How much to pack
A common rule is enough for each person for three days. Keep it light enough to carry: a backpack each, rather than one heavy bag nobody can lift.
The checklist
- ✓Water, and food that keeps and needs no cooking.
- ✓A torch, spare batteries, and a battery or hand-crank radio.
- ✓A first aid kit, and a week of each person's regular medicines if you can.
- ✓Copies of important documents in a waterproof bag, and your emergency contacts on paper.
- ✓Some cash in small notes, because card machines need power.
- ✓A phone charger and a charged power bank.
- ✓A change of clothes, sturdy shoes, a warm layer and rain protection.
- ✓Basic hygiene items, and anything needed for babies or older relatives.
- ✓Glasses or contact lenses, and spare hearing aid batteries if needed.
- ✓A whistle, a dust mask, and a paper map of your area.
- ✓For pets: food, water, a lead or carrier, and their records.
Pack for the person, not the list
- ✓Babies and children: nappies, formula or food they will actually eat, a comfort toy, and a card in their bag with your name and phone number.
- ✓Older relatives: a written list of medicines and doses, spare glasses, walking aids, and the details of their doctor.
- ✓Anyone on regular medicine: ask a pharmacist how best to keep a small spare supply, and note when it expires.
- ✓Pets: a recent photo of each pet with you, in case you are separated.
The mistakes that make a go bag useless
- ✓It is too heavy to carry for long. Pack it, then walk around the block with it.
- ✓The food and water expired a year ago.
- ✓Every phone number is only in a phone.
- ✓There is no cash, and the card machines are down.
- ✓It is stored behind everything else in a cupboard nobody opens.
Go bag or home supplies?
The go bag is for leaving. If you might be told to stay home instead, keep a separate, larger set of supplies there: more water, more food, a way to cook without power, and whatever keeps your home warm or cool.
Where to keep it, and when to check it
Keep each bag where you would pass it on the way out, such as by the door or in a hall cupboard. Keep a smaller kit in the car if you drive.
Check the bags every six months: swap food and water before they expire, update medicines and phone numbers, and make sure clothes still fit the children.
Go bag and home supply checklists, ready to tick. The Disaster Readiness and Home Inventory Kit has go bag and home supply pages and a seasonal readiness checklist. The free 4-page starter includes the go bag checklist on its own.
View in the StoreFrom the Stelaah Store
- ✓Disaster Readiness and Home Inventory Kit. A 33-page fillable PDF workbook for household disaster preparedness and an insurance-ready, room-by-room home inventory.
We build Stelaah and the Stelaah Store. These guides cover the everyday problems our planners, kits and tools are made for, in plain steps you can use with or without them.