What should be in a basic emergency kit?

Water, food that needs no cooking, a torch and spare batteries, a charged power bank, a battery or wind-up radio, a first aid kit, warm layers, wet wipes and hand sanitiser, and paper copies of your important documents and contact numbers.

How much water should I store?

A practical planning figure is around 3 litres per person per day for drinking and simple food preparation. For two people over 48 hours that is roughly 12 litres, about one supermarket multipack. Rotate bottled water every 6 to 12 months.

Do I need a grab bag as well as a home kit?

Not necessarily. A home kit covers staying put, which is what most disruptions call for. A grab bag matters more if you live somewhere with a known flood risk, or if you would struggle to gather documents and medication quickly.

How much does an emergency kit cost?

Less than most people expect, because a good part of the list is already in the house. Starting from nothing, a sensible home kit for a couple usually falls between £50 and £150 depending on how long you want to be covered and which options you choose.

Where should I keep it?

Somewhere you can reach in the dark without moving other things first: a labelled box in the hall cupboard or under the stairs. Tell everyone in the household where it is, and check it twice a year.

What Should Be in a UK Emergency Kit?

An emergency kit is the small set of things that make a couple of difficult days manageable: a storm power cut, a burst water main, flooding, or a night away from home at short notice.

Generic checklists are a reasonable starting point. The trouble is that they are written for nobody in particular: the same list for a single flat and a family of five with a baby and a dog, and no sense of what you already have in the cupboard.

Build My Emergency Kit

Built around publicly available UK emergency preparedness guidance.

The categories almost every kit needs

Whatever the household, the same handful of needs come up. It helps to think in categories rather than products, because the right product depends on your budget and what you already own.

The core of a UK home emergency kit
Category	Why it matters	A sensible starting point
Water	Mains supply can be interrupted or put under a boil notice.	About 3 litres per person per day, plus a container
Food	No fridge and possibly no way to cook.	Tinned or ready-to-eat food, and a manual tin opener
Light and power	A phone torch drains the battery you need for calls.	A torch per person, spare batteries, a charged power bank
Communication	Mobile networks and broadband depend on power too.	A battery or wind-up radio, spare charging cables
First aid	Ordinary injuries still happen, and help may be slower.	A stocked first aid kit and a written list of medicines
Warmth	Heating usually goes with the electricity.	Extra layers, blankets, foil blankets
Hygiene	Washing and drainage can be disrupted.	Wet wipes, hand sanitiser, sanitation bags
Documents	Paper works with no power and no signal.	Copies of key documents, printed contacts, a written plan

Why a generic checklist only gets you so far

Two households can follow the same list and end up with very different kits. Quantities scale with the number of people and the number of days. A baby changes the list completely. Pets need food, water and a way to be moved. Someone who drives daily needs a different kit in the boot than in the hall cupboard.

Then there is the part checklists never account for: most people already own a third to a half of the list. Buying a pre-made kit usually means paying for a second tin opener.

How many adults and children are in the household
Whether there is a baby, or pets
Whether you are preparing your home, your car, or a bag by the door
How long you want to be covered for: 24, 48 or 72 hours
What you can sensibly spend, and what you already have

How long should you prepare for?

Most UK disruptions are measured in hours rather than days, so 24 hours of cover is a genuinely useful floor. Forty-eight hours covers the large majority of storm-related power cuts. Seventy-two hours is a common planning horizon and gives you room if repairs take longer or the weather keeps engineers off the roads.

There is no universal requirement to prepare for a particular length of time. Pick the horizon that suits your household and your storage space, and build up to it gradually.

Start with what you already own

The fastest way to be prepared is not to buy a box of equipment. It is to work out which three or four things you are genuinely missing, and to put the things you already own in one place where you can find them in the dark.

A home kit for a couple, 48 hours

A sample of what the builder produces. Your own list changes with your household, budget and how long you want to be covered.

Bottled drinking water
Mains water can be interrupted or put under a boil notice. Bottled water needs no power and no preparation.
How much: 12 L (3 L x 2 people x 2 days)
Manual tin opener
An electric opener is useless in a power cut, and a stocked cupboard you cannot open is not a food supply.
Shelf-stable food
Food that keeps without a fridge and can be eaten cold if you have no way to cook.
How much: 4 days of food (1 days of food x 2 people x 2 days)
LED torch
A phone torch drains the battery you need for calls. A proper torch is the most useful thing in a power cut.
How much: 2 torch (1 per person)
Spare batteries
Torches and radios are only as good as the batteries in them. Keep a sealed set that does not get raided for toys.
USB power bank
Keeps phones alive for calls, alerts and torch use. Charge it every few months so it is ready.
Battery or wind-up radio
If the mobile network or your broadband goes down, local radio is how you find out what is happening.
Spare charging cables
A power bank with no cable is a brick. Keep spares in the kit rather than borrowing from the kitchen drawer.

Plus 19 more items in the full list, including warmth, hygiene and documents.

Common questions

What should be in a basic emergency kit?: Water, food that needs no cooking, a torch and spare batteries, a charged power bank, a battery or wind-up radio, a first aid kit, warm layers, wet wipes and hand sanitiser, and paper copies of your important documents and contact numbers.
How much water should I store?: A practical planning figure is around 3 litres per person per day for drinking and simple food preparation. For two people over 48 hours that is roughly 12 litres, about one supermarket multipack. Rotate bottled water every 6 to 12 months.
Do I need a grab bag as well as a home kit?: Not necessarily. A home kit covers staying put, which is what most disruptions call for. A grab bag matters more if you live somewhere with a known flood risk, or if you would struggle to gather documents and medication quickly.
How much does an emergency kit cost?: Less than most people expect, because a good part of the list is already in the house. Starting from nothing, a sensible home kit for a couple usually falls between £50 and £150 depending on how long you want to be covered and which options you choose.
Where should I keep it?: Somewhere you can reach in the dark without moving other things first: a labelled box in the hall cupboard or under the stairs. Tell everyone in the household where it is, and check it twice a year.

Get a list built for your household

Answer four questions and we will turn the general advice above into a specific list, with quantities for your household and the things you already own ticked off.