Kit guide

The home kit, in buying order.

Twelve purchases from first to last, so the first twenty-five dollars does the most good.

One page. Read it here, save the image to your phone, or print it for the fridge.

The home kit, in buying order. as one saveable image

Readiness gear gets expensive the moment someone tells you to buy it all at once. This is the home kit as a sequence instead: cheapest and most important first, the pricier things last, and a line under each tier so you can stop and still be better off than you were. Prices are typical big-box ranges, not promises.

1
1. Water: two cases
- About ten dollars for two cases of bottles
- Three days for two people, the start for four
- The one thing with no substitute
2
2. Flashlights, one per person
- Cheap LED lights, a few dollars each, batteries in
- A spare pack of batteries in a zip bag
- By the beds, not in a drawer
3
3. No-cook food for three days
- Bars, nut butter, crackers, canned fruit and beans, cereal
- Buy what you already eat, one extra each trip
- A manual can opener, a few dollars
4
4. A first aid kit
- Ten to fifteen dollars for a basic kit
- Add pain reliever, an antihistamine, any family medication
- Seven days of prescriptions written down
5
First tier done, about $40
- Light, water, food, first aid: stop here and you are ready for a night
- Most households own half of this already
- Everything below makes a bad week easier
6
5. A battery or crank radio
- Fifteen to thirty dollars; the NOAA weather band matters
- News when the towers are overloaded
- Charge it twice a year
7
6. Power banks
- One per phone, fifteen to twenty-five dollars each
- Charged, in the kit, swapped into use every few months
- Cheaper than any other backup power
8
7. Hygiene and sanitation
- Wipes, sanitizer, soap, toilet paper, heavy trash bags
- A bucket with a lid; it is the toilet if water is off
- Mostly things you already buy
9
8. A lantern for the room
- Twenty to thirty dollars for a rechargeable LED lantern
- Lights the whole room everyone ends up in
- Some double as a phone bank
10
Second tier done, about $120
- Light, water, food, first aid, news, phones, sanitation
- This is the whole 72-hour kit; the rest is comfort and days
- Add the document folder, which costs nothing
11
9. Water containers
- Two stackable seven-gallon jugs, twenty to thirty dollars each
- Fill from the tap, rotate twice a year
- Replaces buying bottled water forever
12
10. A portable power station
- The big purchase, usually a few hundred dollars
- Runs lights, phones, a router, a CPAP overnight
- Buy it before a generator, and only after everything above