Emergency kit update
We have slowly-but-surely been adding to our emergency kit, which is a bin from IKEA that is small enough to fit in the trunk of my husband’s car. (Although we don’t store it there.)
We still need to get a few more items (and I suspect I will need to draw the line somewhere because it’ll be easy to think of still more items) but we have it pretty fleshed out now. It’s been more than a year since we’ve been gradually working on it, which has helped budget-wise. Here are the items that we have now:
Contact and glasses prescriptions for each of us
3 contact cases
Extra pair of glasses for each of us
3 particulate masks
U.S. atlas
1 pr. underwear & socks for each of us
4 1-qt. ziplock bags
trust & will documents
box of 18 candles
1 1-person and 1 2-person emergency heat sheet
1 regular blanket
bottle of Bacardi, 1 can beans, 2 cans chicken noodles soup (can you tell I was cleaning out the cupboard after those last 3 items?)
plastic forks
mirror
70 meters of twine
2 medicine droppers
medical scissors
a deck of Uno cards
3 decks of cards
manual can opener
bottle opener
125 caplets extra strength Tylenol
antibiotic ointment
2 boxes of matches
1 Swiss army-type knife
1 x-acto knife
thimble
straight pins, needles, safety pins
2 miniature sewing kits
bandages
tweezers
dog food bowl
a small amount of cash in fives and tens
small bar of soap
3 strips of moleskin
1 hand wind AM/FM radio with flashlight
1 hand wind flashlight
iodide pills for 4 people
combination Philips/screwdriver
miniature hammer
pliers
open-ended wrench
2 rolls of toilet paper
black thread
green thread
thumb drive with family pictures, wedding pictures, account information, contact information, etc.
4 large white towels
3 small white towels
1 steak knife
1 bungee cord
1 small roll of duct tape
1 rain poncho
10 zip ties
1 pair of cloth gloves
1 whistle
Some of those items are pretty random, but I can see them being useful. Our next step will be to package things into smaller bags that can be easily carried. For now though I feel a little bit better having made this much progress.
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February 22nd, 2009 at 7:45 am
I had an accident where I rear ended a car. The lady was not hurt and all was well but the impact had jarred her trunk lid open and knocked a storage bin lid off. That bin was full of paper work and other stuff. The wind was up that day and her paper work was blowing out all over the road. I’m not sure if it was anything important but in the case of the documents you are keeping in your bin, you may want to use a bungee cord or motorcycle strap around the bin to keep the items from spilling out of the container. The strap can double as a tournicate for emergencies.
February 22nd, 2009 at 9:29 am
Ah, that’s a good idea, especially since it already contains a bungee cord. Although we don’t keep it in our trunk, we just made sure that it fits in case we need to leave with it via car.
February 23rd, 2009 at 11:42 am
I use a one of my kid’s old school backpacks to hold my car’s emergency kit. There are plenty of great ideas for storing these kits over at the Equipped to Survive forum.
February 24th, 2009 at 8:32 pm
You have a lot of items that will be helpful in an emergency. Might I suggest that you consider using light sticks vs. candles as the Red Cross highly recommends against using candles due to the fire hazard they pose.
February 26th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I too often find that a bottle of Bacardi is helpful in an emergency. Gin and wine are fine rescue agents as well. In fact, the sound of sirens down the street (I live near fire and police stations) often prompt me to do a practice run of emergency care.
March 11th, 2009 at 9:57 pm
There are also some good ideas at http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/009528.html