What should I keep in a home first aid kit?

A practical kit for real household injuries, where to keep it, and what actually gets used.

Difficulty: beginner
Time: 45 min
Read: 2 min
Safety: caution

Short answer

Plasters in several sizes, sterile dressings, a bandage, tape, scissors, tweezers, disposable gloves, antiseptic wipes and painkillers. Keep it somewhere everyone knows, not in a bathroom cabinet where heat and damp degrade the contents.

Most household injuries are small cuts, burns, splinters and bumps. A kit sized for those, kept somewhere findable and checked once a year, is far more useful than a large kit nobody can locate.

Safety

A first aid kit is for minor injuries only. Call emergency services for anything serious — heavy bleeding, breathing difficulty, chest pain, head injury, burns larger than a palm, or any injury you are unsure about. Check medicine expiry dates at least annually.

What you'll need

A container with a lid
Wall space or a shelf (optional)

Step by step

Start with wound care in several sizes.Plasters in assorted sizes, sterile gauze pads, a couple of larger sterile dressings, and micropore tape.
Add bandages.A crepe bandage for support and a triangular bandage for a sling. Both are more useful than they look and take little space.
Add tools.Blunt-ended scissors, tweezers, safety pins, and a digital thermometer. Tweezers get used more than almost anything else.
Add disposable gloves and antiseptic wipes.Gloves protect both people. Wipes for cleaning around a wound rather than into it.
Add medicines you would actually use.Paracetamol and ibuprofen in adult and, if relevant, child forms; antihistamines; rehydration sachets. Keep them in original packaging with the leaflet.
Add burn care.A burn gel dressing. For any burn, cool running water for twenty minutes is the actual first aid — the dressing comes after.
Keep it somewhere central, cool and dry.A kitchen or hall cupboard. Not the bathroom, where heat and humidity degrade dressings and medicines faster.
Check it once a year.Put it in the calendar. Replace expired medicines and anything used, and check dressings are still sealed.

Tips

Write emergency numbers and any household allergies or conditions on a card inside the lid. Anyone helping will need them.
A second small kit in the car and one in a walking bag costs little and is where injuries often happen.
A first aid course is worth more than any kit. Knowing what to do with a bandage matters more than owning one.

Common mistakes

Keeping the kit in a bathroom cabinet — Heat and humidity degrade dressings and medicines. A cool dry cupboard elsewhere keeps them usable.
Never checking expiry dates — Medicines expire and sterile dressings lose their seal. An annual check takes five minutes.
Buying a large kit nobody can find — A small kit in a known place gets used. Location matters more than contents.

Questions people ask

What is the most useful thing in a first aid kit?

Plasters and tweezers, by frequency of use. For anything more serious, the most valuable things are gloves, sterile dressings, and knowing when to call for help.

Where should I keep a first aid kit?

Somewhere central, cool and dry that everyone in the household knows — a kitchen or hall cupboard. Not a bathroom, where humidity degrades the contents.