Practical Prepping Podcast

17 Overlooked Everyday Items With Real Survival Uses

Mark & Krista Lawley Episode 562

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0:00 | 25:30

Walk through your house with me for a minute. That baking sheet in your oven? It’s not just for cookies, it’s a radio antenna ground plane, a cooking surface over coals, and a drying rack for seeds. That petroleum jelly in the medicine cabinet? Fire starter, skin protection, rust prevention. That five‑gallon bucket in the garage? Sanitation system, water hauler, food storage, even rain catchment. Most people see clutter. Preppers see capability.

In this episode we look at 17 overlooked everyday items with real survival uses

Aluminum foil becomes a heat reflector, emergency cooking surface, even a late‑night plumbing patch (ask us how we know). Baking soda handles grease fires and bug bites. Bandanas filter water and become slings. Coffee filters pre‑filter dirty water. Dental floss repairs gear, and yes, we talk realistically about wound closure options. Empty pill bottles protect matches and tinder. Old belts become straps and tourniquets. Zip ties secure almost anything. Plastic sheeting turns into shelter. Freezer bags protect documents, electronics, and supplies.

Preparedness isn’t always about buying more gear. Often, it’s about recognizing the hidden utility in what you already own.

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SPEAKER_02

Walk through your house with me for a minute. That baking sheet in your oven is not just for cookies. It's a radio antenna ground plane, a cooking source over coals, and a drying rack for seeds. That petroleum jelly in the medicine cabinet, fire starter, skin protection, rust prevention, that five gallon bucket in the garage, sanitation system, water hauler, food storage, even rain catchment. Most people see clutter, but preppers see capability. And today we're going to learn how to spot it. We're talking about seventeen overlooked everyday items with survival uses.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to Practical Prepping. Today is July 13th, 2026. And this is episode 562. This is the prepping podcast with no bunkers, no zombies, and no alien invasions. Just practical prepping, where we teach everyday people how to prepare for life's emergencies, disasters, and crises. And we're here to help you get prepared. I'm Krista.

SPEAKER_02

And I'm Mark. And if you'd like the expanded notes for this episode, go to practicalprepping.info forward slash five six two. Also, if you know someone who might enjoy this podcast, would you share it with them? Practical prepping dot info and click on podcast. Now let's get into 17 overlooked everyday items with survival uses.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

The first one on our list is aluminum foil.

SPEAKER_00

A good product.

SPEAKER_02

It can be used as a fire heat reflector placed behind a fire to direct the warmth toward you or into a shelter.

SPEAKER_00

Pretty smart.

SPEAKER_02

It can be used as an emergency cooking surface or for wrapping food in coals or forming a makeshift pan.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, it's very popular around the campsite.

SPEAKER_02

And it can be used as a windscreen sunshade when taped to cardboard to reflect heat. It also can be made into an improvised container folded into a bowl, a cup, or a tray. True. Now here's an interesting use for it that I did this personally. And this was on a weekend night, and we developed a leak in the J trap under the kitchen sink.

SPEAKER_00

Uh oh.

SPEAKER_02

So what I did was took some JB weld and took a piece of tin foil, and I put that aluminum foil and that JB weld over that hole and put pushed it up in there and smoothed it out to where the JB weld was outside of the tin foil. And you know, it it made a great late night repair, but it was still holding when we replaced that plumbing with PVC years later.

SPEAKER_00

Very cool.

SPEAKER_02

And one final use for aluminum foil is that it can be used to make hats for paranoid people.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. Oh, good one. Good one, you know. Number two on the list would be a baking sheet, also known as a cooking sheet. This can be used as a ground plane for magnetic antennas, and it really will improve the performance of your radio.

SPEAKER_02

And I think we're talking about amateur radio amateur ham radio, GMRS, whatever that you can have an external antenna.

SPEAKER_01

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_02

And a lot of folks will use a magnetic antenna, but you really need some type of ground plane for that. If you put it on that cookie sheet or put it on the center of a metal trash can lid, it will greatly improve the performance of that. Now, one thing I did in an office one time was I used a magnetic antenna just inside the window where and it had a drop ceiling. So you had those metal channels. So where two of those channels crossed, I put that magnetic antenna upside down because RF doesn't care whether it's right side up, upside down.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

And so it transmitted and I was able to hit the repeater from that particular office, and it worked very, very well for me.

SPEAKER_00

Sounds good. You can use that baking sheet as a cooking surface over your campfire or your grill. That flat surface could also be used to spread out some herbs or seeds or even small gear for anything that needs to be dried out or kind of collected. A lot of these baking sheets have kind of a shallow lip around them, and so they can hold small little metal pieces.

SPEAKER_02

Number three on our list is baking soda. Okay. Now I've known this for years, and we used to keep it in the kitchen. Mother did, my grandmother did. And it's fire suppression for small grease fires.

SPEAKER_00

It's safer than spraying water or splashing water on a grease fire.

SPEAKER_02

Water's worst thing you can do probably with that, but you can dump that soda on it and it will tend to suppress that fire. We always had it in the refrigerator for odor control. Sure. You can put it in coolers. You can even put it in shoes for odor control. And I can remember as a kid too, we used it like toothpaste when we didn't have toothpaste.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, you wet your brush and then you dab it into the baking soda and clean your mouth.

SPEAKER_02

And you might have to do that a couple of times throughout your mouth, but you can use it for teeth cleaning. And it will also relieve insect bites when it's mixed with water and turned into a paste.

SPEAKER_00

I've actually done that and it does work.

SPEAKER_02

It does work.

SPEAKER_00

Number four on the list is good old bandanas. You know, we know them as a dusk mask or a face covering, but it could also become your sweat rag, and that will reduce a lot of dehydration. It can become an improvised sling for an arm support if it's a big enough bandana that can hold an arm and tie around the neck. You could also use it, we've mentioned this many times, as a pre-filter for water. If you're outsourcing water in the wild, like from a creek or a river or lake, you may be pulling up a lot of particulate matter. Pour that through your bandana into a container, and as Mark says, it strains out the chunky stuff.

SPEAKER_01

Yep.

SPEAKER_00

You could use it as a neck wrap if you'll soak it in water and then wrap your neck with it. That's very good for cooling on an extremely hot day. A bandana can be an improvised bandage or a wound wrap if needed, and it can become your potholder for handling hot cookware.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, there's been a few times I pull my bandana out to cover some place that I had caused my body to start leaking blood.

SPEAKER_01

Ah, yes.

SPEAKER_02

Or I'd cut myself or stabbed myself. So they do make very, very handy bandages to have there. Number five is clothespins.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02

You know, we don't see these as often in houses today as we used to.

SPEAKER_00

That's true.

SPEAKER_02

But they can be used to secure tarps to lines without the fabric tearing.

SPEAKER_01

True.

SPEAKER_02

They can be used to hang wet clothing or gear to dry. They can clamp snack bags or food storage closed.

SPEAKER_01

Sure.

SPEAKER_02

Secure maps or papers in windy conditions. You can clip gloves together to prevent their loss.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Now you can also use them for trail markers, especially with reflective tape.

SPEAKER_00

See, that's kind of smart right there.

SPEAKER_02

Mm-hmm. And you're not leaving something in the woods. You can uh mark a trail going in and you can follow your trail coming back out and remove the clothespins as you go. So you've left nothing but footprints in the forest.

SPEAKER_00

Very clever. Next on the list, number six, those paper coffee filters. That can also pre-filter dirty water before you purify it. And it can also be used as a grease strainer. I do this when I do my bacon in the oven. I collect all that bacon grease. It always has little chunky bits in it. And I pour it through a coffee filter that is sitting inside a sieve. So it passes through the filter and then the sieve and then it's clean as I collect that bacon fat for use later.

SPEAKER_02

And she does reuse it.

SPEAKER_00

I do. She does. Great for reusing. It can become an emergency piece of toilet paper. Never really thought about that till I saw the list. Said, you know, that's kind of smart.

SPEAKER_02

It's not going to be the softest stuff, but it will work.

SPEAKER_00

It's one of those better than nothing.

SPEAKER_02

Better than nothing.

SPEAKER_00

You can also strain sediment from fuel in small engines by using that with a coffee filter. Just pour it through and catch it clean in another container. Speaking of coffee filters, today's cup of coffee comes from our buddy Tony. Tony is a very longtime supporter of this show. And Tony, we can't tell you how much we appreciate your continued support. Hey friends, you too can support us at practicalprepping.info slash support. If you go there, you're going to find ways that you can buy us a few cups of coffee, or you might even want to join up with a coffee membership. It's only $5 a month, but that really does help us offset some of the expenses of the show. So please help us out. Consider doing that at practicalprepping.info slash support.

SPEAKER_02

And now we move to number seven, which is dental floss.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, smart.

SPEAKER_02

You can use it as an emergency sewing thread for clothing or gear repair.

SPEAKER_00

You know, it is pretty strong.

SPEAKER_02

All you need is a needle to go with it.

SPEAKER_00

There you go.

SPEAKER_02

You can use it for fishing line for small survival fishing setups. If you'll carry a couple of hooks and a couple of sinkers in something, you can use dental floss and you can always use a stick for a handle.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

Number of ways that you can do that, but it does make a good light duty cordage.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

You can also use it as a trip line for simple alert systems.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, clever. Okay.

SPEAKER_02

Here's one that a lot of folks would not really think about this, but you could use it for emergency suturing.

SPEAKER_00

Well, that's the purpose of this whole episode is the unknown ways you could repurpose the common things you find in your home. So if you actually had a suture kit, you could actually string it with dental floss.

SPEAKER_02

If you didn't have a suture kit, you could string a needle with the dental floss.

SPEAKER_00

I see.

SPEAKER_02

Preferably a curved needle makes it so much easier. But it can be done in an emergency with a straight needle.

SPEAKER_00

It's hard to think about, but true.

SPEAKER_02

Yep. Now, many of us may not want to be trying do-it-yourself suturing, or at least not as long as there are other options available.

SPEAKER_00

I understand.

SPEAKER_02

Then again, you may not want to go to the ER for just a couple of stitches. We've found some wound closures that will close up those wounds, and it's a good item to have on hand in a grid-down situation.

SPEAKER_01

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

That's CloseX Emergency Laceration Closures. And this closes wounds without stitches.

SPEAKER_00

I've seen those.

SPEAKER_02

It's a surgical grade skin device, and it's available for wounds up to one inch or three and a half inches. And we'll put the link in the episode notes, but you can find that at practical prepping.info forward slash featured. And you'll find a lot of other prepping items there as well.

SPEAKER_00

Now, number eight on the list would be empty pill prescription bottles. These have a vast number of uses, and they come in an amazing amount of sizes, too. His metformin bottles are quite large, and then other prescription bottles are really small.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, and the metformin is what we use for our fat wood in our get home bags.

SPEAKER_00

Because you can snap that little watertight lid on there and you're good. It can become a waterproof storage container for matches. And you could actually even create a mini first aid container out of that if you've got a few little essentials in there. You could make a very small fishing kit. You can put some line, some hooks, and some sinkers down inside a prescription bottle. You could store sewing needles and thread. Could even hold some spare cash. You can roll it up really tight or drop in some coins. I'd say preferably, you know, dimes and quarters, something like that.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I used to keep one in the truck for parking meters, but I haven't seen a paid parking meter that didn't take a credit card. Right. I don't know that you can put a coin in one anymore.

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the 21st century. You can also keep tinder, is what Mark has just mentioned, that we do keep little pits of cut tender in a large prescription bottle. And that's our tinder, our fat wood, and that we keep that in our bags, in our get home bags and our bugs.

SPEAKER_02

And you can also put petroleum jelly and cotton balls in there.

SPEAKER_00

Sure. Whatever is a good fire starter for you, you could use a medicine bottle for that.

SPEAKER_02

Number nine is a five-gallon bucket. Now these things are precious to a lot of people, preppers and farmers and homesteaders. You just couldn't do what we do without a five-gallon bucket. One, it's good for water hauling and storage. Right. Preppers use it for food storage. Sure do. You can buy food grade buckets, or you can line it with mylar, or you can put mylar packages in there and seal it up. You can also make an emergency toilet by using a liner in it, putting a trash bag in there. You can make that emergency toilet. You can make a tool kit or gear container. My dad did this for years. When he started to come to the house to do something, he'd put a five-gallon bucket of tools over in the back of the truck. And I've kind of continued that myself. Exactly. And I've got one out in the garage that's for plumbing. I've got another one that's for general tools that I can pick up and take to one of the kids or grandkids. You can use it as a firewood carrier. It's good for carrying a lot of things. We used to collect pine cones out of the yard in five-gallon buckets. Sure. So you can use it as some type of a carrier. And of course, you can use it as a rainwater catchment container by simply putting it out in the rain.

SPEAKER_00

Number 10 on the list, an old belt. Now this could become an improvised gear strap, maybe even a tie-down for the car. You could use an old belt as a tourniquet in some cases if it's if it can be tightened down far enough, you can actually do that.

SPEAKER_02

Had a police friend who back in the 70s saved a guy's life with a belt in a motorcycle accident. The guy lost the leg. But Dennis was literally able to save his life by making a tourniquet out of his belt.

SPEAKER_00

Amazing. You can use it to tie firewood together or strap some poles together. You can use a belt to replace a broken pack strap in some cases. And you could even use it as a leather strop for sharpening blades. That's what they used to do back in the day.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Even make a temporary rifle or tool sling out of it.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02

A lot of things that you can do with those old belts.

SPEAKER_00

So don't throw them out.

SPEAKER_02

Especially if they're leather. Number 11, petroleum jelly.

SPEAKER_00

Oh yes.

SPEAKER_02

We mentioned this a minute ago. You can make a fire starter when you mix it with cotton balls and be sure to really permeate that cotton the first time we ever made some. We did not put enough petroleum jelly in there.

SPEAKER_00

It needs to be nice and gushy.

SPEAKER_02

It needs to be soaked and soaked throughout.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

It'll protect your skin from chafing. It's a moisture barrier for minor cuts and scrapes.

SPEAKER_01

That's true.

SPEAKER_02

You can use it to prevent rust on small metal tools. It's also a good lip balm substitute. Right. And you can protect battery terminals from corrosion.

SPEAKER_00

See, I didn't think about that, but that makes a lot of good sense.

SPEAKER_02

And I'm talking car batteries here. I'm talking any type of terminal there. I guess you could use it on double A and AAA batteries, put some on the back end, and still make contact with the metal and help protect that from leakage from those batteries.

SPEAKER_00

Pretty clever. Number 12 on the list is plastic milk crates. Now we're not talking milk bottles. We're talking about the square rectangular open grid style milk crate. I use them in my closet. I actually store clothing. I put the milk crate up on its side so the open edge is facing me, and I can stack clothes in there. So you can organize all kinds of storage with a plastic milk crate. A lot of people use them in their pantries if they have a separate pantry room. I see a lot of milk crates stacked in there, and some of them carry packets for gravy and whatnot and so on. You could use it as a vehicle trunk organizer. A lot of times it's nice to have those crates in the back of the trunk because your grocery bags may be kind of flimsy, and this helps them stay up.

SPEAKER_02

Well, I'm also I have one for our car that will hold a quart of oil. I could put gasoline if I wanted to in there, but I use it for jumper cables and things that I want to be able to put into the car and take out of the car rather easily fit very well in that plastic milk crate.

SPEAKER_00

You could also use it as a raised platform to keep gear off of wet ground. For example, we have used plastic milk crates as a ham radio table when we're out in the woods.

SPEAKER_01

Yep. Working a horse ride.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. You could stack one on, two on each other, whatever. And it gets it's a good transport container for just whatever you need that needs to be hauled from here to there. Uh plastic milk crates, fairly uh inexpensive, and a lot of times you can pick them up free from a lot of stores that are willing to donate them to you.

SPEAKER_02

Number 13 is plastic sheeting.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

You can make an emergency shelter with this stuff. You can use it as a ground cloth to block moisture.

SPEAKER_00

It's good if you're going to be sleeping bags outside.

SPEAKER_02

Exactly. Put it under that sleeping bag and you don't get moisture from the ground. You can use it as a rain catchment surface.

SPEAKER_00

I've seen that done.

SPEAKER_02

Spread it out and tilt it down toward a container for that water to run into. You can use it as a wind block around a camp or a work area.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, sure you can.

SPEAKER_02

I used it one time when it was cold and the wind was blowing. I made a wind block to get the temperature up on our smoker because the wind kept causing that to diminish the temperature in there. You can use it as window insulation. I grew up with this every year in the house that I grew up in as a small child, up until I was about 12 years old, 11 years old, somewhere in that neighborhood. Every winter, as we were coming up, dad would get plastic sheeting and he would staple it on the outside of the window to keep the wind from coming through. Because honestly, you could feel the wind blow through.

SPEAKER_01

I'm sure.

SPEAKER_02

Now we still have that house, but we don't have that wind problem anymore. We've uh we've added insulation, we've added uh siding outside, we've redone the windows, replaced those. But as a kid, you could feel that wind blow through those. You can also use it as an improvised poncho.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, sure.

SPEAKER_02

Just cut you off a big section of it, cut a hole in the middle for your head, and you've got a poncho.

SPEAKER_00

Number 14 on the list, safety pins. Oh, there's just dozens of things you can do with safety pins. Obviously, you can repair torn clothing or even repair gear that a safety pin could pull together. They can be used to secure bandages like gauze bandaging, wrapping in place. You can even replace a broken zipper pull with a safety pin. Makes a lot of sense. You can fasten together some makeshift slings or wraps for any kind of injury or emergency. A safety pin could be useful in removing a splinter if it's a large enough splinter that can be seen. A safety pin I've done that. The sharp point can be done. You can pin your gloves or socks together, and so that way you're not going to lose them one place or another.

SPEAKER_02

You either lose them both or you have them.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. And one that I thought of that I've actually seen done is you can take some of that line out of your pill bottle and you can tie it to a safety pin that's open, and that can become a fish hook. It can actually hold a piece of bait or whatever you need.

SPEAKER_02

Especially the smaller ones where you can put some small pieces of bait and catch small pen fish and things like that. Number 15, super glue.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, okay.

SPEAKER_02

Now you can use this to seal minor cuts in an emergency.

SPEAKER_00

I think that's probably what part of it was.

SPEAKER_02

I think it was intended for wound closure, and they do use it in the medical field as a wound closure. Now it's marketed as something other than superglue, and it's three times the price, but it's the same thing. But in an emergency, you can seal these minor cuts with superglue. You can patch small tears in clothing or in a tent or uh something like that. You can use that as a patch. You can lock fraying paracord ends to prevent further unrivaling.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that makes a lot of sense.

SPEAKER_02

I tend to burn the end of mine.

SPEAKER_00

That's melt together.

SPEAKER_02

Right. But that makes a knot, it seems like, on the outside. If I wanted to be able to thread that through something, then super glue would be the better way to go because it doesn't make it wider.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

And you can stiffen the end of cordage, as I was talking about, to make threading it through things easier.

SPEAKER_00

Makes a lot of sense. Number 16 on our list, zip ties. You know, these things come in dozens of sizes. And they are fast, strong. They're a lightweight fastening item. They're really kind of brilliant when you really study them. You can secure tarts. Or the shelter components with a zip tie. You can bundle cords and zip tie around it, or you can pull rope together and put it in a zip tie for bundling. You can also attach gear to your pack or to a frame of some kind with a zip tie. In some cases, depending on the situation, you may have to use them to have a handcuff style restraint if you get somebody that's a little out of control. I've seen law enforcement use.

SPEAKER_02

We used to carry them just in case we had more people than we had handcuffs that we could use those if we needed to.

SPEAKER_00

You can fasten fencing elements together. You can use zip ties for garden supports. We've done that with our tomato cages, and we've zip tied loose zip ties so the plant can move and grow and expand.

SPEAKER_02

It holds it in place.

SPEAKER_00

It's weatherproof. We can secure vehicle hoses together. We can bundle up wiring and zip tie it. You can even hang items from rafters or those paracord lines over your head if you want to loop a zip tie through there, and there you go.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, in the garage, it's good in those overhead rafters. You can have some nails and in certain like the end of a piece of equipment or something, you can have that zip tie through there, and you just stick it up there and hook it on that nail, and it kind of makes it like a loop of some kind. Number 17, zip top freezer bags.

SPEAKER_00

Hoodahunk.

SPEAKER_02

Who-da thunk. This is great waterproof storage. Sure. You can use it for documents and maps, especially the one gallon size.

SPEAKER_00

They cut as large.

SPEAKER_02

8.5 by 11 will go in there very well, and you can keep that protected. You can protect electronics from moisture. You can use it to store first aid supplies. You can organize small gear or hardware. You can carry water in a pinch.

SPEAKER_00

Oh, that's very clever.

SPEAKER_02

You can keep ammunition or matches dry.

SPEAKER_00

Sure enough.

SPEAKER_02

Now I use them in my EDC bag to carry extra batteries.

SPEAKER_00

Okay.

SPEAKER_02

I have one with extra batteries with double A and AAA batteries in there, and I have another that has charging cords in there.

SPEAKER_01

Right.

SPEAKER_02

With a head for being able to plug it in. And I also carry the USB power bank. So sometimes I have to get in, get extra batteries, sometimes I need to get a cord, but it it's great for storing those charger cables and those charger heads inside my EDC bag.

SPEAKER_00

And since they're transparent, you just you can see instantly.

SPEAKER_02

You don't have to hunt for it. When you see it, you know what you've got right there.

SPEAKER_00

Right. So there you have it. The 17 ordinary household items that are often overlooked in prepping. So the question is, friends, did you learn from the podcast today? Did you get some new ideas for your prepping? In other words, do you receive value from the Practical Prepping Podcast? And if so, would you help us by giving back a little? Pop on over to that practicalprepping.info slash support page, and you'll find several ways that you can support the show.

SPEAKER_02

And we do appreciate you being here today. We appreciate your time each week. And again, if you know someone that would enjoy this podcast, please share that with them. And as Krista always says, Stuff happens.

SPEAKER_00

Stay prepared.

SPEAKER_02

And we'll see you next time.