Our 72 hour kits

I remember my mom having these 72 hour kits and every 6 months we would update them.  Take out our old clothes and eat the treats and replace them with new ones.  We did this the saturday of General conference.  Usually the clothes stayed for a year or two then we put old new clothes in there. haha. We probably just passed the clothes to the next sibling and just kept rotating them down the line.  I remember loving this because then we got to eat the fruit snacks and granola bars.

When I was in the student ward at Weber state, I was on the FHE committee which means we planned FHE every week.  We planned one that we made bucket 72 hour kits.  It took a long time but I think everyone enjoyed it.  My husband and I were in the same ward so we both had a bucket.  Just a few years ago I began thinking well we are fine but our kids are old enough they probably need one too.  So I started picking up a few things here and there.  Finding backpacks at the DI for $1.  I finally had gotten almost everything we needed so I began assembling them.


This is what was in the 72 hour kits we made in our single adult ward.


When I put the kids winter clothes away in the spring I pulled out a few that we could put in their backpacks.  Its better to have winter clothes and then if an emergency happens in the summer you can always cut pants to shorts and long sleeve shirts to short sleeve.

We also had a emergency preparedness night with our church and I learned sooo much from this lady that presented to us.  She gave us a binder of how to get things together step by step. It makes it much more manageable and doable.  It has helped me a lot.  She put together these food 72 hours kits that were small but sufficient enough.
They fit into a juice box

So you drink all the juice, I know its hard but just do it!!!  

Then you wash it out really good and let it dry.  You have to cut out the plastic spout part.  

This is everything that fits in the juice box.  It will last you 3 days if you eat the recommended amounts.  

It took a little figuring out how to get it all in and the best way to fit them in together but it works great and its pretty compact in there.  

Then I taped this schedule to the outside that tells you what to eat when to make it last for 3 days.  I threw in an extra jerky stick, and some extra hard candies because I like to eat and its always better to have a little bit more.   

On the top I taped on a list of everything in the box, and it has a spot for the date on it.  

Then we get to the backpack part of the kit.  I found these for $1 or $2 at the DI and they are all in excellent condition. 

In every backpack there is a glowstick, a flashlight, pants, shirt, socks, toothbrush, tissues, space blanket, underwear and in the babies I put some diaper covers and flour sack towels, wipes and some hand sanitizer as well.  

  In my bag I put a nail clipper set and a first aid kit.

In the kids I put some crayons and a coloring book along with some simple card games they can play to keep entertained or keep their minds off whatever might be going on. 

Here are the diapers that we have in there.  They can also be used for multiple other things since they are flour sack towels.  

So in this recent update I combined our two buckets and made one and then we all have a backpack as well.  I store them in our front closet so if we have an emergency we can hurry and grab them and go.  I need to just get the water.  I will just use plastic bottles.  See if I can find a little better plastic than pop bottles,  BPA free, but still big enough to have enough water for all 5 of us.

I feel better having this all together and even if we don't update it every 6 months - a year we will have it and I will update it every few years at least.  It's still better than nothing.  I hope I never really have to use it but if we do we are prepared.