Cupboard · What you keep · 7 min read
The go-bag: what to pack, in the order you'd need it
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A go-bag is for the rare knock at the door: a flood evacuation, a gas leak, a police cordon. Pack copies of documents, several days of medicines (GOV.UK Prepare, checked 26 August 2026), a charger, cash, a torch, water, snacks, warm layers, spare glasses and keys, and keep it where you can grab it in ten minutes.
What is a go-bag actually for?
Let’s be clear about what this is not. A go-bag is not about fleeing anywhere. In Britain, being asked to leave your home almost always means a flood warning, a gas leak in the street, a fire in a neighbouring building or a police cordon, and it almost always means going somewhere ordinary: a relative’s house, a friend’s sofa, a hotel, or a centre the council opens nearby. You will very likely be home within days.
The bag exists for one narrow moment: someone at the door says you need to leave, and you have ten minutes. Ten calm minutes are plenty if the thinking was done in advance. That’s all a go-bag is: the thinking, done in advance, in a rucksack.
One exception matters more than all the packing. The Prepare campaign says that “if you are escaping your house due to a fire you should not take anything with you at all”. Fire means get out, stay out, call 999. The bag is for every other kind of leaving.
What does official guidance say to pack?
The government’s Prepare campaign keeps it brief: “You could consider keeping items you might need to take with you if asked to leave your home quickly in a spare bag – you might hear some people call this a ‘grab bag’.”
For the detail, we’ve matched the British Red Cross’s on-the-move kit, which lists clothing for the weather, ready-to-eat food and water, phone and charger or power bank, essential medication, spare glasses or contact lenses, cash and bank cards, a paper list of emergency numbers, and baby and pet supplies, plus its advice to keep copies of important documents in a waterproof bag and spare house and car keys. County council grab-bag guidance (North Yorkshire’s, for example) adds warm clothes and waterproofs, a torch, spare batteries, snacks and toiletries, and suggests toys and activities for children.
Two items on our list are our own emphasis rather than a quote from guidance: the refillable bottle you fill on the way out, and the comfort item for each child. Both have earned their place in enough real evacuations to keep.
The tick-list above is ordered by when you’d reach for each thing: documents and medicines at the rest centre desk, the charger and cash that evening, the glasses next morning.
Where should it live?
By the way out, not buried. The bottom of a coat cupboard, a hook under the stairs, the hall end of a wardrobe: anywhere you pass on the way to the front door. A school-size rucksack is right; if it’s too heavy to carry down two flights of stairs at a brisk pace, it’s too heavy.
Some things can’t sit in the bag permanently: the medicines you take daily, your only glasses, the phone in your hand. So the top item in our bag is a laminated card listing the five things to grab on the way past. The bag holds everything that can wait; the card remembers everything that can’t.
The ten-minute leave routine
If you’re ever asked to leave, this is the whole job. Practise it once as a family; timing it turns a flap into a routine.
- Bag from the hall cupboard. Card off the top.
- Medicines from the bathroom, phones and power bank off charge.
- Fill the water bottle at the tap.
- Coats and proper shoes for everyone, not slippers.
- Keys, wallets, phones in pockets, not in hands.
- If the emergency services or your utility company tell you to, turn off gas, electricity and water at the mains. The Prepare campaign asks every household to know where these switches are before the day.
- Lock the door. If it’s safe and there’s time, knock for a neighbour who is older or on their own; government guidance asks households to plan to check on neighbours.
What would you add with more warning?
Flood warnings in particular often give you hours, not minutes; sign up for them so the warning actually reaches you. With that time you’d add: the laptop and a backup drive, irreplaceable photos, a few days of clothes, valuables moved upstairs, the pet carrier, and the car moved to higher ground. Our storm and flood guide covers that longer countdown properly.
The car version
If you’d leave by car, or you drive long distances in winter, the British Red Cross suggests a small kit that lives in the boot: ice scraper and de-icer, a snow shovel, a paper map for diversions or poor signal, a blanket and warm clothing, a first aid kit, a torch and radio, jump leads, and bottled water with some long-life snacks. Most of it costs little and none of it minds being left there all year.
What this asks of your body
A packed go-bag with a litre of water in it weighs a few kilograms, and the moment it matters you’ll be carrying it downstairs at pace, possibly with a child on the other arm. That’s exactly the carry standard in the five Ready Body tests: two loaded bags up two flights without stopping. If the packed bag feels heavy on the practice run, that page has a four-week plan.
Frequently asked questions
How likely am I ever to use it?
For any one household, genuinely unlikely; most go-bags retire unused, and that’s the good outcome. Streets do get cleared, though, for floods, gas leaks and police incidents, and the households with a bag spend those ten minutes putting on coats rather than hunting for prescriptions.
Where would I actually go?
Usually somewhere ordinary you choose: family, friends or a hotel. If you have nowhere to go, councils open a rest centre nearby, typically a leisure centre or hall, with warmth, information and somewhere to sit. [VERIFY: rest centre provision and what it includes — your local council’s emergency pages]
Should every person have their own bag?
One household bag is enough for most homes, with each child carrying their own comfort item. If you’re a larger household, split the load across two bags so no single one is too heavy to carry downstairs quickly.
Should I pack original documents or copies?
Copies live in the bag permanently, in a waterproof wallet. Originals such as passports stay wherever you normally keep them, and they’re on the laminated grab card for when there’s time. The Red Cross approach is copies in a waterproof bag; that’s what we do.
What about pets?
Keep the lead or carrier in the same cupboard as the bag, with a few days of food. Ask your council now, not on the day, whether its rest centres take pets, and agree a fallback with family or friends who would.
Isn’t this the same as the home emergency kit?
No, they’re opposites. The home emergency kit is for staying put when the power or water goes off; the go-bag is for leaving. They share a few items, but don’t cannibalise one to build the other, or the bag will be half-empty when the knock comes.
What if it’s a fire?
Take nothing. The Prepare campaign’s wording is that if you are escaping a fire “you should not take anything with you at all”. Get everyone out, stay out, and call 999 from outside. The go-bag is for the evacuations where someone official gives you time.
Sources & review
- UK Government, Prepare campaign: Get prepared for emergencies. Checked 26 August 2026. Grab bag suggestion, several days of medication, ready-to-feed formula, important documents (passports, birth certificates, insurance), knowing how to turn off gas, electricity and water, checking on neighbours, take-nothing fire advice.
- British Red Cross: Prepare an emergency kit. Checked 26 August 2026. On-the-move kit list, copies of documents in a waterproof bag, spare keys, spare glasses, baby and pet supplies, car emergency kit list.
- North Yorkshire Council: Preparing a grab bag. Checked 26 August 2026. Warm clothes and waterproofs, torch and radio, spare batteries, snacks, toiletries, cash, insurance details, children’s toys and activities.
Prices are typical, estimated 26 August 2026 — check monthly. Awaiting review (reviewedBy: TBC). The rest-centre line marked [VERIFY] needs checking against local council guidance before publication.