The second-wave preppers: are you ready for another lockdown?

We all hoped it wouldn’t happen, but as Melbourne enters ‘stage four’ lockdown again, and with local restriction zones being enforced across the UK, the potential battening down of hatches 2.0 is looking like an increasingly strong possibility. Enter the second lockdown preppers who, having found months of confinement a significant challenge, are planning to make significant changes should second wave revisions be imposed. Forget musing over which brand of loo paper or bread flour to stockpile; this time, the stakes are higher.

Government ministers are already drawing up hasty contingency documents for Lockdown 2: This Time it’s Winter - and charities are planning for disaster, mindful of the lessons learned. Helen Moulinos, Chief Executive at POhWER - the largest advocacy charity in the UK, which provides support to vulnerable people - has seen “an unprecedented volume of people coming to us during lockdown.” Last year, they saw 55,000 people across 12 months; “in lockdown, we saw 22,000 over three months, with fears over housing, healthcare, food and medication” being the key drivers. This time around, she adds, “we have a much better idea of the level of demand and what people will need.”

With clear warning, it’s certainly easier to prep. But tinned fish is out, mental health is in; having finally got the message that if we all buy sensibly, we’ll be OK for spaghetti, the greater issue is sowing the seeds for staying cheerful in isolation - particularly in winter.

For Dr Aishah Iqbal, 28, from Leicester, “the past few months have taken their toll,” she says. And so the paediatric doctor and personal trainer is prepping for a second lockdown, should it come, by “making sure I get my mental health into a stronger place.” NHS rota changes alongside feeling cut off from normal activities like going to the gym and socialising, were particularly hard to handle; “While I can, I’m getting out to see friends and family, and taking regular breaks. I’m also rearranging my house so the interior is as nice as possible.”

In a time of greater than ever familiarity with one’s own four walls, making them - and the locale immediately beyond - attractive is of utmost importance, says Katie Beardsworth, a classical music agent at Polyphony Arts. She and her husband had long considered moving from their home in Hull to a more rural, picturesque spot, but had never managed to take the plunge: lockdown, which they spent cooped inside a three-bed terraced house with their three-year-old son, focused their minds on the importance of open space and sea air.

Earlier this month they packed their belongings and moved to North Shields, where they now live just a three-minute walk from the beach (so far, they have been every day and Beardsworth, 34, has even taken a few dips in the North Sea). “I absolutely love living near the beach, it’s a way to de-stress and enjoy the environment,” she says, adding that the move has been “really life-changing.” Another difficult part of lockdown was being two-and-a-half hours away from her 81-year-old father, who lives alone and had relied on neighbours for food deliveries. Now, she has arranged for him to move in down the road.

“Something just clicked and I thought, If this happens again, it’s so much easier for us to be there for each other if we’re on the same street. If we go into a second lockdown we’ll be able to do his shopping for him, and we might be able to see each other outside, depending on the rules. It’ll be so much easier for us to get that social interaction.”

Family arrangements have, for many, entirely defined this first lockdown - and parenting when schools and activity clubs are closed needs a rethink should a second one come, says mother-of-two Zoe Blaskey. The founder of Motherkind, a self-empowerment platform for mums, explains that “my business is supporting parents, so lockdown was very busy. Our biggest challenge was supporting our eldest [Jessie, 4] emotionally - her world was turned upside down.” Now, Zoe, 37, says, she has spent time working out what to do differently. “I’ll be working less. On reflection, during the first lockdown, I worked more than perhaps was best for my family. So this time, I’ll be taking my own advice and having stronger boundaries.”

She isn’t alone, she adds:  “a recent study we did revealed that 87 per cent of parents are worried about their children’s emotional health at the moment, so I think the most important issue is how to support them. There are specific techniques grounded in neuroscience that help children process change and handle disappointments,” she explains. “I would encourage all parents to learn these skills now so we’re ready.”

Unsurprisingly, most parents dread schools closing once more - a prospect being floated again in light of scientists warning that the test and trace mechanisms currently in place could put next month’s re-opening in doubt. Should that happen, Rachel Beech has a cunning plan. “I home schooled my son during lockdown and trying to juggle work at the same time was a challenge,” she admits. Rachel runs an app which allows parents to share childcare within a trusted network; it “was developed to solve the school run,” she explains, “but lockdown presented a very similar issue of juggling work and childcare. If you have a bubble of 3-4 children who are being assigned the same work, taking some time to supervise all of them would be worth it when the other parents reciprocate and you can catch up on your own work.”

There are other challenges, of course, for those not forced to contend with staying on top of their work, but trying to shape their day-to-day lives in its absence. Hannah O’Donoghue Hobbs, who lives in Stockport, was “absolutely floored in the first few weeks of lockdown” after being furloughed. “In normal life” she worked four days a week but without the rigours of her marketing job at Tilly, Hobbs & Co, a baby company, “it hit me hard to have no structure to my day and to be faced with such uncertainty - I really struggled.”

While she dreads a second lockdown, she and her husband will move in “with my mum who lives nearby, despite the probability of driving each other mad... We’ll have more space and it might make it more exciting to be in a different place, with new walks and other people to talk to.

“All the same, I’m hoping it doesn’t become a reality.”

• Read more: The psychology of panic buying