Your apartment emergency kit for safety and sanity

Everyone should have an apartment emergency kit in preparation for natural disasters or other unexpected major problems. However, you shouldn’t just plan for survival contingencies like an earthquake or flood. You are more likely to have a few mini-emergencies, like a power outage, clogged toilet, or maybe a really bad breakup. We will tell you what necessities you will want to have on hand for all levels of safety and sanity.

Disaster-level apartment emergency kit

These items are for real emergencies, such as hurricanes or earthquakes. Each city has it own typical problems, but the most realistic issues will likely be loss of power or transportation from severe weather. You don’t have to stock up for the next nuclear winter, and you probably don’t even have much space in your apartment to do so. Just consider storing the bare essentials in your closet somehere out of the way. You will want:

• Non-perishable food, like a box of granola bars.
• If you have a pet, spare pet food.
• A gallon just of drinking water.
• Flashlight with extra batteries.
• Copies or originals of important documents in a waterproof ziploc. Include important contact numbers and addresses.
• Some spare cash.
• feminine hygiene products.
• Can opener (see cartoon at the end of this post!)

Just plain useful apartment emergency kit

You don’t need these items for the end of the world, but when you need them, you’ll really wish these were available. We bet you will use most of these items at least once while staying at your apartment.

• Matches: occasionally used to re-light a pilot flame. You will be hero when you bring these to the BBQ where no one else remembered.
• One roll of duct tape: fixing a lot of things, holding things together, you name it. Wrapping Christmas presents in a pinch with duct tape is acceptable because we say so.
• Scissors: open Amazon packages, retouch your hair in that one spot the hair stylist screwed up.
• Basic first aid kit with bandages and antiseptic: for little scratches and scrapes, occasionally as a Halloween accessory.
• One roll of backup toilet paper: when you need it, you be really glad you stashed a spare. Ditto for Halloween fashion.
• Extra garbage bags: always useful for trash, emergency ponchos, carrying things to the donation center, covering broken windows, used as rope if twisted together.
• Cup ramen noodles and box of chocolates: tasty stash when it’s 3AM and you need something to pick you up physically or emotionally.
• Plunger: just in case, when you need it, you really need it. Also useful when you need something to whack that 3-inch cockroach and you need something equally disgusting so as not to ruin your nice shoes.
• Screwdriver multi-set and hammer: setting up your IKEA haul, opening that hard-shelled obscure fruit you bought from an asian grocery store, attacking your ex. We’re only joking about that last part and do not condone physical violence.
• Extension cord: ever spend a few hundreds on a nifty new electronic only to find out it has a 4-inch cord? Yeah, size matters.
• Disposable rubber gloves: general cleaning or other icky tasks, recommended to pre-armor with these before battling the aforementioned cockroach with plunger.

Is there anything else you want to suggest? Let us know. Here’s the comic we promised as well to finish.