What I DON’T Pack in My Bug Out Bag

When the topic of having a bug out bag comes around, there are a lot of “experts” who know what to pack.  Some of these people have military experience which can be important when it comes to what to put into a survival pack and how to use it.  But how many of them have had to gather and pack items for a child?  Some of the principles are the same; some, however, are very different.  Have any of them had to plan for an entire family at the same time?  Probably not.

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I’ve Been There – Done That

So today, as someone who has bugged out I’m going to take you through my thought process when getting each of my family member’s bug out bags ready.

It’s Not What You’re Thinking

Never when I’ve bugged out, was my family walking behind me on the road as we carried backpacks to get to our bug-out location.  We never left by walking through the woods to find or make a new home.  Each time, we left our house, we did so in our vehicle with a specific destination in mind.  And every time we left to bug out, we came back to a more-or-less intact home.

And, believe it or not, all of those things inform how we pack a bug out bag.

Because we had a specific destination (a hotel or a friend’s house), we didn’t feel the need to bring things like pots and pans, cooking utensils, water filters, etc.  Also because we left our home in a vehicle, we didn’t need to check the weight of our bags because they would be riding at our feet in our van.  Because we left our home as a result of a specific calamity, we were able to tailor what we took for our specific situation.

But even then, there were commonalities to what we took whether we were in a hotel or at a friend’s house, whether we were leaving for a tornado or a riot.

Things I don’t pack in my bug out bag – and why I don’t. 

Next week, when you get to the section on packing a Bug Out Bag, you’re going to say that the BOBs look like they are missing a bunch of stuff – even just in case stuff.  And let’s level with each other, we are preppers, so just-in-case is our “thing.”

If you just skipped to next week’s post on Packing a Bug Out Bag, you’d say, why haven’t you talked about food, water filters, sleeping bags, fire starters etc.  Well, I have a wonderful answer for that.  We keep a very well-stocked vehicle!  I’ve already written about it extensively.  You can find articles here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

But I’ll do an overview here.  In our vehicle, we keep survival items, so that we always have them with us!  This also means that we DON’T have to pack certain things with us in our Bug Out Bags.  These are already in our vehicle.

Food, drink, and water filtration

We do keep a small tote of snacks and drinks in our vehicle.  This is so that if we’re out and about, we have food with us.  Along with this, we also keep a six-pack of “drink boxes” with us to keep us hydrated. We don’t carry water bottles with us.  Water bottles can get cooked in the summer or frozen in the winter – both of which will leach cancer-causing chemicals into the water.

Our snack tote comes into play when we discuss bugging out.  But I do realize that the snacks in our tote in our vehicle aren’t comprehensive enough to be ALL that we need.  So besides those, we keep a bug out box of foods in our home.  The foods that we keep in it are travel foods that can either easily be cooked or can be eaten without cooking.  This box is at hand at all times and easily added to our vehicle.  Gallon-size Ziploc bags are apportioned out with food for each person.

Cooking food

Our van is also equipped to cook food.  We have a stove in which we can use cans of alcohol or use twigs to heat food.  We also have a cooking pot set that we can use to cook oatmeal or just-add-water dry soups mixes.  We keep a very nice water filter and even collapsable bowls, cups, and silverware.

Eating food

The problem is that if you have more people in your family, it gets expensive at $10 per person.  So a less expensive way to go about it is to purchase a four-pack of collapsible pet bowls which are the same as the more expensive ones marketed for humans.  They are even dishwasher safe and BPA free.  Then you can purchase a fork-spoon combo.  We also keep two canteens in our vehicle so that we can filter water into them and carry them with us.

Sanitation

A lot of sanitation both in a vehicle as well as when you’re bugging out is about keeping unpleasant things contained.  We stock a LOT of gallon-size Ziploc baggies as well as two different sizes of trash bags- the smaller white ones and the larger black ones.

We use the Ziploc baggies for upset stomachs.  If someone gets an upset stomach, these will catch the contents of their stomach.  It also zippers shut so that it keeps a good deal of the stench in until you can throw them away somewhere else.  Big plus.

The larger trash bags have multiple uses.  Keep dirty clothes in them.  Transport items from the van to a hotel room or to a person’s home from your van using them.  Use them for trash you accumulate as you travel.  Keep items (or even people) dry – or mostly dry during a rainstorm.

Besides various bags, we keep things like baby wipes on hand to clean faces, hands or messes on clothes.  We keep a Tide pen, paper towels, and feminine supplies all in our vehicle as well.

Basic Vehicle Maintenance/Repair 

Everyone should have jumper cables in their vehicle.  But we also keep a fire extinguisher, Fix-A-Flat, a life hammer, work gloves, and a headlamp.  While it’s not maintenance and repair this it the best place to fit in that we keep a National Geographic Road Atlas of the US.

First Aid

We keep three layers of First Aid supplies in our ready for our vehicle.  I don’t want to get into all three always here, but you can find the article that talks about all of it here.  Suffice it to say, do you have a decent first-aid kit in your vehicle?  We do, so when it comes to bugging out, we don’t have to carry it with us!

Shelter

Any vehicle can be used as a shelter, but having the ability to have a way to provide extra shelter in our vehicle is important as well.  Most people don’t want to carry a tent in their vehicle.  And who can blame them?  A tent big enough for our entire family would take up most of the back of our large van!  A much better way to go about it is to carry a tarp and cordage.

Another thing to consider is something to keep you warm and dry especially at night.  We’ve purchased an emergency bivvy sack.  While these cost more, we purchase these one at a time until we get enough for our family.

Comfort 

We keep several things in our vehicles that are meant for comfort.  We keep a book that we know everyone will enjoy listening to and two decks of playing cards and a Hoyle Rules of the Game – card gamebook, so we can either play an old familiar game or learn a new game.

Blankets also contribute to our comfort in our vehicles – especially during the colder seasons.  I have one fairly compact fleece blanket per person in our vehicle.  We also keep even more compact Mylar space blankets.  But hand warmers and foot warmers are also a vital part of what we carry for comfort.

But for summer comfort takes the opposite form.  We want to be able to keep everyone as cool as possible.  The best way that we’ve found to do this is to carry Frogg Toggs in our vehicle.

The whole point of what you don’t put in your bug out bag. . .

But the whole point of having a vehicle that is so well stocked is that when we start working on our Bug Out Bag, we don’t have to pile as much into them.

We also keep another two backpacks in our vehicle.  If we need to remove items from our vehicle, we have something in which to keep the items contained.

What About You?

Do you have anything else that you DON’T need to put into your bug out bag because you carry it in your vehicle?  What other items would you add to your vehicle to make the ‘just in case’ aspect of bugging out more easily accomplished?  Let us know in the comment section below so that we can all be better prepared.

You’ve got this, Mama!