My gut feeling is that no matter how I am prepared, something WILL happen when I am least prepared, so I want to have a standby BOB somewhere nearby.I have already stored several BOBs at work, my dads house ..etc. One of the goals of this years is to have more cached BOBs around.

I may ask two or three friends to keep some of my BOBs in their homes or businesses. However, that goes against the Prep-stealth philosophy where you dont want many people to know whats in your mind. In the eyes of most, I am a sheepish PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER.. I want them to know it is important stuff and shouldnt let their kids play with it, but not too important that they will be curious to know what a praranoid guy I am.

Any ideas to help resolve that confilct ?

This may be obvious but: How about putting a large BOB in your car and using it as a central point in your evacuation plan?

Then you could let the other kits aroud it have the function of getting you to your car. For example, your office kit has the supplies to get you out of the building and to your car.

Something basic like: gloves, goggels, dust-mask, flashlight, water and a prying tool(hallagan-tool ??). Perhaps a small FAK and some $$. This of course would depend on your sort of work and if you take your car to work.

As for the BOB's you have with your friends/familie. I would pick just 1 adress, but that's also because of costs and the possibility of replacing stuff.

Good luck!

It sounds like a prohibitively expensive endeavor to me. If you can stash stuff in your vehicle, that sounds like the thing to do. If you know you're going to a friend's - put the main BOB in the car/truck. If you know you're going someplace where you have not already stashed one - same thing. After all - what happens if you're enroute? This is if you drive, of course. If no, maybe you could EDC a BOBlite? Something that will get you back home or to your dad's house where you have already put one. Having half a dozen BOBs just seems really expensive - money that could be used for other preperations. If you're asking a bunch of your friends to keep a spare BOB for you - the cats already out of the bag (so to speak) so the conflict is not so much of a conflict - it's a done deal.

This is why I go so big on my EDC. It covers most of my bases and is always on me. Some Highlights:
AMK Heetsheet
Brinkman 3w LED
Inniva Microlight
LM c301
LM Blast
Sparklight & Tinder
AM/FM radio
etc
etc
etc

I actually EDC a lot more than this, so this is just a sampling.

Then, wherever I go, I always have my PSK near by, by habit, which basically fits in this fanny pack/shoulder bag . This supplements my EDC. Some of the things it has is a TMR Storm Shelter, Fixed blade, food, water, etc, etc, etc.

Between my EDC and my PSK, I have pretty substantial capabilities, not to mention that each of my vehicles have pretty elaborate kits embedded throughout.

My BOB is at home, as well as my INCH bag, as well as SIP supplies.

As for telling people, the people that get to know you well will know that you are some sort of "boy scout" or "gadget guy", which is not too bad. Conversations about long term capabilities I really do not start up, but the tools I whip out everyday are sort of unavoidable.

And furthermore about chaching BOBs everywhere, I too would say that it is costly, and money could be better spend on increasing capabilities.. My BOBs are in lines with the "concentric rings" or "layering" theories meaning that they provide some redundancy, but more than anything, the as I go from EDC to PSK to vehicle kits to BOB to INCH, I am talking about increased capabilities.

Stealthedc,

I think I finally figured out SIP (Shelter in Place?) but I can't for the life of me get what an INCH kit is...could you ellaborate?
Thanks

Are those people sheepish or are they someone like minded you could maybe trust with those preps and hold some of theirs are your house in exchange?
Could you disguise them as something else? Maybe a hunting buddy who you ask to store a case of ammo at their house and inside that case you store other items?
I store a couple plastic ammo cans at my parnets house with offiste backups and some ammo and gun cleaning supplies. My mother thought the cleaning supplies were making her sick so she moved them from my old bedroom to the garage and then determined it was some silly potpori that was actually making her sick and not my stuff

Too much ice cream will make you sick and after you finish worshiping the porcelain god, you will see what you have wasted down the toilet.

"Take not counsel from your fears" - George Patton

There are much better ways to handle this "problem", as the other responders have indicated. Not meaning to offend, but "GET A GRIP ON REALITY"!!! You sound like your stuck in a chicken or the egg repetitive cycle. Decide what your realistic needs are and implement them according to the priorities that YOU set!!!

If you don't have a clue, then start doing more research until you start getting enough clues to make some decisions.

Again, I truly don't mean to offend, and I am sorry if I have offended anyone. Otherwise, get over it so that you can get on with it!

Signed: Mr. Personality

INCH = I'm Never Coming Home bag.

After checking out the post about the zombiehunters.org forums, I have come to use that term. My 7 day kit is sort of like an INCH kit, well actually several bags consisting of gear, clothes, food and water.

This reminds me of an Arabian Nights story. A couple decide to go on Hajj (a trip to Mecca) and they want to protect their wealth in the mean time. So they sell all of their possessions and put the money (in the form of gold coins) into a clay olive jar and seal it up. They give the jar to some friends and ask that they keep it for them until they return, giving them some tripe about how much they love olives or something. The friends have a dinner party and run out of olives and open the couples jar thinking they'll just replace it before their return and find a huge stash of gold coins. They get greedy and steal the coins and fill the jar up with olives and reseal it. The couple return from Mecca and get their jar back only to find it full of olives, not gold. So they go to the city magistrate to complain. The city magistrate rules in favor of the friends who stole the gold since the couple gave them a jar and said it was full of olives and they gave the couple back a jar of olives.

I would say don't give anyone gear to hold for you unless you can trust them enough to tell them what it is and what it's for.

No offense taken at all.

I have been in this prep thing for a while now and every now and then I - like everyone else - upgrade my plans. Some folks do that by buying more gear (that is expensive), some like me make more kits that are not really that expensive. Mainly shleter, medical, nutrition and hygeine supplies, with a few inexpensive signal and light items.

Re: AROTC
You maybe right. I thought about it. Even if my BOBs have nothing more than a spare pair of socks,towel, hygeine stuff and few other tiny gadgets. They will still raise their eyebrows.