Welcome! 
Welcome to week #25 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!
* Some links in this post are affiliate links meaning, at no additional cost to you, I may get a small commission if you make a purchase. Some links (those to Thrive Life) actually provide you with a discounted price. Thanks for your support in this way!
Last Week:
I hope all of you were able to organize and pack your kit last week.
Week #25: The List
So you now have three days’ worth of STUFF in a relatively small pack / bag. You likely will only open this pack occasionally to rotate through stuff. This will make it difficult to remember everything that is in it and just where you put it.
In the event that you actually need to use your survival kit in an emergency situation, it is likely that time will be of the essence. You may need to locate a certain first aid supply quickly or get a clean diaper or wipe for your child. Your family will be hungry and you don’t want to dig through / remove everything in your kit looking for the oatmeal packets you think you included!
So this week’s challenge is simple: make a list of everything in your kit!
Create an overall “master” list and note where each category is in your pack (front pocket? At the bottom? Near the top?). Then, put that list either at the very top of your pack or with your important documents folder.
How About You?
What thoughts do you have about creating a list for all the items in your kit?
Skip to:
| Week #24: Organize and pack | Week #26: The List | Week #1: Packaging Your Kit | Series Into: Survival Kit Series, A Week |
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.
So happy to have stumbled upon your blog and just in time. I was searching for a way to organize my emergency supplies. At the moment I have piles of stuff here and there in my basement. I can’t wait to make some sense of it. I signed up to receive email and was quite pleasantly surprised to find Week #1 just around the corner! Thank you.
You are welcome Sarah! Glad to have you here!
My kit is coming along great thanks to some helpful tips from your blog. I need to look through my first aid kit and re-stock things that are missing. I also need another first aid kit for my car… I’ll have to make a note for my next Target run!
This is my first time here. What a great site! I’m so glad that you are about to start over so I can catch up! I have been wanting to have a 3-day pack for our family for a long time. My husband is kind of a skeptic, but I want to be prepared for any emergency. I look forward to following your blog!
Thanks!
Welcome to the site Janna!
Oooh, great idea on the list to put in the kit! I’m definitely doing that! I’m always digging through luggage when I travel, that will be so much help!
Like Valerie, I always check the clearance when I shop. Working in retail, I know things get changed out quite often & items get marked down due to only so much shelf space, or products being discontinued. Our local chain grocery regularly marks things down & the expiration dates on these products are usually way in the future. They’re not allowed to sell outdated food. I recently bought a bunch of those organic baby food pouches that have the straw mouthpiece for less than half the retail price and they don’t expire until 2014. I don’t have babies or grandkids, and it’s not on my list, but in case TSHTF, I’m sure someone can use it.
I love reading all the other posts…it seems I learn tips from all of your readers as well as you & your blog posts. Thanks again!
Those are great tips about clearance shopping Deb. Thanks!
Ooh, I am such a list person so I wonder why I never thought of this one? This is a great idea that I’ll try to get implemented this week.
I’m glad you like the idea Erin!
I went through everyones pack packs and changed out their old snack for new ones and made sure all the clothes in them still fit or replaced with a larger size. Thank you so much for this series. I am looking forward to going through it again 🙂
So am I Vicki!
I actually just discovered your awesome blog! I can’t wait to get started. I’ve read this post and love the idea. I make lists all the time. I am going to keep reading as you send your emails out but I’m going to try to start form the beginning. This is an awesome thing for you to be doing! Props! 🙂
I’m glad it has been helpful Ashley. Welcome to the site!
Too funny! I actually did this last week since! The other day I made a similar shopping list as well. But not just for the 72 hour kit, I included things for my all around preps. So, when I am out shopping I can browse the clearance aisles and know exactly what I need.
Great minds think alike Valerie!
so i just discovered your week by week survival kit series and i have to say very good information. i love the survival notebook and will be making one for my family. This has been a passion of mine for many years now (it all started with a jungle survival class when i was in the Marine Corps) and once i had my home kit made i then created a vehicle kit and a E.D.C. (Every Day Cary). I was just wondering if your family has any of these other kits in place because we have a saying in the military 2 is 1 and 1 is none, if so will you be going over these things. I giving advice on this subject and also learning new things so just wanted ti say keep up the great work and love you stuff
I do have a smaller vehicle kit Josh and I do plan to post on it next month. My EDC is a bit too basic for my liking though. So, yes, I will likely touch on it at some point…most likely as a motivation to update mine! (-:
My husband and I are beginer preppers. I just discovered your website and IM IN HEAVEN!!!!! How can I enter drawing and such?
Just leave a comment each week on the current post before Wed at 9:00 am PST and you will automatically be entered. (-:
I just discovered your blog from pinterest (a friend pinned your “documents” week) and I am so grateful! We had a close call with a tornado a month or 2 ago and I realized how ill prepared we were for any disaster. I printed a Red Cross disaster kit checklist and it was very overwhelming. I’m happy to use your blog as a guide in putting my kit together without feeling overwhelmed. Thank you!
I’m SO glad that you’ve found it helpful Jenny! And even happier that your encounter with a tornado was only a “close call” and not something worse!
HI! I LOVE your blog! I’m a fairly new prepper – learning so much and trying to get my husband as excited about prepping as I am lol 🙂 (congrats Andrea!!)
Thanks Heather and welcome!
These lists are so important! We are working hard to get our lists up to date. It is so easy to get behind on them. Thanks to eveyone for the extra tips : )
I loved all the extra tips too! (-:
Kelly, thanks so much for such informational posts. I just discovered your blog today and am already hooked! I am only a college student, but I’m a “planner” by nature and look forward to utilizing as many of these tips as possible in the future.
You are welcome Sarah! I hope you continue to enjoy it!
Thanks for the great series! It has been very helpful. Hope you have fun at convention.
Misty,
I was wondering if you have a hard copy of your checklist that we could print off. I made one myself but not sure if Im missing anything. I thought if you happen to have one I could just print off a bunch and also see what I might be missing… Thanks again.
To be honest Sharon, it is just a simple hand written list. I’ve decide to upgrade though based on the great comments left here. I’m going to Shelf Reliance’s convention this week, so it will be a while, but I will create a excel list of my kit w/ expiration dates etc. I will then upload it here so everyone can use it. Great idea, it will just take me a few weeks to implement it! (-:
Oh thats Great! No rush though…Thanks You’re the Best 🙂
Thanks! I’m working on my lists during my kids’ spring break. I have loved this series, it’s been so helpful and inspiring!
Thanks for the great post! I really need to start compiling a list like this…I know that I have certain things, I just need to remember where!
Easter vacation means no babysitting my grandchildren for 2 weeks. AND that means I have no excuse not to make lists of all my my “stuff”. Making lists have been on my “to do list”, but I have managed to procrastinate doing it. My excuse was that I needed to set up a spreadsheet, which I have yet to do. No more excuses. I got the closet in the Jungle Room inventoried, now onto the pantry and cupboards in the kitchen. Thanks for prompting me to get it done, Misty.
I love lists, so getting this part done is easy for me. My plan is to have a master list with EVERY item on it. Then break down that list for each pack, so when rotation time comes up I can do it pack by pack. Thanks for this series. I’m looking forward to going through it all over and making sure I have every detail ready.
I’m a list lover myself Tiffany. You should see my desk…(-:
I made my list and then added the expiration date for each item so I keep track of everything.
GREAT idea to add the expiration date Amber!
So, I just got my shipment in today and put it all away in ORDER!! 🙂 I was so excited!!! Then I Updated my inventory checklist and Im very pround to say it looks amazing. I feel so organized and prepared.
Thank You so much Misty for All you help over these last 26 weeks. I couldn’t have done it without YOU 🙂
YAY Sharon! That is SUCH a wonderful feeling!
Yeah! I have actually already done this – and yes, it is even on my computer! And yes, someday I will place an order!
Thanks for picking me! I’m so excited, especially after inventorying my kit last week and realizing just how old and worn my current sleeping bags are. If I were to need them during winter, I might just die of exposure since they are so inadequate for the area I live in.
During my rotation and inventory, I used openoffice word to make a list of what items I had, how many of each item I had, when/if they expired, and where they were located. I made two copies: one that was kept with my actual kit, and one that was kept in the emergency document binder for quick reference. I also did this for my car kit while I was going through that as well. While the actual recording process was just shy of overwhelming in my pregnant and hormonal state, I’m hoping that it will help next rotation run smoother.
Since I jumped in late in the week-by-week game, I can’t wait start again from the beginning with you! Thanks for all the great information!
Wow, Andrea! I’m impressed with your organization! I’m sure your list will make life much easier in the future!
Thanks for this week’s reminder. It is truly hard to remember what is in the backpack! I love your list and your ideas too. Thankyou for your research and inspiration!
Thanks Kelly!