UK Grab Bag Checklist: What Should You Pack for an Emergency?
Updated: 3 days ago
If you were told you needed to leave your home quickly, what would you actually take?
Medication? Phone charger? Passports? Children's essentials? Water?
A UK grab bag checklist helps you decide those essentials in advance, so you are not trying to work everything out when you need to leave quickly.
Trying to decide while you're already dealing with an emergency is exactly when you're most likely to forget something important.
That's the purpose of a grab bag: a small, accessible bag containing essential items you may need if you're asked to leave home.
Current UK Government Prepare guidance specifically suggests considering a spare bag containing items you might need if you have to leave your home quickly. Prepare
And this isn't something most households have already done. The Government's 2026 preparedness survey found only 19% of respondents reported having a grab bag. GOV.UK
UK grab bag checklist: the essentials
Your bag should reflect your household, rather than somebody else's generic survival list.
A sensible starting point is:
Important information
Emergency contact list
Copy of your household emergency plan
Insurance information
Essential medical information
Copies of important documents where appropriate
Medication and health
Essential medication
Prescription information
Basic first-aid supplies
Spare glasses if required
Essential medical-device information
Power and communication
Mobile phone charging cable
Charged power bank
Torch
Spare batteries where required
Battery or wind-up radio
Food and water
Bottled water
Small amount of suitable non-perishable food
Any essential specialist food
Personal essentials
Basic toiletries
Hand sanitiser
Appropriate spare clothing
Warm layer
Necessary sanitary products
Household-specific items
Baby supplies
Children's essentials
Pet supplies
Essential accessibility items
Spare keys
You don't necessarily need every item above. Think about what would actually matter to your household if you had to leave.
1. Start with medication
For anyone taking regular medication, this should be one of the first things considered.
Government Prepare guidance recommends ensuring you have enough necessary medication to keep you going for several days. If you rely on medical equipment, it also recommends keeping paper instructions and charged backup batteries where available.
Don't allow medication stored permanently in a bag to quietly expire.
Your grab-bag plan can instead record where medication is kept and what needs to be collected if you have time to leave safely.
2. Keep essential information available without your phone
Your smartphone can store an enormous amount of useful information.
It can also run out of battery, break or become inaccessible.
Keep a compact paper contact list containing the numbers you would most need.
Consider including copies or details of:
Insurance policies.
Medication.
Important telephone numbers.
Household emergency plan.
Relevant identification information.
You don't necessarily need to carry original documents permanently in the bag.
Decide which originals you would collect if necessary and where they are stored.
Our Household Emergency Plan UK guide explains how to organise this information before an emergency.
3. Pack a torch — don't rely on your phone
A phone torch is convenient but consumes the same battery you may need for communication.
Government guidance recommends keeping a battery-powered or wind-up torch and notes that torches are safer than candles. Prepare
A small torch is therefore a sensible grab-bag item.
4. Add backup phone power
Keep a suitable charging cable and a portable power bank.
The important part is remembering to keep the power bank charged.
A completely flat battery sitting in an emergency bag isn't backup power.
If power resilience is one of your household's weaknesses, read:
5. Include some water and food — but keep the bag portable
Your grab bag isn't supposed to contain your entire household emergency water supply.
Water becomes heavy very quickly.
Instead, consider some drinking water and appropriate non-perishable food for leaving home, while maintaining your larger emergency supplies separately at home.
For your household's main water requirements, use our guide:
6. Think about children
A family with young children will need a different grab bag from a household of two adults.
Depending on age, consider:
Nappies and wipes.
Ready-to-feed infant formula where required.
Appropriate food.
Spare clothing.
Essential medication.
A small comfort item.
Government guidance specifically includes baby supplies when discussing household emergency supplies. Prepare
Keep the bag practical. You still need to be able to carry it.
7. Don't forget pets
Pets need planning too.
Depending on the animal, consider food, water, medication, a lead or harness, identification information and anything necessary to transport them safely.
Government Prepare guidance for assistance animals specifically suggests planning a grab bag containing important documents and veterinary records, food and water, necessary medicines, a lead or harness and appropriate comfort items. Prepare
8. Keep the bag somewhere accessible
A grab bag isn't particularly useful if nobody knows where it is.
Keep it somewhere:
Accessible · dry · known to the household · reasonably close to an exit
Government Prepare guidance suggests keeping emergency supplies together and somewhere easy to find even if the lights aren't working. Prepare
Tell other household members where the bag is.
9. Check it periodically
A grab bag isn't something you prepare once and ignore for ten years.
Periodically check:
Medication and expiry dates.
Food.
Batteries.
Power-bank charge.
Children's requirements.
Clothing sizes.
Contact details.
Copies of documents.
As your household changes, the bag should change with it.
One important exception: a house fire
There is a crucial distinction between being advised to evacuate and escaping an immediate danger such as a fire.
UK Government Prepare guidance is explicit: if you're escaping your home because of a fire, do not delay your escape to collect belongings. Prepare
Your safety comes first.
A grab bag is useful when it is safe and appropriate to take it — not something you should retrieve at the expense of getting out.
How prepared is your household overall?
A grab bag solves one particular problem.
Your household also needs to think about power, water, communication, emergency planning and the home itself.
The free HomeStrength Home Check reviews:
Prepare · Power · Water · Connect · Protect
and gives you practical priorities based on your current arrangements.
Don't turn your grab bag into a survival shop
The objective isn't to buy every emergency gadget available.
Start with what you already own.
Then identify the things that would genuinely make a difference if your household had to leave quickly.
For your wider household supplies, read:
Want a printable checklist?
The HomeStrength Household Preparedness Pack already includes a family grab-bag checklist alongside your household emergency-plan templates, emergency contacts, food and water planning, power-cut preparation and seven-day action plan.
£9.99 · One-off purchase · Instant digital download
HomeStrength provides general household preparedness information. During an emergency, always follow instructions from the emergency services and relevant authorities.
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