If you were to ask the average person who knows nothing about preparedness what a “prepper” is, or “how to be a prepper” you are bound to get an off the wall answer. Mainstream society has “taught them” what their definition of prepper should be. The truth is, there isn’t 1 type of prepper. There are so many different aspects that go into preparedness, and everyone chooses to prepare differently.
While there are those that take preparedness to the next level (good or bad), most of us are just trying to do the best we can. Most people think preppers are waiting for the world to end, but this is not the case. We prepare for TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It), “as we know it” being the key words in that phrase.
We prepare for survival. This could mean surviving the week until the next paycheck comes in, or surviving a natural disaster. We prepare for the S#it to hit the fan, not a sledgehammer hitting the fan. If the proverbial fan is clogged with doo doo, it might be fixable. If a sledgehammer smashes it, it’s game over for the fan.
SPP207 The Different Types of Prepping (And Preppers)
This week in the show Lisa and I talked about the reasons why you can’t lump all preppers into one category. Every person is different because of their age, finances, location and their abilities, and how they prepare will be different.
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The “Prepper” Label
Because of shows like Doomsday preppers and the mainstream media, the word “prepper” has a negative connotation to some people. If you have any food storage at all, or you are prepared for a disaster scenario, you must be one of those crazy preppers.
We use the term prepper all the time online because it’s a way to find the information we are looking for, but our everyday lives are a little different. Because of operational security, and concerns about how people are going to react, we don’t go out and advertise we are preppers.
In short, you can take the prepper tag or leave it. I personally don’t mind it, but some people who do the very same thing as us, don’t want the prepper label put on them. If you asked someone who lived 100 years ago if they were a prepper, they would laugh at you and say “it’s called life”.
Why We Prepare
Sometimes I wonder what it is that makes us care about preparedness, while some people are happy in their oblivion. I think this is partly to do with how our brains are wired, and not because we are afraid. We choose to be proactive and responsible about life, while others just cross their fingers and take it as it comes.
Why we start to prepare, and why we continue to prepare are 2 completely different things. The reasons we become interested in preparedness are different for everyone. For some people it was living through a disaster, and some people see the writing on the wall.
We continue to prepare because we realize things are not getting better, they are slowly getting worse. Even if nothing large scale happens in my lifetime, eventually it will. If I can pass on even just a little preparedness knowledge to my children, I consider it worthwhile.
Another huge factor is that we choose to question everything coming from the mouth of the MSM. Most people take everything they see on TV as fact, we know better. These days, the “news” is about ratings, propaganda and pushing agendas…on both sides of the isle.
How We Prepare
In the show this week, we also talked about how we prepare. Some of us just can’t do what others can do, but that doesn’t mean we give up. Some people can afford all the cool stuff like years of food storage or a badass bug out vehicle, most of us don’t. Some people have the time and finances to form a prepper group that meets weekly, but again, most of us can’t.
As it is with everything in life, we can only do what we can do. If you live in an urban area, you aren’t going to be raising cattle. This doesn’t mean you are screwed, it just means you need to think about alternatives. Some people set a goal to move to a more rural area, and some people have no desire to do that.
Different Types of Preppers
As you think about “how to be a prepper” one size does not fit all. Another reason you can’t lump all preppers into 1 category is that we are all preparing in different ways, and are at different stages in preparedness. Here are 7 different prepper types that I came up with. If you can think of any others, leave a comment below.
Lifestyle Prepper
The lifestyle prepper can be broken down into several categories, how far we can go depends on our situation. For some people this means homesteading, and for those in a suburban or urban area it’s food storage and bug out planning.
Each persons situation is different, and the lifestyle prepper does what they can with what they have. Anyone who has been at this for a couple of years is a lifestyle prepper, regardless of their living situation.
Extreme Prepper
To me, the extreme prepper falls into 2 different categories. The first category is people who have the funds to get all the cool toys we wish we could. the second is people who focus solely on 1 disaster scenario.
While I wouldn’t mind having the finances to do (and buy) everything I wanted for preparedness, I would make sure my preparedness plans were well rounded. It drives me crazy when I hear people say “I’m preparing for”. What I hear is “I’m not preparing for this and that”.
Gateway Prepper
At one point or another we have all been the gateway prepper, this is where we all start. The reasons we become interested in preparedness are different, but we all face the same challenges at first.
The gateway prepper is timid, and not sure which direction to go. The best thing for the gateway prepper to do is find some lifestyle preppers to get their information from. Doing this will help them avoid the fear porn and misinformation.
Survivalist (Bushcraft)
This is where I used to fall before Lisa got me (sort of made me) more interested in preparedness. Quite a few of us have grown up camping hiking and “roughing it” as my mom called it. While I am no Dave Canterbury, I do love the outdoors and learning new skills.
The reason this fits in so well with preparedness is the “roughing it” aspect. Preparedness teaches you how to survive if everything goes away, and wilderness skills teach us the very same.
Stay at Home Prepper
Some families have one parent that goes to work everyday, and one that stays home and takes care of the family. The person who stay at home is the one how does most of the family planning.
Making sure the house runs smoothly and the children are taken care of is the job of the stay at home parent. The same holds true in any disaster scenario, whether that is a personal doomsday or large scale disaster.
Closet Prepper
The closet prepper is someone who is unsure about prepping, and doesn’t want to let anyone know what they are doing. This could be from fear or ridicule, or or fear of someone finding out what they have.
To some extent we are all (or should be) closet preppers. Operational security is very important because we don’t want everyone in the neighborhood coming over for handouts.
The Wannabe Prepper
Because anyone can say anything they want on the internet these days, it’s tough to figure out how honest anyone is being. These keyboard warriors are always right, and always have something better than you.
This type of person should be ignored, because no matter how much someone else has (or knows) it isn’t going to affect you one bit. This is also a dangerous type of prepper to be because when the S hit the fan, all their talk means nothing.
So How Do You Become a Prepper?
The answer is simple, you just do it. Regardless whether you are preparing for the end of the world, or preparing for personal doomsdays, doing anything helps.
4 replies to "How to Be a Prepper: The Different Types of Prepping"
i was born into a family on the gulf coast who were always prepping for hurricanes. i’m retired but still at it for myself. i have had a few times of financial crisis but always had enough for the family. best to be ready for a number of scenarios…hopefully you will never need your preps.
I am a combination of a few prepper types.
First being the stay-at-home- as I am a SAHWife and maintain all the household dealings.
Second, I am a closet prepper- as I keep all my preps, stockpiles and inventory under wraps. Only household members known of the situation. I haven’t even shared with my parents or grown children of my preps.
And finally, toss in a little lifestyle prepper. I have a flourishing garden, herbs in a greenhouse, I can and dehydrate as much as I can. I tend to stock up on seasonings, spices, etc and various other items (first aid, OTC medicines) from the dollar store and I am always looking for manual tools- I found it hard to believe that young people (aged 16-25) do not know how to use a hand can opener- sad, isn’t it?
I think one of the more unfortunate side effects of the “extreme preppers,” whom seem to get most of the media coverage, is it gives the impression the normal person won’t be able to do things to prepare for whatever may come our way.
For example, what happens if a family has a physically disabled or autistic child that would not only struggle to survive under extreme circumstances, but with the heavy duty preppers, get very little mention in how to handle it.
There is also the high probability many families would be taking care of older parents or grandparents, which would make bugging out almost impossible, unless there was a place away from the city that could be fitted with survival guns, tools and food.
For those reasons and others, the majority of people should probably focus more on bugging in than bugging out. Even if there was a little increase in skill, most won’t be able to deal with the variables associated with a family that must protect all its members, and not just the healthy.
Another thing about prepper’s are that they may have similar interests yet be of different political beliefs. The back to the land prepper may be more liberal than others. For some political ideologies may have nothing to do with their “prepper “ beliefs while for others it is a core belief. When I was active duty military, most of my peers were Republicans. For some it was a life long commitment and for others it was because Republicans tended to pass higher pay raises and were pro-military. Veterans may have stayed Republicans or drifted to Libertarian or Democratic beliefs due to Democrats being pro-veteran. For some of us being prepared was a way of life that started with the military and has gone from planning for worst case scenarios to SHTF. So identifying prepper’s can be an interesting task!