72-Hour Emergency Kit Checklist for Families (Printable + Budget Tiers)

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Pan­ic-buy­ing isn't a plan. A sim­ple, com­mon-sense kit is.
In this guide, you'll build a 72-hour home emer­gency kit using a tiered check­list (Basic / Bet­ter / Best), a one-hour build work­flow, and a 20-minute fam­i­ly drill—start­ing with what you already have, buy­ing only what fills the gaps. Fam­i­lies are advised to keep enough food and water for sev­er­al days on hand; this page shows you how to do that calm­ly and on a bud­get (see Ready.gov's "Build a Kit").

A quick sto­ry (what actu­al­ly helped us)
Last win­ter we lost pow­er for 6 hours. What we used imme­di­ate­ly: water, head­lamps, a man­u­al can open­er, a pow­er bank, and warm lay­ers. What gath­ered dust: over­sized tools, scent­ed can­dles, and a fan­cy gad­get with dead bat­ter­ies. This guide is built from that real­i­ty check.

Gear phi­los­o­phy (keep it calm, keep it use­ful)

  1. Few, durable, dual-use. If it works in dai­ly life, it earns its spot (pow­er bank, head­lamp, heavy-duty trash bags, duct tape).
  2. Life-safe­ty first, com­fort sec­ond. Water → light/power → warmth/shelter → food → extras.
  3. Plan by house­hold. Adults / kids / pets; apart­ment vs sin­gle-fam­i­ly.
    Abby's note: set expec­ta­tions with kids; let them "own" a small com­fort item.

The tiered check­list (Basic → Bet­ter → Best)

Num­bers assume 72 hours at home. Adjust for your house­hold size, cli­mate, med­ical needs, and pets.

Water

  • Basic: Store 1 gal­lon per per­son per day × 3 days (drink­ing + san­i­ta­tion). Use bot­tled water or clean con­tain­ers; keep a pot for boil­ing and dis­in­fect­ing tablets as back­up. If pos­si­ble, build toward two weeks at home (CDC guid­ance).
  • Bet­ter: Food-grade stor­age with spig­ot; com­pact portable fil­ter.
  • Best: Grav­i­ty fil­ter + lid­ded water bricks or bar­rels; rota­tion sched­ule card.

Food (no-cook first)

  • Basic: Ready-to-eat items (nut bars, canned fish/beans/soup), man­u­al can open­er.
  • Bet­ter: Small camp stove + fuel (use outdoors/very well-ven­ti­lat­ed), shelf-sta­ble sta­ples (pasta/rice pouch­es).
  • Best: Fam­i­ly-approved 9‑meal mini-menu + stur­dier stove set­up; heat-safe cook­ware.

Pow­er & light

  • Head­lamps (hands-free) for each adult
  • LED lantern for a com­mon room
  • Pow­er bank (≥20,000 mAh) + cables
  • Spare bat­ter­ies stored out­side the devices

Warmth & shel­ter

  • Blankets/sleeping bags; foil emer­gency blan­kets
  • Lay­ered cloth­ing; dry socks; work gloves
  • Draft stop­pers or tow­els for cold rooms

Safe­ty & first aid

  • Basic first-aid kit; ban­dages; anti­sep­tic
  • Pre­scrip­tion meds (3‑day sup­ply) + med­ica­tion list/allergies
  • Ther­mome­ter; masks; nitrile gloves

San­i­ta­tion

  • Wet wipes; heavy trash bags; paper tow­els
  • Dis­pos­able gloves; buck­et-toi­let set­up with lin­ers (if need­ed)
  • Hand san­i­tiz­er; zip­per bags

Tools & fix-it

  • Mul­ti-tool or stur­dy knife; duct tape; zip ties
  • Small pry bar; whis­tle; water­proof match­es (for out­door use)
  • Notepad + mark­er for labels and notes

Doc­u­ments & cash

  • Copies of IDs/insurance in a water­proof pouch
  • Emer­gency con­tacts card; small bills ($)
  • Pet records; home/auto pol­i­cy num­bers

Kids & pets add-ons

  • Com­fort item (soft toy, cards), age-appro­pri­ate snacks/meds
  • Pet food, bowls, leash, waste bags, vac­ci­na­tion records

Bud­get snap­shot: Basic $80–$150 (use what you own + fill gaps) · Bet­ter $200–$350 · Best $500+ (durables & capac­i­ty)

One-hour build (30 / 20 / 10)
30 min­utes — Scav­enge: Grab two clear bins + labels. Sweep your home for items above. Toss in, then mark gaps with a sticky note.
20 min­utes — Order gaps: Buy the 5 high­est-impact items you lack: water capac­i­ty, head­lamp, LED lantern, man­u­al can open­er, reli­able pow­er bank.
10 min­utes — Label & stash: Label bins: Water & Food / Pow­er & Safe­ty / Docs. Store where you can grab them fast (hall clos­et, under bed, garage shelf).

Store, rotate, main­tain

  • Where it lives: cool, dry, reach­able.
  • Rota­tion: snacks 3 months · water 6 months · batteries/meds by date (CDC also notes replac­ing stored tap water every 6 months).
  • Quar­ter­ly habit: run a "no-pow­er din­ner" —cook safe­ly with­out elec­tric­i­ty, note any kit gaps, and update your list.

Go-bag vs home kit (do you need both?)

  • Home kit: heav­ier items that sus­tain you in place (water stor­age, lantern, bulk food).
  • Go-bag: a per­son­al back­pack for quick evac­u­a­tion (ID copies, small cash, com­pact food/water, flash­light, charg­er, sea­son­al cloth­ing).
    If resources are lim­it­ed, start with the home kit; add basic go-bags over time. (Red Cross frames this as ~3 days for evac­u­a­tion vs ~2 weeks at home.)

Safe­ty notes (read before you need it)

  • Car­bon monox­ide: Gen­er­a­tors and fuel-burn­ing stoves nev­er indoors. Oper­ate gen­er­a­tors out­side and >20 feet from doors/windows/vents; install CO alarms (CDC).
  • Open flame: Pre­fer LED lights over can­dles to reduce fire risk.
  • Fuel & heat: Only use stoves out­doors or in very well-ven­ti­lat­ed areas and away from chil­dren.
  • Water treat­ment: If tap water safe­ty is in doubt, bring clear water to a rolling boil for 1 minute (3 min­utes above 6,500 ft). Store boiled water in clean, san­i­tized con­tain­ers (CDC).
  • Med­ica­tions: Store safe­ly; fol­low your clinician's guid­ance for dos­es and refills.

FAQ
How much water do we real­ly need? Plan at least 1 gal­lon per per­son per day for 3 days. If you can, build toward two weeks at home (CDC water guid­ance).
Do we need no-cook foods if we have a stove? Yes—power or fuel can fail. Keep ready-to-eat items plus a man­u­al can open­er (Ready.gov kit basics).
Where should we store the kit? Some­where dry, cool, and easy to reach (hall closet/under bed/garage shelf). Label bins clear­ly.
How often should we rotate? Snacks 3 months; water 6 months; bat­ter­ies and meds by expiry—tie it to sea­sons or your quar­ter­ly drill.
What's the first upgrade after Basic? Reli­able water capac­i­ty (spig­ot con­tain­er + sim­ple fil­ter) and light (headlamps/lantern).

Friend­ly dis­clo­sures
We're a fam­i­ly shar­ing what works for us. This is not med­ical advice. In emer­gen­cies, fol­low local author­i­ties and your health­care providers. Some rec­om­men­da­tions may include affil­i­ate links—we only sug­gest items that fit the prin­ci­ples above (dual-use, reli­able, bud­get-aware).

References