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Bug Out Bag’s are referred to by a variety of names. Bug Out Bags (or BOBs), 72 hour bags, get home bags, SHTF bags (*** hits the fan bags…censored because my mom reads this blog…hi mom!), and emergency bags.

It doesn’t really matter what you call them, the purpose of the bags is to keep critical emergency supplies all in one place for easy access and carrying. I’ll refer to them as bug out bags for simplicity.

Why do I need a bug out bag?

I’m glad you asked!

I was a little reluctant to jump on the “bug out bag” bandwagon early in my prepping journey. I couldn’t imagine myself picking up a 50 pound pack and rucking across country to my bug out location, which I didn’t have, which is what all the prepping sites talked about when they recommended building such a bag.

But I’ve turned the corner…I understand and believe in the importance of having emergency supplies in a bag I can grab quickly.

Here are 3 reasons you need a bug out bag:

1. You need to leave your house quickly in an emergency (fire, flood, hurricane, etc) - As we’ve talked about in other blog posts, there are situations where you may need to leave your house quickly. You might not have time to gather up the supplies you’d want to make your “adventure” enjoyable and in some cases survivable. Imagine the comfort of knowing that you have a change of clothes, basic toiletries, a first aid kit and other critical supplies ready to grab whenever you need it no matter the circumstance.

2. You get stuck in severe weather in your car - I live in Colorado, and last year we had a freak winter storm called a bomb cyclone. This storm produced blizzard like snow with hurricane type winds. People were literally stranded in their cars on the roads in town with no where to go in freezing temperatures with negative 10 degree windchill. There was also a freak winter storm in the southeast a few years ago that left thousands stranded on the highways and other main roads in big cities for days. If you have a bug out bag with you (and I recommend you store it in your car, we’ll talk about why shortly), you can weather these types of events with confidence knowing that you can stay warm, dry, and fed regardless of the situation.

3. Other unexpected emergency situations - Again, emergencies don’t always give us time to react at our own pace. There are both natural disasters and man-made threats that could force us to want to leave our homes, our cars, or our work places quickly.

   Think tornadoes, hurricanes, riots, power outages, terrorist attacks, etc. Are these events super likely? It depends on where you live, but again if you are focused on being more prepared for the unexpected, these are all possible scenarios where you would want access to emergency supplies quickly.

The idea of the bug out bag is to give you basic supplies to take with you in an emergency when you don’t have access to your home.

Don’t forget to make a bug out bag for everyone in your family!

What do I put in my bug out bag?

You can see a variety of lists on prepping websites regarding what to put in these bags.

There are lists that recommend packing every emergency supply and piece of survival gear you can think of, there are those that are stripped down to the bare essentials (think roughing it in the woods with a fire starter and knife), and then the more practical and pragmatic packing lists for those of us that live in the suburbia and aren’t quite ready to brave the woods by ourselves.

When you are building your bug out bag you want to think about the big categories for survival.

Water, food, shelter, medical supplies, hygiene items, and clothing are a great place to start.

As always, we’ll start with water.

Water - As previously discussed, water is perhaps the most important survival item of all. Your body will shut down in an emergency without appropriate hydration, particularly in high-stress or high-heat scenarios. For your bug out bag, you need a container to hold your water and a way to filter additional water from a local water source since you can’t easily carry enough water with you to make it 72 hours without refilling.

For filtration, I recommend the Sawyer brand of filtration systems. This is one of the most widely used, tested, and respected filtration systems in the hiking and backpacking community.

They are designed to remove bacteria, such as salmonella, cholera and E. coli. They also remove protozoa’s like giardiasis and cryptosporidium, all of which can make you very sick!

FILTER ALL WATER you get from untreated sources (i.e lakes, streams, ponds, etc)

I also recommend packing some water purification tabs. These packs are small and easy to use. You simply drop a purification tab into a bottle of collected water, and after a certain amount of time (read the package instructions!) your water is safe to drink.

I don’t recommend these as your only source of filtration because they can’t remove chemical contaminants and once they are gone, they are gone. Unlike a filter you can’t keep purifying water once you run out of tabs. You’d have to carry a ridiculous number to match the purification capacity of a Sawyer system.

With that being said, we do carry Katadyn Micropur MP1 tabs as a back-up filtration system to our sawyer straws. This gives us a back-up system in case something happened to our straw…when you are talking about water it’s good to have back-ups to the back-ups.

Food - You’ll also want to pack some type of food in your bag. Ideally you’d pack enough food for a few days.

Again, there are a variety of opinions on what to pack. My husband and I currently have a few Mountain House Meals in our packs. These are dehydrated meals that have a 25-30 year shelf-life and actually taste good.

We’ve also talked about switching to MREs (or meals ready to eat). These are rations designed for military troops. The advantages of these meals are they don't require water to make, you don’t need to heat them with any external heat source (most come with a heater), and they have a higher calorie content. Make sure to buy the military grade rations…just know that not all of them are delicious!

Medical Kit - Being able to treat minor to major injuries in an emergency situation can’t be overstated. There are variety of opinions on what you need to include in a bug out bag medical kit.

Pack the supplies that make you feel confident and that you have the training to use. Think through your most likely emergency situations, your risk tolerance, and your medical training, and then pack supplies accordingly. I purchased a very basic “boo boo” kit and then added some of my own items to it.

It’s a good idea to have standard medical supplies and then a few additional trauma supplies, like shears, tourniquets, and Israeli bandages. Again, none of this equipment is worth looking at unless you have the training to use it.

Shelter/Warmth - One of the things you want to consider is how you are going to stay out of the elements. Think through what it would look like if you were in your car, outside, or in an emergency shelter and create a list you’re comfortable with. We keep a couple of emergency blankets, a few large trash bags (all can be used in a vehicle, outside, or in an emergency shelter), and a life bivy in our bags.

Make sure to choose gear you know how to use and that is appropriate for the weather conditions where you live and work. What we pack for here in Colorado is different from what we’d pack if we still lived in Florida.

As a side note, I keep a camping sleeping bag in the trunk of my car (not in my pack) that I could also use or hike with in more extreme weather. If I ever needed to leave my car and hike, I’d grab it, the hiking shoes and a few bottles of water out of my trunk.

Climate appropriate clothes/shoes - It’s also a good idea to have a change of underwear, spare socks, and a good pair of boots or running shoes (depending on the weather). In the summer it’s a great idea to pack a hat for extra shade and a moisture wicking T-shirt. In the winter add a couple of wicking long-sleeve layers, a jacket, gloves and a hat.

Survival gear - this is where we start diving a little bit more into the “survival” mindset.

You can get as fancy with this as you want. Much like medical supplies, only pack the things you are comfortable using. I’d recommend at the minimum a good pocket knife or multi-tool, a flashlight or headlamp, 550 cord, a couple of heavy duty trash bags, some duct tape, and a couple of name brand lighters (BIC comes highly recommended).

Having those basic supplies can provide you heat, shelter, sanitation options, and of course light.

Here are a few of the items I keep in my kit.

Comfort/Hygiene items - Okay, this is where we are in the completely subjective part of this adventure. You can pack anything in your pack that you want for comfort and hygiene. We have a travel toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant, and some wipes in our bags for hygiene.

For comfort I have a small notebook & pen so I can doodle or journal and some chocolate…don't judge me, emergencies are stressful and chocolate makes me happy. I also have a couple of extra paperbacks tossed into the back of my trunk in case I want to read if I get stuck in my car.

I’ve seen lists that have every imaginable hygiene item and comfort item imaginable.

Okay boys…if you are at all weirded out by girly problems, stop reading now.

I’m going to share a few tips for the ladies in my group. Something that most survival blogs completely skip over.

Ladies, let’s face it, it’s infinitely harder for us to take care of our bathroom needs, particularly at certain times of the month, than it is for boys.

I recommend you also pack the following hygiene supplies:

Shewee, Diva cup & WYSI wipes (or equivalent)…let’s dig in.

What do I put all this in?

So now you know why you need a bug out bag, and are starting to build your list of what to put in your bag. Generally the next question I get is what kind of bag should I get?

I personally have opted for a hiking pack with an integrated water system for my bug out bag. I chose this pack for a couple of reasons. One, I like hiking and if I ever want to take my bug out supplies out of this bag, it will be something I use on a regular basis.

Again, part of why I opted for a hiking pack is because it’s super comfortable to wear. If you think you might ever need to abandon your car and walk home, or leave work to get home on foot, (both of which are possible), make sure you pick a bag you are comfortable carrying.

My pack also holds enough gear that I can pack what I need in there, but it is also small enough that I can’t make it too heavy for me to carry.

I also LOVE my hiking pack because of the integrated water system. It has a 2.5 Liter water reservoir that I can quickly fill up from water bottles I keep in the trunk of my car. These packs are designed to distribute the weight of the water in a comfortable way unlike trying to pack enough water bottles and n your bag to keep you hydrated.

My husband has chosen a tactical backpack. It was a pack we already owned and it fit nicely in his trunk. Plus it’s all black with webbing on it, which is kinda awesome.

Whatever bag you are considering, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, pack it and walk around or hike with it some.

The worst thing possible is packing your bag full of AMAZING gear that weighs so much you have to drop it after a few hundred yards in an emergency situation.

You will find tons of “prepping lists” out there full of ideas of what to put in your bags…if you loaded everything up some of the sites recommend you’d be looking at 50-75 pounds of gear. The reality is even though all that gear might be nice to have, most of us are not in good enough shape to lug around that much weight.

I’ve actually spent a number of hours walking on the treadmill with my pack loaded out. It weights in at 25 pounds when I have my water pouch full, which is on the slightly heavy side, but still manageable for me.

If you are making bags for children, make sure they are sized appropriately and aren’t too heavy. They don't need everything you need, but they should be able to carry at least some of their own water, food, and emergency clothes.

Where do I keep my bag?

Once you’ve decided on your bag and loaded it up with all your goodies, it’s time to decide where to store it so you can find it in an emergency.

Again, everyone has a different approach to this topic, so there is no one right place for your bags.

The only real guidance I have is that it should be easily accessible in an emergency situation.

My husband and I keep our bags in the trunks of our cars because we spend quite a bit of time commuting.

It’s also a good location because if we had to leave our house quickly, we’d most likely try to get out through the garage, and we’d grab our bags out of the trunk on our way out. If we had a “mudroom” or some other place to keep them near the back door we would consider that, but right now we don't have anywhere to store them easily near an exit.

You can also consider storing your bag in a closet, in the bedroom, near the front door, near the back door, in the garage, or like us in your car. The options are limitless.

Keep your bag somewhere where you have quick access and, if like us, you spend a lot of time on the road, consider keeping your bag in your vehicle to keep you from needing both a bug out bag and a car emergency pack (which we’ll talk about in a different post).

Phew, that was a lot. I know it can feel a little daunting to start a bag, but just remember to start small.

You can always add to your pack over the next few weeks or even few months as you stock up on supplies and buy some additional gadgets you might need.

Remember there is no right way to load up a pack, just make sure you have the basics for survival water, food, medical supplies, and shelter.

I’ve created a bug out bag checklist that has an itemized list of supplies I think you should consider having in your pack. You can buy it here if you want one stop shopping.

If you aren’t ready to buy a checklist yet, spend some time googling bug out bag packing lists. There are tons of great resources out there. Just remember to pack the things that make sense for you and your conditions.

As always, just keep taking intentional steps to become more prepared.