When weather disasters strike or something else which causes you to lose power, you never know how long it will last.  It’s essential for the well-being of you and your family to make sure that you have everything on hand that you’ll need while you’re waiting for the power to come back on.
Rather than leaving things until the last minute and having to scramble in the dark, you should be prepared by stocking up on supplies well ahead of time. Â Here are some of the most important things that you should have for a power outage.
Battery Powered Light Sources
Although it’s useful to have candles, it’s ideal to have a battery powered light.  Candles may get knocked over and cause a fire hazard, particularly if you have little children.
Flashlights and LED battery lamps make very affordable and useful additions to your power outage kit. For extra savings, buy your batteries at a place like the dollar store.  Take enough packs to last you for several days or even a week. It’s worth having the peace of mind that you’ll have light during a prolonged outage.
Non-Perishable Food
Since you won’t have a refrigerator which keeps things cold, you should keep non-perishable food stocked.  This includes dry fruits and canned goods which can easily be stored for months.
In the event that it’s cold outside, you can store your things outside your home for a certain amount of time. Â
First Aid
If you or one of your family member’s gets injured, you should have a kit on hand.  Since you can’t guarantee you’ll have enough cell phone battery to call an ambulance, you’ll want to have things like bandaids, antiseptic, and cloth bandages.
If your family takes certain medications that they depend on, you should make sure that you have plenty on hand.
Baby Wipes and Sanitizer
During a power outage, you’ll need to make sure that you stay clean despite the lack of hot water.  Keeping several packs of baby wipes on hand will ensure that you keep your body clean.
You’ll also want to keep your hands clean, so keeping a bottle of hand sanitizer can be extra helpful to eliminate the risk of getting you or your family members sick.
Cooking Fuel
If there are foods that you want to cook, then you can use a can of cooking fuel to heat these items up. Â Things like soup can be quickly cooked on top of one of these.
You can even stay warm by gathering around it as if it were a fire. Keep several of these and matches in your kit to ensure you’ll be able to ignite it.