Emergency kit checklist, with a best-before date for every item

KEEPING IT READY

A kit is only as good as its oldest pack

• Keep the kit in a bag you can carry, by the door or wherever you can grab it on the way out.
• Eat the food and drink the water before their dates and buy new: a kit you use stays fresh.
• Set the best-before date of each thing here and add the dates to your calendar: the reminder comes two weeks before.
• Each time you check the dates, charge the power bank and try the flashlight and the radio.
• Think again every year about what your household needs: a baby, a pet, new medicines.
• A bag to grab when you leave and supplies to stay at home are not the same: one to three days for the bag, a week at home.

WHERE THE LIST COMES FROM

The core of the national lists

Most countries publish a list, and they share the same core: water, food that keeps, light, a radio, first aid and medicines, copies of documents, cash and warm clothes. The list here brings those together. Your local authority's list adds the risks of where you live.

• Ready.gov (FEMA, United States): Build a Kit
• 首相官邸 (Prime Minister's Office of Japan): 災害に対するご家庭での備え
• МЧС России: Тревожный чемоданчик

Indonesia's BNPB (tas siaga bencana), India's NDMA and China's Ministry of Emergency Management (家庭应急物资储备建议清单, 2020) publish lists with the same core.