Guide

Gear worth having

A short companion to the pantry — not a shopping list to work through, a reference for when you need it.

Everything here follows the same rule as the rest of the site: free options come first, and nothing gets recommended just because it’s easy to sell.

Light & power

A decent torch and spare batteries — not just your phone. A power bank, or a way to charge from a car, matters more than people think once the mains are off for more than a day.

Warmth

A foil emergency blanket costs almost nothing and packs flat — genuinely useful if heating fails. Most households already own enough ordinary blankets; the honest advice is to check you have enough for everyone and know where they are, not to buy more.

Foil / space blanket

Water

A few large containers for storing tapped-off water are worth having before you need them. If you’d ever be drawing from an unclear source — not just a dry tap — purification tablets or a filter make it safe to drink; tablets handle a broader range of risks, filters are faster but miss some viruses.

Water storage containers
Water purification tablets or filter (reused from the planner’s water gear section)

Fire safety

A fire blanket is the sensible starting point — cheap, no training needed, and it covers the most common household fire (a pan going up). An ABC powder extinguisher is a reasonable step up if you want broader coverage.

Fire blanket (reused from the planner’s Space Audit section)
ABC powder fire extinguisher (reused from the planner’s Space Audit section)

First aid

A basic kit — plasters, antiseptic wipes, gauze, a thermometer — covers most of what you’ll actually need. We won’t tell you what medicine to take or how much; ask your pharmacist or GP, and keep a small buffer of any regular prescriptions topped up.

Basic first-aid kit

Storage

If your food doesn’t fit where you thought it would, a plain wire shelving unit or a set of under-bed boxes solves it cheaply — no need for anything fancier.

Wire shelving unit (reused from the planner’s Space Audit section)
Under-bed storage boxes (reused from the planner’s Space Audit section)

Freshness, cheaply

Two weeks or more into stored food, a spoonful of dried lentils or peas in a jar of water will sprout fresh greens in days — no soil, no garden, nothing to buy if you already have the lentils.

Sprouting jar kit (optional — free method described above, reused from the planner’s micronutrient section)

If you drive, you might also want the basic car kit— most of it overlaps with what’s listed here.