Cooking, Laundry, Lighting with No Power

If we are without power because of a hurricane, how are you going to survive?

Keep the fridge closed.
The fridge and freezer will stay cold longer if you don’t open it. Make sure you open it as few times as you can. Also, eat all the refrigerated and frozen food as fast as you can.




Store paper products.
You don’t want to be doing dishes or laundry without power or water, so store enough paper plates, paper towels to see you through.




Have a manual can opener.
Of course your electric can opener won’t work.

Store foods that are easy to prepare or ready to eat, that don’t need refrigeration, to last at least 3 days.

Store baby supplies. Make sure you have enough formula, diapers for your baby, also foods that your small children will eat.

Cook on a grill.
You need to get some way to cook your food. You can get some sort of grill or hibachi to cook outdoors.

Buy fuel and matches.
You could cook with charcoal. You will need lighter fluid and matches, or get MatchLight charcoal and it will light without lighter fluid. Our grill uses a big tank of propane, and our camping stoves use little cans of propane.

Laundry.
You can just wash things out by hand in the sink, or you can buy a regular toilet plunger and plunge your clothes in a bucket.



Hang clothes up to dry.
Buy some clothespins at the dollar store, and get some rope to hang your clothes out to dry.

Lighting without electricity.
You may be faced with 1-9 nights without light, so you need to figure out ways to create light for your family. How are you going to do that?

Candles. One candle will burn for about 35 hours, but it makes a very dim light, and is unsafe around little children.



Lamp and lamp oil. A lamp with lamp oil can be burned in the house, but again, the flame is dangerous around little children.


Flashlights are safe and bright, but the batteries will only power them for so long.
Be sure you have plenty of batteries.

Glowsticks from the Dollar Store.
Something that is very safe around kids are Glow sticks. The dollar store has some really cute shapes right now. Buy the yellow ones, they make a brighter light.