Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Mini 72 Hour Kits

If you have no other emergency preparedness items in your home, please, please put together 72 hour kits. In any sort of natural disaster or evacuation, these could be life saving! It is said that in an emergency disaster situation it will take 72 hours for help to reach you. I have 72 hour kits in my home. I have one in my car and my kids even belong to a fabulous school where they have them there. We live a mile from a major earthquake fault line and not just a fault line, one that is hundreds of years past due for a huge quake.

We also live in a place where unexpected storms are common. Last year my husband and I were stuck in our car for hours and finally had to hike it in a blizzard to get home to the kids. In that same storm there were people stranded at our school that had to rely on their 72 hour kits. No matter where you live it's a good idea to have at least one. I'd like to show you that they can be simple and actually kind of fun to put together.

Today I want to talk about mini 72 hour kits. These are simple, they're inexpensive and they're a good way to start if you don't have the money to put together full blown kits.

Everything in a mini 72 hour kit fits nicely into a one gallon-sized or two gallon-sized ziplock bag. These are the types of kits we have at our school and if you don't have regular 72 hour kits in your home, they can be a great alternative until you can get your larger ones completed. Think of a 72 hour kit as an insurance policy. It costs you money and sometimes it seems like a waste, but when you need it, boy you're glad it's there! If you were involved in a disaster or if you needed to be evacuated for any reason, wouldn't it be nice to know this was there just waiting for you to grab and go?

One Gallon Kit

tuna fish pouch ($1 at Walmart)
salmon pouch ($1 at Walmart)
beef jerky ($1 at DollarTree)
granola bar
2 20 oz bottles of water
hooded poncho ($1 at Walmart or DollarTree)
mylar blanket ($2 at Walmart)
whistle ($1)
travel roll of toilet paper ($1 at Walmart)
mini first aid kit ($1 at Walmart)
flashlight (the shaking kind is best) (under $5)
hand sanitizer (.50 at Walmart)



2 Gallon Kit

tuna fish pouch ($1 at Walmart)
salmon pouch ($1 at Walmart)
beef jerky ($1 at DollarTree)
3 granola bars
3 20 oz bottles of water
hooded poncho ($1 at Walmart or DollarTree)
mylar blanket ($2 at Walmart)
whistle ($1)
travel roll of toilet paper ($1 at Walmart)
mini first aid kit ($1 at Walmart)
flashlight (the shaking kind is best) (under $5)
hand sanitizer (.50 at Walmart)
emergency glow stick ($1-2 at Walmart)
3 fruit cups ($1.50 at Walmart)
3 veggie cups ($1.50 at Walmart)
3 plastic spoons
fruit snacks
handi wipes
small tissue pack
pack of gum

Everything in a mini kit can be later transferred to a regular-sized kit, so it's not a bad place to start. I check and rotate my kits once a year. Tuna fish and salmon pouches usually last two or more years, so they don't have to be changed as often.

10 comments:

Heather said...

Excellent post! No one wants to even imagine needing an emergency kit. But honestly, we could all be in need of one at some time or other. So better be safe than sorry and have a plan in place.

Me said...

Great post! I have one in my car and one started in the house. My dad has several--that man is the most prepared person I know! It's amazing. And, he's not even LDS!

The Raggedy Girl said...

What a great post and thank you for the easy to follow lists to put one of these together.

Roberta Anne, the Raggedy Girl

Anonymous said...

I have 2 questions. Well, one question and one clarification. lol.

What's the gum for?

And I assume that you put one of these together for each family member. 40 oz. of water won't go far with 8 people.

I keep food, water, a flashlight, a spare pair of contacts, and a radio in the basement (tornadoes are our major deal out here). But I hadn't thought of putting food in the truck. I'll do that.

But that is another good addition - if you wear contacts to have a spare pair.

American Homemaker said...

The gum is just good to have for hungry people... LOL And yes, you do one for each member of the family.

In the upcoming weeks I'll be expanding on this idea with the full-blown 72 hr kits that we have for each member of our family. This is just a really simple starting point.

A lot of people are really overwhelmed by the thought of doing a big 72 hr kit for each member of their family. I hope that these postings show everyone how simple it is :)

Anonymous said...

Very neat. Thanks for sharing. I think I will try to put one together before summer.

Launi said...

This is great info--thanks so much for posting it. I'll be back!

Maggie said...

I read your blog sometimes and I like your ideas. I like your easy recipes. Thank you for doing a 72 hour kit post, I think it's inspired me to start one in my house.
It's silly I know, but I have seen it several times on your blog spelt Ziplock but it's Ziploc and since it's a registered trademark I thought I'd just be helpful by pointing it out. LOL, not meant as any offense of any kind, just trying to help.
I'll check back for your other posts about 72 hour kits.
Thanks!

American Homemaker said...

Maggie- Thanks for reading my blog and thanks for pointing out the misspelling :) But if I'm not spelling it correctly I'm not breaking any copyright/trademark laws, right? LOL

I don't usually use the Ziploc brand for anything other than frozen stuff or 72 hr kits (they're stronger). I buy the dollar store bags for most of my food, lunches and other storage items.

I use the term ziplock to basically describe a plastic bag with a zipper type top :)

No offense taken! I LOVE input!

American Homemaker said...

Oh and I guess I should say it's not even always Ziploc for frozen stuff either. Sometimes I buy Hefty or another name brand. Basically whatever is on sale when I need to stock up :)