What is an Emergency Kit?

An emergency kit is a collection of items to help you get through an emergency or disaster situation.

Every situation and person could lead to a different kind of emergency kit being needed. The basics are the same. It’s to help you get through the short term problems you may be facing due to the situation at hand.

I like to think something organised is better than nothing. Even if it only gets you through the next 24 hours, that has to be better than nothing.

Emergency Kits by Different Names

Emergency kits can go by different names. You may have heard of some of the following:

• Survival kit
• Bug out bag
• Disaster bag
• Grab bag
• 72 Hour kit

I’m sure there are many more names out there. The key point is no matter the name, the concept is the same.

Qualities of a Good Emergency Kit

• It’s stocked with enough items to let you get through the initial emergency situation. For some people, this could be 3 days or up to 2 weeks.
• All the items are in one location and easily accessible.
• The items perform as expected when needed.

Pre-made VS Building your Own

Pre-made Emergency Kit

There are a lot of places out there that sell pre-made kits. Which is great to see. Here are the positives and negatives of them.

Positives

• With one purchase, you could have everything you need
• The overall cost might be cheaper than buying all the individual items
• You can add your own extra items if needed

Negatives

• The kit might not suit your exact situation
• Some items might be of lower quality
• The cost may be more expensive than buying items individually

Building Your Emergency Kit

Here’s the positives and negatives of building your own kit.

Positives

• It’s personalized to your needs
• It will fit your budget
• Everything in it can be what you want

Negatives

• It could cost you more than a pre-made
• It might take you some time until your kit is fully done

The Option I Like

Building your own kit might have some negatives, but I feel it is the better way to go about it.

I’ve put together this website to give you with as much information as I can to help you achieve that goal.

In the blog section of the website I get into detail about what I am choosing for my own kits. I discuss different options I am looking at for every aspect of the kit.

I hope this has helped answer the question “what is an emergency kit?“

Next up is Why you should have an emergency kit?