I have been exploring ways to reclaim yarn and thread from clothing purchased at thrift stores to create new and necessary things like warm sweaters, socks, and the like.

What other odds and ends would be handy to have around, just in case?

I am not really thinking of short term emergency items, but those things that you will need should the situation be a long term or permanent change in the economy or some other civilization altering disaster, BTW.

What items could be collected now, that would be useful later?

Egg cartons, and milk cartons.

Egg cartons are useful for starting seeds for the garden in, and milk cartons are used as miniature greenhouses in spring.

Glass jars are nice to have as containers, and I also recycle food wastes in my compost pile.

Here's a few items that come to me right away...I'm sure there are plenty of others though:

- seeds (shelf life varies)
- rubber bands
- plastic utensils (free from fast food places)
- gallon jugs
- milk crates

I'll keep thinking...

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If it's in your pack, but you don't know how to use it...it's useless. So, always test your skills as a form of preparation...Don't wait until your life depends on it. That's a lesson you don't want to learn the hard way.

Plastic utensils I am split on- they're great in a hurry, but they aren't anything compared to a wooden or metal utensil.

I reuse empty water bottles for storing water.
Pallets are a great thing to keep too, I use them to move firewood around my property (in the garage in the winter). Once you buy an old pallet jack, they are awesome for moving heavy things!