Building an Emergency Kit

Everything your household needs for 72 hours in one place

5 minBeginnerUpdated 2026-10-23 Building an Emergency Kit

You will learn

Assemble a 72-hour home kit from a clear checklist
Pack a small grab bag for leaving in a hurry
Keep the kit useful with a simple rotation habit

⚠️ Store fuel, gas canisters and candles safely away from the kit and out of living areas; a fire during an outage is worse than the outage.

⚠️ If you are in immediate danger, contact local emergency services first. The kit is for after the call.

Why 72 hours

After a major storm, flood, earthquake or long power cut, it commonly takes emergency services and utilities up to three days to reach every home and restore basic supplies. A kit that lets your household manage for 72 hours without shops, tap water or electricity turns a frightening event into an inconvenience. Building one is not about expecting disaster; it is the same logic as a spare tyre. Most items are things you already own, gathered into one place so you are not hunting for a torch in the dark. Start with the basics this week and improve the kit over time.

The core kit

Water: 4 litres per person per day for three days. Food: ready-to-eat items needing no cooking or refrigeration, such as canned fish and beans, nut butter, crackers, dried fruit and energy bars, plus a manual can opener. Light: an LED head torch per person and spare batteries, or hand-crank and solar lights. Information: a battery or wind-up radio for official broadcasts. Power: a charged power bank of at least 10,000 mAh and cables. Warmth: blankets, foil blankets and a change of warm clothes. Hygiene: toilet paper, bin bags, wet wipes, hand sanitiser, soap, sanitary products. Tools: multi-tool, duct tape, work gloves, whistle and a lighter or matches.

💡 Store it in a plastic tub or backpack in the same cupboard as your shoes, so you can find it blindfolded.

First aid and medicines

Buy a ready-made first aid kit and add to it: plasters in several sizes, sterile dressings, a triangular bandage, adhesive tape, scissors, tweezers, disposable gloves, antiseptic wipes, painkillers, antihistamines, rehydration salts and a digital thermometer. The most important addition is a two-week supply of any prescription medicines your household uses, rotated so they do not expire, along with a printed list of doses, allergies and conditions. Add glasses, hearing aid batteries, and baby or pet supplies as needed. Keep a small first aid guide in the box; in a stressful moment, a printed page beats memory.

Documents and cash

Card machines and ATMs stop working when the power or network fails, so keep enough cash in small notes for a few days of food, fuel and transport. Put copies of passports, identity cards, insurance policies, prescriptions and key phone numbers in a sealed waterproof bag, and store the same as encrypted files on your phone or a USB stick. Write down family contacts and an out-of-area relative who can be a message relay, because local lines are the first to jam. Include a paper map of your region with evacuation routes marked, and a photo of each family member and pet in case you are separated.

💡 Keep a spare house and car key in the kit. Locked out during an emergency is a real problem.

Grab bag and rotation

Alongside the home kit, pack a smaller grab bag you could carry while walking for an hour: 1 litre of water, snacks, head torch, power bank, foil blanket, whistle, basic first aid, medicines, documents copy, cash, a warm layer and a rain jacket. Keep one by the door and a smaller version in the car. Twice a year, when the clocks change, open both kits: eat and replace food near its date, rotate water and medicines, charge power banks, test torches and radios, and update documents and children's clothing sizes. A kit that has not been checked for three years is a box of surprises.

Check yourself

How long should a home emergency kit support your household?

Utilities and emergency services commonly take up to three days to restore basics after a major event.

Why keep cash in the kit?

Electronic payments depend on power and connectivity; small notes let you buy food and fuel when both are down.

How much prescription medicine should be in the kit?

Two weeks covers most disruptions to pharmacies and deliveries; rotating it keeps it within date.

When is a good routine time to check and rotate the kit?

Clock changes are an easy twice-yearly reminder to rotate food, water, medicines and batteries.

Try it for real: Build your kit this week

Gather everything from the core list that you already own into one tub or bag
Write a shopping list of what is missing and buy the water, food and a head torch first
Copy key documents into a waterproof bag and add cash in small notes
Set two yearly phone reminders on clock-change weekends to check the kit