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Health & Fitness

Things to buy for winter power outage

It's not uncommon for the power to go out during winter months. We've seen it happen across the country in far too many states this year, and people have been devastated when unprepared, dealing with hunger, cold weather, and no light. Here's a list of things you need to buy to get prepared for your next winter power outage. Even if it hasn't happened to you before, you'll be grateful that you were prepared when a storm comes in and knocks out your power.

Start with lights

The first thing you need to be prepared for is having lights in your home when the power goes out. If you lose power, the first thing you're going to want is light in the bathrooms with no windows and all over the house during the evening. If you don't have any flashlights or candles, you'll notice a problem right away when you can't see anything. If you decide to get flashlights and lamps for the power outage, make sure you have a lot of them and that they are easily accessible. Make sure you have plenty of extra batteries to change out in case the power stays out for a few days or weeks. For those who are going to use candles, make sure you also have a few flashlights. It's probably a good idea to keep both items around in case one fails and you need the other, but be careful if you have pets or children when using the candles.

Getting warm

The next issue you will face is staying warm. If your home has bad insulation, it may be a couple of hours before you start feeling chilly. Having a backup generator to keep the heat on in situations like this is a great idea, but not everyone can realistically afford one or find a place to have one. The best option here is to have a working fireplace in your home, but most people don't have that option, especially those in apartment-type buildings. The next thing you need to do is have plenty of warm clothing and blankets. And if you have Jumpin Jammerz footy pajamas, you are even better off! Keeping all that body heat in one pajama outfit will help a lot. Get cuddled under blankets, avoid opening doors, and stay warm.

The food

The next thing you'll realize you are missing is food. Maybe you have enough to get you through the day, but do you have enough to get you through a month? If you have a lot of food in your fridge, that's great! Put it in your garage or somewhere where it will stay cold despite the fridge not working. Again, you want to try to avoid opening the fridge or door to outside whenever possible, so this shouldn't be your main source of food in an emergency. Instead, you should have a lot of crackers and canned food, such as chili and pasta, on hand in case of the emergency. Don't buy stuff you won't eat on a regular basis, though. You'll need to use your food storage regularly, so it is still good in a power outage situation like this. Make sure you also have plenty of bottled water available for the emergency, so you can still get clean water. I make this the lowest priority because most power outages won't last more than five or six hours, but if it does, you'll be glad you prepared with food.

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