72-Hour Emergency Kit UK: Practical Household Checklist
A useful emergency kit helps your household manage a short interruption to electricity, water, communications or transport. This checklist is designed for ordinary UK homes. Start by checking your cupboards, then add missing items as your budget allows.
How much water?
The UK Government’s Be Ready checklist suggests 3 litres of drinking water per person per day. For a three-day starting point, that is 9 litres per person. More will be needed for cooking, washing, babies, medical needs and pets. Keep commercially bottled water according to label instructions, and follow your water supplier’s advice during an incident.
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72-hour household checklist
- Drinking water for each person for three days, plus additional household needs
- Three days of familiar shelf-stable food that can be eaten without cooking
- Manual tin opener where needed
- Torch for each key area and spare batteries
- Battery-powered or wind-up FM radio
- Charged phone power bank and leads
- Blankets, warm layers and spare clothing
- First aid items, essential medication and necessary medical supplies
- Hand sanitiser, wipes and basic hygiene supplies
- Baby supplies, pet food and pet drinking water as relevant
- Written contact numbers, household meeting point and copies of key documents
- Some cash where practical, plus payment cards
Simple ways to prepare without overspending
Use the food you normally buy and rotate it. Prioritise the needs of your actual household rather than buying expensive specialist kits. Check supplies every six months and update them as children’s needs, medicines or pets change.
Power-cut and cooking safety
Torches are safer than candles. Never use barbecues, camping stoves, generators or charcoal heaters indoors, in garages or in enclosed spaces; carbon monoxide can kill. Plan meals that require no heating, and seek official guidance during an emergency.
Prepare a simple family plan
Agree whom to contact, where to meet, how to check on vulnerable neighbours safely and where important documents are stored. Know your utility shut-offs. In England, Wales and Scotland, the power-cut reporting number is 105. If there is immediate danger, call 999.
Go beyond the kit
Read our practical UK household preparedness guide and visit our emergency preparedness hub. For hands-on outdoor skills, see survival courses in Devon and private family bushcraft experiences.
Official guidance: UK Government Be Ready checklist. This article is educational and does not replace instructions from emergency services or utilities.
