Home > 8. Gear and supplies
Equipment and supplies immediately come to mind when prepping for emergency situations. However this should be the LAST thing to worry about. Hence why it is the last chapter on this website. Focus first on the other seven areas that are essential to your survival, as they are much more useful than whatever gear you might own.
For example, maintaining good health, building your network, and educating yourself are better use of your time, energy and money than purchasing an enormous backpack full of survival items that you've never trained yourself how to use, and won't be able to carry due to lack of fitness anyway.
Alas, buying flashy gear is easier than moving to a safer neighborhood, or getting off the couch to train for a 10 miles run. Gadgets and gizmos are attractively shinny, they are just a click away thanks to online shopping, and they give us a false sense of quick achievement. In addition, many businesses are preying on your money – via direct advertising or innocent gear reviews – and bombard us with enticing requests to buy, buy, buy.
After acting on the other seven essential survival concerns, select what you need for your various kits, listed here by increasing size:
8a. Pocket kit
8b. Every Day Carry (EDC) kit / Get Home bag / Don't-leave-home-without-it bag – 24 hours survival
8c. Bug Out Bag (BOB) kit / hospital go bag / evacuation bag – 72 hours to 1 week survival
8d. Bug In (Stay at Home) kit including bulk supplies and heavy gear – 1 month to 1 year survival
8e. Vehicle kit including spare parts (tires, batteries, air filters, etc.) + repair tools + extra fuel
8f. Bug Out Location (BOL) kit: same as the stay-at-home kit (8d) but without the perishable items.
Each one of your kits, regardless of their respective size, should address the following 25 topics.
8.01 - Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) — helmet, gloves, safety goggles, respirator mask, hearing protection (earplugs, earmuffs), knee pads, safety shoes, safety harness/belt, personal flotation device, armor
8.02 - First aid kit (FAK) / trauma kit / medical supplies including personal medication, prescription glasses, contraceptives, dental kit. Watch Prepping Your Medical Supply Stockpile.
8.03 - Signaling / communication / tracking — whistle, foghorn, signal flag, mirror, beacon, flares, Cyalume sticks, public broadcast radios (AM, FM), transceiver radios (HF/UHF/VHF walkie-talkies + ham radio), mobile phone (land or satellite networks), satellite Personal Locator Beacon (PLB), tracker. See 8.14 to power some of those.
8.04 - Water — collect + purify (boiling, chemicals, filtering, UV light) + store
8.05 - Fire — matches, sparkler, lighter, magnifying glass, firesteel / flint steel / ferrocerium (ferro) rods + tinder
8.06 - Cutting tools — knife, machete, hatchet, axe, saw + sharpening accessories. See also 8.13.
8.07 - Food (ready to eat) + electrolytes + stimulants (modafinil) + minerals and vitamins + spices and condiments. See also 8.22, 8.23 and 8.24.
8.08 - Illumination — candles, lanterns, Cyalume sticks, flashlights + fuel or power (see 8.14)
8.09 - Navigation — compass, GPS, maps on paper or electronic form (see 8.14 to power those)
8.10 - Clothing
8.11 - Shelter — tarp, bivy sack, tent, bug out house (= back up home, if you can afford one) + repair tools and material
8.12 - Sleeping — survival blanket, mattress, sleeping bag, pillow, sleep clothing
8.13 - Hand and power tools + spare parts to breach, repair, build, and keep going by way of prying, cutting, clamping, shaping and fastening stuff. Including saw, axe, wrecking bar, sledgehammer, bolt cutters, breaching tool, lockpicking kit, shovel, step ladder. Adhesives, cordage, tape, fasteners, straps and carabiners. See also 8.06
8.14 - Power — generators working from hand / pedal / solar / wind / water / ICE + batteries or powerbanks + spare parts and dedicated tools + fuel* for ICE generators
8.15 - Safety and security — detectors and alarms (to spot fire, gas, animals, people, etc.), fire extinguishers, vision aids (binoculars, night vision, thermal imager), door locks, camouflage, cache, personal protection (weapons and armor). See also 8.01 and 8.02
8.16 - Transport — footwear, push bike, motorbike, motorcar, heavy truck, boat, plane, helicopter + fuel* + spare parts and dedicated tools
8.17 - Hygiene, sanitation, cleaning including emergency toilet, body wipes, compressed towels, period care
8.18 - Heating — heaters + fuel*
8.19 - Money + bartering items ("social lubricants")
8.20 - Pens + paper + documents (including survival manuals, see the Learning page) + hardware & software (phone, tablet, laptop) for data storage and retrieval (see 8.14 to power those)
8.21 - Containers to store and carry stuff — bottles and jerrycan, box, trunk, bag, backpack, rolling duffel, wheelie cart, trailer + their weather protection
8.22 - Getting food from the land — hunting and fishing equipment + gardening equipment and seeds
8.23 - Food processing + food conservation apparatus (smoker, solar drier)
8.24 - Cooking gear — stove + utensils + fuel*
8.25 - Morale support and entertainment — photo albums, games, books
* fuel = gasoline, propane, natural gas, diesel, kerosene, fuel oil, biodiesel, vegetable oil, firewood
Quality: get the best gear you can afford. Your life might depend on it. “Don’t do stupid things, with stupid people, at stupid places, at stupid times, with stupid gear.”
Redundancy: "One is none. Two is one. Three is back-up."
Custom-made: better to put together your own kit, tailored to your own needs and specific environment, rather than purchasing pre-made ones.
Multi functions: a multi-tool will save space and weight (assuming it can perform all of its functions reasonably well).
Expiry: check regularly for expired food, fuel, batteries, and medicine. Avoid wastage by using your stockpile in rotation, assuming items are part of your everyday consumption.
Easy to get to: The best gear is the one you carry on you, or have immediate access to.
Out of sight: don't let anyone outside of your trusted friends and family circle know what you own and where it is.
https://theprepared.com/kits/: most trusted resource and largest community of modern, rational people preparing for whatever life throws their way. No politics or other craziness.
https://morethanjustsurviving.com/survival-gear-list/