Maintaining Your 72-Hour Kitby Marily | More from this Blogger 26 Jan 2007 05:35 PM Recently, my husband and I went through our 72-hour kit of food that we had'?t touched for probably two years. Not surprisingly, all of the food was pretty much inedible. I mean, I know beef jerky is suppose to be tough, but I don't think it's suppose to shatter into hundreds of pieces when you hit it against a hard surface. We realized that we should have been more responsible and replaced the food regularly. Had we experienced an emergency where we needed to use our kits, we would at least have had something, but it would have been pretty disgusting to have to survive on it. Make sure that once you have a 72-hour kit for your family you maintain it. You should replace the food and water every six months. In addition, specifics regarding your own family will change over time. You will need to update what you have contained in your kits in order to keep up with changes. If you keep a change of clothing in your kits, clothing for children will also need to be changed out approximately every six months. Also check your other supplies to make sure that they are all functioning well. If you have an infant you will have special considerations when completing and maintaining your kit. If you only expect to update your kit every six months, you should make sure to look ahead to how old your baby will be at every step between now and then and be prepared for every age. For instance, even if your infant is not eating solid foods yet, you should still store enough for three days so you are prepared ahead of time and don't have to update your kit every couple of months. Making certain to update and check your emergency kit every so often will ensure that it is up-to-date and useful to you when you really need it. Related Articles: What to Put in a Basic 72-Hour Kit Planning for your Baby's Needs During an Emergency Relevantpreparedness tags User Comments  Sandra Essary (135) 03 Feb 2007 04:32 PMI have found that water in those big gallon jugs seems to evaporate over time. All the more reason to change them out every 6 months. Your MRE's went bad? I have no experience with them, but I do buy freeze dried, packaged "camping food" made primarily for backpackers. They do have an expiration date on them, but in general, mine have stayed edible up until that point. I have taken a number of survival courses and have found two must-haves - a wool blanket or non-down sleeping bag (down loses its insulation when wet) and a knife -- a good knife. You can go about a month without food, but hypothermia can kill you overnight. Unless you know how to make a knife out of rocks, take one. It comes in handy for all kinds of things.  Marily (836) 05 Feb 2007 09:20 AMActually, we didn't have MREs in our 72-hour kit. We had nonperishable foods like granola bars, ramen noodles, etc. MREs should last 7 or more years. ToltecaTodd (17) 18 Mar 2009 03:21 PMBug out bag. Try to take foods that do not take water to prepare, I see so many bug out bags with things like, instant oatmeal, hot chocolate & soups. The water should be for drinking & take vitamins & protein bars. I also take a bottle of fiber, not only is fiber needed but it also swells for a full feeling. I came across what is called Lifecaps. They are a capsule that has everything needed to survive without food with the exception of water. It is full of vitamins & minerals plus Iodine. Anyway, you take three of them a day & drink water. I can actually take enough food in one backpack to las 6 months because of these little Lifecaps, protein bars, fiber & water. I will run out of water in a week so I do carry a small filter & a couple of those straw water filters that filter the water as you suck. You do not always have the ability or time to heat water to make soup or oatmeal. Anyway, after I bought 25 bottles I found a coupon code & bought 75 bottles more. The coupon code is... healthcap It will get you 33% off. There are also sites that have those filter straws that are cheaper than any of the stores around here. (SLC) I think they are a really good idea along with some purification pills. I cannot remember the sites off the top of my head but you can Google for aquamira filter straw. Aquamira is the manufacture but do not buy off there site because I have found them for almost 1/2 what they want on their own site on other sites. Good luck, Gods speed & get serious about your bug out bag! Todd in SLC Community Tags camping, Preparedness, Travel Discuss this article
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