Actually useful Every Day Carry
Google ‘Every Day Carry’ and you’ll get all kinds of advice from various websites, lots of knives and torches, and all kinds of ‘useful’ gadgets. But it doesn’t have to be all tacti-cool torches and five different keyring lever bars. The point of EDC is to be better prepared for solving those unexpected little problems that life throws up, it’s not about surviving the Zombie Apocalypse. The best EDC items are multi-purpose and can be used in lots of different ways (some times requiring a bit of divergent and creative thinking). Here are some of the things that I think are actually useful things to carry.
1. Smartphone
Most people already carry a phone anyway so it has to be on the list. A phone with the right apps and an internet connection is a powerful tool for solving all kinds of problems from putting up a shelf (clinometer app) to getting unlost (Google Maps and a compass app), from getting you up on time (alarm clock app) to making notes about things you don’t want to forget (Evernote app).
2. Small roll of Sellotape
Sellotape can be used for all kinds of things, from sticking two sheets of paper together, to removing lint from clothes. It can be used as a plaster if you cut your finger and as a length of string if you twist it so it sticks to itself.
3. Spoon
A spoon is a very useful implement, from the obvious use of eating cereal or soup, to an unconventional self-defence tool, to the practical use as a lever bar to jam a door open or shut or change a bike tyre.
4. Buff
Essentially just a piece of cloth, a Buff can become a hat or scarf if you get cold, a handkerchief, emergency toilet paper, or a bandage.
5. Carrier Bag
Carrying things, waterproof wrapping, and suffocating someone (just kidding) makes a carrier bag great for solving problems but also for everyday use a carrier bag is handy for when you go shopping rather than using more is environmentally-friendly.
None of these things are the kinds of EDC items that would raise eyebrows if someone noticed you had them, but all of them are really useful for solving all kinds of little problems that occur.
