72 hour kit help!!

[Kjersti]

I need to know how your 72 hour kits are failing you. What is the worst thing about them? Tell me all of your horror stories. Have you ever had to use one? What went wrong?

I looked through my kits and they had baby food and diapers. My youngest is NINE YEARS OLD!!!! Seriously?? My Motrin expired 7 years ago!! ROFL.

I need to come up with a system for an AWESOME 72 hour kit. One that works! I want to learn all of the good and bad!

Tell me stories!!!!! Maybe we can bounce ideas off each other and get cool ideas.

Thank you

[Darcy Baldwin]

I go through our Go Bags every six months or so to rotate food and double check to make sure everything is up to date - and I do it with my car emergency kit at the same time. We use the Time Change as our review time - easy to remember - Rotate the clock, rotate the bags, rotate the car kit, rotate the pantry.

The only thing I really have to do is rotate out the protein packets and update the first aid kit (and double check clothing sizes, but we're pretty stable there) and check batteries. We've never had an emergency where we had to use them, but we have practiced during some extended power outages we've had. I think that helps a lot. Do a practice run for fun one day - and live just off your bag and see what happens

[jacinda]

We have a family home evening twice a year, (about General Conference time) where we talk about emergencies etc with the kids, and go through our 72 hr kits together.

[Lyd]

Yep - every six months is the idea we try to follow here too. And, we usually do it like Jacinda, around GC time. Of course, we've fallen off the wagon a bit. I know we've rotated most of the food so that should be okay. But, we definitely need to take a look at the clothes and make sure we have the right sizes in there for everyone.

I think the hardest thing to plan for is water. You have to make sure you have enough for the necessities, but not so much that you couldn't pack it with you somewhere in an emergency. Water is a tough one in my book.

My hubby was the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator here for awhile, so we were really on top of things during that time. We've slacked off a bit in the last two years and need to get back with it!

[lovely1m]

I've never even thought about doing one. Maybe I need to think about this.

[scrapweaver]

Originally Posted by lovely1m

I've never even thought about doing one. Maybe I need to think about this.

I've never heard of these - when I saw this thread, I thought "how have I not heard of a 72 hour scrappin kit?" LOL

Living out of town we're usually pretty stocked up, but considering we've flooded 4 times this year, this is definately something I will be implementing - thanks ladies!! I'd love to hear what others say about their 72 hour (not scrapping) kits!

[mariewilcox]

I was confused too - LOL. We have emergency packs but never have called them a 72-hour kit

I also check our packs every 6 months or so. Our in-home emergency supplies get checked every 4 months (batteries, water supply in case of power outage since we have a well, transistor radio, etc. ) Since we live out of town our food supply is always stocked up because I hate to run into town every week for groceries. We have a gas stove too so in the case of an outage due to blizzards, hurricanes, etc. we can cook easily.

A biggie for me is my car pack. With us being on the road a LOT during the winter months for basketball season I make sure we are set in the case of being stranded on the roads either due to storm, going off the road and getting stuck, etc. We travel a lot of rural roads where it could take a while before help arrived so blankets, reflectors, flare lights, food and water, jumper cables, and a general first aid kit.

[SmallMoments]

I'm so glad I wasn't the only one thinking, "what is a 72 hour kit and what does Motrin have to do with scrapping???"

We don't have one either. I should probably figure something out but I wouldn't remember to update it I'm pretty sure. Lol

[jessica31876]

LOL I was wondering what they were as well. We do not have one. ANd being as though we live in Florida we probably should.

[MamaBee]

Originally Posted by scrapweaver

I've never heard of these - when I saw this thread, I thought "how have I not heard of a 72 hour scrappin kit?" LOL

hahah - me too!!

Yeah, my emergency kit is old... In the last tornado warning, I looked at the box and asked hubby, why do I have a ricer in the box? Did I think that I will have time to rice potatoes?

[scrap2day]

Originally Posted by scrapweaver

when I saw this thread, I thought "how have I not heard of a 72 hour scrappin kit?" LOL

That's exactly what I thought! I was thinking Oh, this is good. I am finally going to get my mojo back and get a bunch of pages done. This is going to be awesome! LOL.

[scrap2day]

Originally Posted by MamaBee

why do I have a ricer in the box? Did I think that I will have time to rice potatoes?

This made me smile.

[ashersmommy]

Originally Posted by scrapweaver

I've never heard of these - when I saw this thread, I thought "how have I not heard of a 72 hour scrappin kit?" LOL

Living out of town we're usually pretty stocked up, but considering we've flooded 4 times this year, this is definately something I will be implementing - thanks ladies!! I'd love to hear what others say about their 72 hour (not scrapping) kits!

Lol, I thought the same thing!

That said, I don't have a 72 hour pack at all. We have a generator so I don't worry too much about power outages, but we do have a stocked basement with essentials at all times just in case. We could make do if we had to but it would be tough. Maybe I should think about doing something more formal lol!

[NeverendingJen]

This reminds me that I need to update our 72 hr kits. They are still set for coastal Georgia, not west Texas.

and for those that are wondering what they are, a 72 hr kit is supposed to carry everything you need to survive for 72 hrs in case of an emergency. Lightweight clothing that dries easily, food you can eat with little cooking, water purification tablets and water, mecdications, sunscreen, money, etc.

Here are some links with good info:
http://www.nationalterroralert.com/72hourkit/
http://72hours.org/build_kit.html
http://lds.about.com/od/preparedness...72hour_kit.htm

Every family member should have their own 72 hr kit, plus one for each vehicle roughly. Pets also need supplies in 72 hr kits and emergency kit.

[NeverendingJen]

and even with having a decent food supply at home or a generator, it's still important to have a 72 hr pack. What if a disaster happened and you had to evacuate? these kits are easy to grab and carry the essentials for your family.

[rach3975]

I was thinking scrapping, too. We've always called the others emergency bags or 3 day go bags. We were good about keeping them current for a while, but they're very outdated now. I need to redo them and come up with a better system.

[maryinaz]

We don't have one either. We don't have a lot of natural disasters here, it's very rare. Just the heat and we do always have extra water around.

I guess I should figure out what we needed if there was a zombie apocalypse though.

[breakingbrie]

We don't have one, and I definitely think we should do it!! I can't believe I never thought to do one before We do have a quite large supply of MREs... lol. This is a really sensible idea!

Originally Posted by maryinaz

I guess I should figure out what we needed if there was a zombie apocalypse though.

^^ lol. Crossbow?

[jacinda]

I think a designer should create a kit based on 72-hr kits/emergency preparedness. That would be awesome.

[Darcy Baldwin]

It would be, Jacinda

[Kjersti]

My daughter gave a presentation to her 6th grade class about emergency preparedness...I have lots of photos to scrap

I love all of the suggestions....keep them coming!!!

Thank you!!

[scrapweaver]

[QUOTE=
I guess I should figure out what we needed if there was a zombie apocalypse though. [/QUOTE]

ROFLMBO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My hubby is a target shooter, so we may have that covered

[melanie3boys]

I did a blog post about ours after I updated them in 2011. Ours were way outdated too! But I've been pretty good about keeping them up. The kids were thrilled when we switched out a bunch of the snacks and they got to have poptarts in their lunches!

I'm trying to beef up our cash reserves. When the power is out or you're in an emergency, cash is king! So I add $20 to each pack every six months when we go through them. My other favorite thing is the "grab list". It details everything you need to grab depending on how much time you have. So if you have 5 min, just grab the kits and paperwork. If there's 30 min, you have time to grab the external hard drive and family photos.

Links to my blog postings:
http://travandmel.blogspot.com/2011/...paredness.html
http://travandmel.blogspot.com/2011/...ness-pt-2.html

[Darcy Baldwin]

Originally Posted by maryinaz

I guess I should figure out what we needed if there was a zombie apocalypse though.

That's why Russ suggested I take this guy as my 2nd boyfriend

[breakingbrie]

whoa, hello!!