Survival Kits: Essential Items and Information

Survival kits are packages of essential survival items that allow a person, or persons to survive from the items in the package for several days or more.

They come in a variety of sizes and contain a wide range of different items. There are some key essentials as I will cover in this article. The size and the amount of items in the kit mostly comes down to personal preference, but ideally, you want them to be as light and compact as possible.

Survival kits aren’t just for the outdoors, I recommend keeping one in your car and one around the home too. If you have a power outage you’re going to pat yourself on the back for having a survival kit.

Essential Items in a Survival Kit

Good survival kits are lightweight, small, and have everything you need in them to survive for days, if not weeks outdoors.

The hardest thing is packing everything in and still keeping the kit a manageable size. There are some essential items however that will almost always be in all kits, these are the basics to keep you going in times of emergency.

Food and Water

You can’t last much longer than 3 days without water, or 3 weeks without food. I wouldn’t want anyone to test this of course, but what would a survival kit be without some food and water.

Water is heavy to carry around so you won’t find a bottle of water in a survival kit. You will have an empty bottle and some form of filtration so you can purify water you find outdoors.

As for food, there are lots of different types of packet food that just need water added to them to make a meal. Some pretty tasty meals too, if it’s good enough for astronauts it’s good enough for outdoors survivalists, right?

Flashlight and Spare Batteries

LED flashlights or headlamps are essential when you’re outdoors. It’s easy to forget, lose, or run out of batteries on your main flashlight.

There should always be a flashlight in a survival kit for this reason. Having good quality light is an essential survival item. It times of emergency you’ll need a light source.

I wrote a post covering some of the many uses of this amazing must-have outdoors item. You should always have a spare in your survival kit for emergencies too.

You can use paracord to make fishing line, tie and repair clothes, tents, and other materials, it’s incredibly strong and incredibly versatile.

Emergency Blanket

Emergency blankets, also known as space blankets, Mylar blankets, first aid blankets, and thermal blankets, are essential items should you find yourself needing warmth.

These blankets are able to roll up into tiny packets that you can have several in some kits and not even take up much room. If you need warmth, wrapping yourself in an emergency blanket reflects your body heat back and is much more effective than a normal blanket.

First Aid Kit

There are few items more important than a first aid kit. Accidents happen much more often in the outdoors, and while most don’t require much more than a bandage and some medical tape, without these items you’re in a spot of bother.

Good survival first aid kits are like magic little packs. It’s like you keep on pulling out more and more items, all cleverly designed to be small, lightweight, but still meet the strict medical regulations and can be relied on in an emergency.

Spare Clothing

I already covered why it’s important to have emergency blankets, so it’s also a good idea to have some spare clothing in your kit for when you are dry.

Ponchos are usually included in kits as an emergency waterproof item. Sometimes it’s a good idea to have some gloves and a change of clothes if you have room.

Sanitation Items

It’s important to have some sanitation items for your health and convenience. The simplest items we take for granted like a toothbrush, toothpaste, and some wipes, can feel like the most welcome items in the world when you’ve been roughing it for a few days.

The survival kit for sale on survivalroost doubles up as a 5-gallon bucket with a toilet seat and includes all the sanitation items you’ll need for several days survival.

5-Person Survival Kit – SurvivalRoost

We carefully selected a survival kit for sale on our store that offers great value and has everything you need in the case of an emergency. This is a true survivalists’ kit, some of the items included are:

Food and water – Some high-calorie food bars to give you a burst of energy while keeping the weight to a minimum. 50 x water purification tablets, each able to purify a liter of water. As mentioned above, having water is essential and with purification tablets you just need to find a water source.

Light and communication – A Dynamo 4-in-1 radio flashlight, just wind up for power no need to worry about keeping batteries charged. LED flashlight and 30-hour emergency candle for light sources. Waterproof matches to make a fire, a whistle to attract attention from far away, and 5-12 hour emergency bright sticks.

Tools – You have everything you need to put together some shelter or make repairs to some of your kit. Included in the kit is a blue tarp, 7 ½” flat pry bar, leather gloves, duct tape, dust masks, safety goggles, sewing kit, waterproof storage bag.

Shelter and warmth – Keeping warm is essential for your health and wellbeing while surviving without all your comforts for any reason. The kit includes 5 x emergency poncho’s to keep you dry in poor weather, 5 x emergency survival blankets to bring your core temperature back up, and a 2 person tube tent for shelter.

Other items – There are 5 x hygiene kits containing toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, wet naps, 5 x pocket tissues packs, and air freshener, everything you need to freshen up. The container everything is in doubles up as a toilet complete with a toilet seat, and there are toilet bags with chemicals included. There is even a deck of survival playing cards to kill the boredom.

First aid – No survival kit is complete without a first aid kit. This kit includes a massive 107 piece deluxe first aid kit, and a smaller 37 piece first aid kit. There’s is everything and anything you could need to attend to medical issues. The smaller kit is pretty handy to keep in your backpack or the glove box in your car.