Start with the basics and build from there. Check thrift shops for simple cookware, utensils, & daypacks. Keep them filled with the proper equipment so you can grab them if you need to run. You just don?t need state-of-the-art. If you don?t have drinking water, you?d take water from a garden hose or dipped out of the toilet tank, wouldn?t you?

Shelter ? stretch a decent rope between two trees or posts, hang a large tarp over it for a tent, a smaller tarp for a floor, regular blankets and a few mylar emergency blankets.

Water - Cheap & easy. Keep a sheet of heavy plastic & more rope handy, plus a new plastic garbage can. Clothespin the end of a tarp to the stretched rope (in the open), drape it into the garbage can to collect rainwater.

Medicine ? Most of what you need, you?ve already got. Just put it together.

Food - When you go grocery shopping (esp sales), buy extra when you can. Under stressful conditions, you?ll want familiar food.

Toilet - Get a $10 toilet seat that clips onto a standard 5-gal bucket from a camping supply place. Store a good supply of toilet paper in the bucket.

Cooking ? Make a few soda can stoves & buy denatured alcohol for fuel. Put all your cooking stuff in a backpack (etc). Add acan opener, matches, cheap lighters, & a magfire from Martin Focazio when you can <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />. If you normally keep meat in your freezer, have a way to cook it, like charcoal briquettes & a cheapo BBQ.

Toilet articles ? Have a bag handy with soap, shampoo, toothbrushes & paste, sanitary protection for the ladies, some towels & washcloths, & a couple of big packs of wet wipes.

Copies of important documents ? Keep them all together in one container. If you?ve got irreplaceable photographs, keep them handy, too, as well as a copy of your personal phone book.

You can set up camp in your own back yard. You can run with all this stuff if you have to, and set up a camp in a friend?s backyard.

Take it all to a campground with your family and make notes of what you forgot.

Sue

I'll state the obvious ... once the bucket has been "used", the suggestion is to refrain from storing the supply of toilet paper in the bucket - at least the clean stuff. <img src="/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

Also, don't forget to pack a full box of 13 gallon kitchen garbage bags - the white ones. You can line the bucket with those, then, once "filled", you can twirl & tie the bags and then store them in a double-bag to try to keep the odors down.

People who travel to remote areas with no toilet facilities and an inability to dig latrines (such as mountains or other areas where digging is impossible or hazardous to self or nature) use "poop tubes". These are large plastic PVC pipe which has an endcap glued onto one end and a screw-access cap glued onto the other end. Users do their business in a plastic bag, seal the bag, and then stuff the bag into the "poop tube" for storage until the contents can be properly disposed of.