My Story

I’m Michael — a Marine Corps combat veteran, active firefighter, and the founder of Small Space Ready.

I served 4 years in the United States Marine Corps as an Artilleryman, including a combat deployment to Iraq. After the Marines, I transitioned to a career as a firefighter with the City of Vancouver, WA — a job I still do today. Between those two chapters of my life, I’ve spent years training for and responding to real emergencies: the kind that don’t come with warnings, the kind that happen to real people in real places.

Here’s what I kept noticing: most preparedness content is built for people with a garage, a basement, and a plot of land. It assumes you have space to store a year’s worth of food, a generator, and a bug-out vehicle. But that’s not how most Americans actually live. Millions of people rent apartments, share small spaces, and have zero room for a 72-gallon water barrel. The preparedness world had essentially written them off — and that frustrated me.

So I built Small Space Ready to fill that gap.

This isn’t fear-mongering. This isn’t bunker mentality. This is practical, no-nonsense emergency preparedness for apartment dwellers, renters, and anyone living in tight quarters. Real skills. Real gear. Real plans that work in the space you actually have.

My background gave me a different lens on emergency preparedness. In the Marines, you plan for the worst and adapt on the fly. As a firefighter, I’ve responded to the scenarios most people only read about. I’ve seen firsthand what happens when people are caught off guard — and I’ve seen how a little preparation makes an enormous difference.

Small Space Ready is built on one simple idea: you don’t need a bunker. You need a plan. Whether you’re starting from zero or just looking to level up what you already have, I’m here to help you get there — in the space you live in, on the budget you have, with the life you’re actually living.

Prepare. Store. Thrive.