Organization
How to remember where it all is?
The unorganized but effective prepper lifestyle:
I see a lot of things online, ads, posts, youtube vids that all have things well organized and "ready for the event". A tote full of food, a bugout bag, a get home bag, an organized cache of emergency supplies. In a lot of cases this is awesome. know what you have and where it is! In some cases, when does your lifestyle transcend the phase of "i need to get prepared" to "I live a lifestyle of preparedness" where your habits automatically support your ability to get by in a pinch. For example, I carry an axe in my truck, have one at home, one at the cabin. These are automatic, I don't pay attention to them because they are already there. So why do i need a kit that has an axe in it. I know that I have 3 of them within reach. I will say they are low use, but they are available. Another area of this might be food. Why do I need an extra stache of food if I've already got an operational pantry that I keep full and rotate? I guess that depends on my preparation goals. How long can I get by on my normal operational cabinet full of food. A month? If I want to be prepared for longer, maybe yes it'd make sense to have a crate full of MREs. For a year? probably should have seeds and lots of shelf stable items packed away. The point is in lots of areas of a prepper lifestyle, one can operate just fine without organized specialized caches of (fill in the blank) on many fronts. Surely there are items that aren't in a persons regular inventory that need special attention and planning. But think about it. Don't discount things included in your daily lifestyle and routine that could also support you in a pinch.
How organized do you want to be?
Everybody loves some good tool organization porn! Any reasonable web search will show you a million ways to perfectly organize your tools, your supplies, your life. My question to you is where do you want to run your life on the organization front? On one end, are things like a shadow tool wall, a tool box with specific holders and places for each tool. On the other end is "where the hell did I put the screwdriver?". There are some really beautiful setups out there for getting yourself organized on all fronts, but the choice is yours. I'd guess most folks would opt for some sort of rudamentary organization, but not too far. Some things to weigh when organizing:
Fit for purpose. Does your organization actually acomplish what you're trying to do. If it's just keeping the screwdrivers separate from the pliers. great. a separate drawer will work. If its keeping your passport in good condition, maybe the cardboard box on the basement floor isn't the best choice as it may get moldy.
Flexible. Can the system accomodate the level of flexibility you desire? So you go through your tool box and decide pliers and screwdrivers in drawer 2. You spend 2 hours cutting foam to make the perfect Kaizen organizer only to find your significant other bought you a new pair of pliers. Do you want to be able to fit them in? Your system needs to accomodate whatever flexibility you want in the system.
The right toughness. Does it make sense to organize your spices into a glass display case? If thats what you want, yes. Does it make sense to put your everyday pliers in a glass display case? probably not. Do you need impact protection for whatever your organizing?
Organized vs Efficient. One thing I've toiled over countless evenings sleep is the concept that organization can be volumetrically expensive. You buy that new screwdriver set that comes in a 12" x 12" x 1.5" blow molded case or vacuum formed tray. That just cost you 216 cubic inches. Now take the 6 screw drivers out of the case and set them in the drawer next to each other. they end up being 7"x8"x1.25" or 70 cubic inches. Thats only 33% of the space of the larger tray...! Maybe you want or need the ease of grabbing the exact screwdriver from the exact place that it lives as you use it every day in a primary role. Maybe it's more important to fit every tool you can into 1 drawer because that's all the space you have. The choice is yours.