Emergency Food and Water Store Rotation Log

Who this is for

Keep the emergency store fresh and know how long it would last. List the water and food with quantities and dates, enter your own daily figures at the top, and the workbook and browser version work out the days of supply. Log what is used and replaced on the second page.

Households keeping a store against storms, floods, long power cuts or a water supply failure, and anyone who has found a forgotten case of bottled water at the back of a cupboard.

What this helps you track

• Every container of water with its date and replace-by date
• Food in the store with servings and best-before dates
• How many days the water and the food would last your household
• Which water and food are closest to their dates
• What was used, replaced or thrown out, and when

How to use it

1. Write how many people are in the house, your own daily water figure per person and for pets, and your servings per person a day.
2. List each kind of water container with how many, the size of each in one unit, the date bought or filled and your replace-by date.
3. List the food with how many of each, servings in each, best-before date and where it is stored.
4. Totals, days left and days of supply are worked out in the browser and the workbook; on paper, add up and divide at the end.
5. Record every item used, replaced or thrown out on page two, so the store is put back as it is used.

Formats

• Printable PDF (A4 and US Letter)
• Fillable PDF with form fields
• Fill in online, saved in your browser
• Excel / Google Sheets workbook

The printable is laid out inside a box that fits both A4 and US Letter, so the two files are identical and neither one is scaled. The fillable PDF has real form fields. The workbook uses plain formulas only — SUM, IF, COUNTIF and the like — so it opens in Excel, LibreOffice and Google Sheets without anything breaking, and every calculated cell is grey so you can see which figures it worked out.

How to print

Download the A4 or US Letter file to match the paper in your printer, open it in a PDF reader and print at 100% — not "fit to page", which shrinks the writing space. Both files leave a 14 mm margin, which clears the unprintable edge on home printers. To print the online version with your entries in it, use the Print this sheet button, which prints only the sheet and none of the page around it. More on printing.

Questions

How much water and food should we store?

The sheet does not say. Emergency services in many countries publish their own figures per person and for how many days. Use the advice where you live, enter it at the top, and the summary shows how many days your store covers.

When should water filled at home be replaced?

Follow the guidance of your water supplier or emergency services, then write your own replace-by date against each container. Bottled water carries a date from the maker; copy that, and keep it sealed until needed.

What counts as a serving?

Whatever you decide is one person's portion of that food. Use the same idea throughout, so the servings in the food table and your servings per person a day measure the same thing.

Where does pet food go?

Give it its own lines in the food table but leave the servings blank, so the days of food figure counts people only. Pets' water is included through the pet figure at the top.

Does this replace an emergency kit checklist?

No. The emergency preparedness checklist covers the whole kit: light, first aid, documents and the rest. This log deals only with the food and water store, the quantities and the dates.