Living in a cardboard box - not as much fun as you might think

Discussion in 'General Survival and Preparedness' started by DKR, Dec 1, 2019.


  1. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    Some time back, another site - Zombie Squad - would sponsor a Mock Bugout Contest. Great fun and they had some cool prizes.

    One winter I entered with a cardboard box shelter.

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    a simple triangle shaped cardboard shelter. . The door was made from the same source box - a fridge box obtained from the local Home Deport for the asking. Duct tape was ordinary - the 3 inch Gorilla tape would have been an expensive upgrade.

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    I made the door so it would almost seal. Friction fit, it had a small gap at the bottom.. The orange container was to avoid late-nite trips outside.

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    I used a 5.5 lb blanket over and a USGI pad under, with a Refectix underpad. Under the shelter was another 3 layers of cardboard. Was comfortable at well below 0F.

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    Me under the blanket. My Alaska rated parka made a nice pillow. Thee was barely room to turn over. Small space = less air to heat.

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    I was dressed in a polypro base layer, a set of felt booties and a wool beenie.

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    I had a UCO candle lantern, but since these only produce (at best) ~80 BTU, it would have taken off the chill, but it isn;t something that will keep you warm - that is the job of the insulation.

    I my 12 part DIY survival kit (A DIY disaster kit. A twelve part series to make your own kit.) I had mentioned living in a cardboard box - this is the box.

    Suitable only for a couple of days, it did keep me warm enough to sleep comfortably,.

    A real shelter was discussed (Building your own evacuee shed/house/home) in another thread.
     
    Last edited: Dec 2, 2019
    GrayGhost, Bandit99, Ura-Ki and 5 others like this.
  2. Oddcaliber

    Oddcaliber Monkey+++

    Interesting concept but even the homeless people around here have tents.
     
  3. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    yeah. I was playing off of the old meme of "Living under the underpass in a cardboard box' of days gone by.
     
    DuxDawg and Oddcaliber like this.
  4. Altoidfishfins

    Altoidfishfins Monkey+++ Site Supporter+

    Actually, in a pinch, it could very well mean the difference between a good night's sleep and hypothermia
     
  5. Ura-Ki

    Ura-Ki Grampa Monkey

    News paper, and discarded papers do make pretty good insulation, especially when lacking other materials!
    We did an improvised shelter drill in Malmo where we basically had access to the city dump and could only use what we had on our person and what was found in the dump! Cardboard was the #1 choice, combined with news papers and the space blankets we all had with us, it was darnright comfy inside our shelters! Temps dropped to around -10 deg that first night and the following nights got colder and colder! All we did was add more news paper on the floor and piled up on top of us! The real trick is to figure out how tiht to wad the papers!
     
    DuxDawg likes this.
  6. DKR

    DKR Raconteur of the first stripe

    When I 'got' to camp out with the Army @ the Mississippi rage, Ft Greeley Ak - we would put down C ration cartons (the cardboard outer case cardboard) as a flooring in the hex tent. Made a huge difference in keeping feet from freezing
     
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