# Basics: Hygiene



## Prepadoodle (May 28, 2013)

OK, so the power is out and won't be coming back anytime soon. There's no city water, no working sewer system, and no stores to shop. Several months have passed since everything went medieval, and it seems the worst of the chaos is past. Now what?

How will you take care of your personal needs? How will you wash your clothes? What will you do for the basics we take for granted; soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, toilet paper, those mysterious "feminine" products?

If you have a septic system, what happens when it needs to be pumped out? Do you know how to set up an outhouse that won't pollute your well? Can you even get water out of your well with no electricity?

We beat the AR vs AK debate to death, and go on at great length about which is the best survival knife, but what about the less glamorous needs of basic hygiene? Do you have a plan?


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## Nathan Jefferson (May 11, 2013)

Prepadoodle said:


> OK, so the power is out and won't be coming back anytime soon. There's no city water, no working sewer system, and no stores to shop. Several months have passed since everything went medieval, and it seems the worst of the chaos is past. Now what? We are on well water, although with no electricity to run the pump we will have to setup a carrying system, luckily the access is right on the front porch.
> 
> How will you take care of your personal needs? How will you wash your clothes? What will you do for the basics we take for granted; soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, toilet paper, those mysterious "feminine" products? I stock several years worth of dish soap, bath soap and MANY years of toothpaste/toothbrushes. Worst comes to worst I can make my own soap but toothpaste and toothbrushes are a little harder to make in good quality. (if only because I have very sensitive teeth and use sensodyne) Feminine products - we keep a couple bulk boxes from Costco on hand - but this is a temporary solution, I'm thinking of buying a couple cloth napkins that are reusable or a 'moon cup' that I've seen over on survivalblog. TP - I have enough to last probably a year with a little care, after that it will be phone books and leaves?
> 
> ...


Working it! It's been said before but the increase in life expectancy over the past 1-200 years is almost completely attributable to hygiene. You owe more thanks to your garbage man than to your doctor!


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## BigCheeseStick (Aug 7, 2013)

Hopefully we'll be smarter than the African tribes they show on tv all the time. Get your drinking water from _UPSTREAM_ of where you keep livestock and everybody poops. JEESH!  "Our waters all muddy and tastes bad." O.O You THINK?!?

Got a pond for fresh water (to be boiled), the Atlantic ocean is 1 mile East, and the Intercoastal Waterway is 1 mile West for a swim. Got it covered here.

People in MI are all set to, they say your never more than a mile from a freshwater pond anywhere in the state.


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## Mic (Jul 19, 2012)

Rainwater collection and very frugal on water use (and reuse). Composting toilet for the poop. I've got some reading material related to making soap from Lye made from hardwood ashes and rain. I'd have to be spending some time setting that up.....but only after I run out of soap, which I'm starting to stock up on (bar soap). Also, slowly building a bleach inventory. Old T-shirts should keep the booty clean (followed by washing the in bleach). It seems with bleach, vinegar, H2O2, baking soda, washing soda, borax, and bars of soap, one can do most cleaning and stay hygienic. Not sure what the shelf-life on these is, but I'm thinking vinegar and H202 are the only 2 that would be a concern. I'm a small-scale, still-learning, don't-know-a-whole-hell-of-a-lot, wannabe prepper so this is all I've come up with so far.


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## MI.oldguy (Apr 18, 2013)

BigCheeseStick said:


> Hopefully we'll be smarter than the African tribes they show on tv all the time. Get your drinking water from _UPSTREAM_ of where you keep livestock and everybody poops. JEESH!  "Our waters all muddy and tastes bad." O.O You THINK?!?
> 
> Got a pond for fresh water (to be boiled), the Atlantic ocean is 1 mile East, and the Intercoastal Waterway is 1 mile West for a swim. Got it covered here.
> 
> People in MI are all set to, they say your never more than a mile from a freshwater pond anywhere in the state.


It does help!.we happen to have no water probs here.except in winter when most of it freezes.


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## kevincali (Nov 15, 2012)

As long as pits and crotch are washed, I'm fine 

I've been experimenting on smoke baths. Light a fire, throw on some extra wood for smoke, then direct the smoke under your shirt/clothes. 

But for soap, I have a yucca tree I cut down, and its re growing. You take the green part, smash between 2 rocks, and add water. It suds up, and does a decent job. Smells "green" but better than smelling like poo lol


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## HuntingHawk (Dec 16, 2012)

In 30 years here I have never had to have my septic tank pumped out because of proper drain field & no paper products getting flushed. Paper products go to the dump or can be burned.

Anyone that doesn't set up a rain collection system is missing out on free water.


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## kevincali (Nov 15, 2012)

HuntingHawk said:


> In 30 years here I have never had to have my septic tank pumped out because of proper drain field & no paper products getting flushed. Paper products go to the dump or can be burned.
> 
> Anyone that doesn't set up a rain collection system is missing out on free water.


Same here. Knew the owners here since 1986. I've owned the house for ~3 years. Can't remember the septic ever being pumped.

No chemicals. No non paper products, and to washing 20 loads of laundry or hour long showers.

Where I'm at, if you replace the house, you now HAVE to hook up to sewer. My house may be trashed, but I'm fixing her up so I can stay on septic. I'd hate to be on sewer in a SHTF situation, where there's no pumps to move the stuff through the treatment plants.

Only problem I've had here as far as septic issues was a broken pipe due to a tree root. The tree has been cut down, so no more issues


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## Hawaii Volcano Squad (Sep 25, 2013)

Prepadoodle said:


> OK, so the power is out and won't be coming back anytime soon. There's no city water, no working sewer system, and no stores to shop. Several months have passed since everything went medieval, and it seems the worst of the chaos is past. Now what?
> 
> How will you take care of your personal needs? How will you wash your clothes? What will you do for the basics we take for granted; soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, toilet paper, those mysterious "feminine" products?
> 
> ...


WAIT JUST A MINUTE! ARE YOU SAYING THAT IN ORDER TO BE A PREPPER WE HAVE TO TAKE BATHS? :-o


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## CWOLDOJAX (Sep 5, 2013)

Use the rain.
At sea we took three minute showers.
In the Flores Sea we soaped up at the beginning of the rain and were rinsed by the time it quit raining.
Keep the captured rain for food/drink.


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## 2721turnerhill (Nov 9, 2013)

You should look at NATURALLY COZY - Home
they have great products.. i know that you can make your own, and i have tried... 
the pads and liners that naturallycozy sales are by far better than mine and they will last forever. LOL 
check them out!


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## 2721turnerhill (Nov 9, 2013)

there are also great websites on how to make your own soap, and many other useful things i have found! BTW....what could replace toilet paper? if you can't wipe WELL with something, you are screwed. what about corncobs? haha!


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## kevincali (Nov 15, 2012)

2721turnerhill said:


> there are also great websites on how to make your own soap, and many other useful things i have found! BTW....what could replace toilet paper? if you can't wipe WELL with something, you are screwed. what about corncobs? haha!


Seems every week we get a new phone book. I just add them to the pile. I am good on tp. I have a 30 pack of tp put away, and a stack of phone books. I'm good for at LEAST a year. Of course, 1 roll of tp lasts me 2-3 weeks average. More if I'm eating healthy. Less if I'm eating unhealthy lol

So I figure I'm good for about a year. After that, I'll be down to old holey shirts and old clean but holey socks/underwear I've been stashing.

On the job sites, it was common for the tp to be out. All the time. Many times, I've doubled socks or worn an extra shirt INCASE there was no tp. It sucks to have to work with swamp-ass.


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## rickkyw1720pf (Nov 17, 2012)

Take what precautions you can about keeping your water clean but purify or boil everything befor you drink it. Water doesn't need to be boiled just get it to 160deg for about 15 minutes. As for collecting water our great grand parents would laugh at us. To hold water and liquids it took people with special skills and many hours to make barrels. All we have to do is put a garbage bage in just about any container to make it water tight. That is if we don't have enough containers anyway. For hygiene chlorine bleach would be worth it weight in gold. Also if you dig a trench or make an outhouse you are supposed to use lime (calcium hydroxide)to sanitize it (raises the ph to high for bacteria).


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## Fuzzee (Nov 20, 2012)

It's a very important aspect people need to look at and comes down to their personal situation. I don't own a sweet piece of property sadly to say right now that I can set up to a long term aspect. I've lived by a move where the work is lifestyle for a while now and never lived in a area I actually wanted to live in long term. I'm looking to change that right now and planning on moving again, but at this moment I'm a renter on anothers land and it only leaves me with so many option. I have BOL's so if it gets bad I'd go to them, but plans of staying here with the breakdown for a while I stock basic hygiene needs of multiple bars of a particular soap that is designed for tough cleaning. I can clean my body with it through spong bathing with some boiled water in a pot over the grill/fire and clean my clothes with it the same in a bucket and hang them to dry. Toothpaste and toothbrushes the same. TP the same.


Long term outhouses would have to be built here and I don't know if I'd be here at that point. Same with water capture system and hand pumping the well. The property owners are good people and have a prepping outlook, but are only so prepared and capable being old. Should it fall apart, I'm sure they'd want their family here and I've got mine to look at also (as useless and a drain they are in shtf ways) I prep for bugging out in part to BOL's which others are expecting me and what happens at that point depends solely on the state of things. I hope not to be here when it does fall apart honestly, but you have to live in the now on your situation and not where you aren't.






:-|


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## Smitty901 (Nov 16, 2012)

Depending on where you are you should read up on sand point wells. Maybe against the law in most places that don't mean they do not work.
Nice part about being here water will not be an issue.
Sanitation you may want to read up on a few Army field manuals they deal with the subject very well both short and long term.


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