WEEK THREE: 12-Week 72-Hour Kit Challenge
*This post includes a free printable for week 3 of the 72-Hour Kit Challenge!
As we move into the third week of our 72-Hour Kit Challenge, it’s time to focus on water preparation. Water is necessary for survival. We can survive only three days without water.
If you are new to this challenge and looking for the information for the first two weeks, you will find the article for week one of the challenge HERE and week two HERE!
Also, if you still need a copy of my Free 72-hour Kit Guide, sign up through THIS LINK! I have printable checklists in this guide for items to pack in your emergency kits, instructions, and more. Once you have the 72-Hour Kit Guide, I recommend printing it and putting it in your Emergency Preparedness binder, if you don’t yet have a binder, THIS post will walk you through the details of how to start one and will provide you with all of the free printables you will need!
When you sign up for my free guides, I will send you my Free Food Storage Guide first, but stay tuned because I will also send you my new Free 72-Hour Kit Guide. If you, for some reason, don’t receive an email or either of these guides, email me at [email protected]
What are we working on this week…
For the third week of our 72-Hour Kit Challenge, I want you to focus on emergency water.
I encourage you to spend $25 or less on your kit every week. Setting a specific budget and adding items to our kits gradually allows us to stay within a reasonable budget while building custom 72-hour kits.
As you read about the various emergency water options we will discuss in this article, I want you to think about what water option might work best for you. You can only buy some of these options within this week’s $25 budget; keep in mind that having something prepared for emergencies is far better than having nothing.
The objective of my 12-week challenge is to help you assemble two adult-sized kits that will provide for your basic needs for 72-hours in an emergency by the end of the 12 weeks.
Why do you need emergency water in your 72-Hour kit?
Water is a crucial component of any emergency kit, especially in a 72-hour kit where you must ensure you have enough essentials for at least three days. Including water in your emergency kit is critical, as accessing clean drinking water during a crisis may be challenging.
As you build up your emergency preparedness supplies for your home, I recommend having at least one gallon of water per person daily for emergencies and at least a two-week stockpile of emergency water.
While I recommend having one gallon of water per person daily, even for your 72-hour Kits, carrying and storing three gallons of water in your 72-hour kit would be pretty challenging. In this article, I will address these concerns and give you some ideas for what you can do to meet your water needs.
By diversifying our water storage options and incorporating purification methods, we can better prepare ourselves to stay hydrated during unexpected situations. Remember, staying hydrated is essential for maintaining our health and well-being in times of crisis.
What types of emergency water should you store in your Emergency Kit?
There are a few items I suggest having in your 72-Hour Kits to meet your water needs.
In my family’s 72-hour kits, I store water pouches specifically designed for emergency kits with a long shelf life.
These pouches are more convenient to carry and store and can last many years without going bad. Plus, they’re small and can fit into tight spaces that regular water bottles can’t.
I have a few affordable water pouch options for you to check out on AMAZON. While you browse through these boxes of water pouches, make sure you look to see how many pouches come in each box. Sometimes, a brand may seem like a better deal, but it may come with fewer pouches than another brand.
Carrying 3 gallons of water in each kit would be very challenging, so I strongly recommend having a water filter in your 72-hour kit.
A water filter in a 72-hour kit is crucial in ensuring that contaminated water can be purified and filtered, making it safe to drink. Water filters are essential to have in areas where tap water is not safe for consumption or where water policies are limited following a disaster.
HERE are a few links to look into for affordable and compact water filtration options. In my family’s 72-Hour Kits, we have life straws. I love that lifestraws are small and portable. You could stick the lifestraw directly into a river or another body of water and drink from that water.
One effective way to meet your water needs is by including water purification tablets.
Water purification tablets are a portable, quick, and cost-effective way to purify water. For instance, Aquatabs can treat waterborne illnesses such as cholera, typhoid, giardia, fecal coliforms, dysentery, hepatitis A & E, and salmonella, including Travelers’ diarrhea.
I have included Water Purification Tablets in my family’s 72-hour kits. HERE are a few options for you to check out and consider adding to your kits.
Another helpful item to have in your 72-hour kit, is to pack lightweight and collapsible water containers that can be easily refilled when needed.
Collapsible water bottles are convenient and portable.
There are many types of collapsible water bottles that you can purchase for your kits. I have rounded up some options for you in various price ranges, you can check those out HERE!
Although carrying gallon-sized water jugs in your 72-hour emergency kits may be challenging, I highly recommend storing this type of emergency water alongside your kits. In an emergency, you could load the water into your vehicle or carry it by hand if you need to leave your residence on foot. Taking this water by hand may not be ideal, but it is still wise to have jugs of water (or packages of water bottles) next to your kits to quickly grab them and take them with you in an emergency.
I recommend buying a package of water bottles or gallon jugs of water from Costco or the grocery store and placing them near your 72-hour kits. You could also use THESE refillable water containers that hold several gallons of water. Make sure that the water you store is relatively easy to transport.
Let’s get to work!
I understand that creating 72-hour emergency kits for ourselves and our families can be an overwhelming task. We all want to be prepared for emergencies and have the necessary supplies for our families. Still, knowing where to begin, what to purchase, or how to store these items can be challenging.
I’ve created this 12-week challenge to help motivate you and me to continue working towards our preparedness goals.
When it comes to emergency preparedness, it’s normal to feel overwhelmed, especially when starting. You might feel discouraged because you don’t have many supplies, or you might not know how you will afford to buy emergency preparedness supplies, food storage, etc. Your feelings and concerns are all valid and normal.
My goal with this website, my Instagram account, and my FREE Guides is to help you tackle your preparedness goals little by little, week after week, on a budget. I know how daunting emergency preparedness can feel. I don’t want this to feel like a burden to you.
I want you to feel empowered by your preparedness efforts. Preparedness will bring you peace! You can read more about my personal story in THIS article.
I have created my FREE Food Storage & Emergency Preparedness Guide to assist you in assessing your current spending habits. The guide will help you identify the areas where you can cut back on expenses to redirect the saved money toward your food storage and emergency preparedness supplies.
Thanks so much for being here, friend! I am excited to help you with your preparedness goals. I appreciate your taking the time to read this post and your interest in my 72-Hour Kit Challenge!
I am here to help with any questions about emergency preparedness, including 72-hour kits and food storage. Please leave a comment, and I will do my best to provide you with advice and suggestions.
To help you stay on top of your weekly tasks, I’ve created a printable weekly to-do list that you can use as a reminder to keep working on this project. I suggest you print the list and put it on your fridge, or somewhere else you will see it daily. You can download the printable HERE!
Feel free to share my 72-Hour Kit Guide and weekly printables with your friends and family. Please spread the word about my website and email list when you share.
HERE is the link for you or your friends/family to sign up for my email list. When someone signs up for my email list, the very first email they get from me will include my Free Food Storage Guide!
If you are reading this post but do not yet have my Free 72-Hour Kit Guide, you can sign up HERE for my emails, where I will send out the free guide/printables/etc.
Also, l want to remind you, if you are on my email list but for some reason have yet to receive the email with the Free 72-Hour Kit Guide, please email me at [email protected]! I created these free guides for you, I want to get them into your hands so that you can get to work.
Let’s update our 72-hour emergency kits one step at a time. I’ll be working on this project, too, so we can support each other along the way. Remember to follow along on Instagram and Facebook for weekly tips and ideas to help you with this project.
xoxo,
Brittany
ps- If you would like to learn more about what kinds of foods to store in your 72-hour kits, you will find THIS POST and the attached free printable helpful! You can also find the directions to create your own Emergency Preparedness Binder HERE, I have TONS of free printables for you!
72-Hour Kit 12 Week Challenge Links:
Week ONE
Week TWO
