1 kit by the door and 4 jobs to hand out before you leave

In a real evacuation, the slow part isn't packing.

It's four people asking each other what to do.

The fix starts now, while the house is calm. Two adults, an older kid, a younger kid. Each one gets a single job before anyone has to leave.

Our friends at Survival Life laid it out as a drill your family runs twice a year. It hands every person a job sized to them.

And it moves the kit to where it belongs: a bin by the front door, not a corner of the basement you'd have to dig through.

Then comes the step that's easy to skip. You walk everyone to 2 meeting spots, kids included.

A meeting spot nobody has stood at is just a name on a list.

What the drill walks you through

• The 4 jobs: who grabs what, and who gets the kids.

• Your trigger: the signal that means "we go."

• The backup: how you reach each other when the phones fail.

See the 5-step family drill →

Talk soon,