As I said in my previous post there are different approaches to EDC. A very common is trying to optimize the kit you are carrying around as much as possible. You read reviews, test stuff, buy and sell things and you’ll end up with having a fixed set of tools and things which will change very little over time. This has many benefits:

• You’ll get used to your kit and you will know how to use it if you need it
• You don’t have to buy more and more stuff
• What you have will be proven and tested over and over and you know what you will get out of it

Then there’s the constantly optimizing way:

• You keep searching and browsing for better and better gear and always try to find the best bits possible
• This will let you end up with tons of gear in your archives but you are not used to what you have on you in case you really need it

And last but not least the fun way:

• You don’t care about if the things you carry around are the best for the job but you just take what feels right for the day.
• This way doesn’t consume much time or energy for planning but most people will spend quite some money on new and fun things over and over again.

My personal way of building my EDC kit is a hybrid approach which works best for me. I have a fixed set of things which have proven to fulfill my needs. I try to have this on me all the time. Even when I just take out the dog for a short walk around the block. I sometimes review and improve this kit but in fact it’s rather stable in its contents.

But I love EDC stuff and tactical gear far too much to just be satisfied with having all the same things ever and ever again. So I add things I want to give a try or things which just are fun to have with me most of the time. This leaves me with some redundancy which is not that bad save for the extra space I need or the extra weight I’m carrying. Since I’m very ok with that this way has proven the right for me over the last years.

I’ll show you details about this setup in upcoming posts but for now an overview should do. I always have a small first aid kit and a small pouch with useful things on me. These include a small flashlight, a swiss army knife, a pen, tissues, dog poop bags and more. These two pouches find their place either in my cargo pants or a jacket or in a bigger bag I’m carrying. That’s the basic kit which I only review and change once in several months.

Now comes the fun part. I always add things which I want to have with me, too. That’s always a knife (normally a lot bigger and more capable than a swiss army knife), some high power flashlight, a hank, some fancy bottle opener, a beard comb and so on. What exactly I choose is very dependent of what mood I’m in, what country I’ll be visiting (remember there are different laws about carrying knives in many countries) and so on.

This way might not be the most practical in terms of weight and money but I always end up with a kit I know and really can rely on in the one hand and in the other hand I have things which spark a lot of joy.

In the next posts you’ll learn about the details of this base kit. Later I’ll cover items which make up the fun part.