Petroleum Jelly (or Vaseline) is one of the best items to put into your bug-out-bag, bunker, or whatever you use to stockpile. When prepping it is important, to minimize space and get the best value from your investment, to pick items that have multiple uses. Petroleum jelly has lots of uses. It is also inexpensive, easy to find, easy to store and fairly light. As you will see, petroleum jelly is something every prepper should have!
Fire Making
I am sure when you pick up a container of Vaseline you don’t think “fire”, but that is one of its most important uses in a survival situation. Many preppers and survivalists use petroleum jelly and cotton balls to make a formidable fire-starting agent. To do this, you dip the cotton balls in petroleum jelly, and then put them in a Ziploc bag or some type of airtight container. To start a fire with them pile up some small kindling in a teepee shape, put one of the balls in the middle, and light it. It will ignite easily, and burn hot enough to get your fire going reliably. These balls are easy to make, light, compact and very useful when you’re trying to get a fire lit in a hurry!
Protecting the Skin
Petroleum jelly is almost like body armor for your skin if you live in a cold climate. For example, frostbite can take you out of the game real quick in a survival scenario. The best way to prevent it is to wear gloves and a face mask, but it’s very hard to cover all exposed skin – and that’s where Vaseline comes in. Apply a layer of it to any skin that’s exposed to the air, and it will help prevent the cold from causing any damage.
Light Source
Without some source of light you’re going to be in a miserable situation – and you won’t be able to get anything productive done between dusk and dawn. Ways to produce light are a priority for preppers, but if you’re really stuck petroleum jelly can help you out. Petroleum jelly is a great fuel for improvized oil lamps. All you need is the jelly, a cotton ball and a small dish. Just scoop some jelly on the dish. Then take the cotton ball and twist it into a wick. Next, coat the twisted cotton ball in petroleum jelly and place it in the dish. Light the top and it will burn till all the jelly is gone.
First Aid Item
Keeping healthy is important, and this jelly even has a use for that. Petroleum jelly is great for chapped skin. For your hands and feet it is best to apply it to the skin and then put gloves and socks on. When you take the gloves and socks off the skin should be much softer and less cracked. If you get a cut, apply the jelly on top of the cut. This helps the wound heal faster by keeping the moisture in your skin and not allowing anything harmful to get into the cut. On the other hand, don’t use it on burns, as it can cause infection.
Shave
Stockpiling a shaver is not a number one on everybody’s list, but you probably want to have one as both men and women shave. The reason it may not even be on your list is because shaving needs water, and that can be a scarce resource when the SHTF. The good news is that petroleum jelly can take away the need for water when shaving. Just apply some jelly to where you need to shave; it will lubricate the skin and blade, letting you shave smoothly. When you’re done just wipe the remaining jelly off with a cloth. As a bonus it should keep the skin soft and the moisture in. If you shave with water, petroleum jelly can be used afterwards to ease any irritation you may get.
Restoration
Vaseline can also help restore old leather. Leather does get cracked after a while, and you don’t want that if it’s something important – the sheath for your trusty knife, for example. To restore ageing leather all you have to do is apply a layer of petroleum jelly to the leather and it will soften. The jelly also adds a waterproof finish.
Candle Holders
Candles are another item that pretty much all preppers stockpile. People need a source of light and to go along with that, candles need candle holders. Petroleum jelly is perfect for candle holders by applying a layer onto the candle holder, before you put the candle in it. That way when the candle melts the wax shouldn’t be as hard to get off.
Mechanics
For zippers, locks, and keys petroleum jelly is great for fixing any minor malfunctions. For zippers just smear some on the teeth and it will zip up freely. For keys and locks, rub some Vaseline on the key and put the key in the lock. This should loosen up sticky pins.
Insects
Insects can drive you crazy, eat your food, and give you bites. To avoid this use petroleum jelly on hard surfaces to keep bugs from getting to whatever you don’t want them to get into. You can also make fly tape with it; just smear a thin layer on a strip of paper and hang it up. The flies will get stuck to the Vaseline.
Walking Long Distances
Chafing is an annoyance and can be very painful! Nobody likes it, but it can be eased with petroleum jelly. Apply some to where the rubbing is occurring and you should be good to go. It works on feet as well as where your pants are rubbing your thighs raw. Walking may be a part of your survival plan, so it would be a good idea to stick some petroleum jelly in your bug-out-bag if you plan on making a journey on foot.
For one item, this product has lots of uses. This is what you should be looking for in all the items you stockpile as it will allow more room to pack other more important items. Petroleum jelly has so many capabilities ; every prepper and survivalist should have a good supply on hand!
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It is also excellent for any type of diaper rash when mixed with pepto bismol into a paste. Can be stored in a baggy or small bowl with a lid. Heals the rash between changes and won’t burn your babies skin.
Never heard of that combo, both are magic otc remedies, cheap and effective, I never go off grid w/o having both with me. Opium is the treatment of choice for dysentery but Pepto is great, too, also state of the art for any kind of nausea. Gonna try the Vaseline/Pepto mix next time I get monkey butt…
The old standby for diarrhea in the service was B&P mixture which was bismuth and paregoric. Paregoric, of course, is derived from opium. The bismuth is the “bismul in the Pepto-Bismul. I would think the “Pepto” is some derivative of pepcid which is a digestive calmer.
Also works on rusty tools. To keep from rusting or toget rust off.
In addition, it can take the place of lubriplate as a gun lubricant in the M-1.
My Grandfather served in WWI in Europe. At that time one of the leading causes of death was…your feet rotting off because of constant cold, stagnate water in the trenches. Blood Poisoning was rampant and Sulfur Drugs were invented in 1935. Grandy credited his father for saving his feet and life by giving him that large jar of Petroleum Jelly.
Not to be hypercritical, but it is sulfa drugs, not sulfur. Sulfanilamide was an early antibiotic that save many lives in WWII. I was treated with it for a strep throat in ’43 or ’44.
As recently as last year, I contracted a mersa infection as a result of an insect bite and that infection was treated by sulfanilamide or the old fashioned sulfa antibiotic. I was greatly surprised but the doctor said it was the only antibiotic that worked against a mersa infection.
You are quite correct that trench foot or immersion foot was a great crippler of the forces compelled to spend long hours standing in just above freezing water in trenches. If the allied forces had said, “Okay, let’s pick out the worst place in Flanders to put our fortifications, they would have chosen the places that were selected. The water table at that time in Flanders was just below the surface of the ground, so just digging down a few inches struck water.
The only good point about it was that many times a shell didn’t explode because the ground was so mushy. Of course, the downside meant that there were a lot on unexploded shells scattered all over waiting to be hit with a pick point or a shovel blade to be set off.
Immersion foot again reared its ugly head in Viet Nam when troops spent long period in the bush with no way to change to dry socks. They called it jungle rot but it was just as debilitating.
If your going to be picky about spelling, “Mersa” is MRSA- it’s an acronym for methicillin resistant staph aureus.
Quiet squeaky hinges. Bear grease was once used to take braided hair. Today petroleum jelly will do it. Relieve mild itcheing. Hold moisture in your skin is very dry climate. I’m sure there must be a hundred or more uses.
Thank you for sharing this valuable information.
Use WD-40 instead of any gooey stuff on keys.
Otherwise good article.
It isn’t easy to find but petroleum jelly is available in tubes with a screw top lid for survival or first aid kits where you want to avoid any mess from leakage.
Past experience is that a little petroleum jelly goes a long way when it leaks.
I saw small tubes on eBay some time ago & bought a pile of them for my emergency kits. I can’t see them ever going out of date unlike many other items.