Launch kit
The campaign sells the ordinary weekend first and lets the long outage be the second reason. No sirens, no empty streets, no countdowns. Kettles, kids in sleeping bags, and neighbours.
01 · Posters
The best campsite in town has a fridge.
One room. Everyone’s favourite.
Headlamps for everyone. Shadow puppets included.
Small bills. Big comfort.
Lantern light. No indoor flame.
The best gear on the trip lives next door.
02 · Pouch labels
Staycamp
Water for the long trip.
Store at least a gallon a person a day before an outage. Six jugs hold 30 gallons; four people for two weeks need at least 56 gallons, so add six more jugs. Allow extra for household needs and follow local water advisories.
Staycamp
A place to rest.
Pitch the tent indoors only while conditions are safe; keep exits clear and all flames out. Use sleeping bags and LED light. An alarm does not make a portable gas stove, grill or generator safe indoors.
Staycamp
The camp loo, planned ahead.
Bucket, seat, divider, liners and shavings. Check your local emergency sanitation instructions for use, containment and disposal. Keep soap and safe water ready for hand-washing.
Staycamp
Your routine, on paper.
Prescription copies and a written medication list. Agree an emergency supply and storage plan with your pharmacist or clinician. A pouch cannot guarantee the required temperature.
Staycamp
Light, hands free.
One headlamp each, LED lanterns for the table. We left candles out on purpose: a candle knocked over in a dark house is a real fire.
Staycamp
For when the till is a tin.
Keep small bills in here, and keep them small. Card readers, cash machines and banks all share the same network.
03 · Welcome emails
Every email asks for one small action. None of them mentions a disaster.
Day 0
The box is heavy, we know. Put it in the hall closet, then do one thing this weekend: pitch the Den in the living room and sleep in it.
A campout now means that when you need the kit, everyone already knows where the headlamps live and which way the tent door faces.
While you’re at it, stick the Field Book card inside the lid and put the CO alarm up. It works on ordinary days too.
Month 1
A pantry that never gets eaten turns into archaeology. Once a month, cook one supper from the back of the shelf and put a fresh tin at the front.
This month’s suggestion is from the Camp Days deck: red lentil dal. Twenty minutes, one pot.
Month 6
Check batteries, liners, water-treatment supplies and the pantry list against their dates and instructions.
Replace water you filled yourself every six months. Follow expiration dates on commercially bottled water and the labels on treatment supplies.
04 · FAQ
It covers the same ground, but we don’t call it that. A long outage happens in a house you already know, so the kit is built like camping: water, warmth, a loo, light, supper and something to do.
Run it outdoors more than 20 feet from doors, windows and vents, never in a garage. Use a battery-backed CO alarm indoors. Follow the manual for fuel storage and safe connections; do not assume a fixed runtime or fuel consumption.
No. Portable gas camp stoves and charcoal grills are outdoors only, away from openings. An open window or CO alarm does not make indoor use safe. Indoors, choose ready-to-eat food or an indoor-rated electric appliance when safe power is available.
No. Store safe drinking water beforehand in food-grade containers. Household tank water is not a guaranteed drinking supply. Follow local advice for any alternative source; boiling or bleach cannot remove fuel or toxic chemicals.
Keep a written list and arrange supplies, storage and backup power with your pharmacist, clinician and device supplier. Insulin storage depends on the exact product; do not use insulin that has frozen. An insulated pouch alone is not temperature control.
Some parts may help, but plan around your building and local emergency advice. Do not use a portable gas stove, grill or generator indoors or assume a balcony is a safe cooking site. In heat, have an air-conditioned place to go; a tent is not a cooling shelter.
Most outages are short. Planning for the whole trip is still what makes the short ones easy, and people who expect a fortnight have a calmer week than people who keep waiting for the lights.
Use it. Living-room campouts, garden sleepovers, a power cut that lasts an evening. A kit that gets used gets checked.
05 · Social
06 · In store
Staycamp lives in the camping aisle, not the hardware aisle. The display is a pitched Den with a lantern inside and the Fortnight crate open beside it. Staff are briefed to ask “How many people at home?” and never “Are you prepared?”
07 · Partners
Local libraries for Camp Days reading lists, community groups for Porch Card evenings, and pharmacists who can hand out the Pocket question sheet. Never with anyone whose pitch is fear.