72 Hour Kits

My big project for the weekend: update our 2 or 3-year-old 72 Hour Kits. This was a challenge. My goals were these 1) To have food in them that we would eat and like 2) To have the kits last a year so I don't have to spend the money again so soon (I know it's recommended to update them every 6 months, but I wanted to see if I could find things that would last a bit longer). Here's what I discovered:

It's REALLY important to look at expiration dates when you're getting stuff for a kit. There are a lot of things that I thought would be great in our kits but had surprisingly short shelf lives. Like not even 6 months. And I had to check expirations on the different brands and varieties on the store shelf, some were better than others, put out more recently I'm sure. Examples of things you should NOT choose because of these short shelf lives:

*Trail Mix or Nuts (I know! We had a ton of these in our old kits!), nuts go rancid pretty fast

*Crackers, pretzels, or chips (Like goldfish crackers, 100-calorie packs, etc.)

Some things I DID find that I put in our kits for lunches and dinners:

*Soups and chili in easy-to-open containers (no can opener required) *Ramen noodles *Snack packs with chicken and crackers

*Instant Rice packets, you just add hot water, with Beef Jerky packets for protein

For breakfasts:

*Instant oatmeal packets

*Dry cereal in single-serving plastic containers

For snacks:

*Granola bars (check expirations!!)

*Fruit snacks and Fruit leather

*Hard candy

*Gum

My best find this time around:

*Powdered, individual serving gatorade packets (8 pck box)

I also put some juice boxes in each kit (not a lot because they are heavy!), although we also plan on taking some of our stored water if we had to leave our home. Be sure to check expiration on juice boxes, this seemed to vary a LOT at the store I got mine.

Other ideas I had (or read online):

*Package meals in Ziploc bags with plastic silverware

*Package "hygiene kits" with each 72 Hour Kit, some ideas we put in ours were: TP, toothbrush, toothpaste, bar of soap in a baggie, pads/tampons for women, shaving cream for men, shampoo/conditioner, emergency whistle, emergency blanket, rain poncho, collapsible camping kit, waterproof matches, small toys for kids, bandaids or other first aid supplies.

*Include some cash, including change, in each kit

*Extra clothing, socks, and even shoes that fit each person (check every time you swap kits out)

*We also at some point would like to invest in "mess kits" to put in, with utensils and plates/bowls/cups that hopefully we would be also able to cook in if needed

*We also have water filtration bottles now being sold by the LDS church through their providentliving.org website. They're not terribly expensive and seem to be very good filters.

I'd love any additional suggestions or ideas you might have to make our kits better! Recent disasters have definitely reminded us of the need to be prepared and teach our kids how important preparedness is.