What is Prepper’s rule of 3 and why is it so important?

You will often hear preppers and survivors talk about the “Rule of Three” and you may be a little confused, because there is actually more than one “Rule of Three” out there. And while both were originally designed to help a person out in the wild, they can also be very useful for urban dwellers these days who will never venture into the woods.

Let’s take a look at what setups and survivors are talking about and see why whatever “Rule of Three” you’re talking about is so critical to survival in a SHTF (Sewage Hits The Fan) scenario.

Rule of Three – Outdoor Survival

This “Rule of Three” helps you stay focused on your survival priorities in an outdoor life-or-death situation. The rule states that you can live 3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, 3 hours without shelter (in a hypothermic environment), and 3 minutes without oxygen.

Restoring this rule if you find yourself stuck somewhere will help you get your priorities straight. The funny and tragic thing about survival in the wild is that people often become obsessed with food and don’t realize that without shelter they won’t make it through the night if it gets too cold.

So if you’re lost in the woods, food is the last thing you should be worrying about. However, many times, men who are city dwellers or ‘macho types’ decide to sharpen a stick or, like Rambo, attach their knife to a long cane and go “hunting” instead of going out to make a shelter.

How does this apply to city dwellers? Well, if you’re preparing for a power outage, then preserving the contents of your fridge may not be as big of a priority as ensuring the family can stay warm on sub-zero nights.

Rule of Three – Duplicate

Said to come from Native American wisdom, this “Rule of Three” says that if something is critical to survival, then you must have three ways to ensure you have that base covered.

If you are talking about starting a fire in the desert, then you should have, for example, a lighter, a “Boy Scout Match” (or ferrocerium rod), and some matches as well. This way, if one fire starting method fails, you have two more to fall back on.

This “Rule of Threes” goes on to say that if you have three, then you know you can count on two; if you have two, you know you can count on one; but if you have one, you really have nothing at worst.

Both of these “Rules of Three” are very true and can save your life. The main thing is that you learn these rules, play out scenarios in your mind and decide in advance what you will do when faced with a crisis.

The crisis you face may be in the desert or it could be during a major power outage like the one the East Coast experienced with Hurricane Katrina or the Northeast experienced with the 2003 power outage. In each case, millions of people were unexpectedly shocked out of power. For several days.