This is a survival-focused everyday carry list with an accompanying guide and EDC checklist.
BY SEAN GOLD, UPDATED:
July 1, 2024
We independently review everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Disclosure»
Everyday carry encompasses all the items you carry on your person every day. It is less of a kit and more of a daily loadout. EDC (Everyday Carry) is popular far beyond prepping and survival- many people try to optimize what they carry with them for every single day of their lives. It can include pouches, multi-tools, and CCW or just be your keys and wallet.
EDC also includes the clothes you choose to wear. Versatility, weight, size, and functionality are all important for EDC gear.
The essential tools that you carry with you every day are the main components of EDC and will provide you with the most versatility and functionality. These tools don’t take up much room and should be able to fit in your pocket or around your person without any additional pouches, bags, or backpacks.
“Essential” means high priority in this case, meaning that you should strongly consider adding these to the gear you already carry. Odds are, you probably have many of these as part of your existing EDC loadout whether you know it or not!
When you are out and about you’ll rely on your tech tools to navigate, communicate, and more. While your smartphone is an obvious workhorse, having redundancies in place is worth considering. Backup tools like flashlights are important, but we’ll get into more analog backups as well later on in our ‘suggested items’ section.
When people discuss everyday carry, most people envision the knife and the multitool. Most belt-mount EDC sheaths include dedicated spots for these tools, but they can also be easy enough to carry in your pockets, keychain, or clipped.
Where are the Firearms? A concealed carry weapon is practical for everyday carry, but they aren’t for everyone. We discuss these and other self-defense options in our ‘suggested items‘ section rather than ‘essential gear’.
When we talk about survival gear, we’re talking about items that keep you alive, according to the survival rule of 3. Water, food, and fire cover a lot of bases and often gear related to these sections gets expanded quickly when you grow your survival-focused EDC loadout.
Whether you bandage a small scrape or keep a small pill container of the medicine you depend on to live, first aid and medical supplies are ever-important. In many situations, having hygiene supplies on hand will help- even if it’s not a disaster.
Clothing goes beyond fashion with everyday utility. We’ve been on the hunt for the best survival clothes for a while, and update our reviews annually as we test more gear and new clothes become available.
Still, what you wear is a very personal choice. Having the bases covered is more important than matching our gear recommendations completely. Just because we found these to be the best for a huge range of survival situations doesn’t make them specifically the best for you and your lifestyle.
This gear may not be essential by definition, but adding any of these to your EDC will improve your loadout’s versatility for even more situations. One of the problems with including too much gear though, is that you run out of places to store it.
This is where survival-specific clothing and EDC pouches can come in handy. Many people use these to stay organized, and just to carry more gear.
Essentials and suggested additions have been covered, so this is the area will you will find everything else that could be useful to have on you every day. These extra supplies will help you in very specific situations, are less versatile, and may take up a lot of space.
Even still, they could be the difference makers in an emergency- so it could pay off to consider adding these.
A perfect EDC loadout doesn’t exist- what is right for you depends on your situation and risk tolerance. That said, we have as close to perfect of a starting point for you: our definitive EDC checklist.
Our checklist is available as both a PDF download and as a Google Sheets/Excel file where you can check off items yourself, and even add and subtract items from the checklist.
If you are looking for the simplest way to print and use the checklist above, download our printable PDF version. It is two pages long on 8.5″ x 11″ paper. This EDC PDF makes gathering and tracking your EDC gear extremely easy. Once you open the everyday carry PDF checklist in your browser, you can either print it directly or save it through your browser.
If you are looking for a comprehensive way to track your EDC loadout, open our Excel / Google Sheets version. The sheet is sharable, and you just need to copy it to your own Google Sheets account or download it to Excel to edit it. We also keep links to our reviews for each category to simplify shopping for any equipment you may find yourself missing.
If you are looking for a comprehensive way to track your EDC loadout, open our Excel / Google Sheets version. The sheet is sharable, and you just need to copy it to your own Google Sheets account or download it to Excel to edit it. We also keep links to our reviews for each category to simplify shopping for any equipment you may find yourself missing.
If you haven’t heard of EDC before, it can be a strange concept to label the supplies and resources you have on you every day. But once you start thinking about these intentionally, everyday preparedness just makes sense.
Everyday Carry (also abbreviated ‘EDC’) refers to the gear people carry with them daily to be prepared for a huge range of situations. These ‘loadouts’ typically include essential tools, gear, supplies, and clothing that can help in survival scenarios or just everyday tasks.
Your EDC gear selection should depend on your lifestyle, environment, personal preference, and budget. While we’ve given a comprehensive list, EDCs rarely duplicate each other since we all have different things going on in our lives. Look for common needs to determine what to invest in and consider factors as we do in our reviews, such
No, there is not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to EDC since everyone has different needs and circumstances. What works perfectly for one person would not work ‘perfectly’ for the next, as people have different lives and different risks.
Get home bags are designed to meet different goals than bug out bags and other bug out bag variants.
For starters, they are designed for a different starting point. Bug out bags are typically designed to go from point A to point B- which can be predetermined with planning. Get home kits need to be able to go from point X to point A, and you may not be certain where point X is and how far it is.
Because of this difference in planning, get home kits range in size and what you decide to include.
A get home bag usually has similar contents to a bug out bag because you may not be certain how long it would take you to get home in an emergency. If your workplace is easily walkable, your GHB will be smaller and closer to Everyday Carry. If you work several hours from your home or travel regularly, your GHB may be closer to an INCH kit. The bags are flexible based on your needs, and our gear guide below reflects our suggestions.
If you are looking for our top-level guide with all supplies related to bugging out, check out our comprehensive bug out bag list:
If you haven’t heard of EDC before, it can be a strange concept to label the supplies and resources you have on you every day. But once you start thinking about these intentionally, everyday preparedness just makes sense.
Everyday Carry (also abbreviated ‘EDC’) refers to the gear people carry with them daily to be prepared for a huge range of situations. These ‘loadouts’ typically include essential tools, gear, supplies, and clothing that can help in survival scenarios or just everyday tasks.
Your EDC gear selection should depend on your lifestyle, environment, personal preference, and budget. While we’ve given a comprehensive list, EDCs rarely duplicate each other since we all have different things going on in our lives. Look for common needs to determine what to invest in and consider factors as we do in our reviews, such
No, there is not a one-size-fits-all when it comes to EDC since everyone has different needs and circumstances. What works perfectly for one person would not work ‘perfectly’ for the next, as people have different lives and different risks.
EDC adds tons of versatile functionality to your everyday life. You’ll find yourself using many of the tools you added very often. If you add more tools beyond the essentials, you may find your loadout getting closer to a get home bag or bug out bag (depending on your emergency plan).
That is fine, as long as you are fine with carrying around extra gear- both of those mobile survival kits represent the pinnacle of preparedness on-the-go.
Thank you for subscribing, backing our mission, and strengthening your own resilience.
TruePrepper independently reviews everything we recommend. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Disclosure >
Sign up for weekly insights on our guides and reviews. No spam, all prepping—100% guaranteed.
Copyright © 2012-2025 TruthTent. All rights reserved. Operated in USA.