Most of us mean to get prepared. Then life gets in the way, and the torch stays in the drawer with dead batteries in it.
This guide covers everything worth having at home for the first few days of a power cut, storm, flood or other disruption. It follows the government's Prepare guidance, with some practical additions. Nothing here requires a bunker or a year of tinned food.
Why a few days?
The official advice is built around a simple idea: if most households can look after themselves for the first 72 hours, emergency services can concentrate on the people who genuinely can't.
That's not a prediction that something terrible is coming. Storms, floods and power cuts happen in Britain every winter. Being ready for three days is closer to owning a spare tyre than to doomsday prepping.
Recent government research found only 13% of UK adults felt largely prepared, and a quarter said they could manage for a day or less without power, gas and water.
Light
A torch, plus spare batteries. The guidance specifically recommends torches rather than candles, because candles cause house fires in exactly the circumstances where people reach for them. A head torch is even better if you need both hands.
A lantern or two. A torch lights a path; a lantern lights a room. If you have children, or you're sitting out a long evening without power, this is the difference between coping and enduring.
Test both twice a year. A torch with corroded batteries is not a torch.
Power and information
A wind-up or battery radio. When the power goes and the mobile network is congested or down, radio is how official information reaches you. Local BBC radio stations carry emergency broadcasts. A wind-up model needs no batteries at all.
A power bank, charged. Your phone is your torch, your map and your contact list. A 10,000mAh bank will recharge most phones two or three times.
Key numbers written on paper. This is the item people most often skip and most often need. Your phone may be dead, lost or out of signal. Write down: family mobile numbers, your GP, your energy supplier's emergency line, your water company, and a neighbour or two. Keep it in your kit and another copy in your wallet.
Water
Bottled water. The usual planning figure is around three litres per person per day for drinking, with more for washing and cooking. For a household of four over three days, that's a lot of bottles, which is why most people store some and plan for the rest.
A collapsible water container. If a warning comes, or supply is about to be interrupted, you can fill it from the tap in minutes. It stores flat and costs a few pounds.
Purification tablets. Cheap, tiny, and they make questionable water safe to drink. Almost nobody has them.
Food
Food that needs no cooking. If the power's out, your hob may be out too. Think tinned fish, beans, fruit, nuts, cereal bars, crackers, peanut butter, and long-life milk.
A tin opener. Named explicitly in the official guidance, because a tin you can't open is not food.
Food for anyone with specific needs, including babies, pets, and anyone with allergies or medical dietary requirements.
Long-life ration bars or freeze-dried meals are an alternative if you'd rather not rotate stock: many have a five-year shelf life.
First aid and medicine
A first aid kit. Plasters, dressings, antiseptic, tape, gloves, scissors, tweezers, painkillers.
A spare supply of any prescription medicine, as far as your prescribing arrangements allow. Speak to your pharmacy about whether keeping a small buffer is possible for your medication.
Copies of prescriptions, so a pharmacist elsewhere knows what you take.
Warmth
Losing power in January is mostly a cold problem.
Foil emergency blankets. They weigh almost nothing and cost a pound or two.
Hand warmers, and an extra blanket or sleeping bag per person.
Warm layers and waterproofs that you can get to quickly, particularly if you might need to leave.
Paperwork
Copies of important documents in a waterproof wallet: passports, insurance policies, birth certificates, tenancy or mortgage details. Photographs on your phone are useful too, but paper works when the battery doesn't.
Some cash. Card payments depend on power and networks. A modest amount in small notes covers a taxi, a shop or a phone charge.
A plan, which costs nothing
The most valuable parts of being prepared aren't things you buy.
Know where your stopcock, fuse box and gas shut-off are, and how to use them. Find them today; it takes five minutes.
Agree a household plan. Where would you meet if you couldn't get home? Who calls whom? Where's the kit kept?
Check whether anyone in your home qualifies for the Priority Services Register. It's a free scheme run by energy and water suppliers offering extra support to older, disabled and medically dependent customers during outages. Very few eligible households have signed up.
Sign up for flood warnings if you're in a flood risk area.
What you probably don't need
Plenty of "survival kits" are padded out with items that look dramatic and do very little at home: camouflage gear, fire starters, paracord, whistles by the handful. If you're sheltering in your own house, warmth, light, water, information and medicine are what matter.
Where to keep it
In one place, easy to reach in the dark. A hallway cupboard or under the stairs works well; a loft does not. If there's any chance you'd need to leave quickly, use a bag rather than a box.
If you do nothing else this week:
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Check your torch works and has spare batteries.
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Write your key phone numbers on paper.
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Find your stopcock and fuse box.
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Put three days of bottled water somewhere sensible.
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Check whether anyone in your home should be on the Priority Services Register.
That alone puts you ahead of most households in Britain.