An emergency kit does not fail on the day you need it. It fails in the months before, without anyone noticing. Water passes its date, a power bank drains itself, medicine expires, and a child grows out of the clothes you packed. Ready.gov's advice is to replace expired items as needed and to rethink your kit every year as your family's needs change. Checking every six months, for example when the clocks change, catches most problems before they matter.
The six-month routine
- Check the dates on water, food, medicine and first-aid supplies. Use anything that expires within six months, and replace it
- Replace water you bottled yourself
- Test the flashlights and the radio; replace weak batteries
- Recharge the power bank
- Swap clothes for the coming season, and check that the children's still fit
- Make sure there is at least a week of every prescription
- Update your document copies, the photos and the contact list
- Go over the family plan: meeting places, the out-of-area contact, who collects the children
How long things last
| Item | Check or replace |
|---|---|
| Commercially bottled water | By the date on the label |
| Water you bottle yourself | Every 6 months |
| Low-acid canned food | 2 to 5 years |
| High-acid canned food | 12 to 18 months |
| Energy bars and snacks | By the date on the pack, often within a year |
| Medicine | By the date on the pack; heat shortens it |
| Batteries | Test every 6 months; keep them out of devices in storage |
| Power bank | Recharge every 6 months; it loses charge sitting idle |
| First aid kit | Every 6 months: wipes dry out and adhesive weakens |
The canned food figures are the USDA's, for cans kept cool and dry. For everything else, the date on the pack wins.
Store it where it lasts
Heat is what ages a kit fastest. Keep bags and supplies somewhere cool, dry and dark: a hall closet, not an attic or a garage that bakes in summer. Ready.gov's advice is to keep canned food in a cool, dry place and boxed food in tightly closed plastic or metal containers. A car kit has the hardest life of all, so check it more often.
Rotate instead of throwing away
Nothing needs to go to waste. Eat canned food and snacks a few months before their dates and buy fresh to replace them; drink the bottled water and restock. Put new items at the back and use the oldest first. If you store food your household already eats, the kit refreshes itself as part of ordinary shopping.
Update it when life changes
Some changes cannot wait for the six-month check: a new baby, a new pet, a move, a new medical condition or medicine, a new job further from home that calls for a get-home bag. Each one is a reason to open the bag the same week.
GoBag+ tracks the expiry date of every item in your go bags and your home reserve. With Premium, it alerts you before something expires or falls below the minimum you set, and a home-screen widget shows how ready you are at a glance.