Welcome!
Welcome to week #7 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 all of you were able to add some utensils, plates etc. to your kit last week.
Week #7: Clothing
If you (heaven forbid) ever have to face a serious natural disaster, it is likely that you will need a change of clothes. You may be bleeding or extremely dirty. Even if you aren’t, you will likely want to change your clothes at least once over a 3 day period of time.
So, this week, add clothing to your kit supplies for each person in your family.
Clothing Suggestions:
Consider the following thoughts as you decide what clothing will work best for your family.
- Keep your clothing as lightweight as is reasonable.
- Try shopping at your local thrift store.
- Bright, solid colors are smart.
- Think of what the weather will be like in the next 6 months and include appropriate clothing.
- Consider a sweatshirt and sweatpants. You could cut them off in warm weather.
- If you have children, especially young children, think of how much you expect them to grow in the next 6 months and include clothing in that size.
- Don’t forget underwear, shoes and socks!
What we have done in our family:
We have pants and long sleeve shirts (could be cut off in the summer), for each family member. We also have a change of underwear and 2 changes of socks for each family member in our kits. I keep each person’s clothes in a plastic bag so they will stay dry even in rainy weather.
We keep coats, hats, gloves and shoes in our coat closet (they take up too much room to be in the actual kit) and would actually wear these if evacuating in the winter.
How About You?
Leave me a comment and tell me what clothing you will add to your kit. What are you adding? Why?
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| Week #6: Eating | Week #8: Shelter | 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.
So far we have a tent, too heavy for carrying on foot, but good for the car, and ponchos. Want to get some paracord and lightweight tarps.
Love paracord!
Each kit has a plastic poncho in it. One adult also has rope and heavyweight plastic to configure some sort of shelter. We each have a change of clothing depending on the season, but not the extra pair of shoes–yet.
Love the “yet!” (-:
Gah! I honestly am torn on this shelter topic. One the one hand, individual tube tents are easy and more practical to carry in an emergency, BUT I’d prefer a larger family tent, so as not to be separated at any time if possible. How would we manage to carry such a heavy load though?? 🙁
you could look for a bowling bag to put your tent in. At least that way you could roll it instead if carry it, but you could still pick it up if needed to get over something. Im thinking of getting one to put water in.
As backpackers, we are pretty good in this arena. My husband made an extremely lightweight tarp which will keep us all covered (Ray Jardin’s design). We also have a roomy 4-man 4-season backpacking tent that is readily accessible. We DON’T have quality toddler sleeping bags and I’m researching that idea. My bag is quite old… hope I win 🙂
i plan on taking a trip to the local thrift store and grab some emergency clothes, i will also add some trash bags for ponchos and two tube tents.
Thrift stores are GREAT!
I completly forgot to get these. Thanks for mentioning these. This is what I love about this site, getting idea from others that you may have forgotten about. They are called mylar, I think. In case anyone want to know. I saw a show once where this guy used a mylar blanket, some platic sheating and a fire to create a shelter that had a greenhouse effect that would keep you warm in the coldest of weathers. You tube dual survivor if anyone is interested.
Our weather changes a few degrees quite often so we have jeans( we can cut them into shorts if needed) Shirt to match the most probable weather ie. short or long. and I want to get wind breakers for everyone. if its a cooler it can help with that, or if its raining it can help with keeping the rain off, and lightweight enough that if you need to wear it for arm protection from being in sun too long or if having to hike through rough terane or doing some sort of work that your arms could get scratched up it wouldnt be too hot to wear in most weather. We also have cheap ponchos. I dont know if everyone has a dollar tree, but i got two ponchos for a dollar. fyi i just found water resistant bags at dollar tree for a dollar to put inside of our backpacks to help keep things dry. (incase any of you have a dollar tree/ dollar store/ everythings a dollar ect) around you) Instead of extra underware for myself I have an extra two piece swim suit, If it gets wet it for any reason it will be much more comfortable than panties and a bra ( for some well blessed women this may not be the best idea) and i can bathe in it if needed. but if not needed will still work for underwear. We also have a tarp,and a pop tent now. Like misty no room for extra shoes in our packs, but we do have extra socks( you have to take care of your feet, you cant do anything if your feet are in bad shape) and i am going to have a box with extra stuff that wont fit in our packs if we can leave the city in our vehicle. ( if we have to leave ) in some situations being in the city would not be the best idea. So we want to plan in case we have to leave our home. but we have a pair of boots as well as a pair of tennis shoes. depending on the need. i think thats about it.
Loving the swimsuit idea Christina!
I was very lucky to find heavy weight ponchos at our local kroger marked down to a dollar each, bought one for each family member. We have been looking at tents, yet to decide on one, but will be adding tarps to the kit until we decide on a tent.
Tarps are a great alternative!
I love this survival thing you are blogging! My husband and I are slowly building on things we need. We just purchased a large tent just in case it is needed.
I”m glad you’ve found it helpful Marsha!
I’ll pick up a couple of tarps and a sturdy rope from the hardware store this week, and throw them in the back of the minivan. Hmmm, maybe the same thing for the other car, too.
Thanks for offering lower-cost alternatives!
Of course Julia!
Two weeks ago my father-in-law gave us a two man tent. I plan on also adding a tube tent. I had garbage bags in my smaller emergency backpack already, and am in the process of adding some extra clothes.
Lucky you Natalie! Free stuff is always best!
Just getting started with our packs…going to work on getting the basics together once school is out for the summer. I found packs for the kiddos and am looking for ones for us. Have put away the dollar per member since discovering your blog via Pinterest along with buying water. So I feel I at least have a start. Thanks so much for a great blog and website!
A start it wonderful Sarah! ANd it sounds like you have a good start!
We have some army duffle bags that I am going to use for our bug out bags. They are very durable and have shoulder straps so that we can carry them on our backs if we have to. I’m going to include a box/roll of large size plastic bags instead of ponchos. The plastic bags can be used for other things such as mini-tarps or trash collecting as well as ponchos. I want to try to double-duty things as much as I can.
Exactly why I chose to include garbage bags as well Roxie! Smart.
Hi. I really enjoyed reading these articles. I am from Cleveland, Ohio and played sports all my life. Even on trips (not sports related), I use my soccer bag to carry everything in. I used it when back packing in Europe to staying in the Hotter weather in Texas. You can use your soccer bag as a back pack, with the little straps, or if you need to change things up use it over your shoulder.We also use ziplock baggies to put our extra pair of shoes in and then put that attached to the soccer bag so it can hang freely without getting ruined. We would also put rolled up newspapers in the shoes to dry them up so we can wear them again quickly if needed.You can also store the soccer bag in a large garbage bag so it doesn’t get wet and when done with the garbage bag, roll it back up and stuff away.Hope this helps. Plus if the kids play sports they may have that comfort of their own “sports” bag.
LOVE it! Fabulous ideas Keri!
Just an idea to help you out with your shoe problem. I have a drawstring shoe bag that hang outside of my backpack. I didn’t want the shoes taking up so much valuable space in my pack so this was my solution.
Something similar to this
https://www.amazon.com/Bags-For-Less-Travel-Bag-black/dp/B005DSKVVW/ref=sr_1_31?s=apparel&ie=UTF8&qid=1334404724&sr=1-31
Hope that helps you out!
Thanks Kim!
Yes. I need to buy rain ponchos too. Does SR sell child sized ones?
We have warm and cold clothes and a poncho for everyone. We should add some tarps.
I have purchased rain suits for myself, my husband, and todler…also rain ponchos…have added the cash ($1/per person for the year and then a little extra), some good utensils, and other multi tool items…looking to get water filtration and replacement filters soon…also waiting for hubby to get home to get measured for the best multiday back pack, look into sleeping bags, tents, and foot prints…doing a lot of research…
Both my husband and I have ponchos we bought for camping so those will go in our kit. We also have tarps and a plastic drop cloth from moving- we will add both of those as well
stormyranew at yahoo.com
I have like 12 plastic rain ponchos for our family of five. They had nice ones at the dollar tree a couple years ago so I scooped some up! We have tarps that we use camping as well as some of those silver plastic blankets that keep you warm IDK what they are called LOL.
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I purchased some rain ponchos and rain suits (jacket and pants) for myself, husband, and son. I also purchased some metal silverware with cork srew, knife blade, etc….making some progress….
I am lucky to have a 16' travel trailer that I pull with my car. It "lives" at my son's house about 15 miles from my house. It is fully stocked with clothing, bedding, and some food. I do need to get a couple of rain ponchos – one for the trailer and one for my car.
Our survival kit is pretty sparse on shelter, to be honest.
For clothing, my husband and I both have sturdy boots (a must have), a pair of rugged camo pants, a t-shirt, and a hoodie. Our area is very temperate, so we don't have much in the way of inclement weather besides rain. If it gets much chillier than about sixty degrees, we also have a set of sturdy gloves and a shemagh (Keffiyeh scarf) each.
For shelter, we have a five man tent given to us by some friends as a wedding present. It's been very loved, so to assist it, we made a trip to Sam's Club and purchased a set of two industrial sized tarps. These tarps are 16 feet by 12 feet, so they can easily cover the tent and make another little eating area outside the tent just by employing some bungie cords and tarp clips. Also, a friend introduced me to a webpage (https://outsidethe-cardboard-box.tumblr.com/post/226692639/building-with-tarps) that shows how to build temporary housing out of tarps, so if worse comes to worst we can always just build a teepee. 🙂
My purse is also a little survival bag and (among other things) I have a tiny little umbrella in it. You'd be surprised how many times that little umbrella has saved me when there was no rain on the weather report! There's no feeling quite like being the only one able to get my car during a down-pour because everyone else left their umbrellas at home. 😉
So glad you find it helpful Lisa! I appreciate all your support!
I really need to add ponchos and a couple of tarps to my items! So glad you have this series! Just when I think I have everything covered you remind me that I have missed something very important! Thank heavens 🙂