Up next in 10
When it comes to Emergency Preparedness, everyone has their list of preferred supplies. But how do you narrow down the essentials to just 5 items? In this video, we'll talk about 5 items I always have near me so they'll be available in an emergency.
Here's my updated Leatherman recommendation for everyday carry. It's a little longer but an upgrade in a lot of ways. https://amzn.to/3OW2Cxy
Pantry Preparedness is a trademark of Income School LLC, an Idaho Limited Liability Company
Show More Show Less View Video Transcript
0:00
You know it's tough to make a list of the most important survival items or the most
0:04
important preparedness items for emergencies and to limit the list to only five is extremely difficult
0:11
I sat down with some, um, some friends and just kind of talked through this to figure
0:15
out what do we all think was the most important stuff and I think I've come up with a pretty
0:20
decent list. These are five things that you should definitely always have on hand
0:28
That means like available to you, not just in your home, not just, but like you could
0:32
get to them pretty quickly no matter where you are. So you might have one of these in a few different places, your place of work, you might have
0:41
one of these in your car, you might have one of these at your home, places that you're going to be
0:45
For me, my car is a pretty good place for most things because it's usually with me
0:50
I'm going to, I'm going to be in my car most places that I go, but that's because of the
0:54
lifestyle I live and where I live. People are spread out, people are suburban, so you drive pretty much everywhere
1:00
But I don't necessarily always drive to work because it's pretty close. So keeping one of these in my office is also not a bad idea
1:06
So here are the five things that you should always have on hand in case of an emergency
1:11
Now I want to note one thing real quick. There are a lot of different kinds of emergencies and depending on the kind of emergency, there
1:16
are a lot of other things you're going to want to potentially have on hand
1:20
In this case, I wanted to come up with a list that would be universally important, but also
1:25
important for in the case you need to leave, you need to evacuate wherever you are
1:29
So you need to quickly get out of the area. Because of that, some of the things on this list are not the kinds of things you would
1:34
need for, let's say you had a power outage and it was a temporary type of emergency situation
1:40
but you could get home, right? This is if you needed to be able to pick up and leave and take these things with you
1:45
For the first item, I wanted to go to most fundamental necessity and that is water
1:50
We need to be able to have water no matter what we do. Now, does that mean we need to store water bottles in our car
1:57
That's not a bad idea, but you're not necessarily going to be able to have a bunch of water
2:01
bottles at your office and in a situation that you're not able to just quickly fill
2:06
up a water container. I highly recommend that you have a way to be able to store water and a way to be able
2:13
to clean water. This here is actually made by LifeStraw. It's upside down
2:19
This is a LifeStraw. It's basically just a big bladder, right? Just like a lot of other types that we would have, but then with it is this tubing, the
2:28
hose, essentially kind of like a LifeStraw, big filter on the end
2:31
I use this when I go camping in a place that doesn't have potable water readily available
2:37
so I can literally just go down to ... In fact, the last time I went, I took this down
2:41
to the river, got out on a little rock, filled it up in a matter of seconds, you kind of
2:45
roll it over and then you can clip it shut. You can hang it up
2:51
You can do whatever you want with it. I can put it in a backpack. I did that and use it as a camelback for the rest of my ... For actually a whole day hike
3:00
The suction on it, you have to suck a bit harder than you'd have to if it were just
3:04
a regular camelback because you got to get it through the filter, but it's kind of like
3:08
sucking through a LifeStraw. It's not too bad. This might seem kind of silly to kind of have with you all the time
3:13
It seems kind of bulky, but the reality is I could roll it all up and it doesn't take
3:18
up a lot of space. I could easily keep one of these in my car
3:22
I could easily keep one of these maybe in my desk at work, and then if some sort of
3:26
emergency did happen and I needed to be able to get out quickly, I could just grab it and
3:30
take it with me. If you had a chance, you could fill it with water and maybe you don't need to have that
3:34
water filtered, but it stores a whole gallon, which is great, depending on who you talk
3:38
to, a couple of days worth of water to drink. So it's a fantastic way to go
3:43
If that seems like a little bit much or you can't have one of these in every place, some
3:48
at home, some in your car, some at your office, I'm definitely a fan of the LifeStraw straw itself
3:55
I actually have a bunch of these. I buy the four packs at Costco. They have five packs on Amazon
4:00
I have at least one in my car. I have several at home in like 72 hour emergency kits and I have one in my office
4:07
And so no matter what happens, I could easily filter water if I needed to, but that doesn't
4:12
help me with the whole carrying it with me situation. So I'm definitely going to want one of these
4:17
Now as another little caveat, it's handy to always have something you could carry things in
4:24
I have a backpack I like to use. I carry camera gear in it. I carry a laptop in it
4:28
And then if an emergency happened, I might dump all that stuff out and throw these things
4:32
into it. That way I could easily carry a whole gallon of water with me no matter where I go
4:37
Now I'm not stuck on just the LifeStraw brand. Sawyer has this one that's very similar to that LifeStraw
4:42
I just showed you it's got their filter on the end of it. Works great too
4:46
The bag, it's this plasticky material, whereas the LifeStraw is, I mean it's like a nylon
4:54
or something, but it's just a little bit more substantial and the inside is lined with a
4:57
waterproof material. So kind of like this for the bag itself, but for filtration purposes and stuff, they're
5:04
both awesome. Don't really care which one you choose to use. The second thing that I'm always going to have available with me, no matter what I do
5:13
is some kind of food. I've heard people ask this question a lot. What should I have with me that I could store maybe in my car so it can get hot, it can
5:21
get cold, and not just get ruined? And a lot of people recommended emergency ration bars
5:28
Those I don't have a problem with from a survival standpoint. Maybe they do cover your nutrition a little bit better and give you enough calories if
5:35
you can stomach it all. But in a recent video, I actually spent a whole week eating only ration bars
5:42
And I'll tell you what, by the end of the first day, I was more than sick of them. Some are better than others
5:46
If you've just bought a bunch to have on hand and you've never tried them, I recommend trying
5:50
them and determine if that's something that you could actually eat for a whole day's worth
5:54
of calories. What I prefer to do is have types of food that one, are easy to carry around, that last
5:59
a long time, can handle the temperature swing so it could stay in my car or be in my office
6:05
but that I actually enjoy eating. You know what? Some beef jerky
6:09
That's just cheap, great value beef jerky. This thing's got a shelf life of at least a couple of years
6:13
The best if used by date is still more than a year out. And I've been eating on this one for a while now
6:19
Another really good thing to have on hand, I do like freeze dried food
6:22
It's great. I like to keep some freeze dried fruit. A lot of people kind of miss that in their diet when they're planning for emergency stuff
6:30
But freeze dried strawberries, pineapples, like candy, I gotta tell you, coconuts good
6:35
Just freeze dried fruit is a great one. Keeping that in a Mylar bag as well
6:41
And again, keep some in your car, keep some in your office. If an emergency happens, just grab it and go
6:46
Maybe have a little food bag. Another fantastic one to make sure you get kind of lots of quick energy calories is hard candies
6:53
Jolly Ranchers are one of my favorites. They're, it can be a great way if you are having to survive on like emergency rations
6:59
especially, or if you're just kind of like eating some of the same stuff over and over
7:03
and over again, and your body craves something a little bit tastier
7:07
It's a nice treat, but it also packs a whole bunch of energy into just a little bit of space
7:13
You can just suck on it for a while and it will give you that kind of ongoing energy
7:17
and tastes good. So hard candies, Jolly Ranchers are a favorite of mine
7:21
It's a great thing to have on hand. Okay, two down. The next one, this is basically always in my pocket
7:27
I would say a knife or a multi-tool. I definitely prefer a multi-tool to just a pocket knife because there are a lot of
7:33
times where I tell you what, the pliers come in extremely handy
7:37
I've used the screwdriver so many times, even the scissors. That's a can opener that, by the way, if you don't know how to use one of these can openers
7:46
you should learn. They're really handy. They're on like all these different multi-tools and a lot of people have no idea how to use
7:51
one, but even the scissors can be pretty handy. Make sure you keep it all sharpened and good and ready to use
7:58
But this thing's in my pocket and I basically use it every single day. This is the Leatherman Juice S2
8:03
I can't even give you a link to go buy one of these for yourself because it's a discontinued
8:08
product unfortunately, which is really sad. What I like about it is its size
8:15
It fits just perfectly in that sort of fifth pocket in your jeans
8:18
So it's not kind of mixed in with all my keys and stuff down below in my pocket
8:23
So I love the size of it, but it still has the full pliers and really all the tools I
8:28
use on most Leathermans without the ones I don't really use very often
8:33
So it's a good one. I'm going to have to look for a replacement
8:37
If I find a good comparable Leatherman that's similar in size, I'll link to it in the description below
8:43
In fact, I'll link to really all of these products that I've tested and personally used. The next thing I like to keep on hand is some sort of lighter or fire starter
8:50
Now I'm kind of old school. I think it's important to have the skills to be able to start a fire
8:58
I'd love to keep a flint. I can use this flint with like any knife or whatever, even with the multi-tool
9:06
Now I'll usually use the back of like a fixed knife blade
9:11
That's obviously not going to work with this. If I use the front, I'm going to really dull the blade really fast
9:15
I tried this out a little bit ago. I just took the pliers. I don't usually do this because I usually use my like a fixed blade knife and just use
9:22
the back of it. But I just literally took the, you know, rough part of the plier and put it on here and I
9:29
just went and I got the biggest spark I have ever had on a flint
9:34
Now you'll notice that this is like really big. Probably I've never bought a flint and steel set with a flint that big
9:40
The bigger, the longer, first of all, the better because you get more contact for more
9:45
time and you can get a much bigger spark. Also the bigger around, again, the more contact you can make at any point in time
9:50
So you can just get a really, really nice solid spark. You can sit there with a tiny little flint and just go at it and go at it and go at it
9:58
and get sparks every single time and really struggle to start a fire
10:02
Whereas when you're able to get much bigger sparks, you can really throw them a lot farther
10:05
and they're a lot hotter and they burn longer. But I actually do recommend having some sort of a lighter, whether that's a regular standard
10:15
lighter fluid, lighter, a little Bic lighter, something like that, or a Zippo
10:19
I got one of these. This is electric and you're going to see in a second why I'm okay with this also being
10:25
my emergency lighter. This one came with a little whistle too. It's this one on Amazon
10:31
But it's electric and it creates a little arc. There's not a big flame or anything
10:37
It's just a little electric arc right there. But it's super hot, it lights fires really well
10:41
I don't even know how many hundreds of times you can light it before the battery runs out
10:48
It does also have a little built in flashlight, which I guess is kind of cool
10:52
There's your flashlight right there. You'll notice flashlight hasn't been on this list so far and that's just because honestly
10:58
like everything has a flashlight in it so far. You've got things like this that add a flashlight to it, right
11:06
Most of us have, here's mine. Most of us have a cell phone, right
11:11
Cell phone, it's got a flashlight in it. Nice. And it works pretty well
11:15
So for an emergency situation, if I had to pick five items, flashlight's probably not
11:19
one of my top five, although I love a good headlamp. And so in an emergency like go bag, absolutely going to have that
11:26
So there's kind of an assumption built into this list too, that you may have a smartphone
11:31
Now I know in a lot of emergencies we can't trust that the cell network's going to work, right
11:36
We may not want it to for one reason or another, right? But I like to have access to maps and I like to have access to information
11:42
I have apps on here that have all sorts of survival information stored on the phone
11:48
So even if there's no network, it doesn't need to be able to access the internet for me to get access to all that information
11:54
More than I can just keep on hand in my head, which is pretty cool
11:58
Likewise, I have maps on Google Maps. You can save an area to your phone so that you can get detailed maps of the city that
12:05
you live in or cities that you're traveling to. For the mountains, I use Onyx
12:10
That's an app that I can use for hiking, hunting, trail riding, that kind of stuff
12:14
And I can save maps. And so areas that I go to, I save the big area on kind of a low definition map, right
12:22
And then if there's specific areas I use a lot, I'll zoom way in and save those maps
12:26
so I can get all the detail. I can get topographical information. I can save waypoints, all sorts of stuff
12:32
So all of that I have on my phone. And so I didn't include this as one of the survival items because I'm assuming it's probably
12:38
just going to be in your pocket. But what happens when your phone suddenly dies
12:44
For that reason, and because we assumed the phone would be a tool that a lot of us would
12:48
have, I included a portable battery bank. Now this one in particular, and there are lots of others like it, is more than just
12:56
the battery bank. It does have a little bit of a flashlight on the back, but more than that is it has
13:01
built in actually not just one, but four solar panels. And because of that, I can keep it charged no matter what's going on, which is pretty cool
13:10
I guess as long as there's sunshine. So during the day, I can hang it on the back of a backpack and just let it soak up the
13:17
sun while I'm walking along. I can set it out if I'm in a location where I'm stopped
13:22
I can set it out and let it charge. And so it'll allow me to keep my phone and my lighter charged at least enough for me
13:30
to continue to have good access to the information that I need
13:34
Now if there's an emergency, there's no network, I'm probably going to put my phone in airplane
13:39
mode, just to make sure that it doesn't waste its battery searching for a network
13:43
But with that being the case and just not using it more than I need to, this is going
13:47
to be more than enough to keep that and the lighter completely charged, making sure that
13:52
I'm able to start a fire to keep myself warm and making sure that I'm able to get access
13:56
to maps and other important information. So my question for you, what's on your list
14:02
What would be the top five most important things that you think you should have on hand
14:06
for an emergency and different types of emergencies? I'd love to hear the details from you
14:11
Where you live, what are the types of emergencies you face, and so how does your list differ from mine
14:15
What did I miss? Comment below. Tell me what would you change about this list
14:20
And I hope to see you in the next video here on Pranty Preparedness
#Hiking & Camping
#Backpacks & Utility Bags
#Household Supplies
#Luggage & Travel Accessories