Once you get an emergency kit put together either for your home, office, car, or bugging out, there is a tendency to stash that kit somewhere and forget about it. Don’t do it. Be friends with your kit. Check in on it at least once a year–every 6 months is even better. And some kits need updating even more often than that. Need some convincing to do a kit checkup? Here are 5 great reasons to keep updating your emergency kits.
1. You use stuff out of it. Well, maybe it wasn’t you, maybe it was your significant other or your kids or the ubiquitous “nobody”. The point is, sometimes when you most need a roll of toilet paper from the car kit it isn’t there! If you keep a list of items that are supposed to be in the kit tucked in the kit somewhere, it’s easy to check if everything is there. If you know you’re using items frequently, you will probably need to refill your kit more often than every 6 months.
2. Food and water expire. Some of the foods in your kit will have an expiration date. If you’re checking in on your kit often, you can eat these foods and replace them with fresh items. Same with water bottles. They aren’t made to last forever–the water gets an “off” taste and it is reported that some of the plastic chemicals leach into the water after long periods of storage. Use them and replace them before they are too long past their expiration date. If you have really old water bottles, use that water to water your plants or something.
3. Medications expire. If you have medications in your kit, these also need rotated. At best they begin to lose potency after their expiration date. I want medicines that are going to work and work well when I need them, so I try to keep the medicines updated with fresh stuff from the medicine cabinet. Check this post to see how I keep track of the lots and expiration dates of the medications in my kit.
4. People grow. Especially kids. If you have extra clothes or shoes in your kits for your family members, how likely are they to actually fit them in an emergency? With some kids (especially babies and young teens) this will need changed out every 6 months or so while they’re going through growth spurts.
5. You learn something new. Maybe you’ve been reading a book or a blog and come across something you really think would be of value to your family in an emergency. Get it into your kit and add it to your kit master list.
Some folks like to pack their kits and leave them (our evacuation kits are like this), and some use items from their kits for everyday emergencies (our car kits are more like this). Either way, your kit will need updated and rotated frequently to best serve its purpose when there is a reason to use it.
Keep preparing! Angela
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1. The ubiquitous “nobody” is the one you have to watch out for–sneaky fellow.
4. Don’t you think for babies and children that every three months would be better for changing out sizes? Or, maybe even when they go into a larger size in real life.
3. People may have objections to the next suggestion. I have trouble remembering to take my thryroid tablets, so I carry them in my purse. That way, at whatever time they should be taken that has passed, I can still take one late after leaving the house. I don’t have to have other meds. If someone has meds in her purse/his pocket everyday, they won’t go bad with temp and humidity changes. Just a thought. What do you think?
Thanks for reminder of med expiration dates. Of course, I only have the one must-have med plus estrogen. Yes, if I am not taking estrogen, I could take out the zombie hoards alone…lol. Just point me in the right direction.
Another thing–you have removed all meds from bottles. If you come across some Nazi-like person who follows the letter of the law, you will need all prescriptions in their original bottles. Plus, if you keep some meds in baggies in the car or in original pill bottle in your purse, you might find they have deteriorated. The constant jiggling of car makes them disintegrate into a fine powder. To avoid this, keep the original bottle stuffed tight with a cotton ball. That way pills don’t abrade each other to dust. I have actually wasted meds in my purse or the glove compartment, pills just waiting for me to forget to take the pills in the house.
I keep one 72 hour kit in the trunk of our car. Strange, it seems that “Nobody” hasn’t been able to find it…although “Someone” and “Idunno” managed to find the two 72 hour kits in the house. “Notme” managed to rummage through a few of the Bug Out Bags, too.
sigh
Yes, we have teen-agers here…
Also, please add me to your blog rolls! I do a homestead/prepper type blog.
Heyo! Love this place! Am copying and pasting to documents that I’ll print out and make a sort of binder of necessary things I’ll need to know one day in my dream home (sort of in limbo at the moment). I have been scouring through here for a possible medical kit. I know that sometimes the kits you buy from the store doesn’t always allow for personal preference or needs. You should totally make a list of what is in yours! I know, personally, I would put in a crap load of neosporin, just because I know the pain and misery of having a large burn, and if that were to happen on a much larger scale … oh geez … Also some sort of alcohol based product for those small surgery cases … :P had to do that once blegh … and a tourniquet … people underestimate those (I have had a lot of medical encounters if you can’t tell). But, anyways … that’s my suggestion! :D Love this place btw!