72-Hour Kit Checklist: What to Pack for Your Family

When Hurricane Harvey hit in August 2017, I turned on the local news and heard an announcer tell people in one neighborhood to get on their roofs and wave white t-shirts so the rescue boats could find them. My kids were 16 and 18 at the time, and I told them to grab their 72-hour kits. We needed to leave immediately if the water got any closer. No one was panicking. They knew exactly where those kits were because they had personally packed them.

We didn’t end up needing to leave. The water stopped short of our house. But, looking back, what I remember most is our family, talking in the family room, and calmly doing what needed to be done. I learned that a 72-hour kit isn’t really about the stuff inside it. When it’s packed, you know you’re ready and can pay attention to other things, like breaking news or the weather app, instead of frantically trying to make decisions in a panic. (You can read the whole story in The Power of Personal Survival Stories.)

Lately, a lot more people are thinking about this. In late October, the UK launched its Be Ready campaign, asking every household to be prepared to get through 72 hours on its own. Japan’s government soon did the same, with a request that families keep at least three days of food, water, and toilet supplies at home, and preferably a week. France renewed its own 72-hour recommendation, and Germany tells families to plan for 10 days.

When pressed, officials mention storms, cyberattacks, and overwhelmed power grids, and say there’s no single threat behind it. Still, when this many countries say the same thing in the same few weeks, I pay attention, and so have my readers.

So let’s build a kit that fits your family, with a few cold-weather upgrades for the winter storms ahead. Not a 60-pound tactical monster. Just a smart, mom-tested bag that fits your family, with a few cold-weather upgrades so you’re ready for the winter storms headed our way.

What Is a 72-Hour Kit (and Why Three Days)?

A 72-hour kit is the set of supplies your family needs to get through about three days without normal services. I split it into two parts: a home kit for riding out an emergency where you are, and a go-bag for each person in case you have to leave. (You may also hear it called an emergency kit or a bug-out bag.)

Why three days? It’s the number the big agencies plan around for evacuations. The American Red Cross recommends a 3-day supply of food and water for evacuation and a 2-week supply for home. Ready.gov states that after an emergency, you may need to survive on your own for several days. Three days is a generally good margin of time to figure out your next steps, whether it’s getting to a safer location or making a plan to set up a warming area inside your home.

One more thing. A 72-hour kit is not the same as your home stash of food storage and general emergency supplies. If you’re sheltering in place through a long outage, you’ll want more. I cover that in Three Layers of 72 Hour Preparedness, and if anyone in your house relies on powered medical equipment, read Power Outages and Home Medical Equipment: A Plan for More Than 72 Hours.

Home Kit or Go-Bag? You Probably Need Both

The countries in the news are mostly asking people to get through 72 hours at home. My experience with Hurricane Harvey was about being ready to leave. Most families need a version of each, and they look different.

	Home kit (sheltering in place)	Go-bag (evacuating)
When you use it	Power, water, or stores are down, but your house is safe	You have to leave, sometimes with minutes to spare
Container	Plastic bins or a closet shelf	One backpack or rolling bag per person
Water	The full 3 gallons per person	1 to 2 liters per person, plus a filter
Food	Shelf-stable food your family already eats	Light, no-cook food
Toilet	Bucket, liners, and plenty of trash bags	Wipes, toilet paper, and a few bags
Weight	Doesn’t matter	Light enough for each person to carry

The checklist below works for both. Build the home kit first, and then pack a smaller go-bag for each person from the same list.

Your First 72-Hour Kit Starts With This List

Free 72-Hour Kit Checklist

When an emergency hits, there’s no time to think. This free 72-Hour Kit Checklist walks you through everything your family needs for three days, whether you’re stuck at home or have to leave in a hurry, from water and food to meds, documents, and comfort items for the kids.

It’s organized so you can build your kits a little at a time without overspending. Print it, check things off, and know your family is ready to grab and go.

Enter your email and I’ll send it right over!

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A Quick Self-Check Before You Shop

Before you buy a single thing, grab a cup of coffee and ask yourself:

• If we had 15 minutes to leave tonight, what would we grab, and where is it?
• Does every person in my house (including the dog) have their own supplies?
• If the power and water were off for three days, what would we run out of first?
• Who takes daily medication, and how many days’ worth do we have on hand?
• What disasters are actually likely where we live: hurricanes, wildfire, ice storms, flooding?
• Could my kids carry their own bags? Could I carry mine for a mile?

Your answers tell you where to start. Pack for the emergencies you’re most likely to face, keeping the current season in mind.

The Core 72-Hour Kit Checklist

This list is built from the Ready.gov and American Red Cross checklists, organized the way a mom actually packs.

Water and Food

• Water: one gallon per person per day, for drinking and sanitation, according to Ready.gov and the Red Cross. Three gallons per person is heavy, so most families pack some bottled water plus a water filter or purification tablets. I like heavy-duty mylar bags of water. They hold a smaller amount but the mylar is (nearly) puncture-proof. For a 72-hour, at-home emergency, my free water purification quick-reference guide has the bleach amounts and boil times.
• No-cook food: granola or protein bars, peanut butter packets, tuna or chicken pouches, crackers, dried fruit, and a little chocolate. If you’re packing for kids, let them have a taste test before you stock up on any of these foods.
• Manual can opener if you pack any cans, plus a few utensils, cups, and paper towels. I only recommend cans for your at-home kit. They’re heavy and once used, you now have an empty can with food residue to get rid of. For the home kit, add a camp stove and fuel or another way to cook without power.

Health and Hygiene

• Medications: the Red Cross recommends a 7-day supply plus medical items like glasses, hearing aid batteries, and contact solution. Put pharmaceutical meds in a labeled pill case.
• First aid kit and over-the-counter basics: pain reliever, anti-diarrhea medicine, antacids, and anything your kids regularly need. I have a complete list here for the travel med kit I always pack with us.
• Sanitation: wet wipes, toilet paper, a couple of small garbage bags and ties, hand sanitizer, soap, toothbrushes, and feminine supplies. For the home kit, add a bucket and heavy liners for an emergency toilet. When the water stops working, this becomes a problem fast, which is why Japan put toilet supplies right next to food and water.
• Masks: Ready.gov lists a dust mask; the Red Cross suggests N95 or surgical masks, depending on your local risks (hello, wildfire smoke).

Light, Power, and Information

• Flashlight or headlamp and extra batteries. Store batteries outside the device so they don’t drain or corrode.
• Battery-powered or hand-crank radio, ideally a NOAA Weather Radio. This is a heavier item I recommend for home. You can get a much smaller version for your portable kit.
• Phone chargers and a backup battery. I can’t emphasize this one enough, both for your 72-hour portable kit and for at home. Your smartphone might be a literal lifeline for up-to-date weather reports, the very latest news of the current event, apps for First Aid and alerts, as well as staying in touch with your people. For your go-bag, make sure you have a long charging cord.
• Local paper maps in case cell service goes down. Old-school, but if your phone has ever died when you’re trying to find your way around an unfamiliar city or neighborhood, you know the panic!

Documents, Money, and Your Family Plan

• Copies of documents: copies of IDs for your Go-Bag, insurance information, a medication and allergy list, proof of address, and bank information, in a waterproof pouch or saved electronically. My Grab-and-Go Binder walks through which papers to copy, and much of this can be saved on your phone.
• Family and emergency contact list on paper. Your phone will die at the worst possible moment — thus, my recommendation for that charged power bank and a cord!
• Cash in small bills. When the power is out, card readers are, too.
• Spare house and car keys in your Go-Bag.
• Two meeting places, one near home and one outside your neighborhood, plus an out-of-state contact everyone can text. Long-distance texts often get through when local calls won’t. More ideas in How to Communicate After Disasters.

Shelter and Comfort

• A complete change of clothes and sturdy shoes in your portable kits for each person, appropriate for your climate. This is one thing to change out with the seasons and as kids grow.
• A sleeping bag, warm blanket, or emergency blanket per person.
• Multi-tool, duct tape, and work gloves. These are all multi-purpose and come in handy for moving debris after a storm.
• Books, cards, and small games for the kids. Also for you.

Survival Mom Tip: Put a printed packing list inside each bag and a copy on your phone. When you restock, you’ll know exactly what’s missing.

What Goes Where?

	Home kit (per household)	Go-bag (per person)
Water	3 gallons per person, plus pets	1–2 liters + a filter or tablets
Food	3 days of shelf-stable meals (about 9 per person), manual can opener, camp stove and fuel	About 2,000 calories a day of no-cook food: bars, pouches, peanut butter
Light and power	Lantern for the main room, flashlight per person, power banks or a power station, battery or crank radio	Headlamp, extra batteries, charged power bank and cord
Medications	7–14 days, plus a cooler for refrigerated meds	7 days, plus a written med and allergy list
First aid	Full family first aid kit	Small personal kit
Sanitation	Bucket toilet with liners, toilet paper, trash bags, bleach	Wipes, toilet paper, hand sanitizer, a few bags
Warmth and shelter	Sleeping bags or blankets, an indoor-safe heat source or battery fan	Change of clothes, sturdy shoes, poncho, mylar blanket
Documents and cash	Originals stored safely	Copies, small bills, contact list, spare keys
Safety	Battery CO detector, fire extinguisher, plastic sheeting and duct tape	Whistle, N95 mask, multi-tool

Smart Tips From People Who Have Actually Used Theirs

The official checklists are a great foundation, but I always want to know what real people learned when they actually grabbed their bags and left. Did they really need a roll of duct tape, and how did they keep the kids calm and busy during long hours without power or in the car?

So I went digging through prepping communities on Reddit, and these were the gems.

• Pack for a shelter, not a survival show. One evacuee in r/preppers who had used a bag in multiple evacuations said they felt silly about all their survival-type gear and wished they’d packed more comfortable clothing, a blanket, and regular snacks. They also pointed out that knives, tools, and guns usually aren’t allowed in shelters, and a bag full of fancy gear makes it hard to sleep for fear of theft. Their shelter bag is now a Minecraft schoolbag.
• Every kid gets a comfort item. One woman shared her mom’s rule from when the family had to leave suddenly: each kid packed one stuffed animal or a favorite book. When you leave everything else behind, that one small thing comforts kids and adults alike.
• Give little ones a breakaway ID lanyard. A parent suggested a breakaway lanyard with an ID card listing family contacts, allergies, and meds, plus a whistle. The same thread suggested a cheap MP3 player loaded with favorite songs and audiobooks (its battery outlasts a phone) and a printed family photo, so a lost child can show a picture, not just say “I want my mom.”
• Wheels and a Sharpie. Another parent keeps kids’ supplies in a rolling crate or carry-on suitcase, and packs Sharpies to write a name, phone number, and food allergies on a child’s arm if needed. Low-tech, and it makes a lot of sense if the lanyard or other ID gets lost.
• Keep a 15/30/60-minute list on top. A wildfire evacuee keeps all important documents in one binder, with an evacuation checklist on the front: what to grab with 15 minutes, 30 minutes, or an hour of notice.
• Make your list now, while your brain works. One evacuee admitted she left her keys on the car roof while loading animals during a wildfire evacuation. Her advice is to write your to-grab list ahead of time, keep your medicine in the same bag as your toothbrush, and take a quick video walk-through of your home for insurance before you leave.
• Swap seasons twice a year. Another mom pulls winter items out in spring and puts them back in fall, checking and rotating everything at the same time. Her mom-approved hack — a dollar-store condiment squeeze bottle works as a portable peri bottle (basically a travel bidet).
• Your old glasses count. Tuck your old pair of glasses in the kit. Not a perfect prescription, but far better than none. That poster also suggests cash in bills under $20 and printed photos of each family member and pet.

Packing for Kids, Babies, Older Adults, and Pets

Kids’ Bags

Small kids can’t carry much, and that’s okay. Their bags are mostly about comfort. Think, a clean shirt and a pair of underwear, a snack stash, a comfort item, a small activity, and their ID card. Depending on their age and the size of their pack, add a full change of weather-appropriate clothes and sturdy shoes for every person. Add a piece of paper with parents names, phone numbers, and home address.

Current photos of every family member and pet, including one of the whole family together, can help with reunification if you get separated. Print them, and update these every year, because toddlers change faces faster than we change smoke alarm batteries.

Babies

The CDC’s family checklist calls for a well-stocked diaper bag with at least one pack of diapers and two packs of wipes. Ready.gov adds formula, bottles, and diaper rash cream. If you’re nursing, pack what keeps you comfortable, too.

Older Adults and Medical Needs

Pack a 7- to 14-day supply of medications if your insurance allows, along with hearing aid batteries, a spare pair of glasses, and any mobility aids. If someone uses a CPAP, oxygen, or another powered device, plan how you’ll keep it running. This guide walks through options for having the right size of power station on hand. A small cooler and ice packs will protect refrigerated medications for a while if the power goes out.

Pets

Pack a collar, leash, ID tag, food, a carrier, and a collapsible bowl. Add a copy of vaccination records, since boarding facilities and some shelters will ask. Before you need to evacuate, start a list of pet-friendly hotels, veterinarians, and boarding kennels near your home and along your expected evacuation path.

Winter Upgrades for Your 72-Hour Kit

A summer-packed kit won’t keep you warm in an ice storm, and in February 2021, Texans learned that the hard way. During Winter Storm Uri, my daughter was more than 150 miles away at college, living alone. The night before the freeze, I called her and told her to go through her emergency backpack so she’d know exactly what she had. She also had thermal layers, wool socks, waterproof boots, and a heavy winter jacket, which made a miserable week a lot more bearable.

So when you do your seasonal swap to cold weather, add:

• Warm layers for each person: thermal base layers, a hat, gloves or mittens, and a scarf.
• Wool socks, and more than you think. Wet feet make cold people miserable.
• Hand and foot warmers
• A real blanket or sleeping bag, not just a mylar sheet. For an expected evacuation, pre-load these in your vehicle. They come in handy at home, too, when the power’s out on a cold, winter night.
• Waterproof boots or shoes stored next to the bag.
• A thermos for something warm, if you’ll have any way to heat water.

Don’t Forget the Car

This is one of those preps you can take care of now, and always have emergency supplies with you, every time you leave the house, emergency or not. You never know where you’ll be when trouble hits. For winter, think blankets, warm clothes, water, snacks, a flashlight, jumper cables, and an ice scraper. Check out this article about packing a vehicle emergency kit. Keep your gas tank at least half full, too. A half-full tank of gas is an empty tank of gas!

Survival Mom Tip: If you heat or power anything during a winter outage, carbon monoxide is the hidden danger. During Hurricane Beryl, our properly installed home generator still sent fumes into an upstairs vent, and our CO alarm woke us in the night. Keep working carbon monoxide detectors on every floor.

Where to Keep It and How to Maintain It

As you put your kits together, it’s smart to have them for home, work, and the car. At home, keep your bags in one designated spot close to an exit, like a hall closet or by the garage door, and make sure every family member knows where they are. We have a hallway closet that houses our backpacks.

The next step is to maintain them. Replace stored water every six months and check food expiration dates at least twice a year. If you have kids, their needs and clothing sizes change. Family prescriptions change, and babies grow faster than you’d ever expect — at least as far as your 72-hour kits are concerned!

An easy schedule for checking your kits is when the clocks change in spring and fall. That’s also a perfect time to test the smoke and CO alarms.

Want to know what happens when you actually test a kit? Read 36 Lessons Learned From Testing a 72-Hour Kit. It’s eye-opening.

The Prepared Family: Make It a Family Project

Kids who help pack their own bags are calmer when it’s time to use them. they know what their kit contains, and they’ve practiced using things like a headlamp or a lightstick. Make it a fun Saturday project, not a scary lecture. Here are a few tips:

• Let each child pick their comfort item and favorite snacks.
• Do a “grab your bag” drill and time it. Then celebrate with pizza.
• Take everyone’s bag on a short walk to see if the weight is realistic.
• Talk about your meeting place and out-of-area contact in calm, everyday words.
• Eat the expiring snacks together when you rotate.

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• What I Packed in My Daughter’s College Emergency Kit (And Why)
• How to Survive a Snowstorm in Your Car If You’re Stranded

The Final Word

A 72-hour kit won’t stop a hurricane or an ice storm. Nope. What it does is give you room to think when everyone else is panicking. Start with one bag this week. Your own, or your littlest one’s. Add the water, the meds, the documents, and a teddy bear. Next week, do the next bag. Baby Steps!

And before the first hard freeze rolls in, toss in those wool socks and hand warmers. Prepare more, panic less. We’re Survival Moms. We’ve got this.