Emergency Go Bag Checklist: What Goes In, What Doesn't
A go bag buys you seventy-two hours of not needing anyone. This emergency go bag checklist covers what actually belongs in it, what does not, and how to keep it current without thinking about it.
What a go bag is for, and what it is not for
A go bag solves one narrow problem: the first seventy-two hours after you leave your house without warning. Water, food, light, warmth, medication, hygiene, communication, and enough documentation to check into a shelter or a motel. That is the whole job. It buys you three days of not needing to ask anyone for anything.
It is not your evacuation plan. This is the confusion that costs households the most. The bag holds the generic supplies that anybody would need; it does not hold the deed, the external drive, the insulin in the refrigerator, or your grandmother's ring, because those live in six different rooms of your specific house. A packed go bag with no room-by-room list is a plan for surviving comfortably while losing everything irreplaceable.
So think of it as one line on a larger list. It is the item that is already packed. Everything else on the list still has to be collected by hand, and Wildfire Evacuation Checklist: What to Take, in Order covers how to lay out that collection so it is a route through your house instead of a memory test.
Pick a bag you can carry up a hill
A backpack, not a duffel and not a rolling suitcase. You may end up walking, carrying a child, holding a dog, or moving over ground with no pavement. Hands free is the requirement, and anything with wheels is a wheeled bag for exactly as long as the ground stays flat.
One bag per person, sized to that person. An adult can carry twenty to twenty-five pounds without much thought. A seven-year-old can carry a small pack with a flashlight, a water bottle, a snack, and a comfort object, and giving them one is worth doing for reasons that have nothing to do with logistics. An infant does not carry a bag; an adult carries a second one.
Store the bags where you will actually walk past them on the way out: the coat closet by the door, or the garage next to the car. Not the attic, not a storage unit, not under a bed behind the winter clothes. During fire season, many households simply leave them in the trunk, which removes retrieval entirely.
Water, food, and the things that keep you upright
One gallon of water per person per day is the standard planning figure, and three days of it is twenty-four pounds for a family of four. Nobody carries that in a backpack. The practical split is three liters per person in the bag plus a case of bottled water kept in the vehicle, which is where the weight belongs.
Food should be things you eat without cooking, without water, and without a can opener you will not have. Bars, nut butter packets, jerky, dried fruit, crackers, shelf-stable pouches. Pack food your household will actually eat, because a stressed child who refuses unfamiliar food is a problem you can prevent by buying the brand they already like.
Add the things that keep a body functioning when everything else is chaotic: electrolyte powder, since heat and stress dehydrate people faster than they notice, and a small amount of something with sugar in it. Do not forget an infant's formula, bottles, and water for mixing, and do not assume a shelter will have your brand.
- Three liters of water per person in the bag; a case in the car
- Three days of no-cook food per person, plus one comfort item each
- Electrolyte powder or tablets
- Formula, bottles, and baby food for infants; pouches, not jars
- A manual can opener if anything canned is in there at all
Medication is the part that cannot wait
Everything else in the bag is an inconvenience if it is missing. Medication is not. A seven-day supply of every prescription in the household is the target for the bag itself (the thirty days recommended for the house is more than you will carry), in the original labeled bottles, because the label is what lets a pharmacy in another county fill it for you. A photograph of the label works if the bottle does not.
Keep a printed card in the bag listing each person's medications, doses, allergies, conditions, blood type if known, and the name and number of their doctor. If someone in your household would struggle to give that history in an emergency room, the card is the single most valuable piece of paper in the bag.
Anything refrigerated needs a small insulated pouch and a plan for ice. Anything powered needs batteries and a way to charge them: CPAP machines, nebulizers, glucose monitors, hearing aids, and power wheelchairs all fail quietly in a shelter with contested outlets. Spare eyeglasses belong here too, because a lost pair means a person who cannot read the forms they are being handed.
- Seven days of every prescription, in labeled bottles
- A printed medication and allergy card for each person
- Spare glasses, contacts and solution, hearing aid batteries
- A cooler pouch for anything refrigerated
- A first aid kit with adhesive bandages, gauze, tape, antiseptic, tweezers, and pain relievers
- N95 masks, which matter more in a wildfire than any other item in this section
Power, light, and getting information
Assume your phone is at forty percent when you leave, that the network is congested, and that there is nowhere to plug in for a day. A charged power bank in each bag and a car charger in each vehicle covers most of that. Check the power bank twice a year, because lithium cells self-discharge and a dead one is heavier than none at all.
Headlamps beat flashlights, for the obvious reason that they leave both hands free while you are carrying a crate or a child. One per person, with spare batteries taped to the body of the lamp so they cannot get separated. Candles do not belong in a wildfire kit and it should not need saying.
A battery or hand-crank radio that receives NOAA weather bands is the fallback for the case where cell service fails entirely, and that case is not hypothetical during a large fire. It is also how you keep hearing official instructions from the sheriff and the fire authority, which always take precedence over anything you planned in advance.
- A charged power bank plus the right cables for every device in the household
- A car charger in each vehicle
- A headlamp per person with spare batteries
- A battery or hand-crank NOAA weather radio
- A printed card of key numbers: agent, insurer, out-of-area contact, sheriff non-emergency, utility
Documents, cash, and keys
The go bag holds copies, not originals. Originals live in one grab-and-go folder that gets collected during the evacuation itself; putting them in a bag that sits in the garage for two years means a bag that gets stolen with your passports in it. Copies in the bag mean you can still prove who you are while somebody else fetches the folder.
Cash matters more than people expect. When the power is out, card readers do not work, ATMs do not dispense, and the gas station outside the evacuation zone is cash-only for the day. A few hundred dollars in small bills, kept in the bag and genuinely forgotten about, covers fuel, food, and a motel deposit. Small bills specifically, because nobody in a crisis has change for a hundred.
Add a spare set of car keys and, if you have them, a spare house key. Keys get left on the counter more often than anything else on this list. If your vehicle has only proximity fobs, know the mechanical override and where the hidden keyhole is, and know how to open your garage door with the manual release when the power is out.
- Photocopies of licenses, passports, birth certificates, and Social Security cards
- A copy of your insurance declarations page and policy number
- Two hundred to four hundred dollars in small bills
- A spare car key and house key
- A printed list of out-of-area contacts, in case the phone is gone
Clothes, warmth, and hygiene
One full change of clothes per person, chosen for the worst version of the weather rather than the season it currently is. Long pants, a long-sleeved shirt, sturdy closed-toe shoes, socks, underwear, a warm layer, and a rain shell. Evacuations happen at night, night in fire country is cold, and people leave in whatever they slept in.
Shoes deserve their own note. A pair of real shoes at the foot of the bed during fire season is one of the highest-value habits in this entire guide, because the alternative is standing on a driveway covered in ember fall in bare feet or flip-flops.
Hygiene is not a luxury item in a shelter. Toothbrushes, a small towel, wet wipes, hand sanitizer, menstrual supplies, diapers and wipes for anyone in them, and a roll of toilet paper with the cardboard tube removed so it packs flat. An emergency blanket weighs almost nothing and takes up almost no space.
- One change of clothes per person, plus a warm layer and a rain shell
- Sturdy closed-toe shoes, kept by the bed during fire season
- Work gloves, which are useful constantly and always missing
- Toothbrush, wipes, sanitizer, menstrual supplies, diapers
- An emergency blanket per person and a compact towel
Pets, children, and the people who need extra
Every animal needs its own kit and its own carrier, and the carrier needs to be somewhere you can reach in the dark. Three days of food, a collapsible bowl, a leash, and a copy of the vaccination record, because shelters and boarding kennels will ask for it and some will refuse an animal without it. A photograph of you with the pet is what proves ownership if you are separated.
Children need one item each that is theirs and is not useful: a stuffed animal, a book, a small toy. The purpose is regulation, not entertainment. A card in their pack with their full name, your name, and two phone numbers is worth adding, particularly for young children.
If anyone in your household has mobility, sensory, or cognitive needs, their kit is the one to build first and the one to build with them. Spare parts, spare batteries, a manual backup where one exists, and written instructions that someone unfamiliar could follow. Who Does What: Building a Family Evacuation Plan covers making sure a named person is responsible for that kit rather than everyone assuming somebody else has it.
Keep it from going stale
The failure mode of a go bag is not that it was packed wrong. It is that it was packed in 2023 and has not been opened since. The food expired, the power bank is flat, the batteries corroded, and the kids' clothes are two sizes small. A stale bag is worse than no bag because it produces false confidence.
Twice a year, open every bag and do four things: rotate food and water, charge the power banks, swap clothes for the current sizes and the coming season, and replace any medication approaching its expiry. Tie it to the time change so you do not need to remember a date. Twenty minutes for a household of four.
Then write down what is actually in each bag. A packed bag whose contents nobody can recall is a bag somebody opens on the driveway to check, which is a minute you did not have. In Beacon3 the bag is an item on the list marked as already stashed, so the readiness score reflects what is genuinely packed rather than what you meant to pack, and everyone in the household can see the same answer.
- Rotate food and water twice a year
- Recharge power banks; replace loose batteries
- Resize children's clothing and shoes
- Refresh medications and check expiry dates
- Update the printed contact and medication cards after any change
Questions people ask
What should be in an emergency go bag?
Three days of water and no-cook food, a week of every prescription in labeled bottles, a first aid kit, N95 masks, a headlamp and power bank, one change of sturdy clothes, hygiene supplies, cash in small bills, copies of your key documents, and a spare car key. Anything specific to your household comes next: infant formula, pet supplies, and medical equipment.
How much water should a go bag hold?
The planning figure is one gallon per person per day, but a backpack cannot carry three days of that. Put about three liters per person in the bag and keep a case of bottled water in the vehicle, where the weight is not on anyone's shoulders. Refill from taps whenever you get the chance.
Should originals or copies of documents go in the go bag?
Copies. The bag sits in a closet or a trunk for long stretches and is easy to steal, so originals belong in a single grab-and-go folder you collect during the evacuation itself. Copies in the bag mean you can still identify yourself if the folder does not make it out with you.
How often should I refresh my go bag?
Twice a year is enough. Rotate food and water, recharge power banks, replace batteries, resize children's clothes, and check medication expiry dates. Tying it to the time change or the start of fire season means you never have to remember a date.
Where should I keep my go bag?
Somewhere on the path you would take out of the house: the coat closet by the door or the garage next to the car. During fire season, many households simply keep the bags in the trunk, which removes retrieval from the timeline entirely. The attic and a back storage room are both effectively nowhere.
Do I need a separate go bag for each person?
Yes, one per person, sized to what that person can carry. It also means no single lost bag takes out the whole household's supplies. Children old enough to walk can carry a small pack with their own light, snack, water, and comfort object, and having their own bag genuinely helps them cope.
Is a go bag enough on its own?
No. A go bag covers generic survival for three days; it does not cover the deed, the hard drive, the refrigerated medication, or anything irreplaceable, because those are specific to your house. Pair the bag with a room-by-room list of what still has to be collected by hand.
The bag is one line on a longer list
Beacon3 tracks what is already packed and what still has to be grabbed by hand, room by room, with a photo on every item and one shared view for the whole household. It is a planning tool, not an alert service, and it never replaces instructions from local emergency management. Fourteen days free.
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