Family, Care & Planning · Web + Mobile
GoBag: a family emergency plan template and kit checklist
The kit list and the plan your household actually needs, sized for the people in it.
GoBag is a family emergency plan template and kit checklist for households in wildfire, hurricane, flood, or earthquake areas. You answer a few questions about who lives with you and get a plan plus a printable kit list with quantities.
Waitlist Not built yet Updated 5 September 2026
What problem does GoBag solve?
Somewhere in the garage there is a plastic tub holding four bottles of water, a torch with corroded batteries, and a first aid kit missing its scissors. It was assembled during the last scare. Nobody has opened it since, nobody knows what is still in date, and it sits behind the bicycles. The plan is worse, because there is no plan. If an alert comes at two in the morning and the phones are down, nobody in the house knows where to meet, which relative everyone should text, or who is carrying the cat. The passport, the insurance policy, and the photograph of the meter reading are in three drawers in two rooms. When the notice to leave actually arrives you have very little time to think clearly, and you spend it hunting for a document instead of loading the car.
Emergency kit checklist
Household size, days, and local hazards in; a printable kit list with quantities out.
Free to use. No account. Nothing you type here is stored.
What would GoBag do?
GoBag would size the list to your household instead of handing you somebody else's. You say how many adults, children, and pets live there, how many days you want to cover, and which hazards apply where you live. Out comes a kit list with quantities rather than adjectives: litres of water, days of food, the medication list, the pet carrier, the specific documents. The plan sits beside it: where the household gathers if home is unreachable, the one contact everybody checks in with, who collects whom from school, where the utility shut-offs are and what tool each needs. Items that expire carry a date, so a reminder can tell you the water is three years old before the smoke does. You print it, put a copy in the bag, and give a copy to a neighbor.
How would it work?
- 1Enter how many adults, children, and pets live in the house and how many days to cover.
- 2Pick the hazards that apply where you live, from wildfire to flooding to earthquake.
- 3Print the kit list with quantities and the one-page plan with gathering points and contacts.
- 4Set expiry dates so water, batteries, and medication get replaced before they lapse.
Who is it for?
- Households in a wildfire or hurricane zone with a half-packed tub in the garage.
- Parents who want one page a babysitter or a teenager could follow alone.
- Renters and pet owners whose kit never matches the generic lists online.
How do you build a go bag checklist and a household plan this weekend?
Start with the plan, because it is free and it takes an hour. On one sheet of paper write four things. Where the household gathers if you cannot get home, and make it a named corner or a friend's driveway rather than a neighborhood. The one contact everybody checks in with, ideally someone who lives elsewhere, so there is a single person to call when you are scattered. Who collects the children, and the backup if that person is at work. Where the water, gas, and electricity shut-offs are, and which tool each one needs. Then shop your own house. You already own the torch, the phone charger, the spare cables, the wool blanket, the tinned food, the tin opener, the wet wipes, the bin bags, and a change of clothes each. Put them in one bag beside the door you would leave by, not in the loft. Add sturdy shoes and a warm layer per person, because you may be leaving at night. Water and medication deserve the most care. Store drinking water for several days per person, plus extra for pets, and write the date on every container in marker. Photograph every prescription label, and pack a few days of anything nobody can skip. Documents take twenty minutes. Photograph the passports, the insurance policy, the deed or the lease, the vaccination records, and each room of the house for a claim. Keep the photographs in one folder in whatever cloud storage you already use, and slip paper copies of the essentials into a waterproof pouch in the bag. Then write the date on the outside of the bag and set a reminder six months out. A bag you check twice a year beats a perfect one packed once.
What do people use today?
| Option | Good at | The gap |
|---|---|---|
| Printable checklists from official preparedness sites | Free, careful, and written by the agencies that run disaster response. | One list for every household. You still work out quantities for four people, a baby, and a dog yourself. |
| A pre-packed emergency kit bought online | Arrives in a day and covers the obvious gear without a shopping trip. | Sized for a generic person, rarely holds your medication or documents, and nothing warns you when the food expires. |
| A note in your phone or a shared document | Free, always with you, and easy to add to whenever you think of something. | Least useful in the exact situation it is for, when the battery is flat, the signal is gone, or nobody else has opened it. |
| A reminders app with expiry dates | Will genuinely tell you in two years that the stored water needs replacing. | You have to type every entry by hand first, which is the part nobody finishes. |
| Your insurer's home inventory app | Room-by-room photo records that make a claim far easier to file later. | Built for afterwards. It says nothing about what to carry out of the door or where to gather. |
What would it cost?
Free
$0
- Household plan on one page
- Printable kit list with quantities
Ready
$19/yr
- Everything in Free
- Expiry reminders for water, batteries, and medication
- Document folder and gathering points
- A second household for a relative
Prices are proposed. Founding members lock in the lowest price if we build GoBag.
Questions people ask
What is a family emergency plan template?
A family emergency plan template is a single page recording where a household gathers if home is unreachable, who everyone checks in with, who collects the children, and where the utility shut-offs are. It works because it is written and shared, not because it is clever.
What goes in a go bag for a family of four?
Water and a few days of food, medication, copies of documents, sturdy shoes and a warm layer each, a torch, a power bank and cables, cash in small notes, wet wipes and bin bags, and whatever a child or a pet will not settle without.
How many days should a 72 hour kit cover?
Three days is the usual starting point and the reason the phrase exists. Households far from a main road, on a private water supply, or with someone who depends on mains power often plan for longer. Choose a number of days and let the quantities follow.
Where should the bag live?
Beside the door you would leave by, or in the car if fire is the risk and the car stays outside. A kit in the loft or behind the bicycles is a kit you will not reach. Keep shoes and a torch next to the bed as well.
What about pets and livestock?
Pets need a carrier each, food, a bowl, a leash, medication, and a photograph of you together in case you are separated. Shelters differ on whether they take animals, so settle on a friend, a boarding kennel, or a pet-friendly motel in advance.
Does GoBag store copies of my documents?
The checklist on this page runs in your browser and keeps nothing. A document folder would sit in the paid tier and stay yours to encrypt and delete. The free plan works perfectly well with a folder in cloud storage you already pay for.
Is this only useful in a wildfire or hurricane area?
No. A burst pipe, a gas leak, a power cut in a cold week, or a chemical spill on a nearby road all produce the same afternoon: leave now, take what matters. The hazard question changes only a handful of items on the list.
When will GoBag launch?
There is no date. GoBag gets built only if enough households join this waitlist and say the yearly reminder service is worth paying for. Joining costs nothing, and the checklist on this page is free regardless.
Where does this stand?
GoBag is a proposal, not a product. This page collects demand from search and answer engines. Askwright builds it only if enough people join the waitlist and say they would pay. Read how this works.