A household emergency kit helps you cope when you can remain at home.
A grab bag serves a different purpose. It contains the essentials you may need if you have to leave your home quickly. The challenge is balance: your grab bag needs to contain genuinely useful items while remaining practical to carry. Use this checklist as a starting point and adapt it to your household.
Essential information and documents
☐ Identification
☐ Copies of important documents
☐ Emergency contact details
☐ Important medical information
☐ Medication details
☐ Insurance information where appropriate
☐ Pen and small notebook
Consider storing important documents in a suitable protective/water-resistant pouch.
Communication
☐ Mobile phone
☐ Charging cable
☐ Charged power bank
☐ Written emergency contact numbers
☐ Suitable two-way radio where relevant to your household plan
Don't assume all important information will remain accessible through your phone or cloud storage.
Information
☐ Compact battery-powered or wind-up radio where practical
☐ Spare batteries where required
A radio can provide another way of receiving available information if mobile data or normal internet access is unavailable.
Lighting
☐ Compact torch
☐ Head torch
☐ Spare batteries
A head torch can be particularly useful in a grab bag because it provides light while keeping your hands free.
Food and water
☐ Drinking water
☐ Compact ready-to-eat food
☐ Food for specific dietary needs
☐ Baby food where required
☐ Pet food where required
Your grab bag isn't necessarily intended to contain your household's entire three-day food and water supply. Weight matters.
Prioritise what you realistically need to take with you and follow official instructions during an evacuation.
First aid and medication
☐ Essential personal medication
☐ Compact first aid kit
☐ Spare glasses where required
☐ Essential medical information
☐ Any critical personal medical supplies
Medication should be one of the first things considered when personalising a grab bag.
Clothing and protection
☐ Warm layer
☐ Waterproof layer
☐ Spare socks
☐ Practical footwear if not already being worn
☐ Gloves/hat depending on season
☐ Suitable personal protective items for your circumstances
Adapt clothing to your local climate and season
Personal hygiene
☐ Hand sanitiser
☐ Wet wipes
☐ Tissues
☐ Essential toiletries
☐ Sanitary products
☐ Nappies where required
☐ Small rubbish/waste bags
Children
☐ Essential food/drink
☐ Medication
☐ Nappies and wipes where needed
☐ Warm clothing
☐ Identification/contact information
☐ Small comfort item
☐ Compact activity/book where practical
Pets
☐ Lead or harness
☐ Carrier where appropriate
☐ Pet food
☐ Water
☐ Medication
☐ Identification information
☐ Waste bags
Don't discover during an evacuation that the pet carrier is buried behind boxes in the garage.
Other useful items
☐ Keys
☐ Small amount of appropriate emergency cash where useful
☐ Whistle
☐ Multi-purpose practical items appropriate to your situation
☐ High-visibility equipment where relevant
☐ Local map where useful
Keep it portable
- Once your grab bag is packed, pick it up.
- Can the intended person actually carry it?
- Can it be carried while helping a child?
- Can an older person manage it?
- Could you carry it while controlling a dog or carrying a pet carrier?
- A grab bag that is too heavy to move quickly has missed its purpose.
- Where should you keep your grab bag?
Keep it somewhere:
☐ easily accessible;
☐ known to household members;
☐ away from areas particularly vulnerable to flooding or other likely hazards;
☐ where it can be collected quickly if you need to leave.
Review the contents regularly, particularly medication, food, batteries, clothing sizes and children's supplies.
Grab bag quick check
Before considering your bag ready, ask:
☐ Can I carry it?
☐ Is essential medication inside or immediately accessible?
☐ Are the batteries usable?
☐ Is the power bank charged?
☐ Are the documents current?
☐ Do the clothes still fit the children?
☐ Have our household or pet needs changed?
☐ Does everyone know where the bag is?
Starting with an emergency backpack
A prepared emergency backpack such as the Midland C1726 may provide a useful starting point, depending on its contents and your requirements.
Always personalise a prepared bag.
No manufacturer knows your medication, your children, your pets, your dietary requirements or the specific needs of your household.
- Explore the Midland C1726 emergency backpack →
- Explore all emergency radios →
- Explore GP torches →
- Explore GP head torches →
- Explore communication equipment →
