Welcome!
Welcome to week #8 in the “72 Hour Kit Ideas: A week by week approach” series.
This series is all about making it simple and do-able to get a 72 hour kit put together for you and your family.
Creating such a kit can be overwhelming and financially difficult to do all at once. But through this series, I’ve broken it down for you into 26 small steps! You can see all the steps here. Just take one small baby step each week and in 6 months you will have a well stocked, personalized kit!
You can even go through the series a few times over a year or two adding just the most basic supplies the first six months and then a few more “extra” supplies each time you cycle through it again.
Want even more help?
This series is also available as an e-book. Purchasing the e-book gives you a few additional benefits over just reading the free series:
- Additional details and tips
- The ability to print the entire book!
- Pictures of my own kit showing just how I pack each week.
Download “Your Own 72 Hour Kit Plan” E-Book Now!
Week #8: Shelter
You will need a way to protect your family from the “elements” following a disaster. It may be extremely hot or cold. It may be raining or snowing.
Personally, I think this is one area you can skimp on a bit until you have more funds. While it is possible that you would have to evacuate completely on foot with nowhere to go, it is far more likely that you’d be traveling to some sort of shelter. Many churches provide shelter during an emergency and the Red Cross usually has something available as well. The chances of not being able to find any shelter are slim.
However, it is possible you will need to walk to that shelter and you may need to protect your family as you go. You may also prefer to sleep outside of a provided shelter to keep your family separate from others.
This week, add something to protect your family from the elements.
Suggestions:
Tents are ideal, but can get pricey and heavy! There are ways to protect your family 
from the elements on a smaller budget. As such, I’ve separated my suggestions into three categories. If you have small children, make sure you choose something they will actually use / wear. You should show it to them and have them practice wearing it (poncho) or getting in it (tent).
Small Budget:
- Try a poncho (you can even use a large garbage bag instead).
- A couple of drop cloths can work as well: hang one above you on trees or a rope and lay one out under you if needed.
Medium Budget:
- A couple of tarps (used similarly to the drop cloths mentioned above with a rope).
- A more durable poncho.
- A tube tent or two.
Larger Budget:
- A popup or dome tent.
What we have done in our family:
We have six ponchos total and one dome tent and a drop cloth (to go under the tent) in each adult kit. We would each sleep with two kiddos in a tent with us. We used to have tube tents instead and just recently switched to the dome tents. They are a bit bulkier / heavier, but I like them better because they have a door! (-:
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How About You?
Leave me a comment and tell me what type of shelter you will be adding to your kit. Why? What will you be doing this week?
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| Week #7: Clothes | Week #9: Staying Warm | Week #1: Packaging Your Kit | Series Into: Survival Kit Series, A Week by Week Approach |
Becky is a wildlife enthusiast and pet and livestock care expert with a diploma in canine nutrition. With over a decade of experience in animal welfare, Becky lends her expertise to Simple Family Preparedness through insightful info about pets, livestock, bee keeping, and the practicalities of homesteading.
We have an emergency blanket in each of our bags. Would like to get a microfiber blanket for them soon.
We have a couple of emergency blankets (the weird shiny ones lol). We live in Arizona so the cold is not really a problem but exposure to heat and animal life can be so I’ll probably head to my nearest camping store to see what the best solution is for our harsh desert environment. I also need to put our fleece blankets back in our car that we used to always have there.
Next to our pack we’ve got two great big sleeping bags that are rated for very low temps, but seeing as it’s summer it will be lower on our priority list to grab them. In our pack, we have an emergency blanket and a spare sheet. Ideally we would be able to grab the sleeping bags to sleep on top of and use the blanket and sheet as a covering. We’d ball up our extra set of clothes to use as pillows.
Our family likes to camp in the winter, so we have plenty of sleeping bags and tents. Year-round, we keep metallic emergency blankets and fleece blankets in our cars, and we add sleeping bags during winter.
Because we’ve done a lot of cold weather camping, I’d like to share some tips for you. If you add a sleeping bag liner, or lightweight (summer) fleece sleeping bag inside a regular sleeping bag, it will add about 10 degrees to the cold rating of the bag. If little kids or small women sleep in a regular adult sized bag, it will not keep them as warm as the cold rating says, so it is REALLY important to fill in the empty space along the sides and bottom of the bag with other clothes or even newspaper so there’s no dead empty air space that your body will need to heat. And don’t get in a sleeping bag wearing the same socks you wore during the day, as the sweat will make your feet really cold. So we keep a clean, warm pair of sock in the bottom of each sleeping bag. Final tip: If the heat is out in your house, you can use any tent – even a kids summer tent – to help keep you warm. The body heat from the person or people in the tent will stay contained in the tent and it will be warmer than the rest of the house. And if you don’t have a tent, but want to stay warmer in the house, you could build one of those bedspread forts that we used to make when we were little, as it will hold in a good bit of heat the way that a tent would.
Thank you Pat! I LOVE these tips! I’ve experienced just what you talk about….sleeping bags not keeping me warm b/c there is too much “dead” space…and the cold feet with teh same socks….so true! We are going camping this fall and I will put your tips to good use. I will likely also re-post them on the blog soon. THanks so much!
We have an emergency blanket in each person’s pack. We also have two regular sleeping bags for my husband and me. Our 2 year old and infant can share with us. We live in a warm climate so we are not worried about getting too cold, but this week I plan to put extra blankets in the car just in case.
I have emergency blankets for the 5 of us, and I keep extra fleece blankets in our car. I need to add compact sleeping bags for the boys, and the fleece sleeping bag I won this week will be going in my kit! Thanks so much for running these great giveaways!
I have a 30 degree sleeping bag for my wife and a wool blanket with emergency blanket for me. I will be adding a fleece sleeping bag for both my wife and myself in the next few weeks.
Purchased 2 more emergency blankets so there are some in the cars as well as the kits. I have 1 microfiber blanket in my kit. DH used his for an event and lost it, so I replaced it with a microfiber sleeping bag, which is better because it is actually long enough to cover someone of his height!
Congrats Jennifer! 🙂
I have emergency blankets in my purse, vehicles and campers. Our truck has an air mattress and non-electric air pump plus several sheets, blankets and comforters. This has actually come in handy several times so far! I want to add some of the compact sleeping bags. If I get the flat ones, I feel that I can put one on the bottom and one on the top and zip them to each other which would allow my hubbs and I to sleep together for warmth along with our smaller dogs for added warmth. 🙂
I don’t think you can ever be too prepared. My husband and I have our sleeping bags but we definitely need to get some comfortable pads to put beneath them.
My husband and I already have two 25 degree bags, but we will be getting a couple 0 degree ones soon!
I’ve gotten thermal blankets for the three of us in my family, actually multiples, plus sleeping bags rated to 30 degrees. I’ve also got Gortex covers for each sleeping bag. We live in northern California and plan to head east into the Sierra’s if SHTF. I need to get everything organized so we can grab and go though. At this point everything is scattered around our house and not in one spot. We’re not sure where to put everything because of earthquakes. We are working on that. Thanks for your helpful info.
YOu are welcome Matthew. Good luck!
On Black Friday, I was able to snatch up a pair of 0*F rated sleeping bags for a GREAT price. They are neither light nor small, but they sure are toasty, which is very important in my area. We store them by our backpack so we can grab them on the run if need be. We also have two emergency thermal sleeping bags in our pack, so if its summer we won’t need to worry about grabbing the bigger sleeping bags.
We don’t have room to keep our sleeping bags in the car all the time, so I went with emergency blankets. I also made a paint can heater to carry for emergency heat.
I was going through clothes to get rid of and decided to add warm footed pajamas for my daughter for her sleeping gear as well. She is too big for those to really be needed at this age. However if we did have to sleep out side they extra warmth would be good.
We have sleeping bags as part of our larger preps but we need to add thermal blankets to the go bags.
Sleeping gear is one area where I am sorely lacking! However, thanks to winning last weeks drawing, I am one step closer! Thank you, Misty! I just received my SR Black Friday order, so I now have an emergency blanket for each of us and ordered an extra one for the beast (Great Dane). We only have one cheapo sleeping bag but I want to get 3 blizzard bags to add to the bag I won last week. I will then probably move the cheapo sleeping bag into the SUV.
Great plan Karrie!
We have our camping sleeping bags near our kits plus I have an extra bag packed with microfiber blankets and shoes (seeing how these items are too bulky for our kits). In my van I have a queen sized quilt and a wool blanket. I think we are done in this dept. although I have emergency blankets on my wishlist but there are other priorities right now.
It can be tough to juggle all the priorities!
My son and I each have a sleeping bag by our bags, but I live in Minnesota and they are not thermal or extra cold rated. I really would like to invest in some better ones but at this time, I do not have the funds. I will continue to look for sales, and hopefully get some soon.
Or host a SR party and earn them for free! (-: And sorry for the delayed response. We’ve been sick around here and I’ve just been doing the bare minimum.
I’ve got my wish list out there filled with all sorts of things to help…I have notices that the list keeps getting longer too!! LOL
It does always seem to get longer, doesn’t it? Just focus on basics first and then add more bit by bit!
And sorry for the delayed response. We’ve been sick around here and I’ve just been doing the bare minimum.
Just recently I saw an emergency thermal sleeping bag that I’d love to include.
We got the emergency blankets and sleeping bags. One thing I haven’t found are pillows. I suppose the bags or a change of clothes can be used for those though?
That is my plan! I don’t have the space for a pillow in my back. though if I were evacuating by car and had time I’d grab mine!
And sorry for the delayed response. We’ve been sick around here and I’ve just been doing the bare minimum.
We need to get at least four more sleeping bags. I have been looking on line and at the army surplus. We live in the PNW and get lots of freezing temps and snow. Hoping to find some for under $50.
Right now, we have a blanket that we keep in our car at all times, and I have purchased some emergency blankets, but that is it. We need to add the sleeping bags to our kits! We are campers, so we do have plenty, but we just need to put it WITH our kits this week!
Even just near them if they won’t fit IN them! (-:
And sorry for the delayed response. We’ve been sick around here and I’ve just been doing the bare minimum.
I added a sleeping bag for my daughter and a new one for my husband a few months back, u found a good deal and wanted to have s good one before it got cold. I added a 5 gallon bucket of energy trail mix. Only spent 3 dollars! Sometimes you can find really great deals in you kroger clearance section.
Love clearance!
And sorry for the delayed response. We’ve been sick around here and I’ve just been doing the bare minimum.