Prepping Burnout

[SCinPNW]

I have to admit, I am feeling burned out on prepping right now. A month ago my husband and I packed up a bunch of food into mylar bags and it is all just sitting in the guest room waiting for me to find a home for it. I am tired of managing all of this "STUFF"! I know that all of it is just as valuable as life insurance or even more valuable, but I am just tired of managing it all. I did clean out my pantry and have a couple of sacks of canned goods that are waiting for me to take them to the food bank. But the bottome line is that I am just tired of managing all of this stuff and worrying about the end of the world as we know it.

Do you ever feel that way? If so, what do you do?

To be honest, part of me just wants to stick my head in the sand. Maybe I just need a temporary break from it all because I truly am not a "stick my head in the sand" kind of gal. I throw this out there to you all because out of all of the websites I have visited, this is the one where I feel most connected and even though I have not been posting much recently I still do check in every day and read the new posts.

On a more positive note, I have been babying my tomato plants along since February and we finally have a week of sunny weather and they are growing like crazy. I keep hoping and praying that I will get a decent tomato harvest.

SC

[brokedownbiker]

Just a bump in the road, everybody gets to that point eventually. I actually took a break from prepping for a couple of months last fall when my life changed dramatically and I had too much on my plate. Then got busy again when things settled down and I was able to devote the necessary time again. Always try to remember to pace yourself, you can only do as much as you can do, right?

Tomatoes sound good, I hope they are heirlooms so you can actually enjoy some flavor, unlike the store bought ones... yuck.

[MJC]

I feel a little overwhelmed sometimes too. I only have one room that I can use for actual storage and sometimes it's all I can do to just open the door and throw the stuff in, I don't even want to deal with it. But then comes the day when I have to takle it all at once which is an even bigger hassle.

[Daelith]

I've just gotten started prepping and feel your pain. Hubby doesn't take the food prep to seriously so that all falls on me. He likes the guns and ammo portion though. I can get it his full attention when it comes to prepping that.
I have enough people in our family who are sticking their heads in the sand (about life in general) so I can't afford to join them. I know when SHTF they will be calling or running to us to take care of them.
It doesn't help the situation when you have to give money you've been scrimping and saving over to another family member because they can't manage their own life. Guess the gun safe and water filtration system will have to wait.

[MustangGal]

If I remember correctly, you have a medically fragile, special needs child PLUS the stress of knowing something is coming down the 'pike. Of course it is overwhelming! I can't imagine the stress you must deal with.

I know for me, if a job feels overwhelming, or I it is something I have never done before, I tend to procrastinate. The funny thing is, it almost never turns out to be the big deal I imagined. Could you set aside 15 minutes a day to deal with the stuff in the guest room? You know, the old "How do you eat an elephant?" "One bite at a time!"

Right now there isn't much prepping going on at our house in the traditional sense either. We are working on getting the other house remodeled and getting ready to move.

[jimmycthemd]

I, too, have just started prepping (a few months ago). I went full tilt for a few months but have slowed down (some due to burnout and some due to life changes). What I'm going to try to do is pace myself. All the preps are up to me as my wife isn't really into it. She understands that I want to but isn't motivated to actively help. She does, however, help me with the shopping part. I've had a couple of 'miscellaneous' buckets 90% ready to go for a couple of weeks but haven't been able to motivate myself to spend the 20 minutes to finish them. I'll get to them some time next week (I hope).

I do keep thinking and planning, but need to get back to doing.

[Matt In Oklahoma]

I was saving this for another day but:

I have said here before that there is a fine line between complacency and burnout. When preparing for things make sure you don’t burnout, enjoy and relax from time to time.
Ate me some Giant marshmellows, biggest i ever seen during this, looked like i had a village burning torch running round there LOL
Remember we are alive and bascially doing well. We are preparing but there is a whole world out there. All to aften this becomes IT and nothing else remains. Not to be so. Allow yourself to live and breathe as you take this journey. Dont forget when you see a dandelion that yes, I can eat this and they grow here and i can store them here, remember to watch the child blow the puffs and smile and marvel at the bright yellow color God put in the sea of green.
Dont just can all them tomatoes like an intense prepping chore to survive another apocolyptic day, eat one slowly let the juice drip on your shirt, then listen to someone fuss over how your a mess and watch your kids shake their heads in dismay while they smile, take a few to a neighbor and chat about the weather. Play the radio while canning and sing, invite a friend and tell bad jokes.

[BioG8r]

I think we all get overwhelmed with portions of or lives, heck sometimes with the whole thing!
Just take a few days to relax and think about how important each aspect of your prepping is and prioritize. We enjoy going on "shopping trips" in the cupboard, trying to find a meal combination that we haven't tried or haven't had in a while. Forces us to rotate and maintain familiarity with our stores.
One of the sites my wife visits mentions "Mommy Mart" the term she calls her pantry. It is a term of ownership and endearment.
Without Mommy Mart you are having to make the repeated trips to the store and making lists.
Kind of sounds the same as prepping just gotta leave home, deal with the public and hunt the prime parking spot!
Sounds like taking a break and easing back into it might be a winning idea.
Keep them 'maters happy and healthy, theres a big, uplifting feeling in eating those fresh little jewels YOU have nurtured!!
We BOTH love canning, that also has a positive effect on our storage/prepping, if you don't have canning fodder in the garden, get a bushel of beans and have a "SNAP Movie" where you (and yours) sit and go into automode snapping and watching a good flick. Can a few quarts and add them to the rotation, if you have kids let them get involved by writing their name/date on the cans and put them in charge of rotation or even when to eat their creation, Might get them to eat something good!!!
Just some ideas, YMMV!
We are behind ya!
BioG8r

[Lowdown3]

Well said everyone.

The "worry" you mentioned is what you need to leave out SC. Prepping can be done "over time and a little at a time." You do NOT have to break the bank, sell the furniture to buy cases of ammo, etc.

Small, CONSISTENT purchases build up over time nicely. The problem for most people comes in the 2nd word in that sentence- CONSISTENT.

We get to a point just like people get to when getting out of debt, or losing weight, where we go "well I'm not all the way there, BUT I'M BETTER OFF THAN...." Add in sheeple neighbors for prepping, drunk brother in law for debt reduction or fattie Aunt Sally for weight loss.

Basically, we end up SETTLING.

We don't want to just "settle" in any of those endeavors. Should you take a holiday? Sure by all means.

Try to stop "worrying" about events outside of your control.

*If the economy collapses today- can you or I do a damn thing to stop it? Negative.
*If Turkey invades Syria today touching off WWIII- what can you or I do to stop it? Nada.

What we CAN control-

*Our focus
*Our mental state
*Our spiritual state
*Our physical state
*Our emotional state

If our focus is wrong, their is a good chance some or all of the others will be in the wrong place.

On the world scene- what's gonna happen is gonna happen, read the last book. Their may be a great national or even worldwide revival that sets the time frame back, but eventually at some point in time (now, 10 days, 10 years or 100 years from now) bad stuff is going to happen. We can't do anything about that. Read again- we can't do anything about that. So why "worry" about that?

[tech]

Some really good posts above...worry isn't going to help with what you are trying to accomplish.

Heck, when it comes down to brass tacks, isn't prepping supposed to reduce the amount of worry? You've prepared to the best of your ability given the restraints of time and finances...great! If you have more time and more money...fantastic. If things fall apart this weekend, you have what you have. Still no amount of worry will help.

So as mentioned above, enjoy life - you only go 'round once.

[SeldomSeenSlim]

There was a point in time when I was sitting in a tent during a monsoon storm wondering if I had bit off more than I could chew. The list of things to do was daunting to say the least. Water, power, shelter... it all needed to be done. There was a lot of pressure and I felt it every day. Working 40 hours a week for a paycheck and 40+ for myself. Sleep was a luxury. I dug myself into a lot of holes by rushing things. Looking back I'm not sure if I could have done any better. There's still a lot of work to be done and I don't think that will ever change. It's just part of the deal when you don't pay people to provide you with things. I know exactly where you're coming from. Start a project, get done and then think "Now where in the hell am I going to put this?".

Being older, and hopefully wiser, I take my time and think things through a lot more now. There's only so much time in the day and there's only one of me. I really don't have time to create more work for myself. So anything I can do to shave off time for maintenance and upkeep is a win. Do it once, do it right and never do it again kind of mindset. Everything breaks at some point, but if planned for the fix is a lot easier. I'm also really big on doing things in a way that just naturally work without needing to be tended to. It's worth the extra time at the start to save the time in the long run.

For big things I break them up into chunks. It takes me a full year to transform a plot of desert scrub into something useful. Clear it in the winter, do water and drainage in the spring, let it grow wild in the summer, till it in the fall and fix all the stuff the monsoon storms wrecked in the summer and then it is ready to plant once the season is in for whatever I'm going to do with it. At this rate I'll be done somewhere between 80-100 years. Definitely a long term project. ;) If I tried to do it all at once I'd be overwhelmed. Instead I can focus on just a small portion and that makes it manageable.

You should take some solace in the fact that all that effort you put in putting up that food is time you'll have later. Folks that plan to haul water and gather food have already set their schedule. Because if that's what you're doing, that's ALL you're doing. And just think. By this time next year, you'll have figured out your food storage system and never have to go through it again. I wouldn't stress over it. In fact the only time I get worried is when everything works out the first time.

It's a marathon. Not a sprint. Nobody knows where the finish line is and there's no need to come in first, so don't forget to look around every once in a while and take in the view.

[Greg B.]

Like many, we started prepping on a dead run. By this past Spring we were out of energy, interest and $$$. A good friend and I went up north over the fourth and zeroed in some rifles. This has sparked renewed entheusiasm. All it took was a complete change of direction for a few days.

[SCinPNW]

Thank you all for the great words of encouragement, I truly appreciate it!

A break over the summer while just focusing on the family, my garden, and tomato plants would be a good thing. Yes, MG we do have a medically fragile special needs kid and definitely in the summer it is much more difficult with him home all of the time. At home he does not have someone to entertain him every second and he tends to get bored. I spend a lot of time with him, however, I do need to keep the house running so the days can be long for him.

And if I think about it, with my gardening I am still working towards my prepping goals as I am learning a lot this year. I am slowly becoming less of a novice gardener. To answer your question BD, yes the tomatoes are organic heirloom varieties. I started them from seed in early February and ever since I moved them outside I have had to protect them from the rain. This past week is the first nice weather we have had all year and it looks like it will last for at least another week. As for canning the tomatoes, I am hoping to get enough to do something with, but we shall see. I will update my tomato thread and post some new pictures of my plants.

Matt, thanks for the video, and as usual there is lots of wisdom in what you wrote--thank you. And to everyone else, I appreciate the wisdom and encouragement it helps. I will definitely be rereading this thread.

LD3, words on consistency and the 5 things that we "CAN" control are very good--I can honestly say that I need to be looking more closely at several of them and start putting some more effort into them.

Thank you again all, I appreciate it!
SC

[monkeybird]

SCinPNAW - I've been in you're place. I believe it's a normal bump in the road that most of us have experienced. Sometimes all the work, planning and expense seems like too much to deal with. Believe me, having your head in the sand is a lovely place to be, but only for a while. I went from extreme enthusiasm and prepping to moments when I thought I was 'overreacting' to the world. Overtime I settled. As you will too. Now, prepping is a steady process.

I don't worry about it anymore. Worry saps your energy and strength. Like Lowdown said you can't control the world and you can't do a things about world events, but knowing you have the food and basics stored gives you a certain level of peace.

[SCinPNW]

SCinPNAW - I've been in you're place. I believe it's a normal bump in the road that most of us have experienced. Sometimes all the work, planning and expense seems like too much to deal with. Believe me, having your head in the sand is a lovely place to be, but only for a while. I went from extreme enthusiasm and prepping to moments when I thought I was 'overreacting' to the world. Overtime I settled. As you will too. Now, prepping is a steady process.

I don't worry about it anymore. Worry saps your energy and strength. Like Lowdown said you can't control the world and you can't do a things about world events, but knowing you have the food and basics stored gives you a certain level of peace.

MB, thank you for the words of encouragement. The the two sentences that I bolded are exactly what I have been feeling, that it is just too much work to have to manage all of this stuff and that maybe I have just gone over the edge with preparedness.

As I said a couple of posts back, I am going to take a break over the summer and work on resetting some of my priorities and just enjoy my family, garden, and the many blessings that God has given us. And just breath.....

Thank you again,
SC