You might be familiar with the various first aid and safety devices your employer keeps on hand at work. Requiring employers to maintain safety kits makes good sense. But what about at home? Do you need your own safety kit?
Personal safety at home begins with the first aid kit. Fortunately, it’s easy to find a reliable safety supplier with high-quality first aid kits readily available to the public. You can buy first aid kits online or at a variety of stores and shops. So there really is no reason to not have one.
The government recommends that all UK residents maintain some sort of home safety kit in order to be prepared for emergencies. What a person’s kit includes can vary from one household to the next. It really depends on needs and circumstances.
As for why the government makes its recommendation, it could not be any simpler: emergencies happen. By their nature, emergencies tend to take us by surprise. Being prepared with a basic safety kit could go a long way toward ensuring personal safety and minimising injury and loss of life.
It Begins With a First Aid Kit
What is in a typical first aid kit? Home kits differ from workplace kits, for obvious reasons. A typical home kit would include:
- Sterile wound dressings
- Adhesive dressings or plasters
- Roller, triangular, and tubular bandages
- Cleansing wipes
- Gauze pads
- Scissors and adhesive tape
- Burn cream
- An aluminium blanket
What you are really looking at are those first aid supplies you would need to address the typical emergencies that happen at home. The idea is to be able to render basic first aid while you wait for emergency services to arrive.
Other Things to Include in an Emergency Kit
Above and beyond first aid, emergencies create additional needs. Such needs dictate adding a few other items to your emergency kit. Here are some suggestions:
- Torches – You’re going to need light to see if the power goes out. Therefore, it’s a good idea to include some battery-powered or wind-up torches in your kit. Avoid candles if possible. They can be a fire hazard.
- Power Bank – A portable power bank is great to have on hand for charging your mobile phone and other critical electronics.
- Spare Batteries – Some of your electronics are not rechargeable. Instead, they need fresh batteries when the old ones quit. So keep a selection of batteries in your emergency kit.
- Bottled Water – An emergency that interrupts water service could create a health hazard. The government recommends always keeping a certain volume of bottled water with your emergency kit.
- Baby Supplies – Parents with young children still at home should be sure to keep a variety of baby supplies on hand. This includes nappies and ready-made baby formula.
- Non-Perishable Food – Keeping a good supply of non-perishable foods in your emergency kit is a wise idea. In some emergencies, fresh food storage is simply not possible. Cooking might also be more difficult during an emergency.
- Blankets and Clothing – Being without power can also mean being without heat. On the outside chance that a future emergency makes it impossible for you to use your home, you may need blankets and extra clothing to stay warm.
A good way to assemble an emergency kit is to give some thought to how you would survive if you lost power, water, and internet access. Create a list of things you would need to get by until services were restored. From there, you can create an emergency kit with enough supplies to last you for a week or so.
The Consequences of Failing to Plan
There is an old adage that suggests failing to plan equals planning to fail. It is hard to argue against such logic. We all have the opportunity to prepare well in advance of any emergencies that might befall us. So not doing so is just asking for trouble.
Keeping an emergency kit on hand is a good idea. A kit doesn’t have to be elaborate or prohibitively expensive. In fact, you can gradually assemble an emergency kit just by buying a few items every time you shop. Over several months of assembly, you could wind up with quite an extensive kit that doesn’t harm your budget.
Without an emergency kit, you could find yourself depending on the kindness of others. Here’s hoping that plenty of people would step up and help meet your needs. But there are never any guarantees. So why take your chances?
Plenty of Resources Online
This post has hopefully given you enough ideas to get started on your own emergency kit. If you need help to figure out what to include in your kit, there are plenty of free resources online. Use them to your advantage. The sooner you can put an emergency kit together, the sooner you will be prepared for a potential emergency.
