When there are large-scale incidents or disasters, not only can the authorities be overwhelmed, it can take time to attend to everyone if they can. While the emergency services do their best, they can’t respond to everyone.
In these situations, you can find any delayed response times mean you may only get help after a few days. For this reason, it is better to keep a bug-out bag handy in case you ever face this situation.
It is vital, you can somehow care for your family over these difficult times until they restore services or the authorities can arrive to assist.
It may sound extreme, yet there have been countless disasters from floods, tornadoes, and much worse over the past few years.
When you face no water, electricity, and sanitation, it makes sense to take some of the matters into your own hands and be prepped for this.
Besides this, there are times while you are out camping or backpacking in the great outdoors; survival kits can mean the difference between life and death if something goes wrong on your trip.
Our guide shows what you need to build your kits and pack them with the best survival gear. You will then feel better you have the best emergency preparedness possible.
What is a Survival Kit?
While very similar, you can find a difference between bug-out bags and an emergency survival kit.
Many of the gear can be the same, yet an emergency kit leans more toward sheltering in place for indefinite periods. You can find many individuals have their easy-to-carry Go Bag as part of their emergency kit list.
Doing this means you can cover both eventualities. Carry your survival backpack when camping or backpacking, and when you are home, it forms part of your complete survival kit.
The US Red Cross recommends carrying emergency supplies to cover 72-hours as a minimum. For all your family, this may mean you have a couple of backpacks filled with survivalist gear.
When it comes to using these, they must be in a convenient location. You may find you need to use them for shelter-in-place orders, or in the case of damage to your property, you may need to make a shelter somewhere outdoors. (Read Can You Use A Propane Stove Indoors)
A kit should include life-long food, water, shelter, and other survival supplies in the basic form.
It would be best if you were sure to give your long-term emergency supplies a refresh regularly, especially food that can expire, water, medication, and batteries.
Building the Ultimate Survival Kit
It can be accessible to dish up a bug-out bag list or a survival kit list, yet every person’s situation differs.
It is far better to list all the items in separate sections, and you can choose the most appropriate survival items that meet your and your family’s needs.
One thing to be wary of is that new preppers often make a mistake when putting everything on their survival bag checklist—the weight.
There is no use packing everything if you find you can’t use it. You can purchase pre-made kits from companies such as Black Diamond, yet these may not suit your needs, and you don’t get to pick your survival items.
Hydration and Water
The most important thing on any survival/bug-out bag checklist is water or a means of water purification.
You need a minimum of one liter per day per person. Either you have a bottle for each person or sufficient water purification tablets to treat enough water in one go.
If you do this, a collapsible water bottle that holds gallons is advisable, and then you can quickly drop your purification tablets before transferring them to other containers.
Food and Preparation
Many individuals recommend certain types of foods and mainly comprise dehydrated types. The problem here, you never know how much water you will have, so mix it up. Food types are none-perishable, dehydrated, and others that require no preparation.
Aside from this, there is the preparation so that you will need a fire starter, portable stove (optional), stove fuel, can opener, eating utensils, cooking pot, cup, and a means of washing them after use.
Clothing
Even if you are compiling your GO Bag list for camping survival, you need to consider your clothing. Maintaining body temperature is vital because it allows you to operate and think.
Your kit can comprise long sleeve tops, warm underwear, socks, a wide-brimmed hat, rain poncho, or other rain protective clothing, and heavy-duty gloves.
Read more – Best Heated Jackets Guide and Best Heated Gloves Guide
Bedding and Shelter
No list of survival equipment would be complete without bedding, and the obvious choice being sleeping bags.
The best survival kits cover all options, no matter if you can pitch a tent or you need to make a shelter in another manner.
A tarp is a multi-purpose piece of gear to keep. You can use these in a sudden downpour faster than erecting tents.
You can even use this for protection overnight. Just lay down a sleeping mat and sleeping bag, and you can get some decent rest.
First Aid
Every survival situation needs a first aid kit. You should make sure never to skimp or cut corners when building up your kit.
The kit should contain tweezers, scissors, bandages/ gauze, antiseptics, bug bite treatments, anti-diarrhea tablets, painkillers, safety pins, and latex gloves as a minimum.
Like some of your other essential survival equipment, all these need storing in a waterproof container.
In this part of the best bug bag list, you can include personal hygiene, as many often overlook it.
Always make sure you have wipes, sanitizer gel, soap, personal or signal mirror, clean towels, and dental care products. One common item often forgotten is toilet paper, so be sure to pack a roll or two.
Communications
Even if communications are down, you should always have a cell phone. Besides this, you need a method to charge it; either a solar panel or hand crank charger will suffice.
If you have a smartphone, the maps app may be necessary if you are in the middle of nowhere.
Travel Aids
Any kit ought to have some means of navigation, even if you are sheltering in place. You never know when you may need to move, and you have no idea how to get there.
Some cash is advisable in smaller bills; however, a map and compass are vital more than anything is.
You find this right at the top of any military survival gear list. If you are lost, then there may not be any chance of anyone finding you.
Lighting
When caught in a situation, you should never rely on one kind of illumination. You can find all manner of ways to create light from fires, candles, LED headlamps, flashlights, or glow sticks.
It is better to use a fire if possible because you need extra batteries for every item that uses them, and these can begin to weigh heavily.
Tools
While you can easily recommend shovels and all manner of tools for extreme survival, they often overkill for most instances.
You can settle for a multi-tool, a proper survival knife, or a reliable pocket knife. Some individuals move up to a machete, yet a large knife can fill these jobs.
Miscellaneous
You can find this is the section where you can go crazy and are carried away. Items by themselves are not heavy, yet if you have too many, you will find your backpack overflowing.
However, many things in this section can serve more than one use, so you need to think which to add, or more importantly, which to leave out of your kit.
- Paracord: Paracord is ideal for making rain shelters with tarps
- Duct Tape: Duct tape perfect for fixing rips in tarps, tents, boots, or even strapping splints to legs
- Heavy-duty garbage bags: These can double as ran gear in an emergency. You can add in re-sealable Ziploc bags, as they are ideal for keeping your fire-starting equipment or your first aid supplies dry.
- Face masks: In line with the current outbreak
- Condoms: None lubricated condoms are used by armed forces worldwide to keep their things dry in wet conditions.
- Fishing Kit: You can find there is no need for a rod. Just fishing line, weights, and hooks are all you need.
- Sewing Kit: A basic sewing kit can come in handy. You don’t even need thread, and you can use the line from your fishing kit, so all you need is a suitable needle.
With all the above, you can see that putting together a survival bag for you or all your family isn’t hard.
You can select, yet as long as you have all the basics, you should have enough protection for any emergency.
