Simplify Your Family's Emergency Preparedness

How to Maintain Success at Emergency Preparedness

Emergency Preparedness Checklist on a desk

Here is what you should be doing every 6 months to keep up on your emergency preparedness plan.

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Why you should Schedule an Emergency Preparedness Rotation Weekend

There are a lot of things we SHOULD be doing every 6 months or so.  Some of them can be yearly, but a lot of things should be happening about every 6 months if you want to have success at emergency preparedness.

 

Some of these things include:

 

  • Performing maintenance on some things
  • Rotating some things
  • Brushing up on information with family members

When A prep rotation weekend SHOULD happen

I like to use the first weekend that the time changes and then add 6 months from then and put it on our calendar for the fall.  It’s a natural reminder for me.  Also, there is usually less competition for time in the spring and fall, compared to holidays in the winter and vacations in the summer.

 

Be realistic about your family’s typical rhythm for the year and set yourself up for success.  If you have four birthdays in the month of March then you probably need to put it on the April calendar.

 

How to Use an emergency preparedness checklist to get it done

There are several ways you can tackle this list:

  • Spread it out and do a couple things each week throughout the month
  • Spread it out over the week leading up to the weekend, or the week after the weekend
  • Knock it out over an entire weekend (this is my preferred method)
  • Knock it all out in one day (although, depending on how many of these things apply to you, this could take you an ENTIRE day, without doing anything else)

My Method

I prefer to do a mixture of the weekend/week idea.  Here’s what ours looks like:

 

Friday

I like to get a head start on our Emergency Preparedness weekend on Friday while the kids are at school and my husband is at work.

 

Saturday

I like to do the bigger tasks on Saturday (especially the ones where it’s helpful to have more than one person).

 

Sunday

Then we wrap it up with a day of Family Chats on Sunday (or spread them out throughout that following week and do one each night).



All of this is accomplished with the direction of a fantastic printable checklist.  I would never give you a pep talk without equipping you with the tools.  Scroll to the bottom of this post to get yourself the FREE printable checklist!

Customize the plan to fit your family

There may be several things on this list that don’t apply to you.

 

For example: if you don’t have 72-hour kits, you have nothing to rotate, and the same goes for water storage.

 

Don’t stress out about the things you might not have. Just take care of the things that you DO have.  The point of this list is to help you…not overwhelm you.

 

Do what works for YOU and your family – you can move any of the tasks around to fit on the day that works best for you!

If this is a bad weekend, just do what you can over the next few days, and make a plan to get it done.  Or pick a different weekend.

 

The important thing is, that you DO IT!

The list for staying prepared for emergencies

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

All of these topics are boiled down to one page per topic as part of the Quick & Easy Preparedness Challenge. They are in the supporting printables file.

Get it Done and Let me Help

Melanie holding a clipboard with the 6-month emergency preparedness checklist on it

These preparedness weekends are SO IMPORTANT to protect your home and loved ones. You’ve already invested the time and money in these things, so put it on the calendar and make it a priority!  

 

If you look at this list and feel totally overwhelmed, I would HIGHLY recommend joining the Quick & Easy Preparedness Challenge. We cover every single thing on this list except for the bigger things that I have listed under Saturday.  So if you are seeing things like fire extinguishers, smoke alarms, family chats, etc., and wondering what you’re missing, come knock out the basics in just one short month!  We’ll get you whipped into shape with all the easy, yet incredibly impactful parts of your emergency preparedness that are often overlooked!

Get Your Free Printable Preparedness Weekend Checklist Here

Receive EXCLUSIVE SUBSCRIBER-ONLY FREE PRINTABLES, INCLUDING "THIS OR THAT EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS," with 5 things that take 15 minutes or less!

Hands holding a copy of the 6-Month Emergency Preparedness Checklist

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