Babysteps. We started this journey with Babysteps. There were several topics we didn’t tackle straight away. We worked on 72 hour kits, water, basic food and necessities first. We tabled the concept of powerless cooking for a couple years because it was “scary” at first. Well then we tackled powerless cooking, we tackled sourdough, and now we’re tackling cold weather clothing. Make sure you read until the end because there’s a video where I show you how I’ve started this project.

Back in November we introduced Fortress Clothing to you . Finding them was a dream. These clothes are amazing and we recommend you check them out. Right now their clothing doesn’t come in kids sizing and we know that it’s not necessarily in everyone’s budget to get them so we wanted to share some ideas we have developed. It’s still a work in progress but we’re feeling like we’re getting somewhere with it.

LEARNING ABOUT LAYERING AND COLD WEATHER CLOTHING

A facebook reader shared a couple articles with us that had some great info. The articles talked about layers, types of layers base, mid, outer), and different types of fabrics to use within each layer. Different fabrics breathe differently so make sure you check out these articles:

Intro to Layered Clothing: http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/a/11061/Introduction-to-Layered-Clothing-Systems
How to Layer Clothing for Each Season: http://www.outdoorgearlab.com/a/11070/How-to-Layer-Clothing-for-Each-Season

MY BINS

After reading these articles I went to Ikea and got some bins to store each of my family members items in. I watched sales and got the items for each kid and made sure to get them a little big for next year too. My kids actually got a lot of these items for Christmas. They loved it. I keep most of these items in the bins except for days we go sledding. That way I know we aren’t losing stuff around the house (because that happens here). My bin contains my bug-out bag from Fortress. It seriously made that part of this project way easier.

Contents in my bins (for my kids and husband):

• Boots: I made sure to get some that were rated for cold weather but also waterproof
• Socks: I got some wool socks at Costco for my husband and myself. I had a hard time finding kids sizes so I got some black womens ones for my boys.
• Underclothes: I found some great thermals that weren’t cotton at Costco. I got a couple of each size.
• Pants: Target had a sale on snowpants 50% off and I got some that were a few inches too long for each kid. They fit well enough this year but will for sure fit the next couple of years. I also have sweat pants to wear over the thermals and under the snow pants in case it’s way cold.
• Coats: I have a variety of coats for my boys. I plan on keeping their winter coats in their bins once winter is over but for now we are keeping them in the main laundry room closet.
• Mittens: I have gloves, mittens, and more gloves and mittens. Depending on what things we will be doing “outside” I think we will need both.
• Balaclavas: I got some balaclavas from Amazon to use for now but I would like to look into other options and investigate the fabric on these a little more.

To see a video I made and posted on facebook when I first started my bins click on the image below:

-Jodi Weiss Schroeder
http://foodstoragemadeeasy.net