Everybody has one. Mine is a homemade survival kit—a small pouch stuffed with things I know someday some way I’m going to find myself desperately wishing I had when I’m stuck somewhere without a net. Slipped into my daypack, it’s my favorite won’t-leave-home-without-it road trip essential.
I see things like this sold for crazy prices considering how little is actually inside. That’s what sold me on making my own—not very psyched to drop $30 on $10 worth of stuff. That’s good taco money. So handmade it is. Here’s what’s inside:
- A few safety pins
- A couple of feet of duct tape wrapped around a mini-pen
- A small length of nylon cord
- A needle and thread
- A small stain-remover stick
- One of those dental floss pick things
- My Swiss army knife (hello, corkscrew!)
- An emery board
- Breath drops
- A packet of Tylenol
- A packet of Alka Seltzer
- A packet of Emergen-C
- Iodine tablets (Montezuma will get no revenge on me)
- A couple of adhesive bandages
- A small energy bar
- Lip balm with sunscreen
- A tampon
- A few wet-naps
- Earplugs
- Tweezers
- A plastic trash bag folded tight and wrapped with a couple of spare hair bands (think emergency raincoat)
- A bandana
- A super tiny bottle of hand sanitizer
That sounds like a lot, I know, but most of these things are super small (seek travel sizes!), and they’ll fit into a pouch or a zip-lock bag you can just about hold in the palm of your hand. I used an old makeup bag I had lying around, but any container works.
I carry my kit everywhere. It’s an insurance policy for those unexpected moments every good adventure always has. Add in a flashlight, GPS unit, map, and communication station (i.e. my iPhone), and there’s nothing the road can throw at me I won’t be ready to handle except maybe a scary breakfast buffet. What about everybody else? What would you put in your survival kit? What am I missing from mine?