Winter Survival Tips For Your Home and Vehicle

Ah winter, how I loved it as a youngster. My sister and I couldn’t wait to get outside to play in the snow. We bundled up so the cold seldom bothered us. We were having way too much fun building igloos and snow forts to play in. The novelty of winter wore off when I became an adult. Shoveling, clearing snow off of the car and ice off of the windows, and driving in snow and ice were hardly fun activities.

With maturity came wisdom, or so I’d like to think…and putting together “emergency kits” for your home and car to help with winter survival seemed like a smart idea.

I’ve put together some tips to help you assemble kits to help with winter survival and all Mother Nature can throw at you.

Home Winter Emergency Kit
Our home winter survival kit is easily accessible and contained in a plastic tote. Walmart and other retailers sell 18-gallon totes for under $6.00. You don’t want to have to go searching for your kit when the lights go out.

Some of what you’ll find in our kit:

• Battery-operated lanterns and batteries
• Crank flashlights (no batteries needed and they work well)
• LED flashlights and batteries
• An AM/FM radio and batteries
• Packages of body, hand, feet and toe warmers

Batteries and body warmers aren’t expensive, so if yours expire before you’ve used them, consider yourself lucky…and make sure to replace them! It’s a small price to pay to remain prepared for winter storms.

We keep a case of bottled water as well as non-perishable food items on the bottom shelf of our downstairs storage unit. While they don’t reek of healthy, items like Pop Tarts, Rice Krispie Treats, chewy granola bars, crunchy granola cars, cereal bars, crackers, peanut butter, and protein bars (yes, they do taste good) have long shelf lives.

Make sure that each family member has warm clothing. Fleece has become a favorite of mine, especially my Tek Gear fleece top (from Kohls). We keep sweatshirts, warm socks and “magic gloves” (those stretchy one-size-fits-all gloves that cost about $1.00-a-pair) at the ready throughout the year and are not afraid to use them. We each have our own favorite blankets we can bundle up in for warmth. Mine has a fleece side and a microfiber side – talk about warm, toasty and oh so cozy. We also have Cuddl Duds (yes, I spelled it right) flannel sheets and quilts on the beds.

If the power goes out and the weather is below freezing, we move our freezer items outside. If not, we use a couple of coolers with ice. No one wants to lose a freezer full of food if the power goes out for a couple of days.

We use draft blockers or rolled up towels to block door and window drafts and small rugs on our hardwood floors to add insulation.

Before bad weather hits, consider contacting your local energy company for a low cost energy assessment that’s well worth the investment.

Vehicle Winter Emergency Kit
Ours is stored in the trunk and includes:

• A warm blanket
• A pair of gloves, a warm hat and winter scarf
• An LED flashlight and batteries
• A crank flashlight
• A cell phone charger
• Kitty litter in the trunk in case you need added traction.
• A fold-up snow shovel.
• Packages of body, hand, feet and toe warmers
• Some
• non-perishable food items like protein bars, granola bars, cereal bars, and crackers

We’ve used our home kit a few times, and have replaced batteries, food items, and body warmers, so we’re ready for the next time. We haven’t used our vehicle kits, yet (which is fine by me, lol), but we’re ready.

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Have you put together a home or vehicle emergency kit?

Drop me a line in the comments below and share what’s in yours.
I’d love to hear from you.

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