Household First Aid Kit

There have been so many times that one of us has gotten hurt around the farm.  I don’t mean major things, but cuts, scrapes and bang ups that need more than a band-aid. I’m going to go over what your household first aid kit needs to have in it to handle any kind of minor injury.

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Forrest had a nasty bike wreck not too long ago and I spent about an hour cleaning wounds and picking gravel out of him.  We didn’t have what we needed on hand to fix him up. We ended up scrambling to get what we needed to take care of him.  I decided it was due time that we had a reliable, organized household first aid kit.

Think about the first aid kit you need.

Most of the minor injuries that we’ve had on our farm are due to nasty cuts and scrapes. There have been multiple times that I have glued Michael together with super glue. True story.

There have also been multiple times that I’ve had to scrub nasty cuts and scrapes on myself, Michael, the animals or even one of the kids. (Looking at you Forrest. Boys will be boys, right?)

We’ve been blessed in the fact that most of the accidents we’ve had aren’t broken bones and can be treated at home without a trip to the doctor.  Not only are emergency rooms expensive, but we are over an hour away from a quality emergency room.

When I decided that we needed a good at home first aid kit, I knew I needed to do some research. I wanted to make sure that our kit was prepared for any situation.

Organization is key.

When I was researching home first aid kits, I noticed a couple of things. The first thing that I noticed was that a good kit was homemade.  No one recommended a store bought kit. Seriously, no one.

Also, the kits were extremely well-organized.  This makes sense. If you’ve got a wound that needs fast care, you don’t want to be digging around in a cabinet or box looking for steri-strips or hydrogen peroxide.

An organized kit will allow you to find what you need fast so that you can take care of the wound.  I saw a few ideas for ways to organize household first aid kits. Some people used plastic drawers, some used plastic tubs, some used roll up cosmetic bags. My favorite idea however was a tackle box.

Tackle boxes are sturdy and made to hold a lot of stuff.  Not only are they made to hold all of the stuff, but they are made to organize it.  Pretty clever.

Many people went to Walmart and bought the largest tackle box that they could find. Other people found them cheaper online.  The point is to find a large tackle box that is sturdy.  You don’t want to put your household first aid kit in a soft sided container.  If something were to fall on it, you risk stuff in the kit breaking or liquids oozing everywhere.

Stick with a hard tackle box.

Fill it up.

I personally didn’t have all of the items on my list when I started researching what I needed in a household first aid kit. I actually realized that I didn’t have much of anything!  When you start purchasing your items for your kit, do it a little at a time.  If you buy what you need an item or two at a time, you won’t break the bank.  Some of these items can be expensive, so take it slow.

Another tip for making your household first aid kit: LOOK ONLINE FIRST.  I’ve found that if you purchase some of these items from Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, etc. that you can pay as much as 10x what you would pay for the same item online. Shop smart folks.

Another way to save money on supplies for your household first aid kit- shop the veterinary stores.  They provide the same high quality materials by the same companies that make human supplies, for a fraction of the price.

What should you put in your kit?

Now you need to think about what you need in your kit.  Think about what you would need in any emergency situation.  I sat down and made a list. And I researched what I needed to add to my list.

I’ve come up with a list of what your household first aid kit should include.  Before you check out the list I’ve made, I want to mention something. I have a medicine cabinet in our home.

My household first aid kit is composed of the things that I don’t keep in the medicine cabinet. My medicine cabinet holds things that we are likely to use more often (prescription medicines, vitamins, Tylenol, etc.).

My household first aid kit is more for emergency situations such as cuts, burns, and other wounds that can be treated at home.  I do have some medications in the first aid kit.  That way if we are treating some kind of injury we can just pull what we need out of the first aid kit.  It saves some time if it’s all in the kit.

If you don’t have a medicine cabinet, then you should include those medications in your first aid kit.  That will put everything in the same location.  No more digging around for the aspirin or neosporin!

If you don’t have one already, buy a pocket sized emergency care book for your household first aid kit.

I highly, highly recommend the Living Ready Pocket Manual.  If you don’t have at least some medical experience, this could be a lifesaver for you.

Order one and become familiar with it.  If an emergency pops up and you need to look something up, you’ll be much more likely to find what you need fast if you’ve looked through it.

Read through it and then put it in your household first aid kit.  If you need to use it during an emergency, it’s right where you need it.

What do you include in your household first aid kit?  Let me know!