3 essential items to carry

Hello guys,
This is my first post here. I've read a few of the comments on the other posts and think this is a great community!
Ok, so if you have to choose 3 items to carry with you at all times, wherever you go... what would they be?
Look forward to your answers and ideas...!
Best regards and keep safe,
ProactiveOne

Welcome!

So, are you talking about my wallet as one item or is that a bunch
of items?

Are you looking for answers like 'these boots' or should we assume you mean other items than what are required?

agreed, could you be more specific? do these three items include stuff everyone has like watch and wallet?
assuming clothing and basic wallet items like cash and ID aren't included in the three, i'd say cellphone, light, and multitool.

When not anticipating going through security screening I presently always have on me -- in the city or the woods:


knife

LED light

whistle


To get at what I think you're trying to get at, I'm ignoring keys, cash and cell.

knife, small flashlight, matches or lighter if we are talking about outdoors; in town, it's wallet, key ring, cell phone (key ring has light, small knife, whistle, and spare cash)

Would never limit it to three, so it's hard to choose.
In town: Mini Mag on keyring, Victorinox Classic, pepper spray
elsewhere: Mini Mag on keyring, Leatherman Wave, lighter

Knife, lighter, flashlight.

And welcome to ETS!

Sue

easy question,hard answer..above and beyond the normal stuff,keyring,wallet and not total survival kit,food bars,para cord,--hummmmm..today for bit of light hiking i just took a SAK and a Bic..for a third thats hard.flashlight is a good one,a foil bag but they are a bit bulky..just to toss out an answer i'll say a few of my pain meds in foil and plastic....well maybe one of those flat plastic whistles to call for help and not the SAK to keep it at three...for your first post you really tossed out a hard one...

Mini-RSK Mk1 Knife
Photon LED Light
Paracord in wrist bracelet

I could cheat and say one item is my PSK which is Doug's PSK with an added Photon light and RSK Mk5. I EDC that in my briefcase, cars and motorcycles so it is always with me, and it contains all the above. Then I can have two more!

<checks pockets>
aluminum scaled swiss army knife
a lighter (refillable butane at the moment)
money

I have more in my pockets than I just mentioned right now, and I usually have a much larger assortment of trinkets, but those 3 items are always with me.

Welcome to the forum ProactiveOne.

Day to day - wallet, phone, keys
As proper edc - knife, light, firestarter (for me usually a Fenix EO1, a small sak (with a stockman or similar whenever possible) and a bic lighter)

Multi-tool.
Small L.E.D. Light.
Lighter.


Multi-tool because a decent quality one has much capability than a simple knife.

Pretty much all of America will carry the folllowing three items in some form:
1) key or keys (car, home, whatever)
2) money
3) ID

Only an ultralight hiker might choose to ditch the keys, but 2 and 3 are highly recommended.

So once we get past that, the next three depend on where I am:

When I'm around home:
1) Cell phone
2) Flashlight
3) Multitool

When I'm "out there":
1) Flashlight
2) Multitool (oh I have so many now)
3) DR designed PSK Check out those great reviews!

When I'm on a plane:
1) Cell phone
2) Flashlight
3) Crappy Swisskey

I actually always have the crappy swisskey on me because its on my keychain, but, if I could only pick 3 it would not be on the first 2 lists.

It should be noted that I am assuming that any reasonable person will be carrying your ID and some money in a useful form no matter what/where they are going.

Besides wallet & keys, when I leave the house I have the following for pocket carry:
- Locking folder (Benchmade 940 or RSK Mk1)
- Mission Wallet (contains 1xAAA LED light, SAK Farmer, Leatherman Squirt E4, Ferro rod and other small odds and ends).

The three most used items are the BM 940, the LED light and the LM Squirt E4, so those would be my pick for three.

Edit to note that the BM 940 and Mission Wallet are on/in my pockets before I grab the wallet and keys.

1.) One of my many Swiss Army Knives.
2.) A bandanda in my back pocket.
3.) A firesteel clipped to the keyring of the SAK...

1)A working brain with skills, knowledge, insight, and judgment to improvise, adapt and overcome the challenges faced each day.
2)A will to keep trying and never quit
3)Leatherman Wave

1) Victorinox Signiture Classic knife
2) Small generic, but bright, LED key chain light
3) Modified (shortend) REI key chain whistle

All fit together on a small 1/4 keyring in the coin pocket of any pair of jeans. If I'm going anywhere, then I add the wallet, keys, phone, etc.

Do you mean to include appropriate outerwear and footwear? I'll assume not.

I don't go anywhere without a knife (most often a Ritter miniGrip), iPhone, and flashlight (normally a Quark 123 R5).

1) means to make fire
2) a knife
3) a light

-john

Pocket knife, paracord and water-proof matches.

They are the three most difficult things to produce in a survival situation, and with them you can build shelter and other things to help you survive.

ZenEngineer... I loved your No. 1 and No. 2:
1)A working brain with skills, knowledge, insight, and judgment to improvise, adapt and overcome the challenges faced each day.
2)A will to keep trying and never quit

Wow guys I didn't think I would get such a response with this first post. I guess my answer to that same question would be "it depends". Depending on where you live and what you do, etc. we would all have different preferences that could prove 'vital' to our own world.

Also, I probably should have narrowed down the question to TOOLS, asuming that we all carry our wallet, phone and keys (I actually don't carry keys).
Even with that... the tools I carry depend on where I am and what I'm doing.

Sometimes I will have a surefire/novatac flashlight in my left pocket (where they usually 'live') and a Hissatsu Folder in my right pocket. And sometimes I will add to that a Breath of Life Emergency Escape Mask in my jacket/suit pocket (when in cities like NYC or abroad)... if not it would usually 'live' in my briefcase.

When I go to the wilderness and run some nice paths it all changes... and so too when I'm doing some other things.

For me the important thing is to understand where I am and what I will be doing (that day/week) and match the tools I carry to this ever changing reality. By the way... the flashlight and the Breath of Life are usually always there.

Anyhow, sorry for posting such a broad question and thank you all for your great answers! This forum rocks!

NOTSOFAST!

Now you have to post your list! :-D

Three items.... Pick!

-john

Swiss Army knife- farmer, whistle, light,compass and firesteel on keyring.

A clear mind...

An accurate firearm...

Extra ammunition...

and some other stuff when I think of it...;^)

Apparently none of us ever needs water; we did not list a canteen. I think an interesting variation of this question would be to say, given a three pound limit on gear, what would you carry?

Assuming the average person already is smart enough to carry at least the following:
-wallet (with id, cash [not just a credit card], ect)
-car keys
-cell phone
-sturdy and appropriate clothing [including a belt]

My three additional items would then be:

1. A good pocket knife/multi-tool

2. A good lighter or fire starting method

3. A water bottle or flask that allows for water to be boiled inside (like a non-insulated Klean Kanteen).

first post.

That's because you asked a good question. compare with the fellow who recently wanted US to set the quiz for him and then give the answers in unrealistic conditions: '25 rapid fire answers'.
Incidentally don't be put off by us disliking your question if you are reading this streamside. I wish I had a pound for every time I'd regretted saying something on the net.
Come on back!

Of course we'd all have to REMOVE stuff we always have on us, to get down to 3 itemssmost people don't carry. (how i'm interpreting your question)
mine would be
1 torch
2 whistle
3 bivvy bag
The only reason a spare torch isn't number 2 is I wear a digital watch and carry a mobile phone, both give out light.
By the way how do you get into your house without keys?
The Sock.

I live in a semi-rural area with acreage. I almost always carry more than 3 items so this wouldn't be all that I carry.

at home:
flashlight
good locking muli tool
cell phone

walks or hikes with dogs:
keys
cell phone
extra leash

in town:
keys
handbag
cell phone

Ok I'll play . I live in the 'burbs and work in ( for) a city.

Three that I always have on me.

Knife xm-18 or Strider AR

Light quark 123 or Fenix pd3

Cell.

I don't carry a wallet at home or at work nor keys. At work they're in my locker home a desk . Most of my home time is in gym shorts as right now. Cell,Quark and XM-18.

Hey I'm now a Journeymen . I was the 50th one to join here in'01. Up to now I was a newbie......

Good question that made me think. I always have my wallet/ID and keys, though.

When in the "normal" urban mode:

1) Handgun
2) knife
3) cell phone

At night, I add one of my many flashlights.

Backpacking/camping:

1) Handgun and/or bear spray
2) Knife
3) Key ring containing a Micro LED light, whistle and Leatherman Squirt

I know I fudged on the numbers a little, but it is the truth.

ETA: the key ring also has a lighter on it

Edited due to advising illegal activities.

I'm assuming you are joking rather than promoting something that besmirches Doug Ritter's good name.

-Blast, frowning.

The problem is that the folks who have prepared with food and other necessary supplies have usually also prepared to defend those supplies. Not "a" gun and ammo, but a lot of guns and lots of ammo. An attitude that you can take what you need is one of a criminal and is not a good survival mentality. Russ also

You know, when someone refers to themselves in the third person it makes them look kinda foolish.

Anyway, yes. I was using dark humour there. Should have added a smile or something.

BTW,

For anyone who may be interested, a moderator(who I now have plenty of respect for) has already given me a good slap on the behind for that last post. He explained the error of my ways and I agreed to keep between the lines. I don't wish any bad media for Mr Ritter. Never met the guy, probably never will. I respect what he does however. I kinda expected a forum full of people who constantly talk about survival to be a little more.....um.....Less sensitive. I'll leave it at that.



-Mac,rolling eyes

The items that I carry at ALL times:

knife
photon light & laser w/spare batteries
multi-tool

I carry a few more items when I ship out vs. when I am at home.

>I kinda expected a forum full of people who constantly talk about >survival to be a little more.....um.....Less sensitive. I'll leave >it at that.

We might assume you are joking, but the anti gunners love quotes like that to show 'gun owners are irresponsible'. And you can expect comments like that to come back to haunt you in court if you are ever unfortunate to have to use a firearm.
The Sock

For me a Leatherman wave or Leatherman Crater,
Army firesteel.
streamlight stylus pro.

adventureboy

welcome to the fire

Res-Q-Me
Bandana
SOG Flash II

Nokia 5140i (doubles as flashlight and digital compass)
knife (SAK or at least small Byrd)
firestarting device

I realize that you were probably just joking around in fun Mac, and I don't hold that against you, but there ARE people who espouse your attempted humor in a serious way. They are called criminals. Thus, my three recommended carry items would be:

(1) Pocket knife
(2) LED flashlight
(3) Firearm (training/knowledge/experience/profiency required)

Item (3) not to BE a criminal, but to PROTECT YOURSELF from one.

Everytime I walk out the door, I have my wallet, keys with a Fenix L0P and a Victorinox Manager swiss army knife. These are the only things I have in my pockets.

I supplement with other things depending on where i'm going. When walking to work, I carry a Leatherman Juice S2 multi-tool and a Bic lighter in a Samsonite messenger bag.

If I head into the woods, I will always carry a 35-liter backpack with minimal gear : water, stove, foam pad, small pouch of goodies, first-aid kit, gloves, a saw, a larger knife, food.

You could spend countless hours reading forums on the web and never be satisfied, always comparing your gear to other people's gear... it's not a perfect science. Just look at a typical day and see what could come in handy. If you head into the wilderness, bring what you think could make it relatively comfortable for a day or two in case something goes wrong (a bad injury, getting lost, etc.)

I agree, posting what you carry on a forum is always a sure way to have your decisions on what you carry, self criticized and second guessed. My mantra is somewhere along the same line as you. Carry what you need on a typical day and also...what matches your skill level. Aside from seasonal items, my kits do not vary much. The kit that works great for one person will not likely work for me, my skill level, destination / AO and expected weather.

My answer is always the same:

Knife, gun, flashlight....
Knife, gun, flashlight....
Knife, gun, flashlight....
Knife, gun, flashlight....
Knife, gun, flashlight....

...No ammo? No lighter? You are doomed, doomed, doomed.

This is a great question, so i cleaned up some of the posts that have been getting us off track.

Since I am unable to carry a firearm wherever I go, my list would be:

1. Knife
2. Flashlight
3. Cellphone

So lets expand on the question, what are your next 3?

Mine would be:

4. Wallet (cash)
5. Lighter
6. pocket notebook w/pen.

There are actually three items I carry with me in nearly all situations, the exceptions being where legal prohibitions exist: wallet, keyring, small Maxpedition belt pouch.

Within the wallet, in addition to the usual items, are several bandaids - all that is necessary for most "FA" situations - I find it dampens the panic if you can whip one out immediately.

On the keyring, additional items include Fenix LD01 light, whistle, Classic SAK

The pouch contains Leatherman Wave, Gerber Infinity Ultra light, nitrile gloves, 2 meter measuring tape, cellphone, AAA and AA batteries for lights, firemaking kit (if outdoors).

Emergency cash is stashed about these three items.

1) Satphone with inbuilt GPS.
2) Stainless Steel Water bottle.
3) Lighter or NATO specced Waterproof lifeboat matches with striker board.


4) Knife.
5) Sleeping Bag.
6) Goretex Poncho.

I am curious - why?

Tinder! :-)

-john

It is quite small (10mm x 1 3/4"), has both metric and English scales, and I actually have excess room in the pouch most of the time. I do archaeology and there are times I need measurements when I don't have my full kit. I have found that I have used it a surprising number of times in a variety of other circumstances (measuring pipe diameters, etc). I had to pull it out to provide the dimensions cited above, for instance. Now I will never give it up.

Doesn't everybody carry one?

My top 3 ( and next 3) vary by circumstance. For daily life, going to work in an office or hanging around the house here is what tends to be with me.

1) knife - usually a swiss army money clip with some $ in it
2) small flashlight - single AA LED (peak solutions)
3) cellphone/iphone

4) wallet
5) keyring - just keys
6) small "jet" Lighter

The reason the above are always with me is I use them several times a day (well except the lighter but it just seems like a smart move to have an easy source of fire around and it does get used about once a month).

Of course if you ask my wife or my coworkers they would tell you it would be very rare for me to be caught with this little on or around my person but this tends to be what is always (or nearly so) in my pockets.

I used to carry a more capable knife and multi tool but they didn't "fit in" well in my office environment so they have been relegated to a small hard drive storage case I keep in my office / computer bag.

- Eric

Ok, anyway I believe 3 is not enough. But my choice would be:
1) multitool;
2) Bic lighter (better than a torch for light, and for high altitude/wet conditions firemaking);
3) Smartphone. In addition some modern smartphones have a very bright screens, which often works much better than your average single AAA flashlight, and some have UB LED flash for the camera, which could be programmed to go off continuously. Advanced models may have standalone FM Radio module built in and a regular GPS unit/compass. Throw in a plastic belt holster (or resin skin) and you've got plenty of tinder too

Seriously, the number of items means nothing. The weight and volume does. What can prevent me from stowing a couple of scalpel blades behind the phone's battery door for example? Limit of 3 items per household?

Water procurement

Fire

Knife

Recent humiliaton has led me to add a caveat to my list:
Trying out a sleeping bag in what's probably the last really cold night this winter, i had to erect a tent in the dark
as an aside; the bag kept me toasty warm in -4 so UK peoplel get down the army surplus and buy those cheap ex-army down bags on sale. waterproof base, rainproof when rolled up and the carrying handle and 2 toggles give you points to secure it on the outside of your rucsack.

Erecting a tent in the dark; moi? no problem! i've had that tent decades and put it up hundreds of times.
1 it wasn't easy; a few years of not putting it up and i'd forgot a lot.
2 oh how quickly i realised doug was right to reject out of hand any lights you have to keep a button depressed to work. primary light; completely useless.
3 no problem' i'm mr "and if i could only carry 2 items both would be torches" the second lights battery was almost dead. faded in 20 seconds
4 ah but ETS man has backups for the backups. spare battery in belt is; err... missing.
" do you have a torch dear?"

so however many items you carry; they also have to work and you need to have practiced using it.
The Sock

1. Multitool
2. Flashlight
3. Fire Starter

For those are generally a skeletool, Surefire E1B, and some kind of lighter.

What the ideal type of each is could be (probably will be) debated to no end.

Fact of the matter if these aren't generally carried for "survival" in the sense we all think of, they're carried for actual survival on a day to day basis making my life easier. Today I used the multitool and lighter, most days I use the flashlight. Just nice things to have with me. That said, if I somehow ended up outside some night, I could probably get a fire going to keep warm by while I was thinking about whatever stupid action left me on an unplanned night out.

Wow! I lost my login and password to this forum for a few days and look at what happened? :-)
Thanks for all your posts. I've enjoyed reading them.
For me, again it really all depends on what you're doing and where you're going. For example all of you that answered knife, gun, etc... what if you're in an airport catching a plane it a few minutes? Your stuff would change no? (Unless you go and enter one of the many restaurants that provide knives after you've been cleared by 'security' and put one in your pocket again).

I also like to think of it in terms of essentials. If we don't have clean air to breathe we're in trouble. That's where my ounce and a half, pocket-sized, Breath of Life Emergency Escape Mask, comes handy (according to FEMA every 2hrs an American dies in a fire and 75% die from inhalation of smoke and toxic fumes).
So, having that cleared... what can be the next worse thing that could happen to me? Probably not be able to stop bleeding (most common cause of death in trauma scenarios).. that's where my RESQPAK comes handy.
And for me... the 120 lumen flashlight just 'lives' in my pocket so this could be handy for blinding someone (including in an airplane), controling panic (including in a subway) and for finding my damn wallet every time I drop it under my car seat :-)

Keep 'em coming!

So what about the training (or lack of) that we carry with us and hopefully enrich constantly? Wait... that's probably a good enough 'theme' for my second post!

since a cell phone is not part of the three, i'll make mine
Multitool
Light
Lighter

this is EDC, not survival oriented. if we're talking survival gear then a three item limit seems a bit silly, but i guess i'd go with the B*** G***** set up of fixed-blade knife, steel canteen cup, and firesteel. with a basic knowledge base, that covers the three essentials of fire(which by proxy also covers illumination and signaling), water, and shelter.

Over the years, I've really settled my EDC into a small, but useful kit.

The three things I ALWAYS carry are:

Multi Tool
Bandanna
Key Ring with Flashlight (Pico), Whistle (Fox) and Tiny Pen Knife (Swiss Army). Ok, that's technically three items right there, but it's ONE keyring, so I count it as one item.

Also, I'm going to be repacking my 100% non-hypothetical kit again, a kit that I developed as a fire/rescue guy and it was/is a kit that had a lot of stuff in it that I actually used in actual emergencies. There's a few surprises in there.

Things I alway have on me when I go out (not counting wallet):
1) Benchmade Griptilian 551, one of the most sturdy folders I've ever used.
2) Doug Ritter's Pico Lite on my keychain. Very bright and SUPER tiny!
3) Cellphone (Blackberry) is a must!

By the way ... for those concerned with survival: according to the formost experts today the order of the things you have to take care of is as follows:

1. SHELTER.
2. WATER.
3. ...and only then FOOD.

Now, regarding the items that I carry on a daily basis in my city routine (now that I discovered how to put a link here), I get them at http://ProactiveAndPrepared.com

Hope this helps.

I live in an urban environment, for me its gotta be the following:
1)knife-currently a Vic Swisschamp
2)fire-zippo
3)light-nitecore infinity
Even in a rual or wilderness setting I'd have these, maybe swapping the swisschamp for a swisstool (locking blades) and switching to a 2 cell AA LED light (vic rebranded inova IIRC)

I'd have to say Knife, FireSteel, Flashlight

Starting with these three items, you can just about conquer the world.