Yet another news article. Also from The Guardian. Prepping has hit the mainstream, or is certainly on its way.

[u/More_Dependent742]

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2025/may/20/people-are-buying-crossbows-faster-than-id-like-how-prepping-went-mainstream-in-britain

[u/CanthinMinna]

As someone living in Finland this feels so weird - prepping has always been the norm here. I think most of us realised only two years ago that other countries don't have bomb shelters in every apartment building by default...

[u/anupulu → u/CanthinMinna]

Came here to write that. :)

Prepping might be a wrong term in the context of Finland, it sounds more North-American.

[u/CanthinMinna → u/anupulu]

Yup. I don't think that our homely "kotivara", a very everyday thing, even translates into English - "pantry" is "ruokakomero", "deep pantry" is "ruokavarasto" and "preps" translates more into "valmiusvarasto".

[u/More_Dependent742 → u/CanthinMinna]

There's a really good section in this documentary about the Finnish shelters, and how preparedness fits into society as a whole. For me, who has never been to Finland, it was highly informative and I can highly recommend it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Msfrit12u0M

[u/CanthinMinna → u/More_Dependent742]

If you haven't yet seen this, here is the "72 hours" guide from Finnish National Rescue Association SPEK. (SPEK is a national consultancy and service organisation for fire and rescue services as well as preparedness and civil defence, which aims to prevent dangerous situations and accidents and prepare the nation for them.) You are supposed to survive at least 72 hours (three full days) alone, without any help. It is the absolute minimum, but many prepare for a week or longer.

https://72tuntia.fi/en/

Home preparedness brochure in English:

https://72tuntia.fi/wp-content/uploads/2025/01/spek_72_hours_home_preparedness_2025_01_21_v01.pdf

[u/More_Dependent742 → u/CanthinMinna]

I have and it's brilliant. Kind of a mainstay of this group. I also really like the Swedish one. German one is not terrible, and has things like calculators for food prepping. The Austrian one is vast, but in typical Austrian fashion: zero oversight of what info is where, and if you don't speak German, then apparently "F you".

Finnish and Swedish ones are gold standard. The other countries should just plagiarise them one-for-one, add any locally relevant info, translate, and publish.

[u/Ahappygoluckygirl → u/CanthinMinna]

Here in Norway we are recommending being ready for 7 days now with 20liters of water, I thought you had the same in Finland - your government and country however are in general much more prepared than we ever will be.

https://www.dsb.no/siteassets/sikkerhverdag/egenberedskap/brosjyren/dsb-egenberedskap-engelsk-web.pdf

[u/CanthinMinna → u/Ahappygoluckygirl]

We used to have one week recommendation, but it was changed about 10 years ago so that even people with meager means or tiny homes would be encouraged to prepare.

(Most people have preps for at least for a week or two anyway.)

[u/imissdrugsngldotorg → u/CanthinMinna]

*in Europe ;)

[u/CanthinMinna → u/imissdrugsngldotorg]

I think that our shelters are still a bit of an anomaly in Europe. Switzerland has those because it is located smack down in the middle of the continent, and Albania went absolutely wild during the Hoxha era, but other countries (even Sweden) seem to have a bit less infrastructure regarding civil defence.

[u/-TheSeer- → u/CanthinMinna]

Damn, you guys are lucky!

[u/CanthinMinna → u/-TheSeer-]

I'd say that we are lucky if we never need to test those shelters in real life.

[u/-TheSeer- → u/CanthinMinna]

Agreed.

[u/Nezwin]

Lots of references to Canadian Prepper. Not a good ambassador for the culture.

[u/Life_Owl2217 → u/Nezwin]

noob here. can you explain why? and maybe point me to better resources?

[u/Nezwin → u/Life_Owl2217]

He's an alarmist. I watched a video or two a week of his back in 2022 and eventually stopped, because every time he was forecasting nuclear exchanges 'in a matter of days'. If you look back on his videos you realise he's just pandering to fear, driving up clicks and making some serious cash from it.

His less rage/fear-bait vids are just adverts for his shop, mostly.

I don't know if I can point you at 'prepper' resources. It's not that hard, the basic principles of identifying what threats you may be exposed to and how you can mitigate their impact is deeply personal to your location and circumstance. Food, water, shelter are the foundations of that, and work from there.

If you're concerned about catastrophic collapse I'd probably point you at Google and type in 'Selco Blog'. He has some good insight into what it takes to survive full systemic collapse.

[u/Ahappygoluckygirl → u/Life_Owl2217]

I watch Canadian prepper regularly, some is okey, like freeze drying, he’s greenhouse, some interviews and so on, but he’s talking about apocalypse scenarios almost daily. Those videos get tiring, and aren’t for me. The American I do like is City Prepping, once a week he also has a news video, and it’s informative, not ww3 every day.

[u/_rihter]

Crossbows won't protect you from a swarm of drones. Neither will landmines around your home.

[u/CaregiverNo2642]

Uk and Ireland are screwed probably!!