I must admit I was once a Boy Scout… and tend to like to be prepared for stuff. Sometimes more than I really need to be! Ok, I haven’t yet seen a Zombie (except for my son on Halloween) but there have been a number of Earthquakes in Christchurch New Zealand, and the fact that there are over 50 Volcanoes in Auckland means you should really know what to do in an emergency, and have some essentials on hand if you are cut off from major services for a few days.

I have put together a few various Emergency Kits, and I have documented my Kit “for the home”. It is excessive, but a number of people ask me for the list of what I keep in it. The majority of items are kept in a large backpack (it wasn’t fantastic quality, but was about NZ$70 on a local trade site), so that it can be ‘grab-and-go’, but of course it is also important to keep things like water around in larger amounts. It is more likely you will be stuck in your house for a while, than have to escape and go somewhere in a hurry, so feel free to instead use one of those big plastic storage boxes or similar. Don’t forget to check expiry of items such as batteries, water purification tablets etc and if you have pets then you might like to think about supplies for them too. And keep it off the ground and away from dampness/water.

The list below shows what I have and where I keep it, and it also gives extra ideas about things to add in the future. I’ve also tried to give some detail on why each item is useful and where to get it if it isn’t obvious. I hope it is useful to you.

Home Emergency, Grab-and-go Kit