a time when needs are elevated are slim. It pays to know what Family’s Hygiene Necessities for a Pandemic Preparedness would or should look like.

Pandemic Preparedness article cover image

You want to prepare now so that you don’t have to fight crowds. Plus, you want to make sure you can stay isolated from them so that you won’t bring any illness back to your own home. 

Cover Your Family’s Hygiene Necessities for a Pandemic Isolation Period

What Do You Need?

You’ll want to figure out how much of each hygiene product your family goes through by adding up what you usually go through in a year. Then multiply that by at least two years. 

Hygiene items can store that long, so even if the pandemic doesn’t last that long, you won’t have wasted the expense of buying the items. You’ll need to stock up on toilet paper. 

toilet paper shortage

Toilet Paper

If the Covid-19 panic buying taught us anything, it was the fact that TP is king. There were Facebook groups dedicated to a “where is it now” concept to help people find what they needed. Add in all the TP memes talking about how TP was used to make moonshine, or it was replacing poker chips?

It became pretty clear that this baby is important to have. The best rule of thumb for Pandemic Preparedness is to figure two rolls per family member per week with extra rolls figured in for the event of an illness that could require more usage.

Teeth

For toothpaste, think that a family of four would need two tubes of toothpaste per month.  Dental floss should be figured at one container per month per person. Toothbrushes should be replaced more often during a pandemic because of the higher chance of you having to deal with germs.

A good rule of thumb is to change toothbrushes every four weeks – sooner if anyone in the family has an illness. In between time? Throw them in your dishwasher each week for a quick clean. Toothpaste?

This isn’t so critical as you can even resort to baking soda in a pinch or worst-case scenario? Just brush with water. You really want to get the “scum” off your teeth and prevent plaque build-up.

homemade toothpaste

Soap

You’ll need bar soap. If you currently use liquid hand soap, it’s more cost-effective to plan to use bar soap during a pandemic. However, since pandemics are spread through viruses and germs, you’ll want to make sure that you have a hearty supply of hand sanitizer to use during the length of the isolation period. 

There are those of us that like to make our own – I have an oatmeal honey sensitive skin bar that I make and love for my daughter’s skin, but prefer the Eucalyptus soap recipe for myself that I found HERE.

make your own soap for Pandemic Preparedness

Deodorant

While this doesn’t seem like a top priority for pandemic preparedness, everyone in the family – except for infants and small children – will need deodorant. Using the solids is more cost-effective than the spray-on kind. Figure a container per person that uses it per month. It doesn’t really pay to stock up on 5-10 years’ worth of this, it degrades pretty fast.

Feminine Hygiene Items

Feminine products should be figured at the current use, but always store extras in case of additional needs. If you use condoms for intimacy, you’ll want to pack a supply of those as well to keep those little swimmers in check. If you don’t?

You may find a bonus family member in about nine months. There are already jokes about the Covid-19 pandemic babies being called “Quaranteens” a dozen years from now. A few tampons should also go in your first aid kit – professional sports medicine docs use them for nose injuries!

tampons are also good for the first aid kit when looking at Pandemic Preparedness

Razors

You’ll need to pack in storage a supply of razors for both men and women as well as an amount of shaving cream. The shampoo is something you can also store up, but in a pinch, hand soap can be used to wash hair if you don’t have enough shampoo. 

Basic Skin and Nail Care

You never know when a problem will strike, and Pandemic Preparedness needs to take that into account. Is it the middle of winter? Lotions for dry skin should also be on your store list. Also, add Chapstick to prevent cracked lips from occurring. Q-tips and nail clippers for each person should also be stored for use.

You’ll want separate nail clippers to help keep nail fungus and other bacteria or viruses at bay. A Great DIY Home Manicure Starts with a Manicure Kit has a great list of basic supplies.

tips for home pedicures

It goes beyond saying that if you have infants, you’ll want to store up diapers and baby wipes. Now you’ll want to be careful on the diaper sizing since babies can outgrow diapers. So buy these in size increments to allow for that. 

Other posts you may find useful:

Pandemic preparedness woman holding TP article cover image

What is Quarantine during an Outbreak?

During a disease outbreak, you may need to quarantine your family to keep the disease from entering your home. But it’s challenging to isolate your family if you don’t have supplies on hand to survive for a long time. A lot of people do not know what is quarantine and how you do it.

what is quarantine

You may also encounter a situation where you have a sick family member that needs to be quarantined from the rest of the household. If you don’t come in close contact with a virus, you can’t get sick from it. 

We learned a bit from the worldwide Covid-19 pandemic, and people’s general failure to take social distancing seriously. With older adults, people with a compromised immune system, or other issues? It was life-threatening for many and hard to watch people on “Spring Break” romping on the Florida beaches when we were all trying to be responsible.

Some of these tips may seem a bit extreme but consider the situation. If we are talking about Ebola, they seem more understandable. For those with family members with high-risk factors? It makes a little bit more sense. It pays to plan ahead, as once a pandemic hits? It is hard to find supplies. These tips should help anyone who wonders : “What is Quarantine”

How to Quarantine Your Family During an Outbreak

The purpose of quarantine, then, is to prevent the possibility of coming into contact with a virus that can be deadly and spread quickly – just as the common cold is easily spread.

Keep Disease Out of Your Home

If the purpose of quarantine is to keep a healthy family member well, you’ll need to be prepared ahead of time with all of the supplies you need for food, sanitation, and hygiene. 

keep disease out of your home

You’ll want to seal off the outside entrances of your home using duct tape and plastic sheeting to cover doors and windows. Most people find it helpful to cut out plastic sheeting ahead of time that will fit these entrances so that in times of stress, all you have to do is tape them up. Make sure you label them for ease of the job.

It’s essential to have a designated area outdoors where you’ll place items such as used bags for personal waste. It’s not a good idea to store these in your home because they increase the risk of developing a host of diseases. We really like these Double Doodie Bags that fit a 5-gallon pail.

Once you’re sheltered in place, you’ll want to keep communication lines open with radio communication so that you’ll know when it’s safe to leave your home.

How is your first aid kit?

Make sure your medical kit is up to snuff too – we love MediTac for our supplies – and they have free shipping for all orders over $50. We keep a kit at home, one in the camper, and one in each car.

free shipping banner

What to Do When a Family Member Is Ill

A more likely scenario when it comes to illness is that you’ll have one or more members of your family who have become ill. Those people will need to be quarantined in a room of your home or another nearby place. 

For example, if you have a motor home, cabin, or detached garage, you can use these as quarantine areas. These rooms need to be sealed off with duct tape and plastic sheeting. 

how to make a quarantine kit

You’ll also need to place a sign on the entrance stating that it is a confined area. This sign warns people to stay out unless they’re wearing protective clothing. Right outside the door, you’ll need to set up a sanitation area that contains soap, water, latex gloves, masks, and other protective equipment as required. 

Before people enter the room, they need to put on the proper protective gear. Before returning to the rest of the household, they need to properly dispose of gloves, masks, and other disposable items and make sure they wash their hands thoroughly.

Do You Have kids?

We haven’t seen a lot of the quarantine culture in our country as vaccines have been developed to handle everything from Measles to Small Pox. (thank goodness!) I remember the stories from my own grandpa about signs on the houses, etc. from when he was a boy.

It can be a very scary time for the littles – so maybe practice with a loved stuffy or two prior to any event actually occurring. Once they are comfortable with the concepts, or idea? They will be a part of your team in the event of any real emergency.

Other posts you may find helpful:

what is quarantine article for families cover image of mecial supplies

Panic Buying, the Real Problem

When a hurricane is predicted to hit an area and be a fairly nasty one. When a pandemic hits and locals schools and churches are closed. When a blizzard is expected. That is when panic buying starts to be a key factor in why prepping for disaster is a way to go.

panic buying

Panic Buying, the Real Problem

Let’s look at the COVID-19 Pandemic as an example: panic buying at its best. While you can do a quick Twitter search for the hashtag #Panicbuying and see for yourself, there is a huge selection of photos and videos on shelf clearing, physical fights over things like toilet paper, and hoarders. While the memes make you chuckle for a moment, if you take a second to think, it is sad and scary.

Panic Buying Definition

Panic buying occurs when consumers buy unusually large amounts of a product in anticipation of, or after, a disaster or perceived disaster, or in anticipation of an incredibly large price increase or shortage.

Yup – that is certainly what happened when people realized COVID-19 was a more serious thing than they had originally thought.

Panic Buying Effects

It screws up the balance of supply & demand and then leads to a major disruption of the supply chain. You would then hit empty shelves, and possible price gouging as stores know they have what you absolutely need and will probably pay what they ask for.

Yup – we saw this. A lot of empty shelves, and then places like Walmart raising prices on everything from toilet paper to ground beef.

Panic Buying Jokes

Sometimes you simply need to laugh. We were all scared, there was so much that was unknown, and the information we were living by changed every day it seemed. Humor came to our rescue.

Here are a few of my favorite jokes:

Ran out of toilet paper and started using lettuce leaves. Today was just the tip of the iceberg, tomorrow romaines to be seen.

Yesterday I ran out of soap and body wash and all I could find was dish detergent. Then it Dawned on me.

How did the health experts lie? They said a mask and gloves was enough to go to the grocery store. When I got there, everyone else had clothes on.

What do you call panic-buying of sausage and cheese in Germany? The wurst-kase scenario.

The grocery stores in France look like tornadoes hit them. All that’s left is de brie.

Some of the first things to vanish

Toilet paper.

Not a square can be found on any shelf, in any store. With the COVID-19 being a respiratory illness, that was surprising and something most stores didn’t see coming. Everyone knew the handsoap, hand sanitizer, and disinfecting wipes would vanish quickly, but the toilet paper was a stunner.

panic buying toilet paper

Medical supplies.

Think of what you need when you have the flu; things to help with an intake of fluids and rest. Gatorade, broth, juice, meds to help lower a fever, and Kleenex. These items were cleared out of stores quickly, along with any over-the-counter flu and cold medicines.

Meat.

People were grabbing multiple packs of ground beef and chicken. We saw one lady grab 12 packs of chicken! The poor guy in the meat department couldn’t get stuff on the shelves fast enough, people were taking it right out of his hands or out of the boxes he was pulling items from.

panic buying where stores limit amount of items to be purchased with signs

Canned Goods.

Spagettios, baked beans, and even soup seemed to vanish. Many stores started putting up signs that said “no more than 4 of each kind” to limit the hoarding and make sure everyone had enough to go around.

Bread.

Let’s face it, schools are out and sandwiches are the fast and easy fix for feeding the kiddos. Peanut butter and jelly are a quick go-to for most families, along with eggs and toast. White bread seemed to be the winner over wheat, vanishing faster than you could blink.

Panic Buying Costco

Even Costco was out of things like toilet paper – and soon put limits onto how much of certain items you were allowed to purchase. It took 8 months for the “limit of one” case of toilet paper signs to disappear.

So let’s make a list

Looking ahead, it pays to have an adequate stock of the things we already talked about. You can avoid the panic buying and fighting people at the stores to just pick up your weekly list. Granted, this makes a lot of sense to spread out over a period of time. It is easier on the pocketbook, for one thing.

  • Pain Reliever
  • Fever Reducer
  • Toilet Paper
  • Feminine Hygiene Items
  • Hand Sanitizer
  • Disinfecting Wipes
  • Kleenex
  • Band-Aids
  • Rubbing Alcohol or Peroxide
  • Soap
  • Household cleaning supplies
  • Antacids
  • Canned Meat (easy to do yourself with ground beef and chicken!)
  • Canned Veggies
  • Canned Fruit
  • Canned Soups
  • Vegetable oil
  • Juice
  • Gatorade
  • Cereals
  • Beans
  • Lentils
  • Pasta
  • Pasta Sauces
  • Peanut Butter
  • Jelly
  • Dried Fruit
  • Nuts
  • Powdered Milk
  • Pet items
  • Candy
  • Supplies for Baking like: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, brown sugar, powdered sugar

There are a lot of other things to consider, and if you join our mailing list? You will get a 52-week stock up plan that helps you build your inventory with a minimal investment each week. You will be prepared for the next big emergency and not have to worry about panic buying. You can stay home with your toilet paper and lookup #panicbuying on Twitter and enjoy and chuckle at the memes and craziness.

Other posts you may find interesting:

panic buying costco