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How To Open a Can: Sunday Skill

December 2, 2012 By Prepared Mom

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Today’s Sunday skill is teaching your kids how to open a can with a mechanical can opener. This is another one of those tools where most of us are so used to popping out the electrical can opener that if we have a mechanical one, it is likely buried in the back of your drawer and your kids have no idea what it is. It won’t do much good for you to have a stocked panty if your family cannot get the cans open! Every household should have a minimum of two manual can openers (in case one breaks). I personally have 3 of the ones below and numerous bottle opener types that would just do a V-shaped puncture open. You can pick can openers up super cheap if you keep your eye out for them. IKEA is actually one of my favorite places for picking tools like this up for $1 or $2. They are also commonly found at Goodwill Stores and garage sales for 50 cents.

Manual Can Opener

how to open a can with a manual can opener

I’m going to assume here that most parents are capable of showing their kids how to use one of these but here are instructions with pictures in case you need a refresher course.

 How To Open a Can WITHOUT a Can Opener

But what if you need to open a can and you cannot find a manual can opener? This is a super neat trick I stumbled upon that is a great Sunday Skill for us adults:

 

If you don’t have a knife, rub it a bit more and you can likely get your fingernail under the lid to pry it open.

How To Open a Bottle of Wine With Your Shoe

And as an added bonus….this is a fun little video on how to open a bottle of wine with your shoe. I haven’t tried it but I can think of a few times I would have been desperate enough to!

 

 

Looking for more easy ideas? This link to prepping for kids should help! Is there another skill you would like me to cover? Let me know in the comments! Have a great week.

*I’d like to thank the folks at www.survivalistboards.com for pointing out the two videos I included here.

Filed Under: Survival Tips and Tricks Tagged With: bottle opener, can opener, how to, prepping for kids, sunday skills, youtube video

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. kim lazor says

    December 6, 2012 at 12:26 am

    I am so excited to have stumbled upon your site! I have learned so much after reading only a few of your posts, and watching one of your videos. I am encouraged to learn more, and be prepared “just in case”. I do not like the term “zombie”, in any way, shape, or form. However, I now have a better understanding of the term as it relates to families that are unprepared for a disaster scenario. As a christian, I truly believe that God will supply all of our needs and be with us through anything. I also believe that He gives us a “wise mind” to use in this life, and wisdom when we ask Him for it. My wise mind agrees with your philosophy of being prepared. I can’t see myself behaving like those preppers on that TV show…yes, I have watched it with great interest on several occasions. I don’t have the funds to do all that stuff that they show. Yours seems like a much more practical, and logical approach to preparedness. I do already use coupons, and shop the sales. I have learned a little about “stockpiling” items when they are on sale. I have wondered how I would prepare for a disaster…where would I put this stockpile? I have thought more seriously about trying to grow my own garden again, which I used to do years ago, before I became disabled. This yearning for my own organic food source, stems from reading and educating myself on the GMO food they forcing down our throats-literally, in my humble opinion. (At least until they have the decency to label it, so we can decide whether or not we want to eat it.)
    I have signed up for your emails, and bookmarked this site. I have liked, pinned, and shared on my FB page, what I happened upon this evening. Great site! Wonderful survival skills, that I look forward to learning more about. My Eagle scout son, who is now 19 yrs old, and a recent US Air Force tech school graduate, will be proud of me for finally, learning some of these survival skills. Thank you so much! Happy Holidays. 🙂

    • Prepared Mom says

      December 6, 2012 at 4:08 am

      I am so glad the site is helping you! You’re comment meant a lot to me. Thank you so much for taking the time to let me know.

      There are a lot of prepper words I don’t like too.

      I think the good thing about Doomsday Preppers is that it has a lot of people talking. The bad thing is that they make it so sensational. It makes being a “prepper” embarrassing. I find myself screaming back at the TV this year with stuff like…”you know that makes NO sense right?” I can’t watch it anymore. I am a big believer in practical prepping and adopting it, just like couponing, into your everyday life. It’s interesting how once you start to think about issues that could arise, a lot of solutions come to mind. That’s what it is all about 🙂 have a great day!

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