Personal Items to Add to Your Emergency Kit

A frequent question we receive is, “What should I include in my emergency supply kit?” The answer you will usually receive is, “It depends.” The reason for this is everyone’s circumstance is unique and dependent upon the emergency you are facing.

Each person is uniquely created by God and as such will have varying needs. Men vs. women, young vs. old, people with children or elderly dependents, your location, your physical fitness, your personal health and the number of people in your group will all have an impact. Plus throw in the variable of what type of emergency and the expected duration and things can get quite complicated and often times overwhelming in what you should include in a disaster kit.

A straightforward approach is to purchase a pre-built survival kit, thereby taking much of the guess work out of what to include in your kit. These kits will typically include some survival gear, first aid supplies and potentially some food and water. Plus, many of these kits have been developed by professional survival experts and can be a cost effective alternative to building a kit from scratch. They also allow for quick easy retrieval as well as creating confidence in knowing you are your family will have the supplies you need to overcome most emergencies.

However, even pre-built kits should be augmented by adding personal items you will need to support the necessities you or someone in your party may require. Some of the personal items that are often overlooked and we suggest should be added to your kit, whether pre-built or not, include:

-         Extra pair of eyeglasses or contacts (if you wear them)

-         Sunglasses

-         Medical prescriptions (at least a weeks worth if possible)

-         Personal grooming items (finger nail clippers, ear swabs, toothpaste and toothbrush, floss, tweezers, etc.)

-         Scissors

-         Sunscreen and lip balm

-         Chewing gum

-         Sanitation (bacterial wipes, toilet paper, trash bags, soap, female sanitation, etc.)

-         Latex gloves

-         Fresh batteries

-         Hat (sun and/or cold protection)

-         Work gloves

-         Additional pair of socks and underwear

-         Hand written address book (electronic forms will not always be available)

-         Reading materials (Bible)

A few other miscellaneous items you might include:

-     Coffee (have to have my coffee) or Tea

-     Small pillow

-     Sleeping mat

-     Blanket

-     Mosquito net

-     Bug repellent

-     Hand lotion

-     Paper and writing materials

-     Copies of personal documents

-         A little extra cash

As one can see the list can start to get long and complex after just a few minutes of writing down our own ideas of personal items to include and this doesn’t mention survival gear items like knives, water containers, cookware, survival food, etc.

When planning for emergencies, it’s a personal process that’s as unique as we are individuals and should be well thought out and planned for to insure you have what you need to survive and to be as comfortable as the circumstance will allow. We would appreciate hearing from you regarding your ideas and items you would include in an emergency preparedness survival kit.

Emergency Preparedness, Where to Start?

Becoming prepared for emergencies, natural disasters and social unrest can be an overwhelming task when you first begin. I know it seamed that way to me when beginning the emergency preparedness process for my household. First of all, my wife, son and some family members thought I was crazy to be so worried about such things. Second, was learning what to acquire, how much to store and where to acquire these items. Third, was not having enough money to purchase everything we needed, especially in a short time frame and with limited waste. So, to help you with your preparation plans we are providing a few ideas to help you and your family with this important exercise.

In my personal situation, my immediate family still thinks I’m a little crazy and go a little overboard when it comes to preparing for emergencies. Although after a snow storm knocked out our power for three days from the heaviest snow fall that our area had experienced on record, convincing my family became a little easier. We were able to remain in our home with little discomfort and were able to regain emergency power with a generator. The house was kept warm enough with mobile propane heaters that our water was still flowing and cooking was achieved with a camp stove cook top. We even had Internet access, lighting and a running refrigerator. It became a relatively fun experience instead of a miserable event by having enough to sustain ourselves without having to rely on family, friends or emergency services. Hopefully, you will have an easier time of convincing your loved ones that being prepared is smart and worth the time, money and resources without having to experience a major emergency prior to accumulating what you need to be prepared. We have covered some of the items we recommend adding to your survival kit in previous writings and plan on covering more of this topic in the future.

Unfortunately, this article will not be able to cover ever resource available to you in survival preparedness, but learning what to have, how much to buy and where to acquire these items can become overwhelming in itself. So, in the beginning, shortening your learning curve can be achieved through some of the following resources. One of the best places to begin is obviously the Internet by doing searches for key terms like emergency preparedness, survival kits, survival food, emergency essentials, water filtration, water purification, etc. There are also numerous books available to help you in the preparedness process and these can be acquired online, at book stores or checked out at your local library. One of my favorite resources for books are several used book stores in my area. Another great resource is to join the numerous online forums that can also be discovered through your Internet search efforts. In a future writing we will cover some of our favorites and if you have any suggestions, please send them our way.

The final area we want to cover is having enough money to gather what you need to be prepared for disasters or other emergencies. Obviously, in the tough economic environment we are facing, having extra money lying around is not a common occurrence for most of us. Our recommendation is to acquire what you need as a regular process and potentially in smaller quantities. Another way of using your dollars wisely is to purchase ready made kits that have been professionally design to help you survive most emergencies. You may also purchase survival food supplies that have been designed for the correct amount of meals, proportions, and balanced variety. These meals have also been packed in manors that allow for an extended storage period, some as long as a twenty-five year shelf life. The fact these meals will last, will also help you conserve money by not having to throw out expired food because of a short storage life. Wasting food in this manor is not a good emergency plan.

Preparedness can be a moderately short process for you or it may become a lifestyle depending upon what you are anticipating to occur and your belief the event will be for an extended period of time. Being prepared can be achieved with few mistakes, time efficiency and lower amounts of money by relying on experienced people and gaining the right knowledge from reliable resources. We are here to help you in this process and appreciate hearing from you with your ideas and your tips.

Survival Knives & Tools and Navigation & Communication

As an industry leader in the distribution of emergency survival kits, Off The Grid Ready has expanded our product offering to include some of the best survival gear available on the preparedness supplies market. The brands we have added to our survival knives & tools category include: KA-BAR, Columbia River Knife and Tool (CRKT), SOG, Ontario Knife and Schrade. These are some of the best survival knives, both fixed blade and folding knives, and survival machetes available for wilderness survival and emergency preparedness.

We have also expanded our navigation & communication products to include Brunton Compasses and Silva Compasses. These are great compasses for hiking, camping and for outdoor survival to navigate to and from your intended destination. Please visit our site to explore these great survival gear additions first hand. And while you’re there, don’t forget to sign up for our eNewsletter to keep informed of survival skills knowledge and new product announcements.

About Off The Grid Ready:
Off The Grid Ready has the Emergency Survival Kits and Emergency Preparedness Supplies you'll need for going off the grid to take care of your family and loved ones. We also carry long term food storage, freeze dried food, disaster kits, survival gear and preparedness kits. When you visit our site, be sure and sign up for our newsletter to keep informed about important survival topics and to learn about new survival products we are continually adding to our online store.

National Preparedness Month

September is National Preparedness Month and is being promoted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). They have a very informative site with some great tips on being prepared at Ready.gov. We are helping to promote this site with a link from our home page and with this newsletter to assist in getting the word out and to help our customers in your preparedness planning.

Being prepared starts with three primary steps as outlined on the Ready site: making a plan, keeping informed and getting involved. All of these can be achieved with a little focus and within a relatively short timeframe. More details will found on the link provided above.

Having a pre-built survival kit takes the guess work out of what to include in a kit and will allow for easy quick retrieval as well as creating confidence in knowing you are your family will have the supplies you need to overcome most emergencies. We offer a complete line of emergency kits for most emergencies, natural disasters or office/school environments that have been created by professional survival experts achieving the goals mentioned previously.

These kits leave room for personal needs, are packed in a easily portable container or backpack and should also be augmented with personal items. The following items are suggestions to include:

-         Extra pair of eyeglasses or contacts

-         Sunglasses

-         Medical prescriptions

-         Personal grooming items (finger nail clippers, soap, toothpaste and toothbrush, Tweezers, etc.)

-         Sunscreen and chapstick

-         Chewing gum

-         Fresh batteries

-         Hat (sun and/or cold protection)

-         Additional pair of socks and underwear

-         A little extra cash

-         Hand written address book (electronic forms will not always be available)

-         Reading materials (Bible)

-         Other miscellaneous comfort items

These are just a few of the items we recommend adding to your kits based on our own knowledge and experience. In future newsletters we will add to your preparedness process with further discussion in planning, practicing for emergencies, communication and physical & mental preparedness. So for now thank you for your support and please let us know how we can help you and your family be Off The Grid Ready.

Compass In The Sky

Many native skills have been lost over the years as we become more dependent on technology and one of these in navigation. Before there were GPS systems, maps that you can print from the Internet, mass produced printed maps and even before compasses, people had to rely on their skills and the sky for directions. One of the tools used for night navigation was the North Star also known as Polaris.

For many, finding the North Star is not something they have been taught and may not be able to distinguish from the millions of other stars. But knowing where this star is in the northern hemisphere in the night sky can give you a fairly good understanding of which way North is on this great planet. True many people today will not be traveling at night, but if the need should arise, you will be better equipped and more confident in your night travels.

Polaris the pole star, though not very bright, is actually fairly easy to identify if you have a basic understanding of the constellations. It is the beginning of the handle of the Little Dipper and can be correctly located by using the pointer stars in the pan of the Big Dipper. Polaris is so directly over the northern pole that its position changes very little each night. You can observe all other stars traveling in a circular pattern around Polaris over the Earth from East to West each night.

The Big Dipper and Little Dipper both have seven stars that make up the constellations. Polaris being the beginning of the handle of the Little Dipper and the pointer stars being the end of the pan of the Big Dipper. If you follow the two stars that are the end of the Big Dipper’s pan, you can easily locate Polaris. Please review the diagram below.

With this being said its import to have the knowledge and tools to navigate and survive when technology fails or when the need arises. Some of the tools you will find from Off The Grid Ready include pre-configured kits for most emergency situations. Plus we have the survival food, emergency water and survival gear you need to build your own kit. We are constantly adding new products, so check back with us frequently.