One of the biggest struggles when I was in the military was “how do you prep when you are constantly moving and are limited by weight?”  While it is easier for a homesteading family to store many years-worth of food and other supplies, it is harder to do that when you know you will have to move to an unknown location every 2-3 years.  Additionally, because you don’t know where you will be heading, you can’t always take everything with you.  Do you have lots of guns and ammo?  Some overseas locations don’t allow it.  Plus, even if they do, you may have to secure additional shipping fees or use a different company altogether since ammo would be considered a hazardous material, and they don’t like to ship those in metal storage containers.  If you’re anything like me, you’re not going to give up your guns.  So below are some strategies one could use to continue prepping between assignments:

1.)	Use up as much of your stored food stuffs as possible in the 5-6 months ahead of your move.  Not only will you save money by not having to buy groceries, but you’ll minimize the amount of spoilage that might occur within a hot, confined shipping container.

2.)	Pass off some supplies to trusted friend or family members for safe keeping.  This is a bonus if the person is already a prepper.  Remember the guns and ammo mentioned previously, this easily fits into this category.  Have lots of precious metals that you don’t trust a company to move?  This is also a good option for PMs.  This would be difficult to accomplish if your trusted party is also in the military.  The best option is to store with someone you know won’t be moving any time soon.

3.)	Rent a storage locker for the time you are away.  This is a good option if you are heading overseas, but if you are moving across CONUS you might just consider…

4.)	Complete a DITY (Do-It-Yourself) move.  Rent your own truck and drive to your new location yourself.  This is the more labor intensive option.  Similarly, just separate the more questionable items and move them in your family vehicles as you travel.  

5.)	Have a yard sale…or a bunch of them.  This is really just a way to get rid of excess weight from things you aren’t going to use again.  I personally won’t be planning to sell any of my prepping materials, but I have a few closets worth of clothes that I could probably part with to add a few extra hundred pounds to what I can allot to my preps.  Donate whatever you can't sell and don't need to a local Salvation Army or other non-profit.

6.)	Doing a DITY (Do-It-Yourself) move but don’t want to rent a truck?  Consider renting a POD.  You’ll have a lot of time to gradually pack it, and they can move it to your final destination...this is the best of both options 3 and 4.
<center>![PODS.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmTPKTZEg2visGGos6qDHMt966xynEA6s5wEDuiH1HKXJz/PODS.jpg)
Image Source: sparefoot.com</center>

7.)	Do you already have a homestead or bug-out location?  A place that you don’t plan to rent while you are away?  It would be easy to preposition any preps at that location.

8.)	Set-up “supply caches” along a chosen route towards your permanent bug-out location.  This is more risky, in my opinion, but if your planned or potential route of travel takes you along state or federal lands, it could be easy to bury some supplies in weather-proof buckets.  Just ensure you take down the GPS coordinates or mark on a map where you bury the caches.  I would also take a picture of the spot.

9.)	Get rid of your hard-back books and switch to primarily eBooks.  This is an option if you have a sprawling library.  I wouldn’t recommend this for the books you might want to reference in a grid-down scenario, but for all others, if you just HAVE to have them, put them on a kindle.

10.)  Get rid of the DVDs…sell them or give them away.  Sign up for an online show/movie service such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. Or you can convert them all to digital copied and keep them on a hard drive.

11.)  Ditch the beds!  You don’t REALLY need that fancy headboard and bed rails, do you?  A mattress feels better on the ground anyway, right?  (I say this somewhat sarcastically because I know it is kind of extreme)
<center>![floorbed.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmRHSbzx1amfYjgxDve4QcmJZ4gPuBkNH5YkGGFS6HhGv7/floorbed.jpg) 
Image Source: lushome.com</center>

12.)  Start focusing more on dehydrated foods and start veering away from canned goods.  You’ll save a lot of weight just by avoiding tin cans and glass jars.

13.)	  Sell the weight bench and dumbbells.  You can purchase that stuff when you are retired in place…for now, use the base gym.  This also goes for treadmills, ellipticals, and other fitness equipment.

14.)  Store as many preps as you can in plastic 5-gallon buckets.  Grains and other food staples are a given, but consider picking up some buckets for your other preps, like medical supplies, batteries, or barter items.  This way they are easier to transport and will all be in a centralized place.  Food grade buckets can often be found for cheap or for free in the bakery section of your local supermarket.

15.)  Look for ways to cut down on your belongings by only purchasing items that can serve multiple functions.  Additionally, some furniture can be replaced entirely.  For example, I created a few nightstands by tipping a rectangular box on its side, putting a piece of plywood on the top and covering it with a tablecloth.  Nobody had any idea it was just a cardboard box.
<center>![giant-swiss-army-knife-6181.jpg](https://steemitimages.com/DQmP58vKQiLCfBU7okMVRWoLFdjzBXNhN3JiU9mTUwHknzh/giant-swiss-army-knife-6181.jpg)
Image Source: masterofwarcraft.com</center>

In essence, there is no limit on how you can start minimizing your household good (HHG) weight.  With a little planning and a lot of hard prioritization, you can free up multiple thousands of pounds in weight.  Have other ideas?  Comment below!