EDC or Every Day Carry is supposed to be the core of a basic survival kit. EDC should be those things you are NEVER without. In fact what most of us have for EDC would more correctly be called, MDC or ODC, since it is really carried Most days or Occasional days. What’s the point of EDC anyway?
Here’s the deal, none of us know what each new day will bring us, we have no idea about an accident, a natural disaster, civil unrest, a breakdown or any of hundreds of possible scenarios. To help out in determining what your minimums are, which is what EDC really is, the least gear you can tolerate having on hand at all times, look at your life Sunday through Saturday and imagine if something serious came up during your normal every day schedule, what do you think is essential?
Most EDC’s seem to be more geared around the minimums carried when in the wilderness, but the fact of the matter is, for most people they are only in that situation weekly or monthly, what about the rest of the time? How about travel to and from work? It would seem more likely that something, were it to happen, would eventually occur during the activities where we spend the greatest percentage of our time.
What EDC do you carry to work, to your kids football game; what EDC gear do you have on you when you go to church, or to a business meeting? If it’s truly Every Day Carry, shouldn’t that be what you never leave home without?
Here are some ideas to use in analyzing what a real EDC should contain
- Multi Functionality in order to maximize the value of the item
- An indispensable tool
- Shelter, either a shelter item or means to create one
- Fire, at least one reliable way to produce fire
- Water, not likely water itself, but means to obtain, although I am seldom without my water bottle
- Medical, a few small items
Our Wilderness Innovation Mini EDC, or equivalent is an absolute bare minimum. The kit contains our Fire Starting Kit (FSK), and a Victorinox Hike/Camper knife. The FSK allows nearly anyone the ability to easily create a fire, it is exceptionally reliable. The Victorinox multi function knife is a sturdy top quality tool with two knife blades, a saw, drill/reamer, awl, openers, screw drivers, tweezers, etc. I feel it is essential to not compromise on this tool as it will likely be used in an abusive manner in tough situations and any inferior copy cat type tool may likely fail you when you need it most.
This Mini EDC can be worn on a belt and hardly noticed, it can be special ordered without a logo in order to be more discreet. I carry mine in a suit pocket if that’s what I have on, or at times I hang it inside my pants with a short loop of paracord looped around my belt and through the “D” ring, in this manner it is unnoticeable except during a pat down. I always stash a 20 foot hank of 550 paracord in a pocket as well.
I carry this kit or it’s equivalent everywhere. Also my Bug-Out-Bag (BOB) is always with me or near me. Even so the key thing to consider is that anything not on your person is separated from you and there is the possibility that if it is not on you, it might as well be in Timbuktu. The more you can reasonably have on your person, the safer you are.
Realistically it would be ideal if you also had a container to boil water in, but that can be difficult if you are in an office setting. A space blanket could be stowed without too much trouble as a shelter aid, I have experimented with vacuum packing the space blanket to make it thinner.
In reality EDC is one of the toughest preparedness kit items to do properly in every day life, it does not lend itself very readily to a modern office environment, for example. I can do it pretty well and am always refining things in a way that is convenient, and discreet, yet functional. I welcome your ideas, let me know what you have found helpful. It would be very profitable to collect these ideas and publish them for others to use as they evaluate how to work what is really essential into a personal EDC.
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Until next time, this is Perry Peacock, “Simplifying Survival”