Go-bags occupy more space in preparedness writing than they deserve, because they are the photogenic part. The honest position is that most emergencies are best handled by staying put, and this app says so repeatedly: in a flood you go up rather than out, in a power cut you stay, in bad weather you stay. See moving on foot safely, whose first section is an argument against leaving.
But sometimes you do leave, usually because a building is unsafe or you have been told to, and then having a bag by the door is the difference between a bad night and a much worse fortnight.
What this is actually for
The hospital case is worth noting, because it is by far the likeliest and nobody plans for it. A bag with documents, medication lists, chargers, a change of clothes and some cash covers an unplanned admission as well as it covers an evacuation.
Build for a few days, not for a fortnight in the woods. You are going to a relative, a hotel, a rest centre, or a hospital.
The four that matter
If you do nothing else, these four cover most of the value.
- Documents. The tier 1 grab folder. Identity, insurance, prescriptions, the household card. See what documents to hold.
- Medication. Everything anybody in the household takes, with the prescription list. This is the hardest thing to replace at short notice and the absence with the fastest consequences.
- Warmth and dry. A warm layer, waterproof, and dry socks per person. Being cold and wet turns discomfort into a medical problem. See hypothermia.
- Phone, charger, power bank, and cash. Communication and the ability to buy things. See cash.
Everything else on this page is refinement. A household with those four in a bag by the door is better prepared than one with an elaborate kit in the loft.
The household bag
One bag holding the shared items, carried by whoever is able.
- The document folder and a memory stick with the digital archive.
- Cash, in small denominations.
- Spare keys: house, car, and a relative's if you hold one.
- Torch and spare batteries, plus a head torch if you have one.
- Power bank, charged, and cables for every phone in the house.
- First aid kit, with a blister kit. See wound care.
- Water, a litre or two, and a means of treating more. See the water domain.
- Food that needs no cooking for a day or so. Bars, nuts, dried fruit, tinned with a ring pull.
- A paper map of the area and a compass. See map and compass basics.
- A wind-up radio, if you have one. See radio.
- Wet wipes, hand gel, a roll of loo paper, bin bags.
- A whistle, which weighs nothing and carries much further than a voice.
- Pet essentials if you have animals: lead, carrier, food, and their vaccination card.
Bin bags earn their place and are the most useful thing in the bag by weight: waterproofing, groundsheet, rubbish, wet clothes, and an improvised poncho.
One bag per person
Each capable person carries their own, which spreads the weight and means nobody is helpless if the group is separated.
- A change of clothes, including underwear and dry socks.
- Warm layer and a waterproof.
- Their own medication, and a copy of their prescription list.
- Their own water bottle.
- A torch.
- Some cash, in small notes.
- A copy of the household card, with the meeting points and the out-of-area contact. See meeting points and a household plan.
- Toothbrush and basic washing kit.
- Glasses, spare glasses, contact lens supplies, hearing aid batteries. These are frequently forgotten and immediately missed.
The bag should be a rucksack that fits and sits on the hips. A carrier bag or a shoulder bag over any distance is punishing.
Children
Worth doing properly, and it is as much about the child coping as about the contents.
- Their own small bag, that they pack with you and can carry themselves. A child with a job and a bag is a child who is participating rather than being carried along.
- A comfort item. Genuinely important, and the thing most likely to be left behind in a hurry. Consider a duplicate that lives in the bag.
- Something to do. A book, a small toy, paper and pencils. Waiting is most of what happens, and a bored frightened child makes everything harder.
- A snack they like.
- The card with their name, your name and the out-of-area number, in their bag and in their coat.
- A photograph of the family, printed, in each child's bag. If a child is ever separated, that photograph is genuinely useful, and it is also comforting.
- Talk about it plainly and without drama. See teaching children safety.
Let them see the bag being packed and checked. Familiarity is what makes it unfrightening.
Weight
The failure mode nobody plans for.
A bag too heavy to carry is not available. It gets left, or it slows the group to a crawl, or somebody hurts themselves.
- Pack it, then carry it round the block. That single test changes most people's packing list.
- The person who will actually carry it should carry it, not the strongest person in the house.
- Water is the heavy item. A litre weighs a kilogram, and the answer is a means of treating water rather than carrying days of it.
- Cut duplicates. One first aid kit, one radio, one map.
- Older people and children carry much less, and plan the household load accordingly.
- If it comes to a choice, documents and medication beat everything else.
Where it lives
- By the exit you would actually use, usually the front door: a hall cupboard, under the stairs, in a wardrobe near the door.
- Not in the loft, the cellar or a locked shed. All three fail in the situations the bag exists for.
- Everybody knows where it is, including children and anybody who stays with you.
- Coats and shoes nearby. Leaving a burning house barefoot is common and avoidable.
- A second small bag in the car covers the case where you are away from the house.
Keeping it current
A bag packed once and forgotten is a bag full of expired medication and dead batteries.
Twice a year, at the clock change, alongside the smoke alarms and the drills. See practising, and a household drill programme.
- Rotate the food and water.
- Check medication dates and swap in current stock.
- Charge the power bank, and check the torch batteries. Remove batteries from anything stored long term, because they corrode and destroy the device.
- Update the clothes for the season and, for children, for size. Children outgrow a bag's contents in a year.
- Refresh the documents and the memory stick.
- Check the cash is in useful denominations.