Track what you have, Know where it is.

My Dad used to tell us growing up "Spot your gear!"  and though it sounds odd to some folks, he meant "keep an eye on your stuff" "Know where it is, don't leave it scattered" or even simply "pay attention" His 3 words could mean all that, or just part of it ~ it depended on how he said it.  Let's look at that closely ~ Spot your Gear...  Heck do you know even know what gear you have?  I have friends that waste money buying the same things over because they didn't know they bought the same thing 4 years ago, or that they had that book.. and forgot to read it. Or *GASP* something expired because they didn't rotate the stock!

For your food stuff, meds, and gear there is a lovely little freeware program called:  http://www.cheaphomesteading.com/  you'll download it on your computer per the directions at this link be sure to read everything there's a link for support, another for a free program to create your own bar codes for stuff/gear that doesn't have barcodes already  ~ It's not mine ~ but I use this.  You can change the program to track lots of stuff all that's available through the support link.  This is very important to know: Once it's installed you DO NOT need Internet access to the machine its on.  Why? Because it is a stand alone database this was very important to our family.  We didn't want our data in the "cloud" especially if the whole world went sideways.  I think y'all could appreciate that.

With that program I bought a scanner at Amazon.com: Hand Held Contact USB 80mm Long hand-held CCD Barcode Scanner

For your Survival/Prepper's Bookshelf (and all your other books too) check out http://www.readerware.com/ they have solutions for books, movies, and video collections. We were given this for Christmas last year since we already had an UPC scanner it made a dandy gift.  I have to admit we are finally getting all of books, videos, and music into it...  really like this!

And while gadgets are great, you can get started with pen and paper too! The important part is,  you spot your gear   Stock what you eat ~ eat what you stock ~ rotate your food inventory!

Thanks Dad for this advice and all the other great "Dad-isms" I love you.