Welcome!
Welcome to week #10 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!
Last Week
I hope that you were able to add some items to keep you warm to you kit last week.
Week #11: Sanitation
If a member of your family is injured or hurt, you will need to be able to care for them on your own. Obviously, first aid supplies are essential in an emergency. But before you can use bandages and such, you need to be sure the cuts and / or wounds you are covering are well cleaned. This will reduce the risk of infection and scarring as well as promote faster healing.
In addition, you can prevent many problems / illnesses by staying clean. This week, add sanitation supplies to your kit.
Ideas / Suggestions:
First, I like this article (from WebMD) about how to clean a wound. I would suggest printing it out and keeping it with your sanitation / first aid supplies: Cleaning and Bandaging a Wound. Then, consider the following list when deciding what supplies to add to your kit:
- Clorox Wipes
- Hand Sanitizer
- Antiseptic Towelettes
- Water (in boxes or pouches).
- Soap.
- Alcohol pads
- Latex Gloves
- Saline Solution
- Neosporin
What we have done in our family:
I have antiseptic towelettes and alcohol pads, hand sanitizer and soap. I also have a box of distilled water and latex gloves. We have saline solution with our personal care supplies.
Many have asked why I have additional water here in my kit. My answer is that I simply like to have it separated out in my mind: some water is for drinking; other is for cleaning wounds if needed. I like packaging it with my first aid supplies so that it would be easily accessible were I to need it quickly. Most of our drinking water is at the very bottom of our packs while this water sits with our first aid supplies right near the top.
How About You?
Leave me a comment and tell me what sanitation items you will be adding to your kit. Why? Do you know how to use them?
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| Week #9: Staying Warm | Week #11: First Aid | 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.
I have a lot of the same items as listed, so I’ll just share a chuckle about a recent purchase. I found brand-name disinfecting wipes on sale for less than the price of the generic kind, so I bought a case!
I Love those types of finds! Score!
Nerd alert: following this list is like shopping for the first day of school for me! Many times I’ve tried to put together a reasonable first aid kit for everyday use but I’m happy to have a solid plan to follow bit by bit week by week. I think I had purchased a small how-to first aid booklet, so I’ll be fishing that out of the closet and adding that to my supplies as well.
Love it Nicole!
Wow, I am so happy I found your site! This is great information. Looks like I found it about half way though the plan, but I am definitely going to review the previous posts and try to catch up.
For sanitation this week, I went to Costco and bought a box of clorox bleach. Im a little concerned because bleach only lasts about 6 months before its no longer good for sanitation but can be used for household uses for up to a year. I need to be sure to rotate it often.
I also stocked up on bandages and some water pouches. I never would have thought to keep sterile water around for wound cleaning.
Yes, bleach is important to rotate!
And I repeat the series every 6 months, so you can just jump in where we are now and then continue half way through the next go-around!
Great, Thanks!
I like the idea of bleach as well as print outs for wound care (especially in a childs bag to remind them what to do if they were separated from adults). I will be adding these ideas to my packs.
Awesome Laura!
Don’t forget to check and rotate your nitrile or latex gloves too. They can break down pretty quickly if exposed to frequent temperature fluctuations.
Thanks Sarah. Good tip. I will add it to the rotatino week. I don’t think it is on the list yet.
I’m always adding to our first aid kit. Thanks for all of the tips! I love to stock up on Clorox wipes when they are on sale!
Know this week is disinfecting and sanitizing but when I went to the dollar store I found some items that I had not seen before to add to the first aid kit. Finding helped me see that I was lacking dental first aid. I lost part of a crown on New Years Eve several years ago. Spent hours finding a store that was open /AND had dental wax. At the dollar store I found oral pain gel, DenTak Temparin Max (Lost filing and loose cap repair). Also picked up some floss picks and dental picks.
LOVE the dollar store! And great tips about dental first aid! Thanks!
I have lots of alcohol prep pads that were originally intended for a diabetic family member but could be used for sanitizing as well. Also have several containers of alcohol cleansing wipes…do these have a short shelf life like bleech does?? They do not have contain bleach but I still want to make sure that they are rotated regularly if necessary (however, it would definitely be cheaper and more convenient if they had a long shelf life). I did have a few containers of rubbing alcohol but I took them out because I was worried that they may spill/leak all over everything. If so, in addition to potentially ruining items like my weather radio, it would also make our packs flammable. I like the post about Lavender Essential Oil…I’m going too add that too!
I don’t think the alcohol wipes have a shelf life, but they can dry out. SO, I would check them when rotating other things…
While my husband is prior service and has first aid training I do not. Something I definately need to work on. This week I will be adding the water, gloves, and saline solution. The water is something I would not have ever taught of to have in my first aid kit, but seems important in the case of emergency. I love the saline solution idea. There are many cases I can think of that it would come in handy.
I need to buy a predone kit first…and get caught up on all the other weeks!! Thanks for these great posts!
You are welcome Amy!
We finally remembered to add this stuff to our kits, missed it last time through. We also added hand sanitizer to each vehicle, right in the door pocket, perfect for roadtrips.
I do that same thing Meredith! Great minds think alike!
This week I printed out the article for cleaning and bandaging a wound, I have a well stocked first aid kit, that we taking camping with us, and I check often to rotate the supplies and replace with fresh ones, but since we use it often, it works out good. I work in a clinc and am certified in CPR and first aid, but putting the printout in my kit will be helpful if I am ever not able to help. That way my older son or husband can read the instructions and take care of the wound! great idea, I would have never thought of that since I already have the knowledge!
You are lucky you have the knowledge Katie!
Here’s my problem – bleach does lose potency, so does hand sanitizer, and wipes dry up! is there something out there that lasts? I know coconut oil has a very long shelf life and is a natural disinfectant…but is there anything else?
I’m adding latex gloves to my kit. My mother has dialysis 3 times a week, and she brought me about a hundred rolls of cloth tape, very small rolls, but hey, free always works for me!
Also my husband is allergic to the preservative in saline solution, is there an alternative?
I don’t know about an alternative to saline solution Theresa, but the #1 obstacle with 72 hr kits (in my opinion) is rotation. You can’t just pack it and leave it. YOu’ve got to rotate things in it. We cover that the last week….
I’m pretty well set for this week. I have saline solution, soap, alcohol wipes, hand sanitizer, latex gloves and regular wipes. I’m still looking for a travel package of Clorox wipes. I really like the idea of using granular pool shock and have thrown in a pouch of that as well.
How do you feel about hydrogen peroxide? I use it all of the time to clean minor wounds at home, prior to applying a sterile dressing. It’s inexpensive and as far as I can determine, has a long shelf-life. I would *not* include this in my children’s packs simply to avoid accidental ingestion.
Great comments here! Will be downloading/laminating some basic information on wound cleaning and care for our kits, too!
When you dab hydrogen peroxide on a cut, that white, fizzling foam is actually a sign that that the solution is killing bacteria – as well as healthy cells.
Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a compound made up of two hydrogen atoms and two oxygen atoms, begins to breaks apart as soon as it contacts blood, creating that stinging sizzle. This is because blood and most living cells contain the enzyme catalase, which attacks hydrogen peroxide and converts it into water (H2O) and oxygen (O2).
Hydrogen peroxide has been used as an antiseptic since the 1920s because it kills bacteria cells by destroying their cell walls. This process is called oxidation because the compound’s oxygen atoms are incredibly reactive, and they attract, or steal, electrons. With fewer electrons, bacteria cells’ walls become damaged or even completely break apart.
Unfortunately, hydrogen peroxide’s oxidation also destroys healthy skin cells. This is why many physicians and dermatologists currently advise against using hydrogen peroxide to clean wounds , as it has been found to slow the healing process and possibly worsen scarring by killing the healthy cells surrounding a cut.
Interesting Theresa. I didn’t know that. I will have to look into it a bit more!
My mother-in-law got all of her family members a small bottle of cayenne pepper powder to keep in the glove box of our cars – works to stop bleeding. Honey packets can be picked up @ fast food restaurants – this is good to apply to insect bites, spider bites or small infected wounds to draw out the poison/venom, cover with gauze. Honey taken orally soothes sore throats and has antibacterial properties as well. Recently purchased liquid silver solution – taken sublingually it dramatically reduces cold or flu symptoms. Sprayed on wounds after cleansing reduces infection. Generic saline spray used for cleaning contacts is cost effective and sterile to use for wound cleansing and to saturate old stuck on dressings for removal.
I would question whether or not honey from a fast food restaurant is really honey at all; most honey on commercial grocery shelves isn’t honey:
https://www.naturalnews.com/034102_honey_consumer_alert.html
Just be careful about your honey source. It has to BE honey to have the good properties of honey that you’re talking about.
Thanks for the tips Sherry and the followup Theresa and Erin!
Please read the ingredients in the honey packets that some restaurants put out, all to often they are just flavored corn syrup and not honey.
This week I am adding latex gloves, because reading your list helped me to realize I had overlooked that item, so thank you!
Here is a very thorough explanation of the proper technique to clean a wound:
https://firstaid.webmd.com/tc/cleaning-and-bandaging-a-wound-topic-overview
Thanks for that Shalene!
We have everything on the list plus. I found bleach tablets. That you dissolve in water. I have emailed them about ratios to see how much would be needed to clean water. But have not been responded to. But they would be great for cleaning and disinfecting. With very little weight. I found them st Walmart for just a few bucks.
Ask about the shelf life too! Bleach has a pretty short one!
Still have not recueved a reply from the company. Dont expect I’ll get one
Well, It’s supposed to get down to 20 below zero here tonight and that gets me to thinking…..how does everyone keep water in their vehicle with out it freezing? My husband and I both mostly use one car so I don’t really want to take it out and not have it, especially when we are travelling in such frigid weather.
We have that problem too. I just empty some out of the bottles and let it freeze.
Thank you Theresa. That seems to be working well 🙂
Thanks Theresa!
I added 2 bottles of hand sanitizer into our packs. I need to get some print outs to have in there also. My husband and I have been talking about having our 14 year old daughter take a first aid and CPR class with me next month when I get recertified.
Knowledge is even more important than supplies!
I picked up some first aid stuff – gauze, alcohol wipes, gloves and a few others at CVS a couple weeks ago. I had a bunch of extrabucks saved up to do it all for free! I think I will go ahead and separate some out for our packs, thanks for the reminder!
Love free stuff from CVS! Extra bucks are the BEST!
Our home kit is pretty complete however, our son is starting college out of state so I bought him a small first aid kit for the dorm and will add a can of Clorox disinfecting wipes and alcohol wipes to his kit.
Lucky Son!
Other than the print-out for wound-care, I have most of these things this time around. I always have a box or two of gloves on hand…I buy them at the grocery or drug store & use them to clean chicken, chocolate-dip cookies, mix meatloaf, etc., aside from having them for emergencies. I also keep a pair in my purse and in my work apron, just in case, as well as alcohol wipes. I guess that comes from being a former band mom, ;-P
I love labbie’s idea of the lavender essential oil, so I may add that to my kit. I know it also enhances calmness, which would be helpful in a crisis.
Love all those uses for gloves Deb!
good advise on the disinfectant, you are wealth of info, thanks so much
Glad it is helpful Sandra!
Congrats Erica!
I have added Lavender Essential Oil to my kit. I accidentally buried a lockjaw wrench in my hand while working on my camper. I had recently read that Lavender was good for bleeding and pain so I went into the camper (bleeding a trail behind me) and while I irrigated the wound (which was deep enough to need stitches but I didn’t have 5 hours to spend in an ER) I asked my husband to get my Lavender EO. I put a few drops on the wound and much to my surprise it immediately quit bleeding and the pain went away to the point that I was able to use that hand to finish the repair. After finishing, I irrigated the new dirt and debris out of the wound again (OUCH!!!!) reapplied the Lavender EO which alleviated the pain completely and put a bandage on the wound. After about 2 days with just Lavender, I switched to coconut oil and Frankincense so that the wound would heal from the inside out since it was so deep and it healed so well that you can’t even tell where it was! Amazing! So, Lavender EO has been added!
I totally love to keep going through this list with you. It helps me to constantly check everything and add things that I have found in the meantime. Thanks!
Wow! Thanks for the real life story! I have lots to learn!