EDC vs BOB vs INCH

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Acronyms Decoded

EDC = Every Day Carry

BOB = Bug Out Bag

INCH = I’m Never Coming Home

Each of these are potentially essential to your preparation plans for any kind of disaster you can face, but largely dependent on the situations that you expect to face.

Every Day Carry

• Can be easily and discreetly carried on your person
• Provide quick access to items you need to get you back to your “home base”, which can be your car, your office or workplace, your actual home, or some other location.
• Generally used when you expect it to take less than 24 hours to get from where you are to the “home base” of your choice. Typically, can include items like:
  • Paracord
  • Fishing hooks and lures
  • Matches and tinder
  • Knife(s) for hunting and/or safety
• Some kits are for the car, the workplace, or even just a walk around the nearby park or neighborhood. Some people use all of these, just to be sure they have what they need should the worst occur.
  • For those with a workplace kit – would you be able to easily walk from there to hour “home base” in the clothes and/or shoes that you typically wear to the office? If not, you may want to consider adding the clothes and shoes that would provide that capability.
• No matter your gender, age, or physical capability, it is wise to consider some kind of weapon to have in your EDC – if nothing else, it will give you peace of mind which is priceless in an emergency situation.

Bug Out Bag

• Generally, in the form of a backpack or military gear bag of some sort – depending on what you are carrying and what works best for you.
• Used when you must leave your “home base” location due to mandatory evacuations or other reasons that you have determined and should provide you with the necessary means to survive away from the “home base” for about 72 hours or more, depending on the situation.
• These are temporary solutions for you, as you expect to get back to the “home base” within at least a 72 hour window.
• Since situations may require you to carry this bag on foot for many miles, it is good to make sure that it contains what you absolutely need and are actually able to carry that weight over long distances if needed.
• If you are with a group of people, be sure to coordinate your BOBs so that you are all able to supply the needs of the group for the duration and eliminate unnecessary redundancies in your respective BOBs.
• Depending on the situation, your BOB may also be a “for now” that will get you from your preferred “home base” to a “bug out location” where other stores of preps are kept.

I’m Never Coming Home

• There are some that have these bags ready, but there are very few situations that these would likely be necessary. However, if you feel that you face a situation where you could possibly have to leave your primary “home base” and/or “bug out location” and forevermore be reliant on the land, this would be the bag for you to create and have ready to go.
• In this situation, you likely won’t have any location where you have backup stores of supplies, so you would need to be able to live off the land, or possibly scavenge from locations that you come across to refill your supplies.
• Items that you have in this bag would be the things that you would need no matter what situation you face while you are potentially moving constantly from one place to the next. The items would depend on what your situation requires, primarily dependent on:
  • Weather
  • Seasonality
  • Climate
  • Social/economic situation (Great Depression 2.0? or more Walking Dead or the Purge?)

No matter if you use all of these or certain ones, the primary consideration in determining which ones to use and what to get them stocked with depends on your environment and the situations you intend to face. Someone living in a rural area that commutes to the city for work every day will face far different circumstances and scenarios that someone who lives and works in NYC on a daily basis. Weather concerns are also another consideration. Someone in hotter climates will not have to deal with potential snow concerns that locations in the north need to consider; desert situations are different from mountain or beachy, sea-level climates as well.

If you do end up deciding that you need a BOB or INCH, find some people that are in your circle who have the same concerns as you and coordinate your efforts so that you can have what you need for the situations you believe you face. If you have a dog, consider a BOB for them to carry on their back with items that make sense and won’t hurt or slow them down.

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