Sunday, April 1, 2012

72 Hour Kits

I grew up with 72-hour kits in our garage. We had backpacks and a garbage can of supplies. I remember going through them and updating the food and clothing. When Jeff and I first got married, I made an attempt at putting one together. I don't know where I got the list from that I used, but I threw everything in a BIG tote with wheels. It wasn't really what I wanted and I just left it for years with the supplies I had assembled.

I've seen some websites lately on Pinterest that had some really good ideas and checklists of things to include. I've wanted to put some together for my family for a while and this weekend, I FINALLY DID!!!! The best part was that I had fun doing it. I used some supplies that we had around the house and I purchased other items.

The first thing I did was gather up backpacks. Eventually I would like to buy nice big ones, but for now these will do. These are old ones that we've accumulated over the years.


This is what went in every bag. Water, food, clothing, and personal items. I put everything in ziploc bags.


Each person has a pair of pants, a short sleeve and long sleeve shirt, two pair of underwear and two pair of socks.


The personal items include a rain poncho, a warming blanket, utensils, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, Off, an activity book, reading book, crayons, (and a few other items I'm forgetting). I've still got to add a flashlight and batteries. The one I bought didn't work right.


The food pack includes 3 chocolate drinks, 3 juice drinks, crackers, jolly ranchers, cookies, beef jerky, and kool-aid drop in packs.


Each of the backpacks contain all of those things. I found that I couldn't fit everything into the 6 individual backpacks, so I also filled up a duffel bag of general supplies.

In the duffel bag are things like toilet paper, rope, a small stove with fuel, water purification tablets, and a ton of other stuff I'm forgetting. If we had to survive on the food in the individual backpacks, we'd be okay, but I felt better about getting some freeze dried food packs for additional food. Walmart had a great variety of meals so I got a bunch of these. I got the scrambled eggs, spagetti with meat, lasagna, and neopolitan ice cream. Jeff's tried a lot of these when he went hunting last year and he said they were pretty good.

I've still got a few little things to add to each pack, but I'm about 95% done. I am SO EXCITED. When they are 100% I am going to put them on hooks in the garage so they are easily accessible if they are needed. I'll also add a list of things that we would have to grab last minute like sleeping bags and the tent.

This task was always daunting to me for some reason, but once I got started it was easier than I thought, and as I said before it was FUN. Some of the items I already had around the house, so it was a matter of gathering stuff up and organizing it. For the supplies I had to buy, I bought a bunch at Dollar Tree (of all places), and the rest at WalMart. The best part is I feel prepared if something were to happen. My little family would be okay-at least for 72 hours :)

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