Filling it in as a household
- Start with the boxes at the top. The list prints no numbers of its own, because emergency and poison help numbers are not the same everywhere. Look up the ones for where you live on the website of your local government or emergency services and write them in large, clear digits.
- Type the contacts you already have on your phone, one per line, or leave the boxes empty and write everything by hand.
- Sit down together before you print. Everyone in the household knows a number the others might not have, such as a coach, a colleague or the neighbor who has a spare key.
Write the address the way you would say it on the phone, with the apartment or unit number, and add the nearest cross street. A visitor or a sitter who is nervous will read it out word for word. The Home details at the bottom are for the things people look for in a hurry: where the water and gas shutoffs are, the breaker panel or fuse box, the first-aid kit, a flashlight and the spare key. Be specific, such as "under the kitchen sink, left side" rather than "kitchen". The US government's preparedness site, Ready.gov, advises families to "establish a family meeting place that's familiar and easy to find". The list has a line for one near your home and one outside the neighborhood.
Where to keep copies
One copy belongs where everyone sees it: on the fridge or on the inside of a kitchen cabinet door. Keep a second one by the household phone or in a kitchen drawer, so the numbers are at hand when a phone battery is flat. Put a folded copy in a go-bag if you keep one, and another in the glove box of each car together with the registration papers. The list holds addresses and phone numbers, so give copies only to people you trust and do not hang one where visitors at the front door can read it.
Keeping it up to date
An old number on the list costs time when it matters, because people trust what is printed. Write the date into Updated on each time you print, and check the list whenever something changes: a new doctor, a new job, a move, a new phone number or a new school. A fixed reminder helps, such as the first week of the school year or the day you check the smoke alarms.
Nothing you type here is saved, so keep your lines in a note on your phone, paste them into the boxes next time and print fresh copies for every place that has one.
The wallet cards
The wallet cards are for the moments when the fridge is far away: a child on a school trip, a teenager at a game, an older parent on a bus. Fill in one card per person with their name and two contacts who answer the phone during the day. A contact outside your area is a good second choice, because that person is less likely to be caught up in the same local problem.
Print the page at actual size, write with a pen that does not smudge and cut along the dashed lines. A strip of clear tape over the front keeps a card readable for a long time. Slip one into a wallet, a phone case or the inside pocket of a school bag, and replace it when a number changes.
Preparing the sitter page
Fill in the sitter page before every evening out, not once for the year. Where we are, the phone you will carry and the time you will be back change each time. Write in the local emergency number again here, so the sitter does not have to cross the house to find it, and add two people the sitter can call if you do not answer.
Under Bedtime and routine, note what really happens, in order: dinner, bath, teeth, story, lights out. House rules are the short list only you know, such as screen time, snacks, doors that stay locked and pets that stay inside. Allergies or medicines are for what you and the sitter have talked through in person; write down exactly what you agreed and who to call, and leave anything medical to the instructions from your own doctor or pharmacist. Walk through the page with the sitter before you leave and put it next to the contact list.
Tools and templates that go with it
The QR code generator makes codes for phone numbers, contact cards, Wi-Fi networks and links in your browser. A Wi-Fi code taped next to the sitter page lets a guest join your network without typing the password, though anyone who scans it can read the password, so only put it where you would share that. If you are away in another time zone while someone looks after your home, the time zone converter shows what time it is there, with daylight saving time handled for every date, so you can write a realistic call window on the sitter page. For the animals in the house, the pet care log has a profile, vet records and a pet sitter sheet, and the lost pet poster turns a photo, the name, where the pet was last seen and your phone number into a flyer with tear-off tabs.
For the rest of the plan, from meeting places to an emergency kit, read the family emergency plan guide.
Frequently asked questions
Is the emergency contact list free?
Yes. Download and print it as often as you like, for the fridge, the car and every sitter. There is no signup and no watermark; each page has one small line with our web address at the bottom.
Why are the emergency number boxes empty?
Emergency, poison help and non-emergency police numbers differ from country to country, and sometimes from one region to the next, so the list does not print any. Look up the numbers that apply where you live on the website of your local government or emergency services and write them into the boxes at the top in large digits. The sitter page has its own line for the local emergency number.
How do I type in contacts?
Put one contact per line in the box for its section, as Name, phone or Name, relation, phone, for example Grandma Rose, grandmother, 555-0110. Semicolons work as well as commas. A line that does not fit those shapes prints in the name column as you typed it. In Doctors and pharmacy and in Utilities and services, a line that mentions a dentist, a pharmacy, water, gas or another printed label lands in that row. Sections you leave empty print blank rows to fill in by hand.
What happens when my contacts do not fit on one page?
The rows get a little lower first, so more of them fit on the list. When a section still has more contacts than there is room for, the last ones move to a More contacts page right after the list, with the section named in the first column and blank rows below for later additions. Up to 25 lines per section are printed.
How big are the wallet cards?
Each card is 85.6 x 54 mm (3.375 x 2.125 in), about the size of a credit card, and there are 8 on a page. Print at 100 % or actual size, not fit to page, or the cards come out smaller. The cards share their edges, so one cut along a dashed line separates two of them.
Why are some characters missing from what I typed?
The PDF uses a standard font that covers English and most Western European letters. Emoji and other alphabets, such as Greek, Cyrillic or Arabic, cannot be drawn with it, so they are left out, and a few rare accented letters print without the accent. A note under the contact boxes appears when that happens, and the preview shows the text exactly as it will print.