Water (items 1–3)
1. Three litres of drinking water per person per day, for at least three days. 2. A collapsible or rigid water carrier so you can collect from a bowser if mains supply is interrupted. 3. A filter bottle or purification tablets as a backstop if supply is contaminated.
Light (items 4–6)
4. A head torch per person — hands free, no fire risk, and far more useful than candles. 5. A lantern for a shared room so nobody is pointing a beam at the ceiling. 6. Spare batteries in the sizes your torches actually use, stored with them.
Power and comms (items 7–10)
7. A power bank of at least 10,000mAh, charged and rotated every few months. 8. The right charging cables kept with it. 9. A wind-up or battery DAB radio, because broadcast keeps working when mobile data doesn't. 10. A printed contact list — nobody remembers numbers any more.
First aid and health (items 11–14)
11. A proper first aid kit, not a random drawer. 12. A week of any prescription medication, rotated so it never expires. 13. Painkillers, rehydration sachets and antihistamines. 14. A spare pair of glasses or contact lenses.
Food and cooking (items 15–17)
15. Three days of food that needs no cooking — tins with ring pulls, nut butter, oatcakes, dried fruit. 16. A manual tin opener. 17. Compact ration bars for the car and grab bag, where space matters more than variety.
Warmth, documents and the car (items 18–21)
18. Emergency foil blankets or a warm sleeping bag per person. 19. Copies of passports, insurance and tenancy or mortgage paperwork in a waterproof wallet, plus around £50 in cash. 20. A boot kit: hi-vis vest, warning triangle, torch, blanket, water. 21. A jump starter — flat batteries remain the single most common UK breakdown cause.
