One thing I learned when I went to Croatia to take Selco's Urban Survival Course for Women years ago was that how you pack your bag matters. (He wrote about it here.) Taking that a step further, it also matters where you keep your preps in your home.

When Selco explains how to carry your gear, he talks about layers. Your first layer, he says, should be on your body so that you have immediate access to it no matter what. You can lose a bag, you can be away from your car or cache, but the stuff on your body is immediately at hand. This might include carrying a knife around your neck, some urgent first aid supplies in your cargo pants pocket (such as a compression bandage), a lighter in another pocket, a portable water filter in a waist bag, and a firearm in a holster at your waist. For ladies, you might have some of these items in a cross-body style purse. Then you have things you might urgently need to survive close at hand.

I believe the same thing holds true for supplies in my house. Here are a few suggestions about where you might keep your preps at home.

Layers count at home, too.

What are the things you might need most urgently when you're at home? I'm talking fast access, not climbing up to the attic or digging through an overstuffed closet. This first layer for the home is similar to the first layer on the body that Selco described.

Where you keep your preps could mean the difference between seconds and minutes in an emergency. I want access immediately to the following items:

• Flashlights

• Urgent trauma care first aid supplies like pressure bandages, tourniquets, and EpiPens

• Packed bug-out bag

• Important documents

• Weapons

Nearly anything else can wait until I dig it out, but these things could be needed urgently. So, where can you keep your preps so they're easily accessible but not blatantly screaming that you're stocked to the rafters?