Tier 01 · Survive
Three days of self-reliance.
One weekend of work.
If you've never prepared for anything, this is the starting point. By Sunday evening, you'll be ready for the kinds of short emergencies that actually happen — power outages, storms, the quiet first night when the lights don't come back on.
FROM THE FIELD
Read the accounts people write after their first storm and the same loop appears: a forecast arrives, the household rushes to buy water and batteries, the event passes, everything goes in a closet. A year later the batteries are dead and the water tastes like plastic. The next forecast starts the same rush. This page is built to break that cycle. One weekend of steady work, rotated into normal life, so the next storm finds a household that is already ready.
What this tier covers
The three days that cover most of it.
The 72-hour benchmark exists because it covers the vast majority of disruptions a household actually faces. Most power outages end within a day. Most severe weather events pass within 24 to 48 hours. The roads reopen. The grocery store restocks. Help arrives.
What you're preparing for, mostly, is the in-between: the quiet stretch before normal returns. A weekend of work now means the next one of those stretches doesn't catch you flat-footed.
The framework
Six categories. Real quantities.
The six basics every household needs in the first three days, with real quantities and honest cost ranges so you know what to expect.
01
Water
One gallon per person per day, for three days. A family of four needs twelve gallons. Store in sealed food-grade containers and rotate every six months.
~$20–$50
02
Food
Three days of non-perishable, no-cook food. Canned goods, peanut butter, crackers, dried fruit, energy bars. A manual can opener. Skip anything that needs water or refrigeration.
~$40–$80
03
Light
Two LED flashlights with spare batteries. A battery or hand-crank lantern for the main room. Never candles indoors — fire risk is real and the leading cause of post-outage house fires.
~$40–$80
04
Medicine
A three-day buffer on every prescription in the house. A basic first-aid kit: bandages, antiseptic, pain reliever, tweezers. Anything specific to chronic conditions.
~$20–$40 + scripts
05
Communication
A battery or hand-crank NOAA weather radio. A printed contact card with names and numbers — cell phones die, and most of us no longer remember anyone's number. One out-of-state contact who can relay messages.
~$30–$80
06
Documents
Copies of IDs, insurance cards, prescriptions, and the deed or lease in a waterproof bag. $200–$300 in small bills — ATMs and card readers go down with the power.
~$10 + your time
From the field · Accounts describe the same early surprise: a gallon per person per day sounds like plenty until the household tries cooking, washing hands, and refilling bottles from the same supply. The margin disappears faster than the math suggests.
Total cost, starter kit: ~$160–$340. Less if you already own flashlights, batteries, and a manual can opener — and most households do. Use what you have first.
Prefer a ready-made list
You don't have to assemble it alone.
Most of a 72-hour kit can come from what you already own. If you'd rather work from a vetted, ready-made list than build it piece by piece, the Kit Library lays each one out by scenario.
Browse the Kit LibraryCommon mistakes
Five ways households get this wrong.
Worth knowing because the marketing in this category is heavy. The mistakes below are the ones we see most often — and the ones that quietly waste money or undermine the kit.
01
Storing water in milk jugs
The plastic breaks down within months. Jugs leak. The water tastes off. Use food-grade containers built for storage — a $30 Aqua-Tainer outlasts a hundred milk jugs.
Read more →
02
Buying a year's supply before the first three days are dialed in
The pyramid is inverted. Get 72 hours fully real first, then 2 weeks, then think about months. Most households who buy ahead never come back to fix the bottom.
Read more →
03
Confusing marketing for function
The MOLLE-loaded "bug-out bag" sold at sporting goods stores offers nothing over a normal backpack at half the price. A plain Jansport with the right contents inside it does the same job.
Read more →
04
Forgetting the household conversation
The talk — who picks up the kids, where do you meet, who's the out-of-state contact — matters more than the kit. Households often buy the kit and skip the conversation. That's the half that has to happen out loud.
Read more →
05
Buying freeze-dried food you'll never actually eat
The 4-gallon bucket goes in the basement, sits there for ten years, expires, gets thrown out. Better: eat what you store, store what you eat. A normal pantry rotated through normal cooking beats any "emergency food supply" — and you'll actually know how to prepare it when the moment comes.
Read more →
Two kits, not one
One to stay. One to go.
Most emergencies you stay put for. Some, you leave fast. The two kits overlap, but they live in different places for different reasons.
The stay-home kit
The full 72-hour supply set. Lives in a closet, garage, or basement — somewhere accessible but out of the way. Comfortable rather than portable: bigger water containers, bulkier food, the full first-aid kit.
This is the kit you build first. Most emergencies — outages, storms, ice — you ride out at home.
The ready bag
A grab-and-go subset. One per person. Lives by the door, in a closet near the entry, or in the trunk of the car. Sized down to a backpack: a water bottle, a day's food, a flashlight, a change of clothes, copies of documents, a small first-aid kit.
For the moments you have to leave fast — wildfire evacuation, flooding, a power line down across the driveway.
From the field · A go bag assembled once and never reopened is the one that fails. Medications expire, the phone cable stops fitting, the seasonal layer is wrong for the month. The bag drifts out of readiness so quietly that the gap only shows when the bag is needed.
The household plan
The part that doesn't cost anything.
A kit doesn't help if no one knows where it is, or where to meet, or who picks up the kids. This is the half of preparedness that doesn't show up in a shopping cart — and the half most households skip.
The out-of-area contact
Pick one person who lives in a different state. When local lines are jammed, long-distance often still works. Everyone in the household calls the same number to check in.
Two meeting points
One near home — the corner park, the neighbor's driveway — for the small stuff. One regional, farther away, for the kind of event that makes the neighborhood inaccessible.
Who picks up the kids
Two people, in priority order, listed on every school and daycare emergency form. Both know the meeting points. Both have permission on file.
The pet plan
Pets aren't allowed in most public shelters. A short list of pet-friendly hotels along your regional evacuation route, plus a friend or relative outside the area who'd take them in.
From the field · In evacuation accounts, the pet is the reason people hesitate to leave. The bag is packed, the car is running, and someone goes back inside. The short list of pet-friendly options this section describes is the plan those accounts wish they had made earlier.
Tonight, in 30 minutes
Five things you can do before bed.
None of this requires a trip to the store. Most of it uses what's already in your kitchen and your phone.
Fill three large containers with tap water
Empty soda bottles, large pitchers, even pots with lids. Store somewhere cool. This alone covers about a day for two people. ~5 minutes
Locate every flashlight in the house
Test each one. Replace dead batteries. Put one in every bedroom and one by the front door. ~5 minutes
Write a contact card by hand
Out-of-state contact, two local emergency numbers, your home address, your medical info. One copy in each wallet. One on the fridge. ~10 minutes
Photograph your important documents
Driver's license, insurance cards, prescription bottles, the front of the house from the street (for insurance claims). Email the photos to yourself. ~5 minutes
Pick a meeting point with your household
Just one, for now. Somewhere obvious and walkable. Tell everyone in the house — including the kids — out loud. ~5 minutes
That's it. You're now more prepared than most of your neighbors.
Take it with you
Three printables. No email required.
72-Hour Checklist
One-page printable PDF. The full kit at a glance, with checkboxes and the recommended gear inline.
Download →
Household Plan Template
Fillable PDF: contacts, meeting points, childcare protocol, pet plan.
Download →
Wallet Contact Card
Credit-card-sized printable. One per family member, kept in the wallet.
Download →
Affiliate disclosure New World Survival participates in affiliate programs including Amazon Associates. When you buy through our links, we earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. We only recommend gear we'd use ourselves, and our editorial picks are made before any commercial consideration. We say no to gear we wouldn't keep in our own kit.
When you're ready for what's next
Got the basics? Most households should plan for two weeks.
Hurricanes, regional grid failures, winter storms that close roads for a week — they happen, and 72 hours doesn't cover them. Tier 02 is where most households should actually live.
Continue to First 2 weeks