OK, if I’m being honest here, I’ve been trying to put together this emergency preparedness kit for the last few years. If you’re in the same boat, then it’s a little like the blind leading the blind here, but I’ve taken the first step for the both of us now. 🙂 I’ve often started, but then I’d look up a list of what should be in there and I’d just get completely overwhelmed and not really know where to start. I mean there are about a million things that you could put there, right?
At least once a year though, I find myself in a situation where I do wish I had a kit all ready to go. We don’t usually get the kind of horrific storms and natural disasters around here that end up on the evening news, but we do get them predicted for us a lot and you never know when “the big one’s” really going to hit, do you? Most often, the worst that happens is that we lose power for a few hours and we get a few big branches down in the yard, but even then, having a few supplies nearby would be really handy and comforting too.
So what I’ve done is I’ve put together a really simple, straightforward kind of list that you can use to get you started and tailor to your own needs. And it’s cute and you can print it out for free. That helps! For instance instead of saying “You need such-and-such amount of certain specific non-perishable foods”, I just say “food”. You know your area and you know if you’re going to need 72 hours of nourishment while you camp out in a tent or whether you just need a snack while you drive to a relative’s house nearby. Even if your kit is basic, it’s still so much less to worry about in that moment when you realize you need to leave your home to get somewhere safe, or even if the power’s just gone out and you don’t know how long you’ll be in the dark for.
Click here to print it out!
So, I haven’t finished my kit yet, but I’ve started on it. I’m just putting everything together into 2 plastic tubs that can easily be tossed into back packs on the way out of the house, or into the trunk of the car.
I’ve put a note in my day timer to add one things to my kit each day, since I don’t really have time to sit down and do it all at once. It’s working! This is farther along in my kit-making than I’ve ever gotten before!
Keep in mind that where you decide to keep your kit is important too! You want it somewhere that you can access easily when it’s dark and the power is out, not up in the back of a bedroom closet on the third floor! I’m keeping it in a cupboard in our master bedroom, which is right off the living room and easy to get to whenever we need it. If you’re in an area where you often lose power for days at a time, keeping it together with all your camping gear can make your life a lot easier too so you can go straight into survival mode when you need to without too much extra stress.
So that’s all it takes for a little more peace of mind when it comes to Summer storms. What have I been waiting for? Soon I’ll be fully prepared and maybe even a little excited to see how well we do when the first power outage hits this year. Will you be joining me in being prepared?
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.