The Everyday Carry Guide Interview With Chris RuizEvery morning we get up, brush our teeth and get ourselves ready for the day. At minimum we grab our wallet (or purse), our car keys and our cell Phone and head off to work. While some of these might not be considered “survival” items in the typical sense of the word, they are absolutely necessary for us to have in order to “survive” the day.

As preppers we take this one lever deeper and think about what we should be carrying every day that might come in handy if something catastrophic happens, or even if something happens that isn’t life threatening, but makes a problem much more bearable.

If you’ve ever used a butter knife as a screw driver you know what I mean.

In the show this week I talked to Chris from thebugoutbagguide.com about his new book The Everyday Carry Guide and we went through everything from what you might need in an EDC kit to how to decide on those items. Chris also set up a special page sore Survivalist Prepper listeners here.

SPP108 What Goes In My EDC

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Before we get into everyday carry kits let’s talk about everyday carry items in general and some ideas. Generally everyday carry items are items you carry in your pocket, on your belt, in your purse or in you wallet.

Basic everyday carry items include…

There could be more or less depending on your needs, but these items are items that have a higher likelihood of being useful in your day to day life…. hopefully a handgun never needs to be used, but just having one can be a good deterrent.

If this is where you decide to stop then honestly you are better off than most people these days, but just like bug out bags and everything else when it comes to preparedness, there is much more that we can do to increase our odds for survival.

Beyond the Basics

This is where doing a threats assessment comes in. The situations you face on a daily basis will be different than another person, while some of these items like water purification tablets might be the same.

Take a look at your situation, and the situations you are likely to face during your daily routine. If you live in an urban area or drive a lot you will need to tailor your EDC items accordingly. Think about the following as you are deciding on every day carry items.

High Probability Items: A multi tool is a good example of this, even if you just need to tighten a screw on your sun visor it still comes in handy in a multitude of situations.

All of your main items are going to fall into this category. A knife, a flashlight and a lighter are must haves for everyday Carry.

We went through quite a bit of detail about how to pick the best knife which you can read more about here. Chris also went into detail about picking some of these core items in his book.

Convenient Items: These convenient items might also fall into the high probability category, and they can be something as simple as a pen and paper to one of the cool gadgets we all love.

As we talked about in the podcast though, make sure you don’t end up carrying everything but the kitchen sink. As time goes on, and as we add items to our everyday carry we can end up carrying a lot of stuff. Remember these are everyday carry items…not a bug out bag.

Hope I Never Need Items: A concealed carry weapon and water purification tablets come to mind first when I think of hope I never need items. No one ever wants to be in a situation where they have to defend their life and property, but it happens all the time.

First aid items and fire starting supplies also fall into this category. Hopefully we have our bug in or  bug out bag with us, but as they say…redundancy is key.

Incognito Items: Items we wear every day that can be turned into everyday carry items can be convenient as well. Some of us wear a belt every day, so why not make it a paracord belt like this one from PrepinStein Designs.

Every Day Carry Kits

Every day carry items can be items you want to have with you wherever you go and do not necessarily need to be kept in a kit, but sometimes it’s a little easier to have them all in one place.

I have quite a few items I like to carry, and if I didn’t have then in a kit I would either forget them or have to go through a checklist every morning. Here is an example of the EDC I keep in my truck, you can see that there is a lot of stuff (maybe too much) and if I didn’t have a kit my pockets would be full.

There are literally thousands of items we can buy when it comes to preparedness, but very few of those do we actually need. I have a series of posts about what prepping supplies you need, but remember this doesn’t all need to be done at once, over time you will become more prepared and more educated about what you need.

Also From the Show…

Contest Winners: We have picked the winner of the hidden gun shelf from Minutemen Cabinets and I have emailed them.

Winners of the contest I am running for Academy Members can look for the video I post this weekend on your profile page announcing who won the 4 prizes we are giving away this month.

Shirts and Patches: I mentioned in the contest about the shirt design we have, I also added it to the website logo above. I am going to end the campaign on TeeSpring this Sunday because we have reached our goal and I want the shirts sent out ASAP.

The Preparedness Triangle TShirt from Survivalist Prepper

To read about why these shirts are so great and find out how to get one click here. I’m not sure if we are going to make more of these shirts in the future, but we are going to use this design for other products in the future.

The patches for this design are first on our list. These should be ready to go up for sale at the end of this month…keep an eye out for those.

Academy Updates: I am in the process of making a few videos at the Academy and redoing the Prepping 101 course. The first few videos are going to be a step by step list of exactly what you need to become more prepared in the beginning, along with PDF checklists to download.

I also plan on having the first issue of the Survivalist Prepper Members Magazine out by the end of this month. Click here and find out what our plans are for this.

SP Magazine Sample Cover

And finally I am working on getting a members only conference together for anyone interested. I want this to be no more than 5 or 6 people because I want everyone to be able to say what they want. If this goes well I might even do a couple a month and even some one on one consultations.

If you are on the members email list I will send out something when I have the details. I will also add information to your profile page.


Dale
Dale

Survival and being prepared should not only be a passion, it should be a lifestyle. The definition of a prepper is "An individual or group that prepares or makes preparations in advance of, or prior to, any change in normal circumstances, without substantial resources from outside sources" Like the Government, police etc. I don't believe that the end of the world will be the "end of the world" I believe it will be the end of the world as we know it now. You can also find me on Google Plus and Twitter

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