Every Home Needs These 8 Items

Summary

8 Items Every Home Needs:

• Water Storage and Purification

• Reliable Lighting

• Portable Power and Charging

• Emergency Communication (for details, see Communication)

• Off-grid Cooking

• First Aid and Medication

• Battery Powered Carbon Monoxide Detector with Screen

• Cash and Critical Documentation

Having stuff is not the same as being prepared. Preparedness requires items, thoughtfully chosen and properly maintained, that cover the actual needs your family will face when the lights go out and the timeline is unknown.

Power outages aren’t some rare, fringe event. According to data from the Department of Energy, the average American household experiences about 1.3 power interruptions per year, with an average cumulative duration of around eight hours. But those are averages, they include the quick flickers that last ten seconds. We are in a region prone to severe weather, ice storms, wildfires, or aging infrastructure, so our actual exposure is significantly higher. Some areas of the country have seen multi-day outages become almost annual events.

1. Water Storage and Purification: The One Thing You Cannot Fake

Water is first because it’s the item people most confidently say they have covered, and the one they’re most wrong about. You can survive weeks without food. You cannot survive more than about seventy-two hours without water, and that timeline shortens dramatically in heat, during physical exertion, or if anyone in your household is sick.

How Much Water You Actually Need

FEMA recommends one gallon per person per day. That’s the baseline for drinking and basic sanitation. For a family of four, that’s four gallons a day. For a seven-day outage, which is increasingly common during major weather events, 28 gallons minimum. But it doesn’t account for cooking water, cleaning wounds, flushing medications, or the reality that when people are stressed, they drink more. More realistically, 1.5 gallons per person per day is a better planning figure. That bumps a family of four up to 42 gallons for one week.

Purification: The Backup Plan

Stored water is the first line. Purification capability is the second. Because if the outage extends beyond your stored supply, or if you need to use water from a questionable source, you need options. 

Minimum recommendation: A quality gravity-fed water filter like the Berkey or the Alexapure. These remove bacteria, parasites, heavy metals, and most chemical contaminants without electricity or water pressure.

Backup to the backup: Keep a bottle of unscented liquid chlorine bleach (plain, 6–8.25% sodium hypochlorite) and water purification tablets in your kit. Eight drops of bleach per gallon of clear water, sixteen drops for cloudy. Stir, wait thirty minutes. It’s not gourmet, but it’s safe.

2. Reliable Lighting: Because Darkness Changes Everything

Nobody talks about the psychological weight of darkness. Good lighting is a morale multiplier. It’s not just functional, it keeps your family calm, helps you avoid injuries, and allows you to actually do things during the 14+ hours of darkness in a winter outage.

Forget the Single-Flashlight Plan

One flashlight does not solve lighting needs any more than one candle lit a colonial farmhouse. You need a lighting system with different tools for different purposes.

Area lighting: This is the most important category. A good battery-powered LED lantern, can light an entire room for 40–100+ hours on a set of batteries. You need at minimum two: one for the main living area, one for the kitchen or bathroom.

Task lighting: A quality headlamp frees up both hands for cooking, repairs, medical care, or reading to your kids. The reason headlamps beat flashlights for practical tasks isn’t even close.

The Battery Question

Don't buy great lights and then have six AA batteries rattling around in a junk drawer. That’s not a plan.

Audit every light source you own. Write down the battery type and quantity each one needs. Then stock a minimum of three full reloads per device. Store batteries in their original packaging in a cool, dry location. Lithium batteries have a 20-year shelf life and perform better in cold temperatures, they’re worth the premium for emergency storage.

Try to standardize battery types. If possible, choose lights that all run on the same battery, AA is the most versatile and widely available. This simplifies your storage and means any battery can go in any device.

3. Portable Power and Charging: Staying Connected When the Grid Fails

Your phone is a survival tool. It’s your communication device, your flashlight backup, your map, your weather radio, your way to contact emergency services, and your connection to information about what’s happening.

A dead phone during a power outage isn’t an inconvenience. It’s a genuine safety risk.

Power Banks: Your Immediate Lifeline

A quality portable power bank is the single most cost-effective piece of emergency gear you can own in the modern era. The key word there is charged. A power bank sitting in a drawer at 12% is useless. Top off the device on the first of every month.

For families, a minimum of 40,000 mAh total capacity across your power banks is worth considering. That covers two adults and two kids’ devices for about a week of conservative use. Turn off Bluetooth, reduce screen brightness, close background apps, and switch to airplane mode when you’re not actively using connectivity. These steps can triple your battery life.

Solar: The Long Game

If the outage extends beyond what your power banks can cover, solar charging is your next layer. And it’s gotten remarkably good and affordable.

A portable panel won’t run your refrigerator. It won’t power your house. What it will do is keep your communication devices alive day after day, which might be the difference between knowing evacuation routes have changed and not knowing.

Generator Reality Check

“Why not just buy a generator?” A generator can solve a lot of problems. But here’s what actually happens with generators in real-world outages: gas stations lose power too. The ones that don’t have lines stretching for blocks within hours. If you didn’t have fuel stored before the outage, you’re competing with everyone else who had the same idea.

Generators also create noise, which is a security consideration and they produce carbon monoxide, which kills people every single major storm event. A 2024 CDC report found that carbon monoxide poisoning from portable generators is responsible for an average of 85 deaths per year in the United States, with spikes during major weather events.

A generator should not be your first layer of power. I should be the last. The power bank and solar panel system costs a fraction of the price, requires zero fuel, makes zero noise, and handles the most critical need -communication - reliably.

4. Emergency Communication: Information Is the Real Power

No power. No phone. No internet. No way to know what’s happening, when help is coming, or whether you should stay or go.

The Battery-Powered or Hand-Crank Radio

A NOAA weather radio is your last line of communication when every modern system fails. It receives emergency alerts, weather updates, and government communications on frequencies that remain operational when cell towers and internet infrastructure go down.

But program your radio before you need it. Find your local NOAA frequency, test the alert function, and make sure everyone in your household knows how to turn it on and tune it. This takes ten minutes. Don’t wait until the storm hits.

Communication Within Your Household

Something most emergency plans overlook is communication between family members when you’re separated. If the power is out and cell service is down, how does your spouse know you’re okay at work? How do you know your kids made it to the neighbor’s house?

A pair of decent FRS/GMRS walkie-talkies solves this for local communication.

But here’s the more important thing: have a plan. A physical, written-down plan that says, “If we can’t reach each other, we meet at [specific location] by [specific time].” Write the plan down. Put copies in every car, in the kitchen, and in your go-bag. Include out-of-state contact numbers, long-distance calls often go through when local networks are jammed.

Information management is also important. During a prolonged outage, knowing what’s going on outside your immediate area matters enormously. Is the outage expected to last another day or another week? Are roads passable? Are there boil-water advisories? Is there a shelter open nearby?

A small notebook and pen, analog, old-fashioned, and 100% EMP-proof, should be in your emergency kit. Use it to log radio updates, track supply usage, and write down instructions. Communication isn’t just about technology. It’s about being part of a network, even a small one.

5. Off-Grid Cooking: Your Stove Doesn’t Work Without Power

Many modern gas stoves require electricity for their igniters, safety valves, or digital controls. Even if your stove runs on natural gas, there’s a decent chance it won’t function normally during a power outage. Electric ranges and induction cooktops are completely dead the moment the grid fails.

And even if you have food stored, a shocking amount of it requires some form of cooking to be safe, palatable, or nutritious. Rice. Beans. Oatmeal. Canned soups. Pasta. Freeze-dried meals. All of these need hot water at minimum.

The Camp Stove: Your Kitchen Backup

A portable camp stove is the most practical off-grid cooking solution for the average household. Not an open fire in the backyard, that’s a last resort, not a plan. A proper camp stove that you’ve tested, know how to use, and have fuel for.

Critical safety note: Never use a camp stove, charcoal grill, or propane device indoors or in enclosed spaces. Carbon monoxide will kill you. Sounds obvious, but emergency rooms fill up with CO poisoning cases every single storm event because people bring their grills into the garage. Use it outside, under a covered patio if you have one, or just deal with the weather. (See item 7 below.)

The Fuel Storage Math

Do the math on your actual fuel needs. For a family of four, figure two meals a day that require heat. Each meal takes roughly 15–20 minutes of active burner time. That’s about 30–40 minutes of fuel per day. A standard 16-ounce propane cylinder provides about 60–90 minutes of cooking time depending on flame level. So one cylinder covers roughly two days. For a week, you need a minimum of four cylinders. For two weeks, eight.

Propane cylinders are cheap, they don’t expire, and they store easily. Twelve cylinders take up about as much space as a shoebox turned on its side. There’s no reason not to have them.

Cookware Considerations

Make sure you have at least one pot that works on your camp stove. That sounds basic, but if all your cookware is oversized or has specialized bases designed for induction cooktops, it might not be compatible. A simple stainless steel pot with a lid and a cast-iron skillet cover 90% of camp cooking needs.

And don’t forget about eating without electricity: manual can opener (not electric), disposable plates and utensils as backup, and dish soap with a small basin for cleaning. When the power’s out, your dishwasher and garbage disposal aren’t working either.

6. First Aid and Medications: When 911 Isn’t Coming Quickly

During a widespread power outage, especially one caused by a major weather event, emergency response times increase dramatically. Hospitals may be overwhelmed or running on backup power. Pharmacies may be closed. Ambulances may be dealing with higher-priority calls, or may not be able to reach you due to road conditions.

You become your family’s first responder.

Beyond the Dollar-Store First Aid Kit

That little red first aid kit you bought at the checkout counter is better than nothing, but barely. It’s designed for minor cuts at a picnic, not for managing injuries or health needs during a multi-day emergency.

A home kit needs to hand situations that actually arise during power outages: cuts from working in the dark or cleaning up storm debris, burns from candles and camp stoves, slips and falls, stress-related headaches and stomach issues, allergic reactions, and managing existing medical conditions without access to a pharmacy.

A kit should include: quality adhesive bandages in multiple sizes, sterile gauze pads and rolled gauze, medical tape, an elastic bandage for sprains, antiseptic solution (povidone-iodine or chlorhexidine), antibiotic ointment, burn cream, tweezers, medical-grade scissors, a digital thermometer with extra batteries, and over-the-counter medications, pain relievers (both acetaminophen and ibuprofen), antihistamines (diphenhydramine), anti-diarrheal medication, electrolyte powder packets, and cough suppressant.

The Prescription Medication Problem

If you or anyone in your family depends on daily prescription medication, blood pressure meds, insulin, anti-seizure drugs, psychiatric medications, thyroid hormones, anything, a power outage that shuts down pharmacies is a genuine medical emergency.

Most insurance plans allow you to fill prescriptions a few days early. Over time, this lets you build a small buffer supply. Talk to your doctor honestly about your concern. Say, “I want to keep a one-to-two-week emergency supply of my medications in case of a natural disaster. Can you help me with that?” Most doctors will work with you.

For medications that require refrigeration, like insulin, you need a plan for keeping them cool. A quality cooler with ice packs can maintain refrigerator temperatures for 24–48 hours. The FRIO insulin cooling wallet uses evaporative cooling and works without electricity for days. I learned about this from a diabetic prepper in our community, and it’s one of the most important niche pieces of gear I’ve ever encountered.

The Skills Component

Having supplies without knowledge is like having a toolbox without knowing which end of the hammer to hold. Take a basic first aid course. The American Red Cross offers them regularly, and many community colleges do too. It’s typically a one-day commitment and costs $50–100.

At minimum, everyone in your household over the age of twelve should know how to stop bleeding with direct pressure, treat a burn, recognize signs of shock, and perform CPR. These aren’t exotic survival skills. They’re basic life competencies that happen to become critical during emergencies.

7. Battery Powered Carbon Monoxide Detector with Screen

Why?

8. Cash and Critical Documents: The Analog Backup to a Digital World

Think about what runs on electricity: credit card terminals, ATMs, bank networks, digital payment systems. All of it. When the power goes out, the economy doesn’t stop, but digital transactions often do. And if the outage is regional or extended, even the stores that manage to stay open with generators may only accept cash.

How Much Cash to Keep

Keeping a $200 – $500 in small bills, fives, tens, and twenties, in a secure location at home is a good idea. Physical cash that you can access immediately. This is not spending money. It’s emergency-only money.

Your Documents Go-Binder

What is a Go-Binder? It’s a waterproof, portable binder that contains copies of every critical document a family needs.

Possible Contents: Photocopies of all IDs, passports, and Social Security cards. Insurance policies, homeowner’s, auto, health, and life, with policy numbers and agent contact information. Bank account numbers and institution contact info. Mortgage and vehicle title information. Medical records summary for each family member including medications, allergies, blood types, and doctor contacts. A USB drive with digital copies of all the above plus family photos and financial records. An emergency contact list with names, phone numbers, addresses, and relationships. The process of replacing these types of documents can take months of bureaucratic agony.

Start now. Photograph every ID, insurance card, and critical document in your wallet and phone. Email those photos to yourself and to a trusted family member. That’s a fifteen-minute project that solves 80% of the document problem. Build the full binder over the next month.

The Test That Matters

What separates people who are prepared from people who merely own stuff? Testing your gear.

Try doing a once a year “power-out drill.” Shut off the main breaker for an evening. Use your emergency lighting. Cook dinner on the camp stove. Practice finding things in the dark. Make sure you know where the flashlights are, how to turn on the lanterns, and where the water is stored.

The point of this exercise is to find the problems on your terms, during a drill, when the stakes are low, not during an actual emergency when the stakes are real.

The Real Prep Nobody Talks About: Your Mindset

All the gear in the world doesn’t matter if you panic. And people do panic. Calm, reasonable adults turn into anxious, reactive decision-makers the moment they feel like they’ve lost control of their environment. In the dark, in the cold, with scared kids asking questions they can’t answer, that’s where the real test happens.

The people who handle emergencies best are the ones who’ve already decided they can handle them. That’s what your gear does. It’s not magic. It’s evidence. It’s proof to your own nervous system that you’ve thought about this, you’ve prepared for this, and you have a plan. When the power goes out and your neighbor is scrambling, you walk to the closet, grab the lantern, and say, “We’re good.”

That calm isn’t just for you. It’s for everyone around you. Your spouse. Your kids. Your elderly neighbor down the street. Calm is contagious, and so is panic. You get to choose which one you spread.

Selco Begovic’s accounts of surviving the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s is worth reading. Sarajevo was a modern European city, with power grids, running water, supermarkets, that descended into a prolonged urban survival situation that lasted nearly four years. One of the things Selco emphasizes repeatedly is that the people who survived best weren’t the ones with the most guns or the biggest stockpiles. They were the ones who maintained community connections, kept their heads level, and adapted to each new challenge without spiraling.

The gear matters, but the gear is in service of a mindset. The mindset is: I’ve thought about this. I’ve planned for this. I know what to do next. That’s real security. That’s what preparedness actually feels like. Not anxiety. Not paranoia. Quiet confidence.

Start Today, Not Someday

The grid is more fragile than most people realize. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation has been sounding alarms about grid vulnerability for years. The power infrastructure - the "grid" - is under increasing stress. This isn’t fear-mongering, it’s the reality that utility companies and grid operators talk about openly in their own reports.

The items laid out here represent the minimum foundation of household resilience. Not doomsday prepping. Not building a bunker. Just sensible, practical preparedness that any family can achieve on any budget.

Notice what’s not on this list. Not a $5,000 generator. Not an underground bunker. Everything described here can fit in a closet, can be built on a modest budget over a few months, and works for apartments, condos, and suburban homes alike.

You don’t need to do everything this week. You need to do something this week. Buy a case of water. Charge a power bank. Photograph your important documents. Pick one thing from this list and get it handled today.

The best time to prepare was yesterday. The second-best time is right now.

Preparedness Doesn't Really Matter Until It Really Matters

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