We talking about storing cordage in general already. And I don't like the idea of storing it in pieces for general use. My tarps, hammock, tents, bevvy, bear bucket, and what's not - all have a dedicated cordage in their pouches. But I always have a spool or two of cordage for emergencies. Once I have used about 150' of cord to pass to a friend of mine on a float over the water, when he struggled with the current in the inflatable paddle boat. It was just 1/8" nylon string on a zigzag spool (very fast and reliable deployment and floating), but it was sufficient for him to slowly get out of the trouble (the river had a waterfall, the guy could surely escape, but the boat would be hard to recover past it). On multiple occasions I've been using a long piece of Amsteel Blue to rig a line with a prusik to go over a low but slippery cliff (huge polished rock) to/from the river for my little swimmers. A friend of mine once tried to go down a quite moderately steep descent from the side of the trail to reach the 6 y/o daughter of his elderly friends; she's fell, rolled down about 100 feet but managed to grab a little branch of a bush and stop. He has died. A long enough piece of paracord, used just to maintain the balance on his descent, would have saved him for sure. Or they could throw an end with the loop to the girl, so she could fix herself more reliably before help arrived (park rangers arrived in about an hour). All of the above demands fast and reliable deployment of a long piece of rope (paracord will do fine). By the way, american troops now rigging these things on the outside of their packs: http://www.idealblasting.com/drop-linerapidlinedeploymentsystem.aspx A zigzag spool would be even better on these (but harder to rewind).