If you’re unsure about what to include on your survival gear list, here are some helpful tips to make it more manageable. Firstly, consider different perspectives based on the type of scenario you’re planning for. You can opt for all modern and high-tech gear or stick to simpler and more primitive options. It’s often best to include a combination of both. Your priority should be to include gear that you’re very familiar with. Make sure you’re completely confident in using all the materials on your survival gear list before including them in your pack for field use. Bringing untested and unfamiliar gear can put your life or your family’s life in danger. Simple tools like flint and steel for fire making, a knife for carving, or a hatchet for splitting wood are excellent choices. Remember, simple doesn’t mean easy. Practice using these tools in different conditions, including difficult weather, poor light, and when you’re cold and tired.
It is wise to include redundancy in your list of survival gear. For instance, it is beneficial to have multiple fire-making tools, more than one knife, and extra batteries. However, it is essential to balance this with the portability of your pack or other gear containers. This raises the question of how long you will rely on this gear. The type and quantity of gear necessary can vary greatly based on the duration of your outing.
Home Survival Kit Essentials
By equipping yourself with the recommended gear for each area, the survival kit essentials will provide you with the resources needed to handle a wide range of situations, such as emergencies, disasters, and SHTF scenarios.
Food Essentials
If you go without food for a few days, you will start to experience the consequences. If it continues for a few weeks, you will eventually perish. Having food storage in your survival kit is extremely important because it becomes difficult to obtain food after a disaster. Although hunters and anglers can be valuable assets in finding food, there might not always be sufficient time or opportunity to do so. It is recommended to begin with a minimum three-day supply of food and gradually increase from there.
- Back Stock Your Pantry: Stocking all the food in your pantry with longer shelf lives can be an easy way to chip away at food storage.
- Canned Foods: Some canned foods are better than others.
- Freeze Dried Food Storage
- Manual Can Opener
Fire and Light Survival Kit Gear
- Flashlight: – stash a flashlight in every room that you spend time in, and have enough for all family members.
- Lighter
- Tea Candles: – set as many of these up as you need whenever the lights go out.
Communication Equipment
- Emergency Radio/Light/Charger: – The old battery-powered radio you keep in the drawer gets a much-needed upgrade with solar and crank power options.
- Survival Mirror
- Spare Cell Phone Charger: Nothing in the modern era will make you panic like a dead cell phone during an emergency.
Water Essentials
It is essential to have a plan for storing, filtering, and purifying water as you can only survive a few days without it. However, water is quite heavy, weighing 8.3 lbs per gallon, which poses a challenge when creating portable kits such as car kits or bug-out bags. On the other hand, in-home survival kits do not face this issue, so stocking up on water is an easy solution. Ensuring you have enough water for your entire family for three days is crucial. Additionally, implementing ongoing water collection solutions like rain collection barrels or having your own well is an excellent approach for water storage.
- Back Stock Your Pantry: Buy extra bottled water to start your water storage plan.
- Emergency Water Storage
- Water Filter
- Water Purifier
Safety and Security Supplies
The highest chances of experiencing safety and security falls into two main categories. The majority of survival experiences occurring nowadays are a combination of house fires, accidents, burglaries, and home invasions. It is crucial to avoid careless mistakes as fires can lead to severe consequences. Throughout history, tough times have often resulted in conflicts among people. It is advisable to maintain an open mindset, but also be prepared for unfavorable situations.
- Fire Extinguisher: – Keep extinguishers in the kitchen, garage, and any other room with the potential for fire.
- Survival Knife
- Home Defense Shotgun: Winchester, Benelli, Remington, Mossberg- select one that you can practice with, take care of, and respect. A pump action makes for a good choice since the racking sound is a great deterrent.
- Ammunition
- Door Reinforcement Kit
- Security Cameras: Creating your own security network is easier than you think these days. Cameras are a great deterrent for an ‘opportunist’ thief.
Hygiene and First Aid Supplies
When you and your family are in survival mode, poor hygiene can unexpectedly become a formidable adversary. In pre-modern eras, sickness and infection were the primary causes of death, and any scenario involving societal collapse would undoubtedly lead us back to those circumstances. While people may mock the importance of stockpiling toilet paper for emergencies, let’s be honest, nobody enjoys running out of it.
- Basic First Aid Kit
- N-95 Masks
- Prescription Medication: Don’t get caught without your meds! Stock these just as you would food- and for at least the same period.
- Nitrile Gloves
- Feminine Supplies: You want a healthy supply of feminine hygiene supplies that is at least equivalent to your food storage levels.
- Bleach and Other Solvent Cleaners: Killing bacteria is the goal here, and these can get it done. Bleach can also double as a way to clean water and keep it potable.
- Toilet Paper
Final Thoughts
Short term survival involves getting through a situation and seeking assistance. Various materials can be used, not just those suggested here. Long term survival, also known as “wilderness living,” depends on a deep understanding of the land and typically requires the collaboration of a group, such as a tribe or village. To sustain long-term survival, valuable knowledge must be employed, often inherited from past generations. Wilderness living involves working together with others, including all the living creatures that support life on the land. Remember that the most crucial survival skill is your knowledge. Enhance your understanding of wilderness survival by enrolling in classes offered by experienced bushcraft practitioners and survival schools. Learning directly from a seasoned instructor and practicing under their guidance is unparalleled.
