You Probably Have Enough Water for Tonight. What About Three Days?

The standard guidance is one gallon per person per day, for three days. Half of that is drinking water. The other half is everything else: brushing teeth, washing hands, rinsing a plate, giving the dog something to drink.

Where people actually put it

• Under the bed, in flat containers.
• The back of a hall closet, behind the vacuum.
• A bottom kitchen cabinet, replacing the appliance you never use.
• A collapsible container that lives flat and gets filled when a storm is forecast.

Water

Collapsible Water Container

Stores flat, holds five gallons when you need it.

Why we recommend it

The honest problem with water storage is space. This solves it: flat in a closet all year, filled the afternoon a storm is forecast.

Best for: Apartments and small homes

Pros

• + Almost no storage footprint
• + Spigot makes pouring easy

Worth knowing

• − Must be filled before the emergency, not during

$18–$30 · Amazon

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Rotating it

Commercially bottled water keeps for years. Water you bottle yourself should be swapped every six months. Tie it to something you already do twice a year — the same weekend you change your smoke alarm batteries works well.