The weekend trips Mom wants to take are becoming so frequent, almost once a month, that I see all of this as a bugout practice or drill. Earlier I would pack and leave something behind. I did not know I would need something until I needed it. One time I ran out of aspirin and another time I ran out of lip balm. Then on I packed extras of my regular consumed EDC items: lip balm, aspirin, Kleenex Go Pack and Alkaseltzer.

One time last fall I swung to for to the other direction. I packed so many just in case items (none of which I needed) that I forgot critical clothing items.

If these monthly weekend trips continue, I may find the right balance by the time we do need to bugout.

For this weekend trip I currently have the following:

• EDC Bag (I never leave home without it)
• Toiletries (I don't need to go into detail)
• Clothes (casual and dress)
• Extra Lip Balm
• Extra Aspirin
• Extra Kleenex Go Pack
• Extra Alkaseltzer
• Rx Medications and Pill Cutter
• Vitamin B-12
• Nail Care Items
• D-Cell MAG-LITE
• Alcohol Swabs, One Box (I'm questioning the need for these since I have not needed them the past few trips)
• Bible

Jeanette Isabelle

If you were to pack the items on that list in a separate pouch or small duffel bag, you’d simplify and reduce time packing for a real bugout. Some of those items may be in daily use, but there’s no reason to not have duplicate items for your trips and bugout preps. $.02

Alcohol svabs can be used to clean eating utensils if there is no other washing possibilities. I have used alco gel for this purpous.

I routinely carry an alcohol based hand sanitizer to also use in fire starting (usually Purell). I haven't tried them but i'll bet alcohol swabs would be great fire starters..

You can do tests to see what you actually use. For the sake of common terminology, let's say that everything you take on a trip is in your "container". And inside your "container" you have three "sections" - "section 1" for most used, "section 2" for lessor used, "section 3" for rarely used.

On your first trip, pack everything into "section 1".

When you get back, look at section 1 and move everything that you did not use to section 2. On future trips, you will first take everything from section 3 that was unused and totally remove it from your "container". Next, you would move everything from section 2 that was unused to section 3. Last move everything that was unused from section 1 to section 2. But after only your first trip, none of those lower priority sections would have had anything in them, but they will populate over time.

After you have finished the above described "demoting" of things from 3->junkpile, 2->3 and from 1->2, then you move on to "promoting" things. Anything that you used on your trip, no matter what section it came from, gets moved to section 1.

For things that need to be refilled, washed, or otherwise replaced - substitute a note saying what that item was and put the note into the appropriate section in place of the actual item. Replace the notes with their corresponding items right before your next trip.

If you found you needed something on your trip that you didn't have, when you get home immediately add it to section 1.

You will also have some "never demote from 3->junkpile" items. IMHO, you wouldn't want to remove your first aid kit just because you happened to be accident-free for three trips in a row. But try to keep these "protected items" to a minimum, otherwise it defeats the whole purpose of this exercise.

And there will always be a few "need to add" items. For example, if your last three trips were in the summer, your container would probably not contain the down parka that you need for a February trip!

And you will find that as the start of a trip nears, much of your packing is already done for you, because your container already contains lots of stuff from previous trips, and written notes for stuff that needs to be added.

How you physically implement your "container" and your "sections" is up to you - these might be bags, suitcases, boxes, ... whatever.

Just keep a simple checklist, and prepare beforehand as much as possible..With time and multiple tries, you will come up with a good kit.

"Time available for preparation" is a critical factor. The more time available, generally the better job one can do. If you have to move quickly, best to have the essentials preloaded and ready..

And hence, the need for practice. The more you prepare and practice, the less time you will need to be more complete.

There was a video on YouTube published by Sensible Prepper (Sootch00) regarding a "group bug-out practise". He and his family and other like-minded survivalist called for a practise of their preps. It didn't show their actual bug-out location but just how they gathered together. The met at a parking lot, where Sootch00 videoed the contents of what everyone brought. He showed his equipment first, all organized into a series of backpacks and totes. The others were definitely not well thought out or as organized. Instead it looked like a mish-mash of bags, equipment, clothing, supplies all thrown into the back of whatever bug-out vehicle they had. The owners all opened their supplies up for video showing what they had. A few were semi-organized into backpacks but some just threw "stuff" into cardboard boxes (probably a real life simulation if they had to get out of the house right away).

I was surprised with the amount of bubble-wrapped products and lack of organization. The only way most could carry what they had was with their vehicle. Putting it on your back was simply out of the question with the veritable mountain of "stuff" they had. The bubble-wrap suggests that most of them had not even practised using their equipment and that they just plucked it off the shelf and hope for the best. I would hope that most of the people would have learned from that exercise and repacked their gear! Some were very inexperienced and green when it comes to prepping but heck, are we all beginners at some point?

https://youtu.be/6N75K1SGBiM FYI, His channel is very heavy on firearms.

Watched some of the video, but not all. They are loading up a vehicle, so what is wrong with a bit of disorganization? In our actual bugout, I first threw in my day pack, which had ten essentials and a FAK, to start the process, followed by jugs of water, essential papers and records, then my CERT pack, all of which supplemented the larger FAK which resides in the car permanently and a range of other useful items.

If you are toting a backpack, organization and careful selectivity is absolutely critical - you definitely must pay attention to weight and select for anticipated environmental conditions.

If you are loading up a vehicle, these considerations are much less important. you can carry a lot of items which aren't crucial, but that might be handy to have.

I kept a pack designed to function for SAR for several years. it was very similar to what today is termed a Bug Out Bag. It eventually contained the items I would need for at least two days in the field. When we were called, the necessary response ranged from "right now" to tomorrow morning, so the bag had to be ready to deploy instantly in a potentially wide variety of environments - snowy mountains, desert and grasslands, caves, or even swift water, flooding environments,

One gets in the habit of evaluating gear - is there something better (lighter, more versatile) which might do the job? Eventually you develop a rig that suits the purpose quite well.

Now I just keep my day pack ready to go, with a much less extensive FAK, but definitely extra food and water (and TP!). It definitely helps to keep the rest of your stuff reasonably well organized to you can grab important papers and mementos if you have to leave in a hurry. Pretty good chance that someday you just might have to...

Quick 'temp hijack'.....yes Hikermor the alcohol pads DO make good firestarters. I can routinely start them by just sparks off a butane 'bic' so even if the lighter is out it'll work... so long as the wipes remain wet.

Thanks for letting me hijack for a min.... back to our regularly scheduled program.....