Welcome!
Welcome to week #9 in the “72 Hour Kit Ideas: A week by week approach” series.
This series is all about making it simple and doable 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 six 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 a book. Purchasing the 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.
Purchase Your “Simple 72 Hour Kits” Book Now!
Last Week
I hope you were able to add items for shelter to your kit last week.
Week #9: Warmth/Heat
So, now you have clothing and protection from the elements. You likely even packed coats/hats (or put them near your kits) if it is chilly where you are. But what if it is really cold where you are at? How will you keep your family warm…especially while they are sleeping?
Often, even if it doesn’t get below freezing, it can get chilly: especially if it is rainy. I know that I will want ways to stay warm: especially for my kids.
If it even gets relatively cold where you are, make sure you add things to your kit this week to keep your family warm.
Suggestions
Fire brings warmth, so having a way to start one is important. Additionally, it will be harder to stay warm while you are sleeping because you won’t be near the fire, and you won’t be generating as much heat. So, consider lightweight ways to stay warm while sleeping as well.
- DIY firestarters
- Storm proof matches
- Lighter
- Heat packs (put inside a sleeping bag, jacket, or under a blanket)
- Emergency blanket or emergency thermal sleeping bag
- Heat Cell (I LOVE these. They are affordable, safe to be used indoors, small, and light.)
- Sparkie Fire Starter
- Fleece sleeping bag
- Blastmatch Fire Starter
- Quickfire Fuel Reserve (start a fire in almost any conditions with this!)
- Survival Sleeping Bag (VERY compact, but as warm as a regular, medium weight sleeping bag)
What We Have Done in Our Family
For starting a fire, we have storm proof matches and the Sparkie fire starter and three Fuel Reserve Packs. We have an emergency sleeping bag for each person and two “Blizzard” bags. We are hoping to squeeze three of us into each one to generate more body heat. We also have two thin blankets. We’d have one blanket covering three of us in each tent.
In addition, we have 18 heat packs (one for each person, each night) and two heat cells (we will burn each for just an hour or two to warm the tents each night).
How about You?
Leave me a comment and tell me what how you will add warmth to your kit. What will you be doing this week?
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Week #8: Shelter | Week #10: Sanitation | Week #1: Packaging Your Kit | Series Into: 72 Hour 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’ve got the waterproof matches, a few of those clickers with safetys on them one of those quicky starters that use flint or something not sure what the heck it is, hubby bought it at a trade show. I’ve also started to make those egg carton starters using the lint from my dryer and old candles that wont finish burning. We are actually going camping this weekend so I’ll be able to test them out too.
We have lots of matches, a lighter or two, and a nice fire steel type fire starter. I would love to add some heat packs too but haven’t yet.
I have waterproof matches (thanks to Andrea and her Skill of the Month post in March) and that is it. 🙁 I want to get a flint starter too. The heat cells look interesting – I will have to investigate them more. I also need some kind of guaranteed tinder for outside fires.
I have DIY fire starters and some waterproof matches, but since we live in Colorado, I feel we could use more!
I have made some DIY firestarters and we have a ton of regular matches in plastic bags. I do want to add the Heat Cells. They look so cool :).
This would be such a great addition to my family. I have only recently gotten interested in creating a survival kit. I have some rudimentary beginnings – canned food, storing shoes and blankets in the car, etc. I am really enjoying this series so far.
I recently bought some matches that will light pretty much anywhere (i think) and we have some blankets and some jackets. I also have some emergency blankets.
I am now at week two of getting my family ready. Last week I was at nothing, not even a flashlight in the car. Now I have the kids 72 kits started with a detailed list of everything needed and things packed checked off along with expiration dates or date it was added. I have two teenagers so their packs can be more like adults. I have never heard of the heat cells so will pick some of them up as well as DIY firestarters which is so easy and inexpensive. I still feel overwhelmed at being so far behind, but each day I try to add more.
I am working on making para cord bracelets for me and the family and adding a piece of jute cord down the middle with flint for the toggle and steel for a middle decoration.
I saw an interesting video at the following website https://modustollens.org/stove/stove.php
It is how to make a small tent stove out of used computers. I am going to attempt to make my own stove like this gentleman did.
Most of my “heat” is from my time in Utah–not quite as much need in Arizona. I’ve got a propane tent heater, those foil emergency blankets, matches, pocket warmers…quite a bit, considering that our biggest concern here is staying cool!
I have 5 bic lighters. I don’t have anything for warmth. Considering getting some heat cells.
There some great ideas that your subscribers have shared. I am lacking in this area of my preps. I have lots of home made fire starters made from dryer lint, lots of lighters, stick matches and steal wool and some batteries that can be used with the steal wool to start fires. I have sterno cans and hand warmers. I have the mylar emergency blankets as well as fleece & wool blankets and some cheapo sleeping bags.we also have an old wheel/fire ring for outdoor cooking and heat. We have some wood, but we need more. I have about a dozen or so emergency candles. I think I need to add some sort of fire starter and I need to get waterproof matches and maybe charcoal and starter fluid. We have a salamander heater, but it can’t be used inside the home. My hubby uses it to heat up our garage for wood working winter projects. I would like to be able to store more fuel for this heater. I really liked the tent idea to be set up inside your home. You could also used plastic sheeting to close off a room to stay in. thanks Misty for your blog. It has helped me a lot in my prepping.
I have several fireplace lighters, a ten pack of regular lighters, about twenty 100 hour oil candles, a case of the heat cell cans, a case of hand warmers, waterproof matches and a quick fire stove with a whole case of the fuel pellets for it. I do not intend to be cold so I also have a few of those foil type blankets that hold your body heat in. Do you think that is enough seeing as it is only me here now?
We are currently living in a warm area, so I feel comfortable with an alcohol/toilet paper in a new paint can stove. When we lived in Utah, we had a kerosene stove with kerosene stored, and it was in our plans to put in a wood burning stove. We also had a free-standing gas fireplace-type stove. The fan would not work in a power outage, but the flame would heat that room still.
Congratulations to Pat!! And thanks for sharing her comments…I learned a few new tips!
We have waterproof matches, a fire steel, heat cells & heat packs in each kit. We’ve also made firestarters from dryer lint & toilet paper tubes (we use those for our firepit, as well). We have one blastmatch between us. I’ll be buying more heat cells (love ’em) and possibly quickfire. It gets pretty cold here, so we like to be prepared.
For heat we have homemade fire starters (petroleum jelly cotton balls sealed in cut straws, small pill bottles of cotton balls soaked in alcohol), matches sealed in cut straws with box edge strikers, glucose test strip bottles filled with water proof strike anywhere matches, birthday candles, emergency candles, bottle cap candles, inclosed pencil sharpeners to use to make tinder from sticks and crayon, 1 large sized crayon (Kindergarten boxes of 8), firesteel of different types, one handed spark fire starters, bic lighters, 9 volt batteries with steel wool (both in mini zip seal baggies made for medication), hand and feet warmer packs. We have used all of our fire cubes and I need to get some more. We use to make and have the homemade lint in cardboard eggs cartons with melted wax but they take up so much room (I like the PJ straws much better these days)
I have a blast match in my pack. We also have 3 Sparkie firestarters, one in my EDC, and one each in my husband and oldest daughters back packs. We also each have some wetfire tender along with cotton balls soaked with petroleum jelly. We also each have water proof matches and a lighter. I am placing an order for a few of the heat cells as soon as I post this comment 🙂 So we should be well covered in this area. Have you ever heard of issues with the Heat Cells leaking in any ones back packs?
We currently have a little match case that is waterproof (though it doesn’t contain waterproof matches) in our emergency kit. Since I’m putting together bags now though I think I”d like to have some heat cells in each adult back and some heat packs in each bag as well as a lighter and some waterproof matches. I think that would be a good way to go. We don’t have to deal with freezing temps here in AZ quite as much, but you never know! I also REALLY want to build one of those little stoves that scouts make out of a pop can and a rocket stove out of a #10 can to have as well.
We just made a huge batch of fire starters using dryer lint and toilet paper rolls, so each of us has 3 apiece in our packs. My 3 boys each have waterproof matches, which I’ll be upgrading to stormproof matches, and magnesium firstarters. My husband has a fire steel, we both have lighters, and I will be adding a Sparkie to my kit. All of us have 6 heat packs each, which I picked up on seasonal clearance for 25 cents each!
I will be adding a heat pack and DIY fire starter.
Right now, we have 2 packs of waterproof matches and 2 fire steels. We also have a few heat packs (I will be getting a couple more this week). We are also going to be purchasing a couple of heat cells.
We are saving up some money to install a wood burning stove. This is multi-functional because it will generate enough heat to warm the entire house and it can be used to cook on. For outdoor heat, we are stocking up on charcoal and gathering wood. We already have thermal clothing and insulated sleeping bags. I look forward to reading what others are doing.
I need to make more firestarters since its camping season I don’t want to use all my reserve. I fill a small cupcake liner with lint. Then pour in wax and pinch shut. It takes a little longer than just putting it in toilet paper rolls but its water proof and takes up less space. I only use one to start a full size camping fire so it tends to go a lot farther this way also.
A couple of weeks ago, I used the guest post on dryer lint firestarters to make a little fire big enough to roast marshmallows. It worked so well that I’ve been saving back all my lint (which has been about 10-14 loads worth — it’s been a laundry-heavy couple of weeks!) in case we need them. I also took any of the Hot Hands we had leftover and put them away in our kits — we can just get new packs when winter comes back around, and this way they’re not cluttering up my closet, but are a nice, free way to stock up my kit.