How {And Why} To Replenish & Declutter Emergency Supplies

Today's mission is to replenish or declutter your emergency supplies that you've accumulated in previous years, such as if you've done the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge before, or have otherwise gathered up supplies in case of emergencies in the past.


This mission is designed to be done while we prepare our homes for emergencies, in the Emergency Preparedness Kit Challenge here on the site, which is part of the 52 Week Organized Home Challenge.

Of course, you can do this mission whenever you feel you need to.

The reason for this mission is that emergency supplies, like any type of supplies, can become useless or less useful as they age, from spoilage or expiration, and then, if you needed them in an emergency they wouldn't work as well for you as you planned for them to.

Therefore, at least yearly, along with making sure you've got enough supplies in general, you should declutter older supplies and replenish your stocks with newer fresher items.

This is typically a pretty simple mission to complete. Make sure that you look at all the emergency supplies you've gathered places in your home.

This can include your 72 hour kit (check out this list of emergency supplies if you need a refresher of what you should have), any larger emergency supplies you've got stored, as well as emergency supplies you may have placed in your car, and also first aid kits.

Look through the contents of each of these types of supplies, and remove items that are getting old or have expired, and replace it with new items.

The obvious types of things that can expire or get old include food, water, medications, and batteries.

Ideally, when you clean these types of items out of the emergency supplies you'll do it frequently enough that the items can still be used around your home, or perhaps donated for immediate use somewhere else, so the stuff isn't completely wasted.

For example, if you have some canned goods in your emergency kit, if you clean them out regularly, such as yearly, you could eat the canned goods before they expire and just add newer ones to the kit.

Also take the opportunity to look through less obvious supplies and replenish them as well. For example, one thing I suggest you add to your emergency supplies are sets of clothes for each family member. Especially with kids, they grow out of old clothes, so make sure the clothes in the kit still fit. Same for shoes.

Similarly, it's nice to have older spares of vital items, like eye glasses, inside your kit. If you've recently gotten a new prescription perhaps add the older pair to the kit as a spare, but the eyeglasses from two prescriptions ago, that you previously had in your kit, may now be donated, for example.

Similarly, I suggest that you keep copies of certain vital records and documents inside your emergency kit. Make sure all those records are still accurate and up to date.

Finally, consider if you've got changes to your family that will require more or less supplies, like if you've added a pet, or a new baby, or someone has moved away to college.

Once you've done the hard work to put together your emergency supplies, you want to do this maintenance task regularly (yearly at least) so that if you need the items you've got all the benefits of that effort ready to help your family and household.

See below for an example of how one reader has done this mission already, to get you ready to tackle the task for yourself!

Are You Ready To Get Rid Of Old Emergency Supplies?

Seeing the results someone else has when they do one of these missions can get you inspired, and one reader, Seena, sent in her before and after photos, shown above.

Seena said, "Went through our emergency supplies in the kitchen. Had to replace expired medications and water supplies but, otherwise all others were in good shape. I still have to go through our emergency backpacks."

Great job! If you ever need to use these supplies you'll be so glad everything is still working well for you.

Remember too, you can always get pre-made kits of supplies if you wish, but with times these go bad as well, so you'll still need to go through them and replace old supplies, or get a new kit periodically.

72 Hour Emergency Supplu Kit {Referral Links}

Want To Do More Decluttering Missions? Get Started With Declutter 365 Today!

Once you declutter one type of item in your home I bet you'll want to declutter some more. After all, decluttering gives you a great reward for even a small investment of time and energy.

The Declutter 365 system is designed to help you declutter, over the course of a year, your entire house, with just 15 minutes of decluttering each day!

Hundreds of thousands of people use this proven system to get rid of their clutter, and bring peace and calm back to their homes.

Declutter 365 works to guide you to clear the clutter without overwhelm, focusing on just one small area at a time, and without making a huge mess in the process, so you see consistent forward progress without all that "messy middle" that makes it even harder to function in your home than before you started.

In addition to building a daily decluttering habit, the Declutter 365 program, along with the accompanying 52 Week Organized Home Challenge, teaches you the skills, habits, routines, and mindsets necessary to maintain the clutter free and organized state of your home from now on, so it'll never be as messy and cluttered as it is right now, ever again.

If you haven't already, make sure to get your copy of this year's Declutter 365 annual calendar here (it's FREE!), find today's date, and do 15 minutes of decluttering on the day's mission. Then, repeat again tomorrow, and again and again. Over the course of the next year, if you do this 15 minutes per day, you'll declutter your whole house!

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Related Pages You May Enjoy

Getting Clutter Free 15 Minutes At A Time Hall Of Fame

Getting Rid Of Pantry & Kitchen Food Storage Clutter Hall Of Fame

How To Declutter Excess Stockpile From Couponing

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