Most disruptions are not disasters. A storm knocks out power for a day or two. A water main breaks on your block. A highway closure turns a normal drive into a long evening. Public guidance in the US — Ready.gov's household guidance — is built around the same simple idea: be ready to look after your household for about 72 hours, and the large majority of real-life disruptions get a lot easier.
This is not about bunkers or stockpiling for the end of the world. It is a short, calm checklist of basics, most of which you probably already own. Work through it once, and you are done until something changes.
1. Water — the one nobody thinks about
Plan on roughly one gallon of water per person per day for drinking and basic hygiene. For a household of three, that is nine gallons for three days — a couple of cases of bottled water in a closet gets you most of the way there. It does not need a special shelf or a rotation system worthy of a spreadsheet. Buy it, date it with a marker, replace it once a year.
2. Food — boring is good
Three days of food that needs no cooking and no refrigeration: peanut butter, crackers, granola bars, canned tuna or beans (with a manual can opener — check that yours is not electric-only). The goal is not gourmet. The goal is that nobody is hungry and irritable on day two of a power outage.
3. Light and power — plan for the dark evening
Outages are hardest after sunset. Keep a flashlight where you can find it in the dark — the same drawer, every time — plus one for the car. A rechargeable light is fine, but batteries die and outlets stop working, which is why a hand-crank backup matters: it works because you power it. Our Portable Multifunctional Emergency Device combines that crank-powered light with a radio and a small USB output for emergency phone top-ups, so one device covers three checklist items at once.
4. Information — knowing beats guessing
When the power is out and your phone battery is precious, a battery or hand-crank radio is how you learn whether the outage is one street or one county, and when crews expect it back. Local FM stations carry exactly this kind of information. Keep the radio where the flashlight is. Same drawer, every time.
5. Care — the small stuff, handled
A basic first aid kit, any prescription medication you cannot skip, and a written list of both. Add a phone charger cable, a little cash (card readers go down with the power), and a paper copy of important numbers. None of this is dramatic. All of it is the difference between an inconvenience and a bad night.
The whole list, on one line each
- Water: about a gallon per person per day, for three days
- Food: three days of no-cook basics, plus a manual can opener
- Light: a flashlight in a fixed place, plus a hand-crank backup
- Information: a radio that does not depend on the grid
- Power: a way to give your phone a small emergency top-up
- Care: first aid basics, medications, cash, paper contacts
That is the entire philosophy of this store: preparedness is practical. Start with the basics, keep them in known places, and get on with your life. BE READY! does not have to mean worried — it just means ready.
Prefer it on paper? This checklist is also a free one-page PDF — download the printable checklist, tick items off as you gather them, and keep it in the drawer with the flashlight.