10 Tips For Living Like It's The Collapse

#8: Have a well stocked pantry.

There is nothing like a good, old collapse to put things into perspective. You really find out what is important after the supermarket shelves are empty, gas stations closed, and the unprepared are in a panic.

Although we have escaped total collapse so far, middle- and lower-class citizens around the world are experiencing a significant drop in their standard of living. Some analysts predict that this trend will continue resulting in catastrophic changes that will drop citizen's standard of living forever.

How would you handle a post-collapse standard-of-living equivalent to half of what it is now, or worst case, one-third? If you earned $60,000 annually today, then your post-collapse standard-of-living could be between $20,000 and $30,000.

If you think voluntary simple living can be tough (and it can), think about what involuntary simple living would feel like. Forced simplicity is the norm for more and more people that previously enjoyed globally lavish lifestyles. By all appearances, collapse has already begun.

People wonder when things will get better. I wonder if they will get better. I would say that rather than continue to chase a fading dream, now is time to face a new reality that will require everyone to live more simply.

Choosing to adopt a simpler lifestyle now will be much easier than being forced to after an economic or environmental collapse.

It will be better to be prepared rather than panicked.


10 Tips For Living Like Its The Collapse

1. Keep it light enough to travel (only own essential things that add to your life).
2. Know how to cook using basic food staples like flour, rice, and dried beans.
3. Grow a garden, cultivate fruit trees, compost.
4. Live in an area of low population density.
5. Know your neighbours, cultivate community through shared projects.
6. Develop skills that allow you to live a happy, healthy lifestyle with very little.
7. Think of what you have to offer for bartering - possessions, or skills like hair cutting, baking, sewing, farming, animal husbandry, building, fixing...
8. Keep a well stocked pantry, rotate through foods for maximum efficiency.
9. Have an emergency kit prepared (good for coping with weather disasters, earthquakes, or economic troubles).
10. Build savings to cover basic expenses during an emergency, period of unemployment, or an outright collapse.

I don't know if we will reach collapse in my lifetime, and I hope we don't. But history shows that collapses have occurred many times before, and will occur again. It is a worthy endeavour to think about what is most important to you before rather than after something happens, then build a life around what you find.

Some will find that a simpler life is more agreeable to them than their previous lifestyle, collapse or no collapse.