The short version: a 72-hour kit, sized to bridge the gap rather than make you self-sufficient for weeks. Most emergencies that actually affect households — power cuts, storms, floods, evacuation orders — resolve within a few days.

The core kit

Water and food: roughly three litres of water per person per day, and non-perishable food that doesn't need cooking — three days' worth is a reasonable baseline.

Light and power: a torch or headlamp with spare batteries, plus a charged power bank. Power cuts are the most common companion to almost every other emergency.

Documents: copies of ID, insurance policies, and any prescriptions, kept in a waterproof pouch — the originals if you can, photographed backups if you can't.

Cash: small denominations. Card readers and ATMs are often among the first things to fail when the power or network goes down.

Medication: at least a week's supply of anything you take regularly, plus a basic first aid kit — dressings, plasters, pain relief, any allergy medication your household needs.

Communication: a written list of emergency contacts. Don't rely on your phone remembering them for you — a dead phone is the most common failure point in an emergency.

Easy to forget

  • A battery or hand-crank radio, for when both power and wifi are down and you need official updates.
  • Supplies for pets — food, any medication, and a way to transport them if you need to leave.
  • A change of weather-appropriate clothing for each household member.
  • Water purification tablets or a filter straw, if your area has any flood or contamination risk.

Where to keep it

The single most common mistake is where the kit lives. A well-stocked kit at the back of a garage or in a hard-to-reach loft is nearly as useless as no kit at all if you need to leave in five minutes. Keep it somewhere accessible, tell everyone in the household where it is, and check it twice a year — swap out-of-date medication and food, and confirm the torch batteries still work.

The plan matters as much as the kit

A packed bag without a plan only gets you halfway. Agree a family meeting point (one nearby, one further away as a backup), pick an out-of-area contact everyone can reach if local phone lines are jammed, and know your local evacuation routes before you need them. None of this takes long to set up, and all of it turns a stressful, fast-moving situation into a series of steps you've already thought through.