Emergency First Aid Kits Could Save Your Life: How To Prepare Your First Aid Kit

First aid kits are incredibly important and everyone should have one ready to go — it could even save your life, or someone else's one day. Accidents happen. Small ones and big ones. When one happens to you, you’ll want to be prepared no matter the situation. It won’t take you much effort to put together a first aid kit but it will end up helping you many times.

With the current situation, it’s easy to worry that things will get a lot worse and maybe even turn into a full-blown apocalyptic situation. Whether this happens or not, a first aid kit is helpful for a variety of incidents and you are sure to need one at some point in the future.

First Aid Kit 101: The 5 Things You Must Include

Your first aid kit should include all the basic necessities for a medical emergency. It should have plenty of items to help you through any injury but also enough that you can bring it on the go if needed.

Let’s take a look at some of the most important supplies to pack.

1. Medications

This one is no shocker but over the counter medications are a great place to start when making a first aid kit. With a lot of different medications for different purposes, which ones are the best for a first aid kit? Painkillers — ibuprofen, paracetamol, and naproxen — are a pretty safe bet since they are useful in a variety of situations. Other great additions include aspirin, antacids, cold and cough medications.

2. Bandages and Dressings

Any first aid kit should include supplies for dressing your wounds because you’ll never know when you might get injured. While one of those small packs of plasters is a great start, you’ll want to include bigger bandages too of all kinds of sizes. We’re talking about things like sterile gauze tape, elastic bandage wraps, and adhesive wraps to ensure you are well prepared to dress any wound.

3. Disinfecting Supplies

Before you tend to any wound, it’s important to keep in mind that you’ll need to disinfect your hands and clean the wound. Having a bottle or two of disinfectant handy is always good — as you are sure to know from the pandemic!

For cleaning wounds, however, you will need antiseptic towelettes, antibiotic ointment, and saline wound cleanser.

4. Scissors and Tweezers

Don’t underestimate the usefulness of scissors and tweezers! These trusty tools should definitely be packed in your first aid kit along with your medications and bandages. Scissors are great for a variety of reasons, like cutting bandages to the right size for instance. Tweezers are also important as they can help you remove small things from your skin — like splinters and glass!

5. Emergency blankets

Medications and bandages are great but it’s just as important to pack an emergency blanket. You can find great emergency blankets online and in camping stores that come in small and easy to pack bags that you can carry with you easily.

This list is incredibly small and by no means everything you should pack in a first aid kit. If you’re still not quite sure what else to add then medical gloves, face masks, a thermometer, and cotton swabs are all good choices.

Preparing your first aid kit: What else to keep in mind

Packing a few items is just the start when it comes to preparing your first aid kit. If you want to be truly prepared, you’ll need to do more than just pack a couple of bandages and pills. Let’s take a look at what else to keep in mind while making a first aid kit.

Customizing Your First Aid Kit To Suite Your Needs

While the items you will find included in most first aid kits are sure to help you, it’s important to include the things you personally need for your health. If you don’t add what you need to use then the first aid kit won’t be of much use to you. This is one reason it’s good to make your own kit — or add things to a store-bought one.

This means if you or someone in your family suffers from allergies, pack an epipen and the allergy medication that works for you. Need to take blood pressure pills? Make sure to pack some extras in your first aid kit! Any medication that you take on a frequent basis should be in your first aid kit.

Where To Store Your First Aid Kit

Finished putting together your first aid kit? Great! However, you may be wondering now that it is packed and ready to go, where do you put it? Anywhere where you can easily access it is a good spot. Yes, this means don’t bury it deep in a cupboard with other junk where you’ll never find it again. A first aid kit is no good if you can’t even find it when in need. Pick a spot where you won’t forget.

What use will a first aid kit be to you if you’re not home? Make a first aid kit for on the go that’s smaller but still has all the necessities. We recommend making one for in your car and another smaller one to carry in your bag.

Take A First Aid Course

A first aid kit will be of no use to you if you don’t know how to use the items inside. Take a first aid course! This is a skill that you’ll want to know as it can always be helpful to you. Don’t know where to start? You can easily come across many resources for learning first aid online.

Hesperian Health Guide’s When There is No Doctor, for instance, is a powerful health care manual everyone should download.

Don’t Stop At First Aid Kits

First aid kits are great for medical emergencies, but why stop there? Bug-out bags are very useful when it comes to survival situations — whether you’re stuck in a snowstorm or stranded in a forest. These bags are much larger than first aid kits, usually in designated and large survival backpacks. Bug-out bags can include — but are most certainly not limited to — knives, a fire starting kit, blankets, flashlights, sleeping bags, tents, food, water filter, clothes, a map of your area, and a compass. Bug-out bags also include their own first aid kits.