Book Excerpt: Chapter 84 - Three Kinds of Go Bags

If you Google emergency preparedness and read for a while, you will eventually end up on the subject of “go bags.” Some of it is useful, even in the suburbs. Some of it is blatantly and grossly commercial, with a generous side order of fearmongering. Some of it is downright odd.

The thing about the prepper community is that a lot of them are preparing for situations that are unlikely, or beyond the scope of what the average parent needs. But there is some baby in that bathwater.

Let’s talk about preparedness bags without the fear, without the sales pitch, and without that vague sense that people are sort of hoping to need them.

Go Bag Basics

The purpose of a go bag is to collect all the things you will need for an emergency in one place, so you can grab it and take it with you when the time comes.

You can go deep here, in breadth and in depth, building an array of well-stocked bags for every conceivable occasion. Other than cost and storage space, there’s nothing wrong with that. Whatever makes you happy and protects your family.

For most of us, though, we need just three simple bags:

·   An underbed bag, for middle of the night emergencies

·   An everyday carry kit, for keeping with you all the time

·   A boogie bag, for when you have to leave in a hurry

Underbed Bags

None of us are at our best when we wake up in the middle of the night. We’re even less at our best when what wakes us up delivers a healthy dose of fear and adrenaline. Underbed bags collect the basic necessities we will need for the next few hours if a disaster comes while we’re sleeping.

An underbed bag should contain:

·   Your second-newest pair of shoes, with socks stuffed in them (or your third-newest if you’ve put a second pair in the car)

·   A flashlight with extra batteries

·   Signal whistle

·   Bottle of water

·   Protein bar or similar portable nutrition

·   One day’s worth of time-sensitive prescription medication (if needed)

·   Spare glasses (if needed)

·   Underlayer clothes or a windbreaker (if the weather demands it)

The idea here is, when woken up in an emergency, you can’t go looking for all these items. Just keep them under the bed in a spare bag. I like those totes people keep giving away free these days, even when I ask them to stop. When the time comes, scoop up the tote, get out of the house, and use the supplies as needed.

If an emergency happens while everybody is up and awake, you still know where these basic supplies are.

Everyday Carry Kit

Known amongst the in crowd as EDCs, these are immensely popular among the conceal-and-carry community and other tacticool types. You can spend a lot of money buying one ready-made, or a lot of time custom building yours. That’s what a lot of gloriously bearded men on YouTube recommend.

Those manly types forget that the Mom Purse is the ultimate expression of an EDC kit. That’s because your EDC is just the stuff you think you’re likely to need on a regular basis. It’s not a Batman-style utility belt stocked with weapons, hemostatic bandages, and a flashlight bright enough to stun a charging grizzly. It doesn’t need to be in an ankle holster or weigh eight pounds.

It just needs to be easily portable, and hold the stuff you need. For most of us, that’s a small boo-boo kit, a flashlight, a pen knife or multitool, and a granola bar. Add a space blanket, phone charger, and some paracord if you want to get super-fancy. That plus your daily use items like your phone, wallet, and keys, and you’re good to go.

Even with a simple kit, how to keep and carry it becomes a question. Women, and men secure enough to carry satchels, have a simple solution. The rest of us can distribute the gear in multiple pockets, invest in an ankle or belt EDC holster, put on a fanny pack, or get over the idea that purses are just for women. It’s the 21st century.

Boogie Bag

You’ll also hear these called “get out bags,” “bug-out bags,” and similar. I heard “boogie bag” once and liked it, so that’s what I’ll call it here. This is your larger emergency kit, stocked with a few days’ worth of survival gear, designed to get you from where you are to where you need to go in an emergency.

Spy movies show these all the time: a dramatically black duffel stuffed with cash, spare passports, ammunition, and some other toys and tools. If you need that kind of boogie bag, I recommend you reassess some of your recent life choices.

For the rest of us, start building a boogie bag by choosing where it’s meant to take you and under what conditions. Do you need to get to your parents’ house two counties over? The school you work at, which is a designated emergency staging point? A hotel just outside of town to wait out a fire or flood? Do you just need to get home from work?

Based on that information, you will know how much food or water goes in your boogie bag. You will know what tools and other supplies you’ll need. Once you have the list, gathering the supplies and putting them in a durable, comfortable backpack won’t be difficult. In fact, see the chapter on car safety about where to keep your camping gear for an elegant solution.