April, after moving into our new home in Florida, I did not have a bed, shower curtain or Internet connection. This situation forced me to rethink what's really important and what isn't.

Without a shower curtain, I could not take a shower. Having a shower curtain is certainly the top priority. In this day and age, we need the Internet. On those nights, roughing it on the floor and seeing the big picture, I saw how unimportant a bed really is.

Jeanette Isabelle

Think of this as a disaster test. Remember back to Hurricane Katrina, many people evacuated and some fled to other parts of the country and rented an apartment/house and never returned.
What if the same kind of scenario happened to you and you had to flee your new house. How would you shower, do you have a tarp/poncho in your gear that could serve as a temporary shower curtain? Do you keep travel supplies packed and ready (shampoo, soap, etc).
Do you have blankets or a sleeping bag that could serve as a temporary bed?
Do you have a mobile device capable of accessing the internet, make your next computer a laptop instead of a desktop so moving is easier?
Take notes and use that for planning.

Some Camping Furniture is alway handy for these type of events. A tarp can be rigged up with some paracord/dinghy rope would have an effective Shower curtain. (assuming the shops are not open)

BCB Military Camp Cot. (could prove very useful for Hurricane country Evacuation)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dPsRW0zjrs

Coleman Sling Chair

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Coleman-Sling-Ch...man+sling+chair

I have finally purchased a Android Smartphone in the last week for 1/5 the price of an iPhone. Being ruggedised IP68 specification I can access the Internet in the shower!

The phone is also now loaded with complete coverage of the UK using Ordnance Survey maps 1:50,000 scale from Memory Map.

http://shop.memory-map.co.uk/acatalog/info_MML_HD_GB_14.html

I would shower with plain water if I had to; didn't need to. Had soap (bath and hotel size) and now camp soap for the shower room.

I won't be getting a new computer any time soon. Bought a new Mac mini in January and I tend to use computers until they are obsolete. Besides, I prefer the comfort of a full-size keyboard.

Now that I think about it, those shower curtains used at some hotels, the ones with built-in rings (easy to put up, take down, fold and unfold) would be handy for unforeseen situations.

As for a bed, all I need is a pillow and some floor space.

Note: I have no affiliation with Apple. Once I tried Mac, I found it much better than Windows.

Jeanette Isabelle

I started with a Mac back in '86 and only went to Windows in '98. My current PC laptop is running XP and will soon be running Ubuntu/Linux. Meantime, I use an Apple iPad for just about everything, which is one reason I've delayed going to Linux, really no need. An iPad and a bluetooth keyboard -- for most applications I'm good to go.

the school district I worked for starting in 80-81, was Apple based with 2Es, then Macs, and by retirement has made the switch to PCs... I still had a graphite Mac on my desk, and bought a used one just to store my tests, labs, and worksheets... the Apple Works and Claris software was very easy to use compared to the Microsoft products.. I wrote my own grade keeping spreadsheet, and the draw program was easy to use for labs, worksheets, and test clarification diagrams... by adjusting the font size, I was able to just paste in my student's names for the hard bound roll book at the beginning of each quarter, as I could match the line spacing on the page...

A cheap shower curtain can be had for under $10.00 and I am sure that it would last long enough until you could purchase a better curtain.

As for internet, I find that I don't need it as a priority item in life. If you did not have internet at home, there is no shortage of other places that do - such as work, the local library, coffee shops etc.

In regards to computers, nice but not a necessity for home use. A good smartphone with a decent screen size or a tablet along with a data plan works for about 95% of casual everyday internet browsing.

I need a full-size keyboard and a good word processor.

Jeanette Isabelle

Apple's Pages app is a pretty good word processor. I wish I could say good things about Apple's Numbers spreadsheet app. More than adequate for my needs.

I use a Logitech keyboard; it has the same dimensions and folds with the iPad -- good battery life too. All I need for an office is wifi...

LOL, around here somewhere is a double sided 3.5" 800K disk with Excel version 0 and a few old spreadsheets I built. Awesome, operating system, Excel and a few files on a single 800K disk.

I started with a Fat Mac (512K RAM).