My Emergency Overnight Kit

Living here in the Maritimes, there is one thing that is sure, and that is that you can’t be sure about the weather. {wink!} It can be raining in the morning, snowing in the afternoon, and sunny by evening. Or it can be snowing without a cloud in the sky. {no joke!} After living here 2½ years, I’ve learned to just be prepared for any kind of weather!

As winter was approaching this year, I decided it would be a good idea to put together an emergency overnight bag to keep in the car when I go to church on Sundays. I wanted to be prepared for any situation:

    ...there are 80ish kilometers between my house and church. The differences in the weather between the two places can be as different as night and day!
    ...I stay at church all day, so there are bound to be changes in the weather in the course of a day {see above}
    …even though I don’t plan on getting in an accident, I want to be prepared in the unlikely event that were to happen!

So, I grabbed some items to put together this emergency kit. I included:

A change of clothes, including a long-sleeve tee and a sweatshirt, a skirt and a pair of pants, knee socks, ankle socks, and some other, um, essentials. {wink!}

Pj’s

Gloves

Scarf

Boots

Hat

I folded up these items neatly and popped them in a reuseable bag.

There are a lot of other things that could be included in this type of bag, such as:

Extra personal care items, including makeup, hair items, razor, ect.

Flashlight (we keep one of these in the car anyway!)

First aid kit

Blanket

Poncho

Small travel or neck pillow

I didn’t add any of these things for various reasons, such as I already take makeup and some personal care items with me each week to freshen up before the evening service. {Do people still “freshen up” these days or am I the only one?}

I’ve been keeping my emergency kit in the back of the van all winter, and boy am I sure glad I did! I got a chance to use my kit this last Sunday. During the morning service, it was raining, but not badly. About mid-way through the afternoon, that changed to a freezing mix, which then changed to snow and wind that gave us blizzard conditions. The snow was blowing so bad we could barely see out the windows, and the freezing rain had made the road very slick. We canceled church that evening, and I got to spend the night with my pastor’s family. Always a fun time!

So now you see what I mean about never being sure about the weather - ha! I’m just super glad I was prepared and had a change of clothes along. I’ve restocked my bag, and plan to continue using it as long as the winter weather lasts!

Do you put together any type of emergency bag for the winter months? What other things do you include? Anything else I should pop into my kit?