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Hygiene and sanitation
Hygiene is everything
Hygiene without running water: hand washing that beats norovirus, no-rinse washing, portable toilets and dealing with waste.
By Slightly Anxious
1st July 2026 32 minute read
IN SHORT
Plan for no running water: hand washing that beats norovirus, no-rinse washing, a portable toilet, medicines for 14 days rather than 7, and chores shared out.
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Looking at us from a distance you may not know it, but hygiene is really everything for us at Slightly Anxious and we suspect you’re much the same. Keeping hygiene standards high that is! This means we all put keeping clean as a priority in every situation and it's especially important in an emergency situation.
Do you have running water?
Direct causes for your water supply not working can be as simple as builders digging up a water pipe by mistake. Indirect causes can be power failures which stop the pumping of your water or flooding that overwhelms and fills your pipes with unclean water. Our much rightly criticised water companies are supposed to be there to fix such outages as quickly as possible. Recent examples have shown that even in normal conditions this isn’t always the case. So, if you can imagine an emergency where a large proportion of the water supply network needs fixing, you can see that while the chance of you having no water coming out of your taps might be a relatively rare event, the chances of it getting fixed in just a few hours are looking increasing slimmer. So the correct attitude for anyone concerned with preparedness is to prepare for not having any water.
Read our article. ‘What to do when the water is turned off?’ and get it insight in how to store potable (drinkable) water and how to re-use ‘grey water’, this is the water you have used to cook/clean/wash with and is still usable, just not for human use.
For the sake of this article we will take it that you have unfortunately lost access to your running water supply due to a crisis situation. Fortunately, we are also taking it that you have read ‘What to do when the water is turned off?’ and implemented its recommendations, so you have an adequate supply of water, 10 litres per person per day. That’s 140 litres for a couple for a week. Our article explains how you can store such an amount of water and ensure its fresh when you need it.
This 10 litres a day per person includes drinking, cooking and hygiene. If we break it down we find that the bare minimum of water intake for an adult is 2-3 litres. This can be straight water, tea or coffee or diluted drinks, but water is always best. This is what you need to stay alive but nothing else.
If you look at what you need to eat and drink, you need about 5 litres per day. Your bare minimum of 2 litres to drink becomes more like 3 if you’re being considerate. Then you need around 2 litres to cook with (e.g. boiling pasta) and to clean your cooking surfaces/utensils. This brings keeping fed and watered to about 5 litres. Then add approx. 5 litres for health and hygiene. This is still Spartan rations!
Hygiene by the numbers
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10 litres per person per day covers drinking, cooking and washing
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An adult needs 2-3 litres a day just to drink
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One toilet flush uses 6-13 litres
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Allow 2-3 toilet rolls per adult per week, plus 30%
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Keep medicines for 14 days, not 7
Cleaning supplies
What you will also need are cleaning supplies. You will probably have everything you need already as we expect that you are ensuring your household is clean and hygienic already, using water. The only difference being you will now be using your stored water judiciously rather than out of the taps. One change we would ask you to make is that you implement a strict hand washing regime for after using the toilet and before eating food. Hands are washed first in water with soap to remove dirt then hand sanitiser applied to protect against germs.
Clean hands
Having the members of your household altogether indoors for up to a week can put a strain on basic hygiene requirements purely due to persistent proximity. If you remember during Covid-19, we had a hand washing regime and you should impose one on all your household members. We have a tip for if you have household members who you don’t trust to abide by the regime, naughty children for example, which is to purchase perfumed hand sanitiser as that way you can have a ‘sniff test’. If their hands smell of the sanitiser perfume they can have their food! If you trust everyone to act sensibly, then you can just buy the normal stuff. Just look for a minimum or at least 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol. Palm Safe do a range of flavoured hand sanitiser gels such as the Palm Safe Coconut Alcohol Hand Sanitiser 500 ml Pump Bottle at c. £12-16 while for a more basic hospital style and smell, and considerably cheaper is the Handsafe Sanitiser Gel - Hospital Grade Hand Sanitiser at c. £6-£8 for 2x 250ml pump bottles.
A water saving choice would be to get antiseptic hand wipes which removes the need for water altogether when cleaning hands. These are superior to just using hand sanitiser alone, if you are not washing with soap and water first, as when you have visibly dirty hands, the physical friction of the wipe removes the grime that the sanitiser would just move around. There are a multitude of options available such as Clinell Antimicrobial Hand Wipes - Pack of 100 Individually Wrapped Sachets at c.£8-£12.
As we discuss in the ‘What to do when the water is turned off?’ article, is that one of your jobs or the job of whoever you make responsible for running your crisis adventure, will be to ration the water supply. You can't all be running out because one of you is a bit too overzealous with their ablutions. A good idea is to have 2 litre bottles of water allocated to each household member. Give them one when they wake up and then with each meal and tell them that is all there is for their eating, drinking and washing, so either 4 bottles per day (8l) or 1 bottle refilled 4x. You will need the rest for cooking, household cleaning and the bare minimum of laundry, with a small contingency built in.
Toilets without running water
We need to address the biggest issue of not having running water and that is not having a toilet. Your toilet needs running water, one single flush uses 6-13 litres. With no running water the sewage system doesn’t work and it can become a real risk if it backs up. You do not want to be cleaning up human sewage!! A top-tip is to get a toilet bung. We discuss these more in our article on dealing with flooding, ‘Slightly Anxious about rising water levels’. These block backflow out of your toilet which is common in floods but less so in just a water shut-off scenario. What it also does is very clearly signify to people is don’t use the toilet. The Toilet Stopper for Floods is c. £50-£60 and is a rubber bladder that you put down the U-bend and inflate.
You and your household will need to use the toilet, numerous times. This we can guarantee. Fortunately, you are most likely going to be in your property so you already have a designated space that provides privacy and comfort, your toilet/bathroom. You just need something to do your business in and a way to remove it and like with most things to do with preparing for a crisis, the solutions are dependent on the size of your wallet. The more you spend, the less you have to deal with your business.
If your rich and squeamish then we recommend the Dry Flush Laveo portable toilet at c.£1,400-£1,600. This rechargeable battery powered toilet utilises a system where your waste gets almost vacuum sealed in a liner and then when the toilet is full (about 15 flushes), your remove the liner which is already in a refuse bag, seal and dispose of it. For your wet waste they provide ‘pee powder’ which turns the liquid into an odourless gel thus making storage and disposal easier. This is the only option where you don’t get to see your waste and disposal is pretty straight forward.
The other options will involve you having to deal with separate containers for your wet and dry waste (number ones and twos), sealing the containers and then disposing of the contents, which will mean emptying the containers. For your wet waste (your pee), if you can dilute it with grey water at a ratio of 5 parts grey water to 1 part wet waste, then its fine to water your garden with. If you find that the gutters and drains in the street are still working, pour some grey water down and see if it drains, then you can just pour the wet waste down the drain. Your dry waste is different and more of a problem. If you’re using a composting toilet, you will have added some form of drying/composting agent to it as you ‘flush’. This is either sawdust, peat moss, hemp, coffee granules or coconut coir. If you’ve used enough of it when flushing, it alters the carbon and nitrogen ratio of the waste and it begins the ‘biological dehydration’ process over time. This should mask the smell, the majority of which comes when wet and dry waste are mixed, which is not the case here.
A well-managed dry waste container’s contents should look like damp earth, not raw sewage. This needs decanting into a strong plastic bag, such as a heavy duty rubble sack such as Paxfords Extra Strong 133 Micron Rubble Bags (Pack of 15) at c. £13-£17, which should then be sealed with a zip tie, from 100 Pack Black Thick Cable Ties Heavy Duty Large 300mm×7.6mm Strong Nylon Plastic Self Locking 12 inch/30 cm Extra Long Zip Tie Wraps at c. £8-£12. This should then be double-bagged into a HazMat insignia bag, so that people can see it holds human waste for treatment or incineration and not for opening, Hpc Heavy Duty orange Clinical Waste Bags - 90 L - 25 Bags at c.£13-£17 is a good example and should also be secured with a zip tie. The double-bagged waste should then be stored in a bin, hopefully metal or at least something that can’t be accessed by foxes or other vermin, preferably with a weight on the lid. Once the emergency is over, the council will eventually come and collect it and dispose of it appropriately.
The portable toilets available are basically modifications of the survivalist method of having two buckets, one for wet and one for dry waste, both with a thick plastic bag in to collect the waste and a supply of sawdust or other compostable matter to act as a ‘flush’.
The Boxio Portable Toilet at c. £150-£170 is a fine example of a toilet structure that has two compartments under the seat, so that dry waste is directed into one and wet waste into the other. It comes with hemp to ‘flush’ the dry waste that collects in the provided plastic bags, while the wet waste is collected in a sealable plastic container. Significantly more expensive is the Trelino Evo M Composting Toilet at c.£350-£450 which works in exactly the same way, just is far better designed and where the Boxio is basically a plastic box, this will not look out of place in your bathroom. It comes with the delicately named fecal bags but leaves it up to you to supply the ‘flush’ material. Boxio sell bags of their Hemp Lavender: 5.6 L Odour Neutraliser at a whopping c.£13-£17 and state that it can also be used a rabbit litter, which does you give some idea of where you could make savings.
There will be some who question why we don’t recommend the classic camping/caravanning chemical toilets. These are designed so that the waste first gets flushed with water and/or chemicals into a waste tank and then gets emptied into either a toilet or a dedicated cistern, both of which require running water and chemicals. They are perfectly good for what they do, our issue is that how do you flush and once you’ve filled the waste tank, how do you empty it if you have no running water/toilet or access to a disposal facility?
The cheapest portable toilet option is just to use chemicals. The E Eaststorm Portable Camping Toilet at c. £35-£55 is a foldable toilet structure with a leather-covered seat that supposedly stays soft and warm against your skin whatever the temperature. It comes with biodegradable plastic bags to collect your waste, it recommends double-bagging, then you add the biodegradable solidifier which binds with any liquid and neutralises odours. We would recommend disposing of these bags in the same way using a heavy duty and HazMat bags as detailed above. Far more portable is the Alevmoom 7L Portable Toilet for Adults at c.£40-£55. This works in exactly the same way but folds down into a carry case, weighing only 2kg, that comes with shoulder straps. This will make storage more inconspicuous as well. When unfolded it can work in one of three height positions so perfect for children, youths and adults. It comes with bags but no chemicals to solidify or odour neutralise. These can be bought separately, a 1kg bag of CarpLife Bivvy Loo Absorbent Powder at c.£15-£25 can be used for 100 ‘flushes’. Another option is just to get the Reliance Products 2683-03 Double Doodie Toilet Waste Bags (6-Pack) at c.£25-£30. These are double bags, the inner one contains the bio-gel that solidifies and odour neutralises the waste. Once full; they think a family of four can use one bag for a day, you seal the inner bag in the toughened outer bag with a zip lock. Popaloo Eco Powder Bags (Pack of 50) at c.£50-£65 are only single bags and so more at risk of leaks (eugh!) but as both the bags and the gel are bio-degradable it can be buried or disposed of in a normal waste bin. We do raise our flag of caution here, in our experience biodegradable bags, tend to be not that strong and we think not having your own waste leak everywhere is more important than environmental concerns in a time of emergency. We do recommend that you get yourself a box of strong nitrile (like latex) gloves for when handling waste, such as TG Tough Glove Boa Pro (XL) Nitrile Gloves (Pack Of 100) at c.£12-£16, which will be useful for a plethora of tasks.
Toilet options when the water is off
Option
How it works
Guide Price
E Eaststorm Portable Camping Toilet
Folding seat with bags
c.£35-£55
Toilet Stopper for Floods
Bung for the U-bend, then line the bowl
c.£50-£60
Boxio Portable Toilet
Separates wet and dry waste
c.£150-£170
Dry Flush Laveo
Seals each use in foil, no water or chemicals
c.£1,400-£1,600
Washing yourself
Now we’ve finished with probably the most important issue of hygiene, the toilet, we need to look at the very close second, washing yourself when you have no running water. Even if you did, it would most likely be cold as there is a greater chance of the electricity being off and even if you use a gas boiler to heat your water, that still needs electricity to work. So at most, you will have cold water from the taps but most likely you will have cold water from your water storage. The only difference is the amount. From the taps its unlimited, from storage its rationed and you may just have a couple of litres to wash with.
In the world of emergency, the most luxurious form of personal washing is a shower. For many, not having one is almost unthinkable, but in times of emergency, expectations will need managing. The first question is do you want your water heated? Why we ask is that there are three factors involved when you consider emergency showering: where will the water be stored, how will it be heated and how will the shower pump it, and over all of this is the question, how will the heating and the pumping be powered?
As with most things emergency-based, our solutions comes from the world of camping. At the most luxurious is the Camplux Portable Gas Water Heater with Pump at c.£325-£425. You have your water in a bucket or some form of container and it gets pumped into the device, is heated by gas and then pumped out through the shower. It needs a butane or propane cannister for the heating, available at most camping stores, and a 12v power supply for the pumping, see our article ‘What to do when the power goes out with Slightly Anxious’ to see some options. A more portable version with slightly less power and capacity is the Camplux 5L Portable Gas Water Heater with 4.3L Pump Camping Shower at c. £200-£275.
If having gas cannisters and a portable power station in the bathroom is too much just so you can have your warm shower, then you have to get creative. The issue is that heating water is an incredibly energy intensive activity. If you wanted to heat 10 litres of water from 10°c to 40°c you would probably need about the equivalent of 15 mobile phone chargers! This is why the suppliers of heated portable shower provide the heating to the water with a water heater, similar to that found in an aquarium, that plugs into the mains. You may be suffering an emergency where you have no water but have electricity, so it might be appropriate for you and we recommend the Cooligo Portable Camping Shower with Heater, 6000mAh Rechargeable Portable Shower with 2000W Immersion Heater at c.£60-£80. You heat the water in a container with the mains powered immersion heater and then the pump, powered by a rechargeable battery, will pump the water out of your shower head. You could use a portable power station to provide the mains electricity but we think this is a waste of your precious juice.
We think the most electricity-saving way to have a hot shower is to heat water on your gas powered stove. See our article ‘Kitchen in a crisis with Slightly Anxious’ to see the options. Once heated, mix it with cold water in whatever container you are using for the shower water until you reach an appropriate heat and then you can use any of the many options for a portable camping shower that rely simply on a rechargeable battery to power the pump for the shower. Some options are: the Wadeo Portable Camping Shower at c.£25-£30. This comes with a 6,000 mAh rechargeable battery to power its pump that gives you 90 minutes of showering. For two people that’s a 6 minute shower every day for a week. It needs a USB-C to recharge, from a portable power station if you’re still in the emergency, and takes 4 hours to do so. The Miaoke Upgrade Portable Camping Shower at c.£35-£45 comes with a 7800mAh rechargeable battery and provides two people with a 10 minute shower every day for a week. The length of your shower is also constrained by the amount of water you will have and as discussed above, each person has a ration of about 5-7 litres a day for washing, which for some of our listed showers will provide about 1.5 minutes of showering at full power. You can stretch things out if you reuse your shower water, say by standing in the bath with the plug in, but you are then washing with increasingly dirtier water.
We have some sympathy with those who think going to such efforts is not worth it. You’re only in an emergency situation for up to a week and fully immersive washing is kind of a luxury. Anyone who has spent some time in hospital and been bed-ridden will know this. There is the tried and tested flannel bath method.
A flannel bath for the uninitiated is simply washing your body at the sink, using a minimal amount of water, soap and a flannel. Its pretty basic but it does the job. You could make it more luxurious. Get two types of luxurious flannels: Towelogy® Luxury Egyptian Cotton Face Cloth Flannel Fingertip Towels at c.£10-£14 and Bamboo Baby Wash Cloth Flannel Face Cloths at c.£14-£18. The Egyptian cotton is your ‘hot’ towel and the bamboo fibre towel is your ‘cold’ towel. Get some hot water from a kettle and pour into your bathroom sink. Add a few drops of essential oils – we recommend eucalyptus to wake you up in the morning, lavender to calm you in the evening or bergamot to give you that spa scent, we suspect you may already own at least one. Then add a few drops of high quality cleansing milk, which we also suspect you may own. Then use the hot towel to wash your body, move from your face to your neck to your arms, then your chest, back, legs and feet. Take your time and compress the hot towel on your skin for a few seconds before wiping off with the cold towel. Finish by pouring some body oil in your hands to warm it then rub over your body to seal in the moisture and give you that ‘spa finish’. You could even go so far as lighting incense, having candles and even music. Transporting yourself into a spa ritual may distract you, even for just a few minutes, that you're having a flannel bath!
You may feel that you don’t want to waste your precious water supply on washing, after all its just a week and drinking and cooking (eating) have to be priorities. The options without water are quite mundane. First, there are the full body wet wipes that don’t need a rinse. The Comfy Life Premium Full Body Cleansing Wet Wipes For Adults at c.£11-£15 are designed so you can ‘take shower’ while lying in bed. They are water free, thick, strong, adult-sized and infused with aloe vera. Or you could try the No-Rinse Foaming Body Wash & Shampoo at c.£11-£15. You simply apply directly to your skin or a flannel, massage it to a lather and towel dry. Or if you are focussing on your hair, there is the Dermaflora Dry Shampoo at c.£11-£15. This is colourant free, paraben free, silicone free and comes with keratin & aloe. They state it absorbs excess oil and revives flat hair instantly. Another item to throw into the emergency store are the Ourmed Life Compressed Towel Tablets at c.£13-£17. These are a pack of 56 individually wrapped compressed towels about the size of a credit card. When water is added they expand to a chunky 10” x 12” but can also be stretched out when dry. Remember that your laundry service have been curtailed, so quite rapidly your supply of flannels or hand towels will be dirty, so these easily replace them. They are disposable and biodegradable.
Teeth, shaving and sanitary products
Let’s now turn to the other rituals of personal hygiene and start with dental cleanliness. We all brush our teeth at least once a day and this usually requires water. While this can still be an option in an emergency, as it doesn’t require much water, people may feel that considering the available options that they would prefer their limited supply of water to be in a cup of tea rather than being gargled and spat down the sink.
There are: Colgate Wisp Portable Mini-Brushes (pack of 24) at c.£10-£14. These are mini tooth brushes which have toothpaste already in the brush, there is no need for water, you just brush and you can even use the other end of the brush as a toothpick. On a similar theme, but the use of water is up to you are the toothpaste replacement tablets, like Denttabs Teeth Cleaning Tablets (125 tablets) at c.£8-£10 or SuperBee Dentos Toothpaste Tablets (150 tablets) at c.£14-£20. Both of these are designed to replace normal toothpaste not as a no-water alternative. You chew them to activate them into a paste, you can use water to assist or just use a finger and spit out. What these do is omit the Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) commonly found in toothpastes, this is what makes it foam to spread the toothpaste around the mouth and what requires the water. No or low SLS tooth cleaning products will benefit from a little water but brushing with a brush or even a finger will do a similar job. If you prefer a low SLS toothpaste to tablets, you could try one developed for people suffering from a dry-mouth complaint, Oralieve Ultra Mild Toothpaste at c.£6-£9.
A daily ritual for men is of course shaving. The use of water is to lubricate the three main components of a shave; the skin, the stubble and the blade. With no water, everything gets a bit rough and skin can get inflamed, stubble doesn’t get cleanly cut and the blade gets blunter. For no water shaving, the options start with an electric shaver, many of which are designed purely for dry shaving. We have heard that this is the best option for those with lengthy facial hair who want to trim, but if you're trying to replace a razor, it can still cause irritation. A better alternative would be a shaving gel or oil. These don’t require water and can just be wiped off the face after use, admittedly you would probably want to use a tiny amount of water to clean your razor or wet your flannel. Options are: King Of Shaves Sensitive Shaving Oil For Men at c.£8-£10 and Cremo Original Concentrated Shaving Cream for Men at c.£12-£16. At a push, alternatives such as coconut oil, baby oil, or a moisturising body lotion can be applied to the skin to help the razor glide. Remember, one trick for an emergency is to get your household shavers to grow beards, this solves the problem of shaving, inserts a much needed element of competition for the menfolk and will provide much hilarity with the before and after photos.
Another ritual for women entails feminine hygiene products. The key issue here is whether the women in your group have enough of them. Issues of personal hygiene are understandably quite personal and intimate. We therefore suggest that before any emergency kit is put together, you have a discussion with the people who you expect you will be sharing your emergency situation about what items they want put in the emergency kit for their hygiene purposes and what they will they will supply for themselves. Both sexes will have items they need, you may have to make a decision over whether you can trust them, I’m thinking teenagers here, to have a necessary supply of them ready should an emergency happen and if not, proactively stockpile some for them. But find out from them what they want first, never assume you know the options they would prefer.
Which nicely leads us on to hygiene related items that we expect you to already have. We just want you to consider whether you have enough of these in your property, so that if an emergency started tomorrow that would last a week and no one in your property could leave, would your supplies last?
Toilet paper
Toilet paper is understandably what people stockpile at the very first hint of a foreboding of a crisis, whether valid or not. It’s actually understandable as if you were to run out during an emergency, then the alternative is using cloths and flannels and quite frankly it just gets more and more icky the more you look into it. You should take it that an average adult uses between two to three rolls per week and you should add on about a 30% contingency just in case someone gets a case of the ‘trots’ and needs a lot more. For two people that’s 8 rolls and 16 rolls for 4 people. Do you have that number in store at any one time? If not you really should get some in to storage as this is one item you don’t want to forget. We would also suggest adding Vivactive 7L Wet Wipes 50 Pack at c.£10-£14 to your emergency storage. These are extra large wet wipes and can double as toilet paper as well as being used to body wash without water. An easy to have reserve that may turn out to be vital! When disposing of feminine hygiene products, toilet paper and wet wipes, follow the procedure for disposing of dry waste as detailed above.
First aid and medicines
At Slightly Anxious we hope that all our members already have a first aid kit at home. If you don’t, go out and buy one right now. They are just as useful in normal times as in emergency times. While there are literally hundreds of options for home first aid kits, we are big fans of the Pro First Aid Kit with Molle System Portable Emergency Survival Kit at c.£40-£55, simply because its so well labelled. One of the biggest problems with first aid kits is needing to find the item your after amongst, as in this case, 166 first aid items, so having them clearly labelled and categorised is an absolute bonus. An even bigger option, which also clearly labels and categorises the 255 items it contains is the Pro First Aid Kit Emergency Survival Medical Kit at c.£80-£100. We would also suggest considering ‘old faithful’ in the much smaller, St John Ambulance Home First Aid Kit at c.£15-£21. It has less to offer but you may find its smaller size preferable for storage. As with all things emergency, the issue is finding the balance between what you can afford, what you can store, what you think you will need and what you actually need.
What first aid kits don’t carry are the non-prescription drugs. These are incredibly important as you will be using these for the majority of ailments suffered during your emergency. First aid kits focus on people getting hurt, which thankfully is quite a low risk but definitely not one to ignore, these drugs are here for when people get sick. We don’t mean really sick, just minor ailments that makes life like a nightmare and when you’re enduring an emergency this just get multiplied.
We recommend that you purchase the following medicines and store them securely, away from light and moisture, with a preference for blister packs over bottles as lids go missing. The amount you will require is a function of how many people and how often you think they will be needed, overestimate rather than under as you will get thanked for this! Think 14 days not 7.
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For headache, pain and inflammation - Nuromol Dual Action Ibuprofen Paracetamol Tablets, 16 Count at c.£3-£5
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For diarrhoea - Imodium Instants (1 x 6 Tablets) at c.£4-£6 and/or Enterosgel Diarrhoea & Stomach Pain Relief (10 sachets) at c.£25-£35, Electrorush Oral Rehydration Salts (20 sachets) at c.£10-£14 – lack of hydration is one of the most serious aspects of diarrhoea so these are important.
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For indigestion - Gaviscon Double Action, Chewable tablets (48 tablets) at c.£10-£14
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To prevent mouth ulcers as reduced dental hygiene can make your mouth susceptible - Bonjela Adult Gel 15g at c.£6-£8
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To prevent skin infection, after a scratch for example - Savlon Antiseptic Cream at c.£6-£8
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To prevent skin irritation such as from insect bites or heat rash - Hydrocortisone Cream 1% w/w Bite and Sting Cream at c.£11-£15
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To ameliorate heat rashes and "skin-on-skin" irritation as a lack of water when washing can exacerbate this and this doesn’t need water - Care Aqueous Calamine Cream at c.£5-£7
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To prevent eyes suffering dust or debris during emergencies leading to conjunctivitis - I-Wash Bottle with Eye Bath at c.£8-£12
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To deal with a cold or flu – as a general medicine we recommend Lemsip Max Cold and Flu, Paracetamol Capsules at c.£5-£7. For sore throats, Strepsils Sore Throat Relief, Honey and Lemon, 24 Lozenges at c. £8-£10 and Ultra Chloraseptic Anaesthetic Throat Spray at c.£6-£8. If the ‘patient’ needs to clear their lungs but obviously can't access a hot steamy shower then Vicks VapoRub can be rubbed on their chest at c.£5-£7. A chesty cough needs Benylin Mucus Cough Max at c.£7-£9, while a dry tickly cough will need Covonia Dry & Tickly Cough Linctus at c.£8-£10. A number of cold & flu remedies contain large amounts of glucose and/or sucrose so be wary if you have any diabetics.
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To deal with hayfever and pet allergy symptoms – we recommend for non-drowsy relief Allevia Hayfever Allergy Tablets at c.£8-£12. For quicker relief but may cause some drowsiness Piriteze Hayfever & Allergy Antihistamine Tablets at c.£13-£17. Just remember, no driving heavy machinery!
Tummy trouble
Unfortunately, living together for a week and eating emergency food can leave us susceptible to diarrhoea and indigestion. The stress of the situation can cause headaches and inflammation and lengthy amounts of close proximity to other people can mean we catch any sniffles they already have incubating. Add to this the usual issue of suffering insect bites, hay fever and everyday scratches and grazes and you can see how your medicine chest will become vital. If you will have small children sheltering with you, remember to get kid’s versions of the medicines as well. You will also need to check for paracetamol in flu medicines as if you are already taking it as a tablet, having a cold medicine with it in, can make you overdose. Like with most emergency supplies, these medicines have shelf life and one of services Slightly Anxious provides, if you buy the items through our website, is a reminder when you need to refresh your supply.
We would also recommend that as part of the conversation we recommend that you have with your household about personal hygiene items, you also remind them to ensure that they have a reserve of any prescription medication that they need to carry them over at least a week and that you know they need them. Some people are understandably particularly secretive about their medical issues and the medication consequently needed. You or whoever the responsible adult is, need to know about them. If you haven’t dealt with a diabetic in need of a glucose boost, you may think that they have suffered a serious injury. They will have if you don’t understand that all they needed was to have a glucose tablet. So get knowledgeable about your flock’s medical issues.
Cleaning the house
Our final category of emergency items that you will probably already have are household cleaning products. No one is expecting you to have your property looking like a show home during an emergency, though we would bet money that you keep it in a decent state that you can be proud of. The issue here is that during a crisis, you and your fellow ‘internees’ will be living almost on top of each other, without much water, eating tinned food and using a portable toilet. There is very urgent need for things to be kept as clean and hygienic as possible to stop the spread of any kind of infection or disease. I cannot stress enough just how terrible a case of norovirus would be in such a situation!
Our top tip is to get an empty spray bottle, purchase some Milton Sterilising Tablets at c.£2-£4, crumble one in and fill with water. Do this in normal times and store for an emergency. It will last a year or more. Even if it is a time of emergency it is definitely worth the use of water, although you can use less if you need to, as this will be one of your first lines of defence against the spread of norovirus or E. coli. which can happen on surfaces like doorknobs, toilet seats, and food prep areas. An alternative would be to purchase a Clinell Universal Cleaning and Disinfectant Wipes Bucket (pack of 225) at c.£11-£15. and wipe rather than spray. Alcohol-based wipes like this can be damaging to plastic and acrylics, so if you need to clean such materials, use Sani-Cloth AF3 Large Disinfectant Wipes at c.£6-£8 as they are alcohol-free and still effective at disinfection.
If you’ve read our article, ‘Kitchen in a crisis with Slightly Anxious’, you will have seen that we recommend disposable crockery and cutlery as a way of saving water on the washing up. This will still leave some pots and pans that you have used for actually cooking that need cleaning. You can use Dettol Antibacterial Cleansing Surface Wipes (4 pack – 110 wipes) at c.£10-£14 and on the food prep surfaces and chopping boards to clean them.
You might also want to consider these: Swarfega Extreme Wipes at c.£14-£20 which remove heavy grease/oil from skin or tools with a wipe rather than needing water, useful for when you’ve dealt with rubbish, Zoflora Concentrated Disinfectant at c.£15-£25 which you can add to your portable toilet to remove odours or go ‘old school’ and just use Baking Powder. You could also hang one of the Clevast Bamboo Charcoal Air Purifying Bags (4 pack) at c.£20-£30 in every room and let them remove odours and impurities from the air. Smell is an unfortunate side effect of people ‘stewing’ together.
Your to do list is:
1. Set a hand-washing routine and stock sanitiser and antibacterial wipes
2. Choose a portable toilet and stock heavy-duty bags and cable ties
3. Agree with your household what personal hygiene items each person needs
4. Stock toilet roll: 2-3 rolls per adult per week, plus 30%
5. Build a 14-day medicine kit, in blister packs, and keep prescriptions topped up
6. Keep disinfectant and a spray bottle with Milton tablets for surfaces
The bottom line
Keeping your household clean and hygienic during an emergency is a ‘no brainer’, the issue is how onerous it can be. If you’ve prepared well, have the right tools for the job then it won't be too much of a tough task. Also, remember that, as we point out in our article ‘Keeping entertained with Slightly Anxious’, boredom is one of the main issues with enduring a crisis, so delegate the household chores to your fellow sufferers. You can change the tasks every day if you want, but get people doing the cleaning tasks as well as the cooking (if you dare). You may not have seen it, but you can reference I’m A Celebrity, Get me Out of Here to show how a camp of people all pull together to get the necessary jobs done. Or you end up with a bunch of couch potatoes and one person completely frazzled due to overwork.
Remember, keep calm and visit us here.
