Part of our Emergency Communications and Preparedness guide.
Every go-kit inventory starts out accurate the day you build it and slowly drifts out of date as batteries get swapped, gear gets borrowed, and expiration dates quietly pass. The fix is not a better one-time inventory. It is a system low-friction enough that you actually keep using it.
Why Most Inventories Go Stale
A detailed spreadsheet built once during an ambitious weekend project feels great at the time and gets forgotten the moment life gets busy again. The problem is rarely the format. It is that updating it requires enough effort that it keeps getting deprioritized, until eventually the inventory bears little resemblance to what is actually in the bag.
Keep the System Genuinely Simple
- A physical checklist taped inside the go-kit itself, checked off during a quick monthly review, beats an elaborate spreadsheet nobody opens.
- Track only what actually changes: battery charge dates, expiration dates on anything perishable, and whether borrowed items have been returned. Static items you never touch do not need constant re-verification.
- Attach the review to an existing habit, the same day you already do a radio check-in or a household task, rather than creating an entirely new thing to remember.
Make Updating Effortless
A photo of the fully packed kit, taken once and updated whenever something changes, is a surprisingly effective low-effort inventory. A quick glance at the photo next to the actual kit shows you immediately what is missing, without maintaining a text-based list at all.
Set a Recurring Reminder, Not a Vague Intention
A calendar reminder every 60 to 90 days for a real, hands-on check of the kit, not just a mental note to check it sometime, is what actually keeps the inventory accurate over the long run. Treat the reminder itself as non-negotiable, even if the actual check only takes ten minutes.
The Real Goal
For what to actually put in that kit, see Packing an FTX-1 Go-Bag: What I Actually Carry, and for how it fits a larger plan, see Building a PACE Communications Plan for Grid-Down Scenarios.
A simple system you actually maintain beats an elaborate one you abandon after the first month. Build the version of this you will genuinely keep up with, not the version that looks most impressive on paper.