UK 72-Hour Household Emergency Kit: What You Actually Need

Understand first

Education-first • not medical advice

Open the deep dive

What’s going on

UK tap water is generally safe, but people buy filters for taste, limescale, or specific concerns. Different filter types do different jobs.

Why it matters

The biggest win is often behavioural: water that tastes good is water you drink. For kettles and appliances, reducing limescale can also make daily life easier.

Common causes

Hard water areas = limescale build-up.
Taste/odour variability from local supply or plumbing.
Confusion about what filters can/can’t remove.

No-spend first steps

If taste is the issue: chill water, use a covered jug, or try a different bottle/cup.
Descale kettles regularly if you’re in a hard-water area.
Check your local supplier’s water quality report for context.

If you’re buying anything, use this calm checklist

Choose by use case: jug (taste), under-sink (capacity), countertop (mid).
Budget for ongoing filters (replacement cost matters most).
Avoid fear-based marketing; prioritise clear specs and replacements.

Browse Topics Get the free shopping list

General information only. If you have symptoms or a medical condition, consult a qualified clinician.

A useful household emergency kit does not need to look like military equipment or cost hundreds of pounds.

For most UK households, the sensible goal is much simpler: be able to manage a short period of disruption without immediately depending on shops, working card machines, mains power or running water.

This guide focuses on the things that solve real problems first.

1. Drinking water

Water is the first priority because you cannot replace it with another household item.

A useful minimum planning figure is around 3 litres per person per day for drinking and basic food preparation. For a three-day buffer, multiply that by the number of people in your household.

For more detail, use our 72-hour household water plan.

Stored potable water comes before filtration. If the mains supply stops completely, a kitchen filter cannot create water that is not there.

If you also want an everyday or portable filter, compare the different formats in our UK water-filter shortlist.

2. Food that does not depend on perfect conditions

You do not need specialist survival food.

Start with foods your household already eats that are shelf-stable and require little or no cooking. Examples include:

tinned fish, meat, beans or pulses;
nut butters;
oatcakes or crackers;
dried fruit and nuts;
shelf-stable milk;
simple cereal or oats;
ready-to-eat meals that suit your household;
baby or specialist foods where required.

Rotate these through normal meals instead of building a forgotten cupboard of food nobody likes.

3. A manual can opener

It sounds trivial until the electricity is off and half your emergency food is in tins.

If your household stores canned food, keep a simple manual opener with it.

4. Lighting

A torch is more useful than relying on your phone flashlight for hours.

Keep at least one dependable torch somewhere everyone knows, plus spare batteries where appropriate. Head torches are useful because they leave both hands free.

Candles can provide light, but they introduce a fire risk. Battery lighting is generally the simpler option for routine household preparedness.

5. Phone power

A charged power bank can keep a phone useful during a short outage for calls, messages, official updates and maps.

The best power bank is one you actually keep charged. Check it periodically rather than leaving it untouched for two years.

For longer or more frequent disruption, higher-capacity battery systems exist, but they should be considered only after the cheap essentials are covered.

6. Communication without assuming the internet works

Write down key information instead of keeping everything exclusively in your phone.

Useful details include:

electricity network emergency number;
gas emergency number;
water supplier and emergency number;
important family phone numbers;
medications and key medical information;
insurance details;
local meeting point if household members are separated.

A small battery or wind-up radio can provide another route to information if mobile data and home broadband are unavailable.

7. First aid and medication

A basic first-aid kit should contain items you know how to use rather than dozens of unfamiliar products.

Typical basics include dressings, plasters, antiseptic supplies, disposable gloves and any household-specific items you routinely need.

Prescription medicines deserve separate planning. Do not deliberately over-order medication, but avoid leaving essential repeat prescriptions until the final dose where possible.

8. Hygiene

A short water outage makes ordinary hygiene surprisingly difficult.

Useful basics include:

soap or hand-cleaning products;
toilet paper;
sanitary products;
nappies and baby supplies where applicable;
rubbish bags;
basic cleaning supplies;
wet wipes for limited situations where washing is temporarily difficult.

9. Warmth and clothing

A power cut in winter is different from one in August.

Keep accessible layers, blankets and suitable clothing. If someone in the household is elderly, very young or medically vulnerable, plan around their needs rather than an average healthy adult.

Never use barbecues, charcoal burners or other outdoor combustion appliances indoors for warmth or cooking. Carbon monoxide can build up rapidly.

10. Some cash

If card terminals, mobile networks or payment systems are temporarily unavailable, a modest amount of cash can be useful.

This does not mean keeping large sums at home. The point is simply to avoid having zero offline payment capability.

11. Household-specific essentials

A generic checklist is never complete.

Consider:

infant formula, food and nappies;
pet food and medication;
mobility aids;
hearing-aid batteries;
medical equipment;
spare glasses;
dietary requirements;
charging needs for essential devices.

What not to buy first

It is easy to spend money on impressive-looking equipment while missing basic needs.

Before buying specialist gear, ask:

What exact problem does this solve?
Do I already own something that solves it?
Will everyone in the household know how to use it?
Does it require batteries, fuel, filters or maintenance?
Is there a simpler, cheaper solution?

A cupboard full of gadgets is not the same thing as a workable household plan.

A simple three-level approach

Level 1 — free or nearly free

write down emergency contacts;
know your utility providers;
know where the stopcock and fuse box are;
organise medicines and household-specific needs;
make sure everyone knows where torches are kept.

Level 2 — basic household buffer

three days of drinking water;
shelf-stable food you actually eat;
torch and batteries;
charged power bank;
first-aid basics;
hygiene supplies;
manual can opener;
modest cash reserve.

Level 3 — additional resilience

Only after the basics are covered might you consider:

portable water filtration;
higher-capacity battery power;
radio;
additional lighting;
outdoor/camping equipment that has a genuine household use;
more specialised equipment for vulnerable household members.

Where Wild & Well can help next

Our aim is to keep product recommendations attached to genuine use-cases rather than create an endless shopping list.

Start with:

As we expand this section, we will add dedicated guides for backup power, indoor air during smoke/pollution events, food resilience and practical outdoor equipment — with clear trade-offs and conservative claims.

The Wild & Well rule

Prepare for inconvenience before you prepare for catastrophe.

A three-day household buffer is useful for ordinary outages and local disruption. Build it gradually, use products you understand, rotate consumables, and prioritise the boring essentials first.

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