Practical preparedness
for everyday life.
Calm starts at home, with the things you can control.
The government now asks every UK household to be able to manage on its own for a while without power, water or shops. This site sets out a step-by-step way to get there, starting with the free things and then adding what’s worth buying a little at a time with the weekly shop.
The guides
Pick whichever is on your mind. Each guide stands on its own.
- 01WaterHow much, where to keep it, making it safe.
- 02FoodA no-cook shelf and a larder you can cook from.
- 03Power & lightTorches, radios, phones and warmth in a power cut.
- 04The houseStorms, floods, the stopcock, cash in a drawer.
- 05ChildrenGrab bags, routines and what to say.
- 06PetsFood, water, paperwork and the door notice.
- 07ParentsMedicines, the Priority Services Register, checking in from afar.
- 08StorageWhere it all lives in an ordinary house.
- 09KitEverything worth buying, in one list (affiliate links, marked ad).
How long should you plan for? Governments advise anything from three days to ten. See the government advice, side by side →
Six free things to do first
No big Saturday spend. Do these first, then add about £20 of long-life food and one kit item to each weekly shop: the £20-a-week plan.
Three recent outages
None of these were unusual. The official advice is to be able to manage on your own for a few days.
Storm Éowyn took the power out across Northern Ireland and Scotland on 24 January 2025; in Northern Ireland the last homes waited ten days to be reconnected. In April 2025 Spain and Portugal lost power for most of a day, and card payments and traffic lights stopped working with it. Last winter a power failure at a Kent water works put 76,000 Thanet homes on bottled water.
The Cabinet Office relaunched its advice as Be Ready on 22 October 2026 with three days at its heart (other governments ask for more; see the table). This site takes that advice seriously and makes it doable for a busy household, a little at a time.
- 4%
- reported enough bottled drinking water for three days
- 14%
- said they have a household emergency plan
- 23%
- said they own a battery or wind-up radio
- 19%
- said they have a grab bag packed
Figures: Cabinet Office, UK public survey of risk perception, resilience and preparedness 2026 (official statistics, 19 August 2026; 10,791 UK adults). Self-reported; the water figure counts bottled water at 3 litres a person a day. Storm Éowyn: NIE Networks, 3 February 2025.
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