In the aftermath of Super Storm Sandy on the East Coast, 75% of the state of New Jersey was without power and that reality lasted for days, spanning up to more than three weeks.

Those folks could travel somewhere that had power, but what if the outage was more widespread? Could you cope? Here is some advice on how to be prepared for that possibility.

Some electricity free options: printed books and magazines, card games, board games, lawn games (badminton, lawn darts, horse shoes), Pictionary, charades, etc. And believe it or not, people used to sit around and talk to one another, as a form of entertainment. Preppers should have a supply closet of games that can be played if the internet, TV, and power is out. Keep in mind that these outages could last for weeks or months.

Aside from entertainment, low-tech living after the SHTF is going to require big adjustments in how we obtain and prepare food, wash and dry clothes, travel, heat our homes, and obtain work and money. Here’s a cool example of a crank powered washing machine. There are pedal powered models available from other companies. And drying clothing will have to be done by the old-fashioned clothes line. Have you thought about storing clothes line and clothes clips.

For people who live in colder climates, heating your home in the winter is going to be a serious issue. I expect that freezing to death will become one of the more common ways to die, if we ever lose electricity for a lengthy period over a large region. Many houses do not have a single fireplace or woodstove. They have no options for heat without power. You can store some cold weather rated sleeping bags. Adding a wood stove to your house is pricey, and it still cannot heat most of the house. I’m not sure what the best solution is for home heating without power.

Obviously, this is a partial list of things you must consider if you were ever faced with losing your electronic gadgets. Were you faced with that, even simple stuff like cooking food would take on entirely new dimensions.

To get more advice on how to prepare for a low-tech reality, please check out the Prep Blog.