“Being ready for 3 days helps you manage while support reaches those most in need.”
Be Ready checklist, UK Government. Quoted under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How to start
Be Ready suggests five steps. We have kept their wording short and added a note on each.
- See what you already have. Check your cupboards first. A torch in a drawer and tins in the larder count.
- Plan for your household. Note what you still need, remembering things your family relies on, such as medical supplies, baby formula or pet food.
- Build it gradually. Pick up a missing item or two on normal shopping trips to spread the cost. You do not need to buy anything special.
- Check it regularly. Set a reminder every six months to check dates and swap things out. Our household plan suggests a review date for you.
- Connect with your community. Swap numbers with neighbours and talk about what you could share.
The checklist
This follows the Be Ready checklist category by category. The words in quotation marks are Be Ready’s; the rest is our explanation.
Water
- Bottled water for 3 days. “3 litres per person per day for drinking. More would be needed for other tasks such as cooking and washing.” Use our water calculator for your household.
Food
- Non-perishable food for 3 days. Food with a long shelf life that needs no fridge or cooking, such as tinned meat, fish or vegetables, dried fruit and nuts. Be Ready: “It’s best to buy food you’d usually eat.” Don’t forget a manual tin opener.
Hygiene
- Hand sanitiser, wet wipes and bathroom products. Especially useful if the water is off.
Light and warmth
- Torch and spare batteries. “Torches are safer than candles.” A wind-up torch needs no batteries at all.
- Blankets, sleeping bags and warm clothing. “Homes can become cold very quickly when the heating goes off.”
Communication and information
- FM radio, battery or wind-up. Write down the frequencies of the local and national stations you use for news.
- A charged power bank, to charge phones or compatible medical devices. See how long yours might last with our power bank calculator.
Money and documents
- Cash, a mix of coins and notes, and cards, in case card payments or cash machines are down. How much depends on your household’s needs.
- Copies of ID and important documents, such as passports, birth certificates, insurance details and instructions for any medical equipment you rely on.
- Important phone numbers and information on paper, including anyone who might need checking on, and a list of regular medicines and doses. Our household plan has space for all of this.
Medical and health
- First aid kit. Be Ready suggests waterproof plasters, bandages, a thermometer, antiseptic, eyewash, sterile dressings, gloves, medical tape and tweezers.
- Essential medicines and medical supplies. Be Ready advises requesting repeat prescriptions up to 5 working days before you need them, so you are less likely to run out.
We cannot give advice about your medicines. How much to keep, how to store it, and what to do if you run short are questions for your pharmacist, GP or the NHS. Never stop or change a medicine without talking to them first.
Babies
- Baby formula. Be Ready: “Ready-made or ‘ready-to-feed’ formula is best, as you may not be able to boil water to make up powdered formula safely.”
- Nappies and wipes.
Pets
- Pet food and bottled water. Your vet can tell you how much water your animal needs.
Things to be careful with
Use a torch, not candles. Candles are a fire risk, especially in the dark when people are moving around.
If your kit includes a camping stove, gas heater or generator for use outdoors:
Never use a barbecue, camping stove, patio heater or generator indoors, or in a garage, tent, porch or caravan awning. They give off carbon monoxide (CO), a poisonous gas you cannot see, smell or taste. Fit an audible CO alarm marked EN 50291 (look for the BSI Kitemark) in rooms with fuel-burning appliances.
Headache, dizziness, feeling sick, tiredness, confusion and breathlessness can be signs of CO poisoning. Get into fresh air straight away. Call 999 if someone is seriously unwell, or NHS 111 for advice. If you suspect a leak, call the gas emergency number on 0800 111 999 (0800 002 001 in Northern Ireland). NHS advice on carbon monoxide.
Lithium batteries, including power banks and larger portable power stations, can overheat or catch fire if damaged or charged badly. Fire service advice is to use the manufacturer-approved charger, charge while you are awake and at home rather than asleep or out, keep charging away from hallways and escape routes, never cover a charging battery, and stop using any battery that is swollen, hot, hissing or smells unusual. Check GOV.UK’s product safety alerts and recalls. If a battery catches fire, get out, stay out and call 999.
Cooking without power
The simplest plan is food that needs no cooking. If you want hot food or drinks, a gas hob may still work if it does not rely on electric ignition. Camping stoves and barbecues are made for outdoor use only. Never bring them inside, even into a porch or garage with the door open.
Storing your kit
- Keep it together in a cool, dry place you can reach in the dark, and tell everyone at home where it is.
- Follow the best-before dates on bottled water and food, and use and replace them as part of your normal shopping.
- Be Ready suggests a reminder every six months to check dates and swap things out. Check torch and radio batteries at the same time, and recharge power banks.
A grab bag, if you might need to leave
If you might ever need to leave home quickly, for example in a flood, Be Ready suggests keeping some essentials in a spare bag: medicines, a first aid kit, copies of documents, a torch, bottled water, warm waterproof clothing and baby care items. See our flooding guide.
In the car
For winter journeys, Be Ready suggests keeping a torch, an in-car phone charger, warm clothes and blankets, high-visibility clothing, jump leads, food and drink in the boot. Our car winter kit guide covers the Highway Code list and what to do if you get stuck.
Quotations from the Be Ready checklist and Be Ready website contain public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Never Caught Out is independent and is not endorsed by the UK Government or the Be Ready campaign.
Kit for this guide
The core of the Be Ready checklist as a kit list. Every item is research-based: drawn from official advice, not from products we have tested. We list no brands or prices.
- Bottled water, 3 litres per person per day Research-based
- Non-perishable food and a manual tin opener Research-based
- Torch and spare batteries Research-based
- Blankets and warm clothing Research-based
- Battery or wind-up FM radio Research-based
- Charged power bank Research-based
- Cash in coins and notes Research-based
- Copies of documents and a list of numbers Research-based
- First aid kit Research-based
- Medicines, as agreed with your pharmacist or GP Research-based
- Baby and pet supplies, if needed Research-based
Official sources we used
- Be ready for emergencies (including the Be Ready checklist) (Be Ready, UK Government)
- Be Ready checklist (PDF) (Be Ready, UK Government)
- Household emergency plan (PDF) (Be Ready, UK Government)
- Household emergency kit (NI Direct)
- Ready Scotland (Scottish Government)
- Product safety alerts, reports and recalls (Office for Product Safety and Standards, GOV.UK)
- Lithium-ion batteries (Scottish Fire and Rescue Service)
- Carbon monoxide poisoning (NHS)