Keep Spare Blankets And Umbrellas In Your Car For Others
Two blankets and a cheap umbrella in the boot, and one day you're the person who can actually help someone.
- Cost
- Under £20pp
- Time
- Under 15 min
- People
- Solo / Duo
- Where
- Anywhere
- Bring
- Nothing in particular
Why this matters
Cold and wet turn minor situations into serious ones - a breakdown, a fall, a wait for an ambulance, someone caught out in a storm. Shock and hypothermia set in faster than people expect, especially in older people and children. A blanket in a boot costs almost nothing and is exactly the thing nobody has when it's needed.
How to do it
Put a small kit in your car boot and forget about it until it matters.
Worth including: - Two blankets. Fleece is fine; a foil emergency blanket takes up almost no space and is worth adding alongside. - A cheap umbrella or two, and a poncho - Bottled water and a few long-life snacks - A torch with working batteries, or a wind-up one - A basic first aid kit - A hi-vis vest and a phone power bank - In winter, an ice scraper, a shovel and a bag of grit
Situations where this gets used: someone broken down at the roadside, an accident where you're waiting with someone for an ambulance, a friend caught in unexpected rain, a walk that turns cold, someone sleeping rough on a freezing night.
If you're giving a blanket to someone waiting for help, prioritise getting them off cold ground and out of wind - insulation underneath matters as much as on top.
Two small notes: replace snacks and check batteries once a year, and if you hand something over, don't ask for it back. It's a two-pound blanket. Let it go.
The same logic applies to a small kit in a hiking pack or in a bag you carry daily.