Get Home Bag That Works

0:09 The National Labor Service has issued a severe thunderstorm warning. Welcome. To the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast, where prepping doesn't have to be complicated or expensive. Coming to you from a well-defended off-grid compound high in the mountains. Coming to you from his Florida room in Richmond, Virginia.

0:32 Neither off-grid nor well-defended, unless you count as chickens and cats, here is your host, Keith.

0:41 Hey all, this is Keith, and welcome back to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast for October the 27th, 2026. So last night posted about the Pentagon, the protocol where all military bases need to be self-sufficient for up to 90 days. And of course, that's going to take several years and several bajillion dollars to have that taken care of, but it has created quite a buzz on social media.

1:07 And I've read a couple posts about people saying that they are sold out of get home bags, bug out bags. I'm not sure if they're being truthful about that or they're just saying it to cause a little bit of panic, a little bit of fear-mongering. But regardless, I have been meaning to do an in-depth, deep dive on get home bags.

1:32 So I figured I would just go ahead and knock that one out tonight since I had most of the script already ready to go. So we already know what a get home bag is. We all know why we need one. So I'm not going to spend 20 minutes talking about how much water you should carry. Instead, let's talk about some of the things that people get wrong or misunderstand the choices that separate a bag that looks good in a photo from a bag that will actually get you home.

2:03 So here is the difference. Someone working five miles from home in the city needs a different get home bag than somebody who works 35 miles away out in the country. One of them is looking at a long afternoon for a walk home. The other one's looking at overnight or maybe two nights to get home. Now we're going to assume that the poop hits the fan when you are at work.

2:31 So let's start with the route. How far do you work from home? What's the terrain? What's the weather going to be in January? What's the weather going to be in August? Are there bridges? Low spots that flood? Are there stretches of the road that don't have a shoulder? Build your bag around those answers, not just the list that you found online.

2:53 And keep the bag itself boring. 20 to 30 liters, comfortable straps, nothing that screams too tactical. Spend the money on what goes inside and not the bag itself. Water is where good intentions run into physics. Water is heavy. A liter bottle weighs about 2.2 pounds. So you're not carrying three gallons of water with you.

3:21 It just weighs, way too much. So the answer is to carry some and have a way to get more. A squeeze filter plus purification tablets, that's certainly a good combo. And here's the part that some people miss. Most of those filters handle bacteria and protozoa, but most of them do not handle viruses or chemicals.

3:44 So walking home after a storm, the water you find maybe roadside runoff with fuel, oil, and who knows what else is in it. A filter is not a magic wand. It's a great tool, but it's not a magic wand. Know what your filter does and what it doesn't do. And a lot of these bags will live in your vehicle. That's the reason we keep them there.

4:09 And a parked car in August is an oven. It's hard on everything. If you have food like chocolates or chocolate granola bars, they are going to melt. Some food will go bad. Batteries lose life. Medications can break down. So for the car, ration bars that can handle heat instead of candy bars, lithium batteries instead of alkaline, and don't leave temperature-sensitive meds in the car at all.

4:35 Keep those on you or have a plan for them. There is nothing wrong with grabbing your get home bag out of your vehicle when you get home. Set it by the door with your keys as long as you grab it the next morning or the next afternoon if you're going to work, running errands, what have you. Headlamps. Headlamps are ideal.

4:55 Hands free, then a small backup light, just a small handheld light or a pen light, and you've got your illumination covered. Charge your battery bank before you need it. Check on it every now and then because it will lose a charge just sitting in your bag. Download offline maps to your phone now. Paper maps.

5:16 I get my paper maps of Virginia from the Virginia Department of Transportation. Several different websites. 99% of those websites will send you those maps for free. Write down important phone numbers on paper. If your phone dies, you're not going to be able to get to that information. Most first aid kits are built for cuts.

5:37 On a long walk, the injury that will actually stop you is a blister. Get a blister pack for your bag. And carry a tourniquet, a real tourniquet, bought from an authorized dealer because the cheap knockoffs that are online have failed when people have needed them most. Spend the extra few dollars, know what you're getting.

5:56 Serious bleeding can turn deadly in minutes. A tourniquet is only good as the person using it. I've said it before. Take a stop the bleed class. Many, many times they are free. It takes about an hour. You will be happy you did in the event you have to use a tourniquet. If you work in dress shoes or work boots that are not made for long distance walking, keep a pair of broken end walking shoes or hiking boots in your vehicle.

6:26 Spare pair of wool socks. Your feet will thank you if you have to change out of wet socks and put on the dry wool socks. What about a whistle? A little bit of cash and small bills if the card readers go down. A waterproof card with your contacts written, medication, allergies. You can write that on the card, you can laminate it.

6:46 I know none of this is very exciting. And here's the part that matters more than your gear. Having a bag doesn't mean you just start walking. Before you leave, check the weather, any emergency updates. Reach your family if you can and decide whether it's safer to stay put or go somewhere else, or grab your bag and start walking home.

7:09 If you are told to shelter in place for whatever reason, take it seriously. Floodwaters, down power lines, hazardous spills, bad roads, or any of those can make the route home the wrong choice. A bag cannot make a bad decision a good decision. Good judgment is part of your equipment. Let's talk about the walk itself.

7:35 Most people figure that you can walk about three miles an hour, and on a nice day on the sidewalk with nothing on your back, maybe you do. Now put 15 or 20 pounds on your back, add some detours, a few hills, a stop to fix a hot spot on your heel, and a little rain. Now you're doing two miles an hour, maybe less.

7:55 So if you do the honest math, if you're 25 miles from home, that's not just an afternoon. That's 12 hours or more of walking. That is a full day. And for a lot of folks, it's an overnight trip. In the event you're going to be out after dark, having a headlamp is not optional. Neither is having a warm layer of clothes because the temperature drops once the sun goes down.

8:20 And here's something else you need to consider. The way you drive home is usually not the way to walk home. Interstates and highways are built for cars, no shoulders in places, no sidewalks, bridges you can't cross on foot, and traffic that's stopped but still has a lot of angry people sitting in it.

8:40 And in a real disruption, that's exactly where everybody else is going to be. We are not talking about, oh, I have a flat tire and I need to walk three miles home. We're talking about an SHTF situation where there are a bunch of people that are already in panic mode because one, their cars are no longer working, they're stuck in traffic, they're out of gas, they have no food, they have no water, and they are 20, 30, 40 miles from home, they are not prepared.

9:09 If comms are down, if they do not have a get home bag, those people are going to get desperate quick. So take a look at a possible route. Are there back roads that run the same direction? Can you walk on the railroad tracks? A utility right-of-way where there's rivers, where there's bridges, can you actually walk along those rivers?

9:29 Where are there places you could stop for a while and rest? A friend's house, a church, a fire station, a store that you know. Mark two routes on that paper map, a primary and a backup, and tell your family which one you will take. So if you don't show up on time, somebody knows where to start looking.

9:47 That's assuming that them leaving their house and to come look for you is safe. In many instances, I would advise against that. And here's the part that nobody puts on their gear list. Other people. Just like I mentioned before, in most disruptions, people are good to each other, but you'll also be walking past folks who are scared, frustrated, and again, not as prepared as you.

10:14 So don't advertise. A plain old backpack draws less attention than some tactical one covered in morale patches. Don't pull out your gear in front of a crowd. Stay aware of what's around you, especially after dark. If you can help someone along the way, think about it. Sometimes giving a stranger a bottle of water is the right thing to do.

10:37 Just decide ahead of time how much you can spare so you're not making that call while you're tired or emotional. Your first job is to get home to the people that are counting on you. That is your number one priority. One more thing that does not fit in the bag. That is your head. Eight hours is a long walk.

10:59 You're tired, your feet hurt, it's getting dark, you can't reach anybody, and every mile feels longer than the last mile. That's when people start making bad decisions. They take a shortcut they shouldn't have. They skip water to save time. They push through when they should stop and take a rest. So set yourself some rules before you even need them.

11:20 Stop every hour, every hour and a half, even for five minutes. Drink before you are thirsty. Eat before you are running on empty. Deal with your feet the minute something feels off. And if conditions are getting worse, don't be too proud to stop somewhere safe and finish up in the morning. Getting home a few hours later beats not getting home at all.

11:46 So a few of you are probably wondering what I actually have in my bag or what I purchased. So here's a couple to start with. For water, a Sawyer squeeze filter. It's small, it's been around forever, very well established, and it screws into a regular one-liter bottle. Life straws are also a good option.

12:05 For light, a basic headlamp, something like the Energizer Vision runs about $15, takes AAA batteries. Some headlamps can be recharged through USB-C. Amazon has Black Friday coming up in about a month. You can get these headsets, two for 12, 3 for 20. Poke around, look at the reviews. You can get some really good deals.

12:28 And for first aid, make sure it is a cat tourniquet, C A T. Check out Amazon, check out a bunch of other sites, and make sure you are getting a quality product. Don't go on Amazon and get the ones that are like six for $15. Spend the extra money and get you a good tourniquet. So I'm putting together a full gear list item by item with a budget option for most of this.

12:53 And with the holidays coming up, I'm thinking about putting together maybe like a gift guide as well, stocking stuffers. I mean, how cool is a tourniquet for a stocking stuffer? I mean, if you have a prepper friend or a prepper in the family and you put in like a $35 cat tourniquet in their stocking, they are going to be over the moon when they open up their stocking Christmas morning.

13:17 So something to consider. A headlamp. A headlamp would also be a great stocking stuffer. But anyway, I digress. We'll talk about that later on. So last thing, have you ever walked with your bag? Not around the block, but actually walking a few miles. See what rubs, what bounces, check your straps. That will teach you more than anything on your checklist.

13:39 The last thing you want to be doing is six miles into a hike and your shoulders rubbed raw because the straps aren't adjusted correctly. Go through your bag twice a year. Swap out expired food, recharge the electronics, and switch out gear and or clothing for the season. A get home bag is not about the end of the world.

14:01 It's about an ordinary bad day, a storm or closed highway or a dead car when you're a long way from your front door. Choose gear that can take the heat, take care of your feet, and use judgment before you take a single step. So here is the list of everything currently in my get home bag. Next to the bag in the Jeep are three plastic water bottles, just the regular 12-ounce water bottles, Sawyer Mini, and a life straw, water purification tablets, some ready-to-eat food, mostly protein bars, granola, that sort of thing.

14:38 Basic first aid kit, a blister care kit, small trauma kit with a tourniquet, hand gel, wipes, heavy-duty contractor's bag, just one, an emergency whistle. I got the headlamp. I have a small handheld flashlight, a 10,000 milliamp power bank with charging cable, a Garmin InReach Mini 2 for clothing and protection, long pair of pants, old worn-out hiking boots, extra pair of wool socks, baseball cap, a small wool cap, raincoat, the emergency mylar blanket, and a wool blanket that's stored in the Jeep during winter.

15:20 Just threw that in last night. Navigation, paper map, compass, small amount of cash, identification, copies of critical information, tools and or accessories, a small folding knife, a leatherman, a sharpie, 20 feet of 550 cord, two plastic carabiners, a pen, a pencil, and one of those right-in-the-rain notebooks.

15:48 If it gets wet, you can still write. Waterproof matches, and a ferro rod. Alright, and here are the two things that I recently added to my bag. S H A R P A L 6 in 1 pocket knife sharpener and survival tool. Has a little ferro rod, super tiny, and you can sharpen a knife with it. Very tiny, doesn't weigh much.

16:12 I have that in my bag. And a generic 12-in-one keychain multi-tool. And this one's kind of difficult to describe. It doubles as a carabiner, but it also has several different tools that kind of fold up into it. Maybe I'll put a link or something on the website, buildyourark.net, to show you guys what that is.

16:36 But if you go on Amazon and you search 12 in one keychain multi-tool or folding multi-tool, you will probably find out what it is. I apologize. I'm not able to really articulate what it is. I'm looking at the photo and I'm trying to describe it. And I think I'm probably just I think I'm just confused myself.

16:54 I'm not even sure what it is. But anyway, it's really neat, $9.90, and I'm sure it'll be on sale. Everything folds up very light, but very handy. And I completely forgot about my swagman role. Check them out. They're on Amazon. They're a bit pricey, but you can get them on sale, but they do serve multi-purposes.

17:17 All right, folks, thanks for stopping by. Again, I was going to take the night off, but everybody's just a buzz about this Pentagon thing. And now all of a sudden everybody's talking about prepping and getting supplies ready because if the military is going to be hold up for at least 90 days, what are we supposed to do?

17:34 Well, the answer is nobody's coming to help us, regardless of the situation. If it's a significant SHTF situation, the National Guard or the Marines aren't coming to my house to help me. And if it's bad enough, local law enforcement or EMS is not coming to my house to help me. We're on our own. That's why we prep.

17:55 All right, folks, as always, please be careful out there. Take care of one another. And until next time.

18:01 Thanks for listening to the Common Sense Practical Prepper Podcast. Be sure to subscribe so you don't miss an episode. While you're at it, help spread the word by leaving a rating and review.