Leaving aside practical problems like cost, should you buy three of everything?

One to use everyday at home for you and your family to gain skill and familiarity.

A second to remain inviolate in your BOB for disasters and emergencies.

A third to take hiking, camping to gain more skill and familiarity.

Perhaps rotating things that are improved by breaking-in.

where are you gonna park the other 2 boats...?

A worthy question, however intended. My best answer to date:

The kayak lives on top of the vehicle.

The inflatable pfd lives with the BOB / ditch bag.

Other than cars, I think I already have at least three of everything significant.

Until recently I even had four mountain bikes.

In the interest of financial survivalism, it would have been more prudent for me to have two of everything and invest the rest.

In gold.

I don't think you have to have three of exactly the same thing, I think in the current example having three means of transportation would be sufficient. Have a vehicle, bicycle and boat.

Me thinks that is not an entirely unreasonable proposal ... and its good for the economy!!

I've heard several people who have recommended that people buy at least two of Doug's PSP kit. One to carry and one to tear apart and get experience with.

BTW, I put one boat in the garage - actually a canoe, one in the barn, and the other in the horse trailer. We don't use the trailer for horses much.

haha. exactly.

Possibly true for some things, probably wrong for other things.
I suppose budget and use count as factors in the decision.
Future availability certainly counts (within limits as Izzy points out). If you expect to be able to replace something easily then keeping spares is not as critical, if you expect it to be hard to replace then having an extra one or two matters more.
If it is something important, hard to replace and easily lost then Nighthiker's formula becomes the "Orders of the day."

This strategy will do more to stimulate the economy than provide for your well being.

Buy good stuff, learn to use it and maintain it. When the crunch comes, you will be relying on a tool you know well and can use effectively.

In the normal course of events, you will upgrade and supplement a lot of your items - knives, flashlights, FAKs, etc. and you will obtain some useful redundancy. But you don't need to go bonkers....

Often times I find myself buying at least two of something I like, when all I really needed was one. I don't go crazy when it comes to having redundant objects, but I at least prefer to have a spare on hand. I think this stems from numerous Murphy's law incidents. Where, when something breaks or goes missing, it tends to be at the worst possible time. I figure if I don't have at least one spare, I'm not going to have any when I need it.

Sometimes when I buy something and it's not right, that's it, only buy the one and it gets reboxed and stuffed in a drawer. Things I like and want to have available I'll buy multiples (two, three, more), but they aren't necessarily spares, they're just in different kits.

Yeah, this is an expensive thing to do... I am one of those people.

I have 3 pair of the same shoe in different colors.

I also have the same things in my bug-out-bag as I do in my camping, or vehicle kits. Eventually a BOB won't be necessary as I duplicate the gear all over!! LOL

I have learned to buy one test, and then by more... too many times I have ordered multiple from the get-go and learned later it was wrong and ended up with multiples.

tools..buy 2 and beat and abuse one then buy the 3rd.If it pass's the Test.

The expensive thing? Nope, it's the frugal thing to do.

When I find something promising on sale, I may buy one to test it. If time presses, I'll buy three. Or five, provided I can return the unopened ones. Guess I have a good eye, because most are keepers.

(We have a generous cash fund that's dedicated to grabbing deals when they come along. Unlike the poor suckers who buy the latest TV-buzz-whatsit on credit-card credit. Oy.)

If I can't use them all, they go into the Gift Box, providing high quality gifts to people who will appreciate them. (We cultivate contact with these kinds of people, so it all works out.)

I take care of my gear. It lasts. And by the time I need a replacement, I can guarantee the original will be out of production. So if it really fits, or really works, I buy spares. Boots, knives, multitools. And boots are the toughest to find worthy replacements for.

Call it my hedge against inflation, or planned obsolescence, or the flavour of the month.

i buy two,not for the reason's you mentioned but to have a spare around if the first is lost,used up or busted.example,i bought two PAL LED lights because they are just right for my camping needs.one go's along and the other is still boxed up and put away.
skin glue,got two because of the price and when i use up the first,if ever,i can replace it without waiting.a last example is a camping stove that i found to be another "just right". the Borde pocket stove is very hard to find.one fellow in Germany got the rights when the company folded many years ago.the old ones are found on Ebay for around $100 i got two.one for canoe trips and the other still NIB.if the first lasts for all my camping years i could sell the other to pay for a knee replacement in 20 years---

The first model is OK but has it weaknesses.
The second model usually corrects those.
The third model is usually rubbish.

I usually buy one to use. If it's good I buy a second.
But it's for damn certain that I won't buy a third.

i already own to many things and second and third item is just taking to much space and money.

This brings up the issue of technological obsolescence. There must be a dozen stoves on the market which are lighter, hotter, and cheaper than the Borde which was a hot stove (what else?) in its day. Don't get me wrong, I carried a Borde and it proved crucial in a really rough unplanned bivouac in the snow many years ago - it is probably the reason I have all my fingers and toes today. If it works for your situation, great. I don't mean to dis your choice of stoves.

The Borde went off the market because it tended to morph into a bottle rocket if overheated. Mine died when the fill plug blew out. I replaced it with a Primus which served for many years and is now a souvenir above my desk - it still works, if needed. Nowadays I use either alcohol or a Pocket Rocket.

$100 on Ebay? I think I paid less than $10 for mine (1962). As a starving student, I watched pennies.

Does this apply to wives too?

Hikermor..the Borde is not a bit of survival gear but just something i take on canoe trips for "fun".it falls in the same category as a old shortwave radio i fool around with at nite,a Hallicrafters S38,i could buy a modern one with digital tuning.
my real canoeing stove is a Peak Feather that i have used for many-many years and has never failed.Hikermor,your the first person that i have heard of who really had a "Borde Bomb".i thought it was the shape and pre-heat that gave it that bomb nick name.

Buy three, get three mothers-in-law free...I guess I don't need that many...

Wives are trickier than camp stoves, although they, too, can explode. They are also a lot more expensive, but you knew that..

While suggesting rules here is like herding cats, let me propose that we deal in this thread with items generally commercially sold and of the type you would expect to fit in a BOB.

Whatever wishful thinking prompted the suggestions aside, wives appear to be generally outside this category.

I almost always have two or more of the following:

flashlights
first aid kits
pocket knives
hats, gloves, etc
backpacks
duct tape
rope
whistles
lip balm


It's interesting, because I've given "extras" away to people when they've really needed it -- and then went out and bought replacements to keep on hand.

All I know is I need to find out what I don't have 3 of and then get myself to the store...

Pull yourselves out of the gutter guys. I'm talking about wives buying shoes, purses, etc. ;-)

I buy multiples for convenience and because I'm always forgetting things. I bought 2 extra power supplies for my netbook so I can have one at the office, one at home and the third in my travel bag. I was always forgetting to take the darn thing with me.

Because I have two work bags (one for the car and one for public transport, (size and weight differentials)) I also have two PSP's, multiple FAK's, flashlights, Ham HT's, etc. so I just have to pick up and go and not worry about moving stuff from one bag to another.

My dad was great at misplacing common tools and buying another one (usually blaming us kids for not putting them back where they belonged). When mom sold the house we found multitudes of the same tools scattered all over the place.