51 Items Most Preppers Forget to Add to Their BOBS

51 Items Most Preppers Forget to Add to Their BOBS

If you’re relatively new to prepping and starting to gather supplies, you may be feeling somewhat overwhelmed. Don’t worry you are not alone. For the first two years that I was prepping, I felt like I really didn’t know what I was doing either. Other than spending money to buy gear that sat waiting in the closet or pantry.

It’s difficult for anyone concerned about prepping to know where to begin, but it’s very easy to get enthusiastic about the cool gadgets and gear that you discover online. But excitement over gear fueled by the increasing fear that the time to protect your family from a serious SHTF situation is drawing near can seriously wreak havoc on your budget if you don’t have a plan.

Most experts will agree that one of the first steps, as crucial as stockpiling supplies, is to create your bug out bag. The bug out bag (BOB) is the bag that you will carry with you when the time comes for you and your family to leave your home and head for the hills so to speak. Each family member should have one and items may vary depending on their age and maturity level. Even though you will find that many experts agree the ideal plan is to bug in not out, they will still all recommend preparing a bug out bag.

The experts know that unless you have strategically relocated in the last five years, the prospect of you and your family riding out a SHTF event in your home is very slim. You and your family will eventually have to bug out during a SHTF situation. To prepare for that time, here are some tips on how to build a bug out bag the right way.

When putting a bug out bag together, there are numerous items that are often overlooked, especially by beginning or inexperienced preppers. But there are survival items even seasoned preppers overlook when packing their BOBs. Below is our list of the 51 items most preppers forget to add to their BOBs. Check your current BOB against our list, what did you forget?

Cooking, Sustenance, & Hydration Items

1. Sufficient Protein (beef jerky, whey powder, etc.)
2. Collapsible Water Storage Bags
3. Can Opener
4. Collapsible Bowl
5. Stainless Steel Canteen (for boiling water)
6. Sillcock Key
7. LifeStraw
8. PennyCan Stove or RocketStove (alternative cooking method)
9. Bouillon Cubes
10. Electrolyte Replacement
11. Heirloom Seeds
12. Eating Utensils (stainless steel)
13. Tin Foil
14. Fishing Kit

All-Purpose Items

15. Knife Sharpener
16. Stanley Wonderbar
17. Pocket Chain Saw
18. Hand Crank Flashlight
19. Crazy Glue or Gorilla Glue
20. Ranger Bands
21. Heavy Duty Work Gloves
22. Plastic Zip Ties (various sizes)
23. Pantyhose (multiple uses)
24. Binoculars
25. Extra shoelaces/Paracord
26. Lock Pick Set
27. Folding Shovel or Trowel
28. WD-40
29. Dry Bag
30. Potassium Iodide Tablets (to combat radiation sickness)
31. Siphon
32. Sewing Kit
33. Rain Cover or Poncho with Hood
34. Clotheslines/Paracord and Clothespins

Health, Safety, & Hygiene Items

35. Activated Charcoal (use to soak up poison if you eat wrong foods)
36. Epsom Salt (multiple healing uses)
37. Toilet Paper or Baby Wipes
38. Dental first aid
39. Celox Blood Clotting Powder
40. Liquid Bandage (to protect and heal cuts and lacerations that band-aid isn’t enough)
41. MoleSkin
42. Garbage Bags (multiple uses as waterproof backpack liner, sanitation disposal, rain cover, ground cover)
43. ChapStick
44. Stomach Medications (laxatives, anti-diarrhea, antacids, etc.)
45. Personal Medications (Inhalers, insulin, blood pressure medications)
46. Antibiotics and Herbal Remedies/Recipes
47. Colloidal Silver
48. Solar Shower
49. Family/Group Photo
50. Personal Documents (ID, passports, etc.)
51. Emergency Radio

Once you have your bug out bag packed and ready to go when it is needed, focus on stockpiling food, water, medicine, and other supplies in your home that you and your family would need if you could not go to the store or purchase anything online for at least one week. Then add supplies to sustain you two weeks without going to the store, one month, three months, etc. The ideal goal for a food and water stockpile is one year.

As you grow your food and water stockpile, make sure you store some of your supplies to your bug out location (BOL). Your BOL is the place that you and your family or group have identified in advance as the place you will “bug out” to when the time comes.

Unless you are the most experienced of woodsmen and have already lived in the wilds, cut off from civilization, bugging out without a safe destination in mind is simply suicide. Without a designated BOL when SHTF, you may as well focus on bugging in until FEMA comes for you.

Now we realize that you will be able to add all 51 items most preppers forget to add to their BOBs because space will be an issue, especially if you bug out alone. But many of the items above have multiple uses which mean that you may be able to leave out other items on the list.

Epsom salt, for example, has multiple healing properties, it can be used to soothe sore muscles, to withdraw a splinter, and even as a laxative. Research each of the items on this list and cross-check them against the events, tasks, or other issues you feel will be most likely to become an obstacle for you and your family when SHTF l

There may be some of these 51 items most preppers forget to add in their BOBS that you and your family don’t feel a need for at all. And that’s fine. This list was simply intended to help you think through what is in your BOB to ensure you haven’t overlooked anything that will be crucial to your survival. Is there a survival item on our list that you overlooked for your BOB? Let us know in the comments below.

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