This post contains affiliate links.
What’s a get home bag and why might you need one?
A get home bag is a curated collection of gear meant to assist you getting home in an emergency scenario. One thing to keep in mind, this is not meant to be a bug out bag, this is simply meant to help you get home safe. It never hurts to be prepared, in some cases it can make the difference of life and death. Natural disasters are on the rise with climate change causing weather events to become more severe. Social unrest has unfortunately become more common and can occur unexpectedly. With that being said, everyone is going to have different priorities depending on their location, skills, and common emergency events they might face.
A well-equipped get home bag should be able to prepare you for many challenging situations and is something everyone should consider having. They take up very little room in a vehicle or office drawer/locker. If you are someone who doesn’t have the ability to have a designated pack or bag for this, you can take the same concept and apply it on a much smaller scale. For example, you can have a designated get home pouch or survival kit, or you can incorporate certain items into your EDC to help you be more prepared.
There are some things you will want to consider before you start buying gear and going down the worm hole:
What are you preparing for?
Where are you located?
What are you already in carrying in your EDC?
How many people may you need to prepare for?
Depending on where you live and what natural disasters are common in your area, will you need to consider extreme winter storms, hurricanes/flooding, forest fires, tornadoes, or extreme heat/drought?
Do you work in an urban area and want to be prepared for a social unrest situation?
How far might you need to walk and in what type of environment and weather?
Will you be with your family or have pets with you?
What items could add value to your current EDC well without creating too much redundancy?
The Bag
When choosing a bag, you want something that’s going to be versatile and easy to move around with. Some may want to go with a duffel bag with backpack straps for the ease of packing, but this will not be very comfortable to carry for a long period of time. It’ll be more comfortable to have a backpack with hip belts as it will make carrying it more comfortable and secure the backpack to your body if you needed to move more quickly.
We choose to use the Exped Mountain Pro 20 for both of our get home bags. It is a 20 liter hiking/climbing pack with one main compartment and very comfortable, removable hip belts. It has four rows of daisy chains to easily add items to the outside of the pack (I have elastic cordage woven though mine), a large dump pocket in the front for wet gear, and a small admin pocket for small easy access gear. I like this pack because it is extremely comfortable, discrete, and big enough to carry what I think we need while being small enough to be mobile.
The Contents
First Aid
One thing that should be consistent among all get home bags is first aid, even if it’s a first aid kit with just the basics; such as band aids, gauze pads, mole skin, ointments, and medicine. You should also have a trauma kit in your bag, as it can really make the difference if you are ever in an emergency situation. Premade kits can be perfect for get home bags in my opinion, because they are usually sealed from the elements and are packaged well for long-term storage. We have a designated vehicle first aid kit that can be easily disassembled to fit into our packs if the need ever arises. For more detail on first aid suggestions, check out our custom first aid kit build.
Food & Water
You will want to have quick ways to treat water and consume calories that do not require preparation. Pro Bars are great for this because they are very calorie-dense and taste good. They also make energy gummies which I like to pack in case you are ever in need of a pick me up. I also like to include fruit bars for the quick sugar and long shelf life. For water purification, filters will typically be best for speed. We use a Sawyer Mini because you can use it as a straw, drink directly from the water collection bag, or splice it into your hydration bladder hose. In addition to a filter, we have a single walled water bottle to both hold water and use in the event that we need to boil water.
Navigation & Communication
You should consider having analog forms of navigation and communication, since these items may be sitting in your vehicle or elsewhere without regular “maintenance” or use. A simple compass and map of your area are a great place to start. You could possibly pre-mark locations and routes to make it easier when in a state of emergency/panic. If you want to splurge for quality maps with 3D topography, satellite imagery, and street info, Never Astray makes custom maps printed on water proof paper, perfect for emergency situations. If you are traveling and don’t want to spend the money, a simple fold up road map might be more for you.
With respect to communication, a simple whistle and signal mirror are effective ways to signal for help. Other forms of communicating like 2 way radios and/or radios that can receive weather & emergency broadcasts are also excellent resources for get home bags. We choose to use the Midland X-Talker T51 for our get home bags. It has a lot of channels and privy codes, as well as weather alert channels. Something you may want to consider including in your pack is a faraday dry bag from SLNT to keep any electronic gear you might have safe from any transmissions like an electromagnetic pulse.
Shelter
Depending on how far you might need to travel and taking your environment into account, having some variety of shelter will be important. We have an SOL All Season Blanket, (which is just a strong reflective tarp), along with an SOL Emergency Bivy and a small set of aluminum stakes and cordage. These will allow us to set up a simple but effective shelter with very little weight. Additionally, black contractor garbage bags around 55 gallons can be used for a multitude of different things like a poncho, shelter, bivy, etc.
Hygiene
Personal hygiene may not be the first thing you think of when building get home bag but it will become very important when you need it. Having some hand sanitizer, at the minimum, is important and it may be worth considering some Dude Wipes to have handy for when nature calls.
After going through the covid pandemic, it makes even more sense to have some PPE items like N95 masks and even disposable gloves in your kit. The 3M masks are great since they come in flat packaging, and seal well around your face. You can also consider an extra change of clothes but you may need to adjust these as seasons change depending on your location.
Tools
If you had to choose one tool to throw in your pack, I would recommend the Leatherman Signal. It has a little bit of everything you might need, while not being overpacked with tools that you will never use. A Swiss Army Knife Camper could also be a solid choice if you are looking for something smaller and lighter weight.
Extra Gear
Some other gear you might want to include in your get home bag are non-lethal self defense items like pepper spray or tire thumper. A binocular or monocular are useful when you need to get a closer look at your surroundings or to identify threats in your area. We always have our Vortex Diamondback HD 8×42 in our car so they can be thrown in one of our bag if we see they need.
Our Set Up
We have our bags set up so we can grab a bag and throw any other items we might want from our bin and be on our way. We have it set up like this so if there is only one of us we can still ensure we have everything we might need, while not creating duplicates of everything if there are two of us.
We find that a get home bag is a vital collection of gear designed to aid in safely reaching home during emergency situations. Given the increasing frequency of natural disasters and social unrest, preparedness can be critical for survival. Factors like location, potential emergencies, and personal needs should be considered when building your bag. From first aid and food/water provisions to navigation, communication, shelter, hygiene, tools, and extra gear, each item serves a purpose in ensuring readiness and personal safety.
