Survival kits, also known as “Get Home Safe Bags,” are designed for outdoor use. These kits resemble backpacking backpacks filled with essential gear necessary for hiking trails and camping overnight. The objective is to prepare oneself to leave their home at any given time, venture into nature, and ensure a safe return back home.
If you are new to prepping, it’s natural to feel overwhelmed and have questions about how to get started, what items are necessary, and which ones to prioritize. To alleviate your concerns, I will outline the essential supplies you should include in your prepper kit. You can gradually purchase these items over time, and it is recommended to incorporate the procurement of beginner prepper supplies into your personal finance goals.
Survival Priorities
The human body requires specific things to stay alive. For instance, clean air, water, food, and other necessities are necessary. Similarly, it is crucial for our blood to remain inside our bodies. Urgency can be used to determine the priority of these human needs, such as prioritizing breathing over drinking water, and so on.
Based on our list of survival priorities, we provide recommendations for gear.
Considering the probability of requiring a specific item in most survival scenarios, we prioritize certain tools on our checklist. Although there is a chance of needing a facemask, it is not as likely as the necessity of a flashlight or multitool. As these tools assist in accomplishing other more crucial tasks, such as a multifunctional tool being beneficial in various ways, we emphasize their importance by placing them towards the beginning of the list.
When creating our survival kit checklist, we have taken into account extensive experience in outdoor activities, checklists provided by the Boy Scouts, research conducted online, advice from military personnel we are acquainted with, and recommendations from first responders.
We strongly encourage you to personalize your kits according to your needs. Take into account activities you frequently engage in, your health needs, the individuals in your household, and so on.
Plan for Both Short-Term and Long-Term Emergencies
Ensuring that your introductory prepper supplies encompass provisions for various scenarios is what sets apart survival from extinction. Prepare for staying at home. (This will come in handy for situations where there is a temporary shortage at stores caused by panic buying.) Moreover, make certain you are equipped with appropriate survival gear to abandon everything behind. Ready yourself to live without electricity, both for short and extended periods.
When considering your prepper supply, your primary focuses should be on food, water, and shelter. In addition to those, we will address other essential steps that you need to take to ensure adequate preparedness. For instance, it is advisable to include duplicates of your family’s birth certificates in your bug-out bag.
Recommended Survival Kit Products
Emergency Food Prepper Supplies
In order to be ready for different scenarios, it is essential to possess emergency food prepper supplies for both short-term and long-term situations.
To ensure that shelves at nearby stores are not left empty, it is essential to recognize the vulnerability of our supply chain. Therefore, it is crucial to start preparing for food shortages by ensuring that each member of the household has a three-day supply of regular food. Following this, gradually increase the supply to cover a two-week period. When organizing emergency food provisions, pay careful attention to meeting the daily calorie requirements of every individual.
Short Term Emergency Food Supplies
Short-term and mid-term foods refer to those that will go bad in the next few years, which includes most canned goods. Despite their expiration date, these canned goods are still highly beneficial to possess. Compared to dehydrated foods, canned goods are more affordable. Having a mid-term food storage supply can provide sustenance until assistance arrives in case of being trapped indoors. Without such a supply, you might end up enduring weeks without any food.
Canned foods are advantageous in various short-term situations, such as panic purchasing, natural calamities, power disruptions, and unemployment. It is important to regularly change the items in your medium-term food storage to prevent wastage of funds. Some excellent examples of products suitable for stocking your short-term food supply comprise:
- Cereal
- Trail mix
- Granola bars
- Oatmeal
If you desire a combination of food that is both regular and has a good shelf life for consumption, refrain from purchasing granola bars if your family dislikes them as it will be an unnecessary expense. Additionally, when preparing a food supply for evacuation, it is advisable to consider high-calorie foods that occupy minimal space, such as Cliff Bars.
Multi Tool
A multi-tool could possibly be considered the most utilized and practical item listed. It would be employed for purposes such as constructing shelter, preparing firewood, processing and slicing food, repairing gadgets, and more.
Cell Phone
If the power grid is operational, a cell phone can serve as an excellent tool for communication. Additionally, it offers the capacity to access the internet and provide entertainment during idle moments.
If the grid remains functioning, your cell phone can be utilized for various purposes such as seeking assistance, determining your location with GPS, accessing information on first aid and edible plants, preventing boredom, and so on.
If you live in an area with frequent cloudy weather, it is highly advisable to have a power generation method (such as solar, crank, or a combination of both) in order to sustain your phone’s battery life. A crank mechanism is particularly advantageous in our situation.
Field Knife
Certain websites argue that a field knife is the utmost tool for survival. We have encountered assertions regarding their preference for a field knife in emergency situations above all other tools. Although we do not share this viewpoint entirely, we do acknowledge its worth. A field knife enables various tasks such as wood processing, shelter construction, hunting, weapon and tool fabrication, and more. Nevertheless, we still prefer a multi-tool due to its versatility, but we do suggest considering a field knife in similar circumstances.
The one function that we particularly enjoy is the capability to split wood even without an axe or hatchet.
Tinder
It is beneficial to have dry, flammable tinder readily available in order to quickly initiate a fire. It’s advisable to have a sufficient amount for the initial fires, without necessarily exceeding a large quantity.
Tent
In order to survive, it is crucial to stay warm. Shelter plays a vital role in protecting you from the elements, ensuring you remain dry and safe from the wind, which in turn helps maintain your warmth.
It is important to note that having a tent during an emergency situation can be highly beneficial. It is advisable to opt for a tent of good quality, as this ensures that you can trust its waterproof seams, poles, and zippers.
Water Container
It is advisable to include a hydration bladder, as they are usually bigger and more pliable, allowing you to carry the necessary amount of water within your weight limits.
