Why you should build it
Store-bought kits pad their piece counts with dozens of tiny bandages and leave out the things you reach for most. Buying the contents separately costs about the same, and the act of packing the box teaches you where everything is. Use a clear plastic container with a latching lid, label it on two sides, and tell everyone in the household where it lives. A kitchen shelf or a hall closet works well. A bathroom cabinet does not, because heat and humidity break down adhesives and medicines.
What goes in the box
The Red Cross list for a household is a sound starting point, and most of it fits in a shoebox.
- Pack adhesive bandages in several sizes, including a few large ones and some for knuckles and fingertips.
- Add sterile gauze pads in three-inch and four-inch squares, two large absorbent dressings, a roll of gauze and a roll of cloth medical tape.
- Include an elastic bandage for sprains and two triangular bandages, which serve as slings.
- Add antiseptic wipes, antibiotic ointment, hydrocortisone cream and an instant cold pack.
- Put in fine-point tweezers, blunt-tipped scissors, a digital thermometer and two pairs of non-latex gloves.
- Carry a foil emergency blanket and a breathing barrier for rescue breaths.
- Keep a pain reliever, an antihistamine and plain aspirin, since a 911 dispatcher may tell an adult with heart attack symptoms to chew one.
Make it yours
Add whatever your household specifically needs. That means a spare inhaler or epinephrine auto-injector if one is prescribed, glucose tablets if someone has diabetes, and children's versions of medicines if there are children. Tape an index card inside the lid with each person's allergies, medications and doctor, the number for Poison Control, which is 1-800-222-1222, and your own street address. Guests and babysitters do not know your address, and panic erases it from people who do.
Keep it alive
A kit decays quietly. Set a reminder twice a year to check expiration dates, replace whatever was used, and swap out any wipes that have dried in their packets. Restock the day after you use something, not the day you need it again. Build a smaller second kit for the car, and keep it out of the trunk in summer, where heat ruins ointments and adhesive.
Tip Take a first aid and CPR class once the kit is built. Supplies are only useful to someone who knows when to press hard on a wound and when to call 911.
