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.