First 72 hours
Cover immediate needs
Count people, pets, medication, and devices. Secure water, food, light, communication, and a clear way to leave if necessary.
Long-Term Resilience ยท Household Guide
Build your household plan, one week at a time.
Start with the next 72 hours, make a two-week base usable, then extend the supplies and routines your household can safely maintain.
By Dan Whelan, founder of New World Survival
Researched from government agencies, university extension services, and other published sources. See our sources
Why this guide exists
A longer reserve starts with ordinary decisions.
A 90-day reserve is an expanded household goal, not a government requirement. The useful work is practical: understand your people and needs, secure the first few days, build a stable base, and keep the plan current.
First two weeks
Make the base usable
Plan familiar meals, safe water storage, sanitation, medical continuity, temperature, and cooking around the services you can safely use.
Thirteen weeks
Extend without waste
Add one normal week of food and consumables at a time. Rotate what you buy into daily life and review the gaps you cannot store away.
Planning limits
A pantry is not a complete plan.
Food is only one part of household continuity. Water, prescriptions, energy, sanitation, and evacuation each need a separate, safe plan.
01
Water
Store a manageable reserve, protect it from contamination, and know where current local advice appears.
02
Health
Talk with clinicians and pharmacies early about prescriptions, devices, refrigeration, and care routines.
03
Energy
Reduce demand before buying equipment, then match essential jobs to safe power, light, cooking, and temperature plans.
04
Evacuation
A home reserve works only while the home is safe. Keep people, pets, documents, and ready bags prepared to leave.
The guide
Find the page that moves your plan forward.
Each section opens into clear web articles with practical planning tables, a printable reference, and next-page navigation.
Start here
Orientation, the first 72 hours, and a household profile that reflects real needs.
Open the start pages
Water
Calculate, store, find, screen, treat, filter, and recover water safely.
Open water pages
Food
Build familiar meals, weigh tradeoffs, shop deliberately, and rotate what you store.
Open food pages
Energy
Define essential jobs, reduce demand, and use power, fuel, cooking, and temperature systems safely.
Open energy pages
Household operations
Plan for health, sanitation, communication, food safety, evacuation, records, and people with specific needs.
Open household pages
Build and review
Operate the first two weeks, build toward 90 days, track the inventory, and keep a quick reference nearby.
Open build pages
How to use it
Start with the page you need today.
Use the guide in sequence when you are building a household plan from scratch. If you are addressing one gap, enter through the matching section, use its planning table, then follow its next-page link.
Keep the printable pages nearby
The web articles are easier to read and search. The printable guide preserves the original worksheets and page layouts for household use.
Honest limits
Preparedness supports good choices. It does not replace help.
If there is an evacuation order, dangerous temperature, contamination, fire, flooding, or a medical emergency, follow current local instructions and seek help. A household reserve is never a reason to remain in unsafe conditions.
The guide draws on public emergency, water, food-safety, and health guidance. Check current local alerts and product instructions during an active event.