30 Basic Skills You'll Have To Learn After The Collapse (2024)

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

The modern world has brought with it a wide range of conveniences that have made life much easier for those fortunate enough to live in a wealthy country. However, these conveniences also mean that a majority of people have forgotten skills that were once basic necessities for survival.

Now, in the event of a major collapse, there are a number of skills that most people will need to relearn in order to survive. If you would like to get a head start on mastering the skills you will need to know following a major disaster, check out these basic skills that most people will be forced to learn after the collapse.

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1. Animal Husbandry

Growing a garden is a great way to put food on the table, but if you want more than a vegan diet, then animal husbandry is a skill that you will need to know.

2. Bartering

In a world of cash and credit cards, bartering has become a mostly forgotten skill. There was a time, though, when most all goods were purchased through bartering – and we may very well return to that time in the event of a major collapse.

Related:Bartering 101 – hat to do When Money Has No Meaning

3. Butchering

Raising an animal such as a goat or a steer to maturity won’t do you any good if you don’t know how to butcher an animal. Likewise, hunting for game such as deer also won’t put any food on the table unless you are able to process your kill.

Before you go out and purchase livestock that you intend to eat or take to the woods on a hunting trip, make sure you know how to butcher an animal.

4. Candle Making

Life without electricity presents a wide range of challenges, and one of those challenges is lighting your home. While there are a number of ways to light a home without relying on electric power, putting up candles is one of the most effective and most convenient methods.

Also, if you know how to make your own candles you can keep your home lit for as long as you have candle-making supplies available.

Related: How To Make A Candle That Lasts 100 Hours

5. Canning

Knowing how to garden will take you a long way when it comes to keeping food on the table. However, most garden vegetables are only harvested during specific seasons and will only last for a matter of days unrefrigerated.

If you want to ensure that you have a supply of food that will last year-round, knowing how to can the vegetables you harvest is essential.

6. Carpentry and Shelter Building

Being able to construct and repair shelters using natural or scavenged materials is critical for protection from the elements. Skills include understanding structural integrity, insulation techniques, and using hand tools to build or repair homes.

7. Communication Without Technology

In the absence of modern communication tools, alternative methods become crucial. Learning skills such as signaling with mirrors, smoke, or Morse code, and using radios for long-distance communication without relying on the internet or cell service.

8. Community Building and Leadership

Survival often depends on community strength. Skills in conflict resolution, organization, and leadership can help rebuild social structures and create cooperative systems for resource sharing, defense, and mutual support in post-collapse societies.

9. Fire Starting

In almost every disaster scenario, knowing how to start a fire is one of the most important skills you can have.

If you want to ensure that you are able to stay warm, cook food, and more when the electricity goes out, fire starting is definitely a skill that you should learn.

10. First Aid

When going to a hospital or clinic isn’t an option, even minor injuries can become life-threatening. Thankfully, most complications due to injury can be prevented using basic first aid skills.

In a post-collapse scenario, first aid is undoubtedly one of the most important skills to know if you want to survive in a world that is full of injury risks.

Related: 9 Most Important First Aid Skills To Learn

11. Fishing

Like hunting, fishing enables you to put fresh meat on the table at a time when purchasing meat from the store is no longer an option.

Best of all, it’s easier in most cases to have success fishing than it is to have success hunting, especially if you have access to a pond, lake, or river that is stocked with fish.

12. Food Preservation

Beyond canning, there are numerous ways to preserve food, including drying, smoking, fermenting, and salting. Mastering these methods can diversify your food storage and extend the shelf life of harvests without reliance on electricity.

13. Foraging

There’s plenty of food to be found in the wilderness providing you know what to look for. Thankfully, foraging is a relatively easy skill to learn. To become a successful forager, you will need to know what plants are edible in your area, where to find them, and how to identify them.

Armed with this knowledge, you should be able to locate a worthwhile amount of food no matter where you might be located.

14. Gardening

Putting food on the table is by far the most concerning challenge that goes along with surviving a major collapse.

If you are able to grow a garden, though, you can ensure that you and your family are fed long after the last supermarket has closed its doors.

Related: Urban Survival Gardening: A Guide for Beginners

15. Herbal Medicine

With limited access to pharmaceuticals, understanding the medicinal properties of plants becomes vital. This skill encompasses identifying beneficial herbs, preparing natural remedies, and knowing their applications for treating common ailments and injuries.

16. Home Maintenance

When things break down around the home and you aren’t able to call for professional help, home maintenance skills such as plumbing, electrical wiring, carpentry, and more will be very valuable.

17. Hunting

If you live in the right area, hunting is a skill that can enable you to put fresh meat on your table at a time when fresh meat is a rare and precious commodity.

There’s a lot that goes into being an effective hunter, though, and many of the skills necessary to bag large game can take years to master. With that said, hunting is a skill that you should start practicing sooner rather than later.

18. Making Butter

Butter is an essential ingredient in a wide range of recipes. It’s also something that people used to make for themselves back in the days when purchasing butter from the store wasn’t an option.

Of course, you’ll need fresh milk (and therefore a milk cow) if you want to make butter. If you do have access to fresh milk following a major disaster, knowing how to make your own butter will bring a lot of meals back onto the menu.

19. Making Soap

In addition to keeping your clothes clean, keeping yourself clean will also be much more challenging after a major collapse as well the minute your soap supply runs out.

Thankfully, soap isn’t a difficult product to make, and it’s something that almost everyone knew how to make for themselves back before the days of store-bought soap.

Related: How to Make Soap From Fat and Ashes

20. Natural Camouflage and Stealth Techniques

In a world where resources are scarce, the ability to move unseen and protect your location can be life-saving. Learning how to use natural materials for camouflage, moving silently, and avoiding detection can be crucial for safety and hunting.

21. Navigation

In a world where almost everyone has access to GPS navigation at all times, navigating the old-fashioned way has become a forgotten skill. But in the event of a major collapse, cell phone service is almost certainly going to be one of the first things to go.

Unless you plan to stay in one location the entire time, knowing how to navigate without using a GPS will be an essential skill. Purchasing some maps and planning your bug out routes is a great place to start. Learning how to navigate in the wilderness using the stars and physical landmarks is also a valuable skill to know.

22. Renewable Energy Harnessing

As traditional energy sources become unavailable, the ability to harness renewable energy can provide essential power. Skills in building and maintaining wind turbines or water wheels can ensure access to electricity for basic needs.

23. Seed Harvesting

If you’ve stockpiled seeds, growing your first garden shouldn’t be an insurmountable challenge. Once you’ve run out of seeds, growing another garden the following year becomes much more difficult.

Unless you are certain that you have enough seeds set aside to keep growing food for as long as necessary, learning how to harvest and store seeds from the vegetables you’ve planted is very important.

24. Sewing

When replacing torn clothing with brand-new clothing is no longer an option, sewing will be an invaluable skill to possess. Since electricity isn’t a given after a collapse, learning how to sew by hand is your best bet.

Related: Needle & Thread – Sewing 101

25. Tanning

Fresh meat may be your primary reason for raising animals such as cows and goats after a major collapse, but there’s no sense in wasting the skin you have leftover when it can be turned into clothing, tents, and more.

If you learn how to tan hide, you can put animal skin to use for a wide range of purposes.

26. Vehicle Maintenance

If you’ve stockpiled enough fuel, your vehicles will continue to be a very valuable resource following a major disaster.

Unless you know how to maintain a vehicle without relying on a mechanic, though, you won’t be able to rely on your vehicles for very long.

27. Washing Clothes by Hand

Laundry machines have turned a once-tedious task into something that no requires little effort at all. Without the convenience of electricity, though, you’ll need to learn how to properly wash clothes by hand if you want to ensure that you and your family have clean clothes to wear.

Related:How To Wash Your Clothes Without a Washing Machine

28. Water Filtration and Purification

Clean drinking water is a cornerstone of survival. Knowing how to filter and purify water using natural or improvised methods ensures access to safe drinking water when traditional systems fail. Techniques might include boiling, using sand and charcoal filters, or solar distillation.

29. Welding

Being able to weld enables you to repair a wide range of metal products as well as make new parts and products using scrap metal.

Of course, welding requires electrical power in addition to a number of supplies, so you will likely need a quality generator if you want to ensure that you are able to weld, regardless of whether or not the power has gone out.

30. Well Drilling

After a major disaster or societal collapse, tap water may no longer be available. Of course, water is by far the most essential ingredient for survival.

While you may be able to gather and purify water from a nearby stream, digging a well will be a much better long-term solution. Well-drilling is a skill that most people used to know, and it’s one that could become very important again should there come a day tap water is no longer available.

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