Most people are three days from fine.
The power goes out. The water stops. Help takes a while to arrive. Here is the good news: if your household can stay home for three days without either, you are ready for most emergencies. Start with your own numbers.
Built for every household — including elders and seniors, disabled and neurodivergent folks, medical equipment users, pets, and tight budgets.
Written by a CERT-trained neighbor in Oakland, not a gear company.
How much do you actually need?
One gallon per person per day is the federal standard — half for drinking, half for washing and cooking. Pets are counted at half a gallon a day, which fits a cat or small animal. Have a large dog? Count it as two pets. See the full water math →
Built for the households most lists leave out.
Standard checklists assume one kind of person: able-bodied, neurotypical, no dependents, money to spend. Real homes have more going on — seniors, people with disabilities, medical needs, kids, and pets among them.
Medical needs come first
Oxygen, CPAP, dialysis, insulin. If something in your home plugs into the wall to keep someone well, that is where your plan starts.
Every age in the house
Infants need formula and clean water. Elders need their medicine list and a route they can actually walk.
Pets are family
Food, water, a carrier, and a photo of you together in case you get separated. Shelters ask for proof they are yours.
Low-stim is a real need
Emergencies are loud, bright, and unpredictable — hardest of all for autistic and sensory-sensitive people, and for anyone with anxiety or PTSD. Headphones, sunglasses, and a written routine are equipment, not extras.
Mobility, sight, and hearing
A generic route is useless if you cannot manage stairs, see the smoke, or hear the alarm. Plan the route you can actually take, and name the neighbor who will check on you.
Every item we recommend comes with a budget option. Safety should not be something you have to afford.
There are only two emergencies.
Either you stay put and the outside world stops working, or you have to leave fast. Everything else is a detail. Pick the one you want to handle first.
Stay home for 3 days
No water from the tap. No power. Stores closed or stripped. Storm, quake, fire, heat wave, outage, or something none of us saw coming — it all looks about the same from inside your house.
- Water: how much, where to put it
- Food you can eat without cooking
- Light, heat, and charging a phone
- Using the toilet when water is out
Leave in 10 minutes
Fire, gas leak, flood, evacuation order. A packed bag on your way out means you leave with what you need instead of standing in the hallway deciding.
- What goes in every bag
- Documents and medicine
- Kids, elders, and pets
- Where to keep it so you can grab it
These two lists overlap a lot. If you can afford doubles of the important things, get them — a second headlamp, a spare first aid kit. There is a saying in preparedness: one is none, and two is one. Things fail, run out, or end up in the wrong room.
But if money or closet space is tight, you are not stuck. Buy one, keep it in the go bag, and pull it out when the lights go off at home. One set can do both jobs. Get ready with what you have, and add doubles later.
One planner, and it covers everything.
A fillable PDF you can type into or print. Ten sections, and you do not have to fill them all out at once.
Household Emergency Binder
Fillable PDF · 28 pages · free, no email
- Everyone in your house, on one page
- Emergency contacts and local services
- A medical page for each person who needs one
- Where every important document lives
- The full 3-day supply checklists
- Shelter-in-place and evacuation plans
Prefer to start smaller?
Nothing to download
The binder is thorough on purpose — it is meant to last for years, not to be finished in one sitting. If you would rather just start, read the two guides on this site and use the kit builder. Come back for the binder when you are ready to write it all down.
- Staying home for 3 days
- Packing a go bag
- The kit builder — your list, with prices
Rather have someone walk you through it?
Book a virtual readiness audit and we will walk your home together on video, room by room, and leave you with a written plan for your household.