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This is a short video in which I show seven random non-food prepping items you may not have thought of. These inexpensive items could come in handy during an emergency, supply line disruptions or even normal times. They are extra prepping items to add to your preps if they fit your needs.
Sewing Kits: A Versatile Non-Food Prepping Item
I have a couple of different sewing kits. I decided to show the Vellostar Sewing Kit[Aff]. This inexpensive kit covers all the basics. A sewing kit can come in handy if you need to sew a button back on before work or if you need to repair clothing because the stores and shops are closed indefinitely.
Eyeglass Repair Kit: Practicality in Unexpected Situations
An eyeglass repair kit is a non-food prepping item that should be a no-brainer, but it still took me years to buy one. I’ve always had precision screwdrivers, but I had no idea a kit like this existed. And I was pleased to see how inexpensive it was. I bought the JANYUN Upgrade Version Eyeglass Repair Kit[Aff] and it has came in handy a couple of times, as I show in the video.
One of my lenses popped out once, and I lost the tiny screw trying to screw it back in with my fat clumsy fingers. Lost forever in the carpet somewhere. I found the right screw I need in this kit.
Later, on my older but favorite glasses, one of the nose pads tore off right at the point where it attaches. This kit saved me a trip to the eyeglass store, where, honestly, they would have repaired it for free.
So whether you just want a way to fix your glasses in a pinch or you think the end of the world is around the corner (I don’t), an eyeglass repair kit makes sense if anyone in your family wears them. A nice little non-food item prep.
Lippincott Pocket Drug Guide: Navigating Medications in Emergency Scenarios
I love the amount of information packed into this tiny drug and prescription guide. I have the 2023 version, but the newer one is available, 2024 Lippincott Pocket Drug Guide for Nurses[Aff]. I see they already have the 2025 edition for pre-order.
I believe this was recommended to me by one of my prepping buddies on my favorite prepper group, The Ready Your Future Exclusive Email Group.
Disposable Urine Bags: Practical Hygiene Solutions
It may be a little out of the ordinary for a prepper to show off a disposable urinal bag, but what can I say? I’m a weirdo. 🤪 I go into more detail on the video, but I can see a place for one or two of these inside our bug-out bags or emergency supplies. Life doesn’t always cater to our needs and timing, especially in an emergency. Nuff said.
Antiperspirant Wipes: Personal Hygiene During That Long Walk Home
It is pretty straightforward; these can be quite handy. I have the Maxim® Clinical Strength Antiperspirant Wipes[Aff], and I have used them. Now, they advertise 7-days of protection, but I’ll leave that for you to test. I ain’t going there. 😉
If you watched my EDC video, my EDC Pack video, and Get Home videos, you see that I gravitate toward small, individually wrapped items for hygiene items like eyeglass cleaners, butt wipes, wet wipes, hand sanitizers, and yes, even deodorant. They’re just handy for EDC and packs.
Straight Razors for Shaving: Sustainable Hygiene Practices
I chose the Equinox Professional Straight Edge Razor[Aff] because it comes with 100 single Derby blades. Both the razor and blades are made of stainless steel, and they’re really inexpensive.
Disposable razors can be expensive when we’re trying to prep for many months or years. I use them myself and have noticed the prices going up. Rather than spending a buttload of money on a box full of blades, I thought buying a straight razor with a box or two of blades made more sense.
I almost bought one on eBay, but I’ll be looking for an old-school straight razor and leather strop at a yard sale or flea market this summer.
All-American Pressure Canner Regulator Weight
This might be a little overkill, but I wanted a backup canner weight. You can save a few bucks by buying an off-brand weight, but I wanted one from the original manufacturer, so I bought the All American 1930 – Pressure Regulator Weight[Aff].
I store my canner weight inside the canner when I’m not using it, but I must have gotten busy once and lost it for a bit. I’d hate for that to happen in the middle of a long-term blackout when I rely on the canner to save the meat inside my freezer.
TIP: Old-School Secret Stash
I explained a little better in the video, but I used my Hamilton Beach Electric Automatic Can Opener[Aff] to make a simple container to hide things in plain sight. This is intended as an extra tip, but I guess it does qualify as a non-food prepping item.
BTW, I bought an Amazon Basics electric can opener back in January 2021, which was junk. Six months later, I bought the one from Hamilton Beach[Aff], and I’m still very happy with it. Of course, we do want to have a couple of manual can openers handy when the power is out.
Speaking of not being normal, consider subscribing to my Substack if you liked this piece.
Next Step: In case you missed it – What Over A Decade Of Prepping Has Taught Me. Was It A Waste Of Time And Money?
Stay safe. Stay prepared.
Hawkins Out.
Click For ➞ Video Transcription (Random Non-Food Prepping Items You May Not Have Thought Of)
Brian Hawkins [00:00:00]:
Hi. Brian Hawkins here, Next Step Survival. And today, I have just a handful of non-food prepping items you might wanna consider mostly in the utility type of area. So, yeah, let’s do it.
[Intro Music]
Alright. So if you have your food, your water, your sanitation, your defense. You have everything covered, and you’re just looking for something that I can just add just for a peace of mind. I’ve got a few things here.
Brian Hawkins [00:00:38]:
There’s nothing here that’s really imperative. Just some random things that I threw together and thought I would share with you.
[Sewing Kit]
Alright. So let’s start out with this this big old kit right here. And this isn’t all that unique. We hear preppers talking about it all the time. And I’ve got a couple of these. They’re just sewing kits.
Brian Hawkins [00:01:00]:
And this one’s not that expensive. And it’s got all the basics covered, and it’s just nice to have whether it hits the fan or it doesn’t. So there you go. Sometimes you gotta sew something up.
[Eyeglass Repair Kit]
The next thing is for you that wear glasses or have a family member that wear glasses. Maybe maybe you have a backup pair, I would hope so. I have several sunglasses and regular glasses, keep them everywhere, but when I replace my glasses, I keep the old ones. So that just just makes sense. Right? But sometimes you have your favorite pair of glasses, and you need to do a little bit of repair, so that’s what this kit here is.
Brian Hawkins [00:01:45]:
I put this together, and I just throw this in a little pouch and put it up on a shelf or in a drawer or something. So these right here are the little nose little nose guards of all sorts. And I actually have, a pair [Takes off eyeglasses and shows them to the camera] one of those, and these glasses here are old. But you can see you might I don’t know if it’s gonna show, but one of them is a little darker than the other. So I put a new one on, One of these little nose things. I should’ve replaced them both. There’s plenty in there, but, honestly, it was kind of a pain in the butt. And then I got these little precision screwdrivers that, help you work on your glasses.
Brian Hawkins [00:02:29]:
And then here’s some little little screws and and nuts and washers. I’m trying to get you at the right angle without getting a glare. And I didn’t have any issue at all finding, the right little screw that went in there. So eyeglass kit. Eyeglass repair kit.
[Lippincott Pocket Drug Guide For Nurses]
And the next one is Lippincott Pocket Drug Guide for nurses. And this is kinda cool, especially if you’re getting older. Doctors can tend to give you a medication, and they’re in such a rush because they have a high demand. They’re trying to rush you know, take care of a handful of patients within that little time frame, and they’re just going from room to room, and they’ll let the nurses take care of all the details and everything.
Brian Hawkins [00:03:23]:
So, sometimes you get a medication like, “I got a new medication.” “What for?” I don’t know, he gave it to me. So this little book here will – it’s pretty detailed. It has over 3,900 prescriptions in there, drug prescriptions, and it covers, like, a new drug alert, dangerous drugs that it cover, you know, it’ll alert you to that if it’s dangerous. It’ll tell you the indications and recommended dosages for those drugs, potential adverse reactions, and any interactions it could have with other drugs or food, that type of things. And then it goes into some nursing considerations and patient training. So, it’s a nice little book to have. This is 2023 edition.
Brian Hawkins [00:04:15]:
I’ll put links to everything below. I don’t really remember what I paid for any of this stuff. I bought a lot of this in the past, so hopefully some of this stuff’s still available.
[Disposable Urine Bags]
The next one is kinda strange. It’s a disposable urine bag. Right? So I got this idea when I was putting together my bug out bag. And I had my wife in mind, but this is good for male or female. It has these little and I don’t really want it’s got a bunch of little granules in there, so I don’t wanna spill it all over my desk.
Brian Hawkins [00:04:46]:
It has this little absorbent pad in there that which soaks up the liquid. Once you’re finished with it, it has a little ziplock, and then you can dispose of it without trying to use a bottle or whatever. If, you know, if it’s cold outside and you’re in a, like, you knowh, some kind of refugee situation or something or in a tent while you’re camping or wherever and it’s cold outside, instead of saying, “hey, go out there behind that tree,” this might be a solution. So I bought a whole package of these again. None of this stuff is really expensive. So I bought a whole package of these and just thought I’d throw one or two in a in a bug-out bag, or maybe a get-home pack, or maybe your wife or your EDC packs. Just an idea.
[Antiperspirant Wipes]
Brian Hawkins [00:05:35]:
The other one is another hygiene product, and these are antiperspirant wipes. And I threw a couple of these or I think one of these in my get-home pack, and, I don’t know, a couple of them in my bug-out bag. And it’s just what it sounds like. It’s basically wipe-on deodorant, you know, single-use. So, again, not very expensive and can come in convenient, you know, so depending on who you are, what you do, and what your preferences are.
[Straight Razors For Shaving]
The next item, I’ve heard Preppers mention this before, are these little straight razors for shaving. I would love to find one of the older ones like what my grandfather had with the with the leather cutting strop where you sharpen it. But this one here has replaceable blades, single edge blades, and this is a pack of 100, and they’re they’re not expensive. And a 100 blades should last a while, and if it’s not, you just buy a couple more of these or whatever.
Brian Hawkins [00:06:54]:
But it does take some getting used to. You can chop yourself up pretty good with your shaky hands or you’re not used to it, but yeah. Nice little backup for more hygiene.
[All American Pressure Regulator Weight]
And the next item is something I ran into a couple of years ago where [Story Time] I was it was canning season, you know, just in a normal time. So I somehow misplaced the weight to my All American canner. I found it after about, I don’t know, 45 minutes or something looking around, and I thought, I’m buying another one of those because I’m not gonna go through this again.
[Food (Meat) Preserving Solution For A Long-Term Power Outage]
One of my solutions where the power goes out, and I think it’s gonna be long term, I have enough fuel to keep my generator going probably for a couple of weeks if I’m very conservative, a week if I run it 24/7. I have 3 freezers full of food.
Brian Hawkins [00:07:52]:
I don’t wanna let that go to waste, and I don’t wanna have a big old block party or anything. So my solution is to run the generator as I’m thawing things out and then canning using an outdoor Camp Chef double burner. So canning is kind of a big deal in my plans for preserving my food in the event of emergency or a long-term blackout. So having extra weight for my All American canner was one of those solutions. I should’ve grabbed it. I have a couple of, I think, Prestos or something, or I may have the name of them wrong, but I have a couple other canners. I have several, and those take the rubber gaskets, and I have a couple backups for those as well.
And that’s pretty much it for this.
[TIP – Old-School Secret Stash]
Brian Hawkins [00:08:41]:
I did have a tip that I wanted to give you, an old-school tip. And everybody’s seen this before, and it’s not a it’s not a big deal. But the newer can openers are really cool. Rather than cutting the top of the can, this one here is a pull tab. But rather than pulling the top of the can off and letting it drop in or hoping the magnet keeps it from dropping in, They cut along the side, real nice smooth side, and you just lift that lid up. So I thought when I when the first time I used it, I thought, wow, this is cool. Like, I can even put the lid back on. So, of course, that became an idea that people have had for years and years.
Brian Hawkins [00:09:29]:
So picture a bunch of this canned chicken on your shelf, in your pantry, or up in your kitchen, up in your coverage, or whatever. And at a glance, it just looks just like two regular cans of chicken, and this one here is the one without the pull tab. I prefer the ones without it. I just feel like they’re more secure and gonna probably last longer. That seal right there seems like a weak spot, just my personal opinion. But, anyway, so I open this one up and then put the lid back on it, but you take the lid off, and you can just put whatever in there. So a nice easy way to hide something in plain sight. That’s it.
[Wrapping Up]
Brian Hawkins [00:10:15]:
Easy peasy. Of course, I would stress that you take care of the other things, more important things first. Your water and your food and your energy and sanitation and your medications, medical, all that stuff, that should take priority over all of this stuff. Like, we go in steps here. So this would be one of the final steps, or maybe just a little add-on. So these things aren’t particularly expensive. It doesn’t take up a lot of your time, and you could just throw one in every now and then, you know, just add to your preps.
Well, I hope you enjoyed that.
Brian Hawkins [00:10:49]:
I did. I have fun doing these, and I’ll try to get more out to you real soon. We’ll see you. Brian Hawkins, Next Step, Survival. We’re out.
