Organizing a FAK

I'd like to start off by thanking the folks who regularly contribute to this forum. For several months now, I've been reading your posts and, while not faced with anything close to a survival situation, both I and my family have repeatedly benefitted from just having minor convenience and first aid items handy when they're needed. I know that's not really the purpose of this site, but it's nice to come off looking like a hero to your 4-year old when she gets a bug bite or a minor scrape and Dad just happens to have something in his back pocket to fix it. I appreciate all the valuable info from the members here.

I have a couple of questions about first aid kits. I have several of varying sizes around the house, in cars, etc., but have not been able to organize them to my satisfaction. I use small (about 2" x 3") ziploc bags with a write-on label to divide up contents into various categories, such as bandages, gauze, medications, etc. I find, though, that when treating even minor wounds, I have to dig through several bags of stuff to get what I need. One alternative I'm considering is a bag with everything needed to treat a single injury of a specific type, like an antiseptic wipe, a couple of bandages and some antibiotic ointment for cuts, etc. I'd welcome comments/suggestions from those of you with medical training as to the best way to organize a kit like this.

Second question: what kind of storage container is best for a home FAK that will not be transported? I have bought empty Adventure Medical bags for my portable kits (or use a Pelican case for boating), but I like to keep the home kit very well stocked, and these bags don't hold as much as a cabinet designed for a workplace, for example. Any suggestions on this front?

My home kit is in a closet. Takes up about 1 and 1/2 shelves and contains large items like pint sized bottles of alcohol, betadine, cough syrup... Rolls of gauze, tape, boxes of bandaids, 4X4's slings sam splints etc... That doesn't include my EMT jump kit and the BLS stuf such as airways stethescopes, BP cuffs, more bandages, splints etc. My home kit used to take up most of the closet but recently my wife went on a rampage and discarded a bunch of the packaging and reduced the stuff to just 1 and 1/2 shelves so that she could take back the other 3 shelves for cosmetics.

I use both methods, I have made up small packages of items commonly use to treat a single injury; I also have multiple packed items to supplement the individual small packages. I find the small individual packages useful to give to the individual to allow for several cleaning and bandaging opportunities. For home and car, you may want to consider a hard shell tackle box with multiple drawers and compartments. Pete

Organising a FAK seems to be a very personolised process (which is one of the reasons that EMT's have their own, personal jump bags). So all i can do is tell you how I pack mine.

My main kit is the smaller grabber bag


I have divided my 5 compartments into:
1 - Blood (guaze, trauma pads, field dressings, cotton wool)
2 - Sundry (kidney dish, scissors, forcepts, needles, space blankets)
3 - Medication
4 - bandages and dressings (band-aids, various bandages, sterile dressings, burn sheilds, semi-rigid cervical collar)
5 - sport-pouch (lots of adhesive tape, scissors)

The compartments are attached to the inside of the main bag with velcro.

I also have 2 smaller kits. they are small enough so that a specific packaging system isn't essential.

BTW, first time a put a picture in a post - i am quite proud <img src="images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" />

I've been wanting to redoor my truck first aid kit. I already have a couple small kits, one a toolkit and another is my FSK/BOB/whatever. They are in nice waist/travel packs. I am thinking about getting a waist pack in red maybe a little smaller for a first aid kit. There are ones with a few pockets and ones with just a couple pockets. There are also travel bags in similar size that are designed to hold small bottels of shampoo/soap, etc that unfold or unroll nicely. I have found that you can spend a fortune on just bags to hold all the gear <img src="images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />