Remember to pack some slack, as well...

I took out a bunch of items to make room for a LED keychain-size light, the DR mk-5 knife and a small bic. See the thread called "PSK sharing centre" for details.

From the top of my head, I removed all the instructions, fish hooks/needle/safety pins, the fresnel lens and the signal mirror (where I live, I expect the weather to be really lousy when I get lost or injured).

Technically, I could probably squeeze in some of the contents I removed, or some other very compact items - but why bother? I don't cram low priority items into my PSK just for fun. Too much stuff makes it harder to get to and use the high priority stuff. I don't want it more stuffed than it already is. (The things I removed are in my larger kit, which I usually bring with me on serious bushwhacking trips anyway.)


This touches the nerve about how you treat your emergency gear: Is the PSK part of your routine gear that you'll open and use when you need it / want to, even if it is more a matter of convenience than anything else? This is my attitude, and if I stuff too much in there I will only loose stuff and it will be a real pain to re-pack everything.

Or is your attitude "OPEN ONLY IN EMERGENCY"? In the latter case, stuffing it to the verge of bursting makes more sense.