Bartering is the act of trading a good or service for another good or service – it cuts currency out of the equation altogether!

No one is going to want to barter a valuable good or service for a pile of rocks, however; here are a few bartering items you should stockpile.

Salt intake is essential for our bodies to function. In long-term disaster situations, salt will preserve meat, you can gargle it for a sore throat, use it to brush your teeth, as a pain reliever for insect bites and more. With 14,000 known uses for salt, it is potentially your best barter item.

Toilet paper – If you’ve got some to spare, you’ll be everybody’s best friend. Just be mindful, toilet paper consumes a lot of real estate. If you don’t have adequate storage, toilet tissue may not be the best barter item for you to stockpile.

Water Purification Supplies are high-value barter items. Pure drinking water will be at a premium. Water filters, iodine tablets, and bleach will help purify water. Along the same lines, adequate containers to hold water will be difficult to find. Think heavy duty jugs and/or canteens.

Services may be your best barter asset during troubled times. If you can garden, bake, build things, fix broken things, hunt, fish, cut hair, sew, etc. you’ll attract a steady stream of people willing to barter.

In a hardcore survival situation – where the currency is worthless – bartering is one way of getting your hands on what you need.

You have to have something to barter and it has to be something other people want, though, or you are out of luck.

To learn more about bartering items you should stockpile, check out Practical Survival.