Free family survival checklist

Two kits

One kit stays. One kit goes. I build the stay kit a little at a time. No debt. No panic.

• A go bag, one for each person.
• A stay kit at home, built in tiers.
• I buy a few extra items each time I shop.
• I start with food we already eat.
• I rotate it. The oldest food comes out first.

Go bag

Pack one bag per person. When an evacuation warning comes, I don't wait for the order. I go.

• Water.
• Snacks.
• Medicines you already take, enough for a few days.
• A phone charger.
• Copies of IDs and insurance.
• Cash.
• A change of clothes.
• A comfort item for each kid.
• The car stays at least half full.

Mine is a work in progress. My electronics and charger backpack is ready to grab, and food and water are staged in the garage.

Seven days: water

This is Tier 1. Seven days is the first goal.

• 1 gallon of water per person per day.
• For a family of 5, seven days is 35 gallons.
• I count the pets in that water.
• Store-bought water jugs are fine.
• A 7 gallon water jug.
• Stackable water bricks.
• If I fill jugs myself, I use food-grade containers and I swap the water every 6 months.
• A food-grade 5 gallon water container.
• Every Costco trip, I grab one rack of water and one extra long-lasting food item. Do that every week and in a few months you've got a lot of water stored.

Seven days: food

• A week of shelf-stable food you already eat.
• Cereal and granola bars.
• A manual can opener.

Seven days: light and news

• A headlamp.
• AA batteries.
• A power bank.
• A battery or hand-crank NOAA weather radio.
• Important phone numbers on paper, including an out-of-state contact.
• A meeting spot the whole family knows.

Seven days: heat

• Sleeping bags.
• Warm layers.
• One room we can all hunker down in.
• We set up a tent in the basement: the basement stays warmer, and the tent holds the heat in.

Seven days: medical

• A real first aid kit, the MyFAK Large Pro.
• A bleeding control kit.
• A NAR C-A-T Gen 7 tourniquet.
• A written list of everyone's meds and doses.

My first aid kit reviews are on Dad Kit Check. The MyFAK Large Pro review is coming soon.

Seven days: sanitation

• A toilet bucket.
• Heavy contractor trash bags.
• Wipes.
• Toilet paper.
• Hand sanitizer.

Seven days: cash and papers

• Cash in small bills.
• Copies of IDs, insurance, and birth certificates, in a Ziploc bag.
• A document pouch for those copies.

Seven days: pets and kids

• A week of pet food and pet water.
• Pet medicines.
• A leash or a carrier.
• Comfort items for the kids.
• A deck of cards.
• Formula or diapers, if a little kid in the house needs them.

Two weeks

Tier 2. Same idea, a longer stretch.

• 14 gallons of water per person.
• Plain unscented bleach, and I learn the CDC way to treat water before I need it.
• Two weeks of pantry food.
• A camp stove or a grill, outside only, to avoid carbon monoxide.
• A battery power station, or a generator.
• I use a solar-chargeable power station. It can keep a fridge or freezer going for a couple of days; I top off the fridge at night and recharge the station on solar panels in the morning.
• Solar panels to recharge that station.
• A battery-backed carbon monoxide alarm in every bedroom.
• Ask your doctor or pharmacist about a little extra of the prescriptions you depend on.
• For refrigerated medicines like insulin, keep the fridge cold with a battery backup.
• In a power outage I keep the fridge and the freezer closed.
• A fridge holds for about 4 hours. A full freezer holds for about 2 days.

Thirty days

Tier 3. About a month of ordinary food, rotated.

• Rice, beans, pasta, oats, and canned meat for about a month.
• I rotate that food.
• A quality water filter, plus a backup way to treat it.
• I keep two bathtub water storage bags and extra water containers around the house.
• I am working toward about a month of essential medicines.
• Over-the-counter basics, like fever reducers and electrolytes, and I keep some in the kits too.
• A small emergency fund.
• Some cash at home.

Skills

Gear is half of it. The other half is knowing what to do.

• Everyone old enough knows how to shut off the utilities.
• Everyone old enough knows basic first aid and CPR.
• Everyone knows the family plan.
• We practice with the kids and the family, and I make it a game.

One year, if we get there

This tier is optional. I would build it over years. No debt. No panic. A lot of emergencies are a lost paycheck.

• About 3 months of the food we normally eat.
• Then long-term staples: white rice, wheat, dried beans, and oats, in sealed containers.
• A food storage bucket with a gamma lid.
• A garden, canning, and cooking from scratch.
• A financial reserve, and less debt.