I would think it rather easy to pare down to essential gear in short order, which is why my kits come modularized. Figuring out how to make the tools you do need into mulit-taskers to satisfy as many of the essentials as possible can help quite a bit. So I guess one really needs to sit and think what the needs might be and what could be used to fill those needs and only those needs, for a given survival condition you are likely to encounter (for instance, I don't need arctic gear here in Florida at any time, but I would need it in Denver now).