Every Day Carry (EDC)
Doublethink
Admin, 8th Day Host
I have recently fallen down the YouTube rabbit hole of everyday carry. I wondered if anyone else had got into this.
I think it started when men realised handbags were useful but wanted a less feminine rebrand. Hence also bumbags/fanny packs being rebranded as slings. (It has now circled round and there are woman centric versions to - though this obviously assumes performing a conventional gender role - there is in fact nothing to stop me carrying a multitool and a UK street legal pocket knife.)
The logic is sort of emergency preparedness plus having easy access to things you use regularly and optimising them.
Anyone else got into this trend ? (Be warned your budget suddenly realises you need to upgrade your wallet, key chain, multitool etc)
I think it started when men realised handbags were useful but wanted a less feminine rebrand. Hence also bumbags/fanny packs being rebranded as slings. (It has now circled round and there are woman centric versions to - though this obviously assumes performing a conventional gender role - there is in fact nothing to stop me carrying a multitool and a UK street legal pocket knife.)
The logic is sort of emergency preparedness plus having easy access to things you use regularly and optimising them.
Anyone else got into this trend ? (Be warned your budget suddenly realises you need to upgrade your wallet, key chain, multitool etc)
Comments
It has several zip-up compartments, one of which holds my keys, phone, debit card, and emergency medical supplies. I think it's probably one of the most sensible and useful things I've ever bought. Any malefactor or cutpurse trying to relieve me of it might have to contend with either Lefty or Righty poking them in the eye...
Is this some sort of nightmare corollary of the problem that women's clothing tends to be rather inadequately equipped in the pocket department?
My "everyday carry" kit is limited to my pockets, because that's what I'll actually carry with me anywhere. My work bag has a variety of useful odds and ends, but I don't take it out and about with me.
(Right hip pocket: phone and wallet. Left hip pocket: ridiculous number of keys on ring, pocket knife. Sometimes also glasses in case, but I tend to avoid carrying my glasses around and just squint at things.)
I think of bag carrying as a kind of slavery, truthfully. I'm trying to get free of it. But it's very very hard when every male around me thinks I'm there to carry his crap ("It won't fit in my pockets"). Took me years to train Mr. Lamb to re-evaluate his habit of handing me crap. I had to ask him "Why are you handing me this?" Which provoked the reply "Because you are there." LL, at least, carries a bag of his own (repurposed laptop bag).
However, I have noticed some modular multitools allow you to fit key blanks, so you could have your keys in a Swiss Army knife form factor - the flex companion for example.
But it has stuck. I commonly wear trousers with pockets, ditto a jacket. I carry a small card case with some paper money tucked in as well, bus pass, house keys and my phone. I do take a fabric bag for carrying shopping and that contains spare glasses for reading small labels.
The only other bag is for Art-specific - pencils, paintbox, brush roll, palette, paper, clipboard, plastic cup.
Current key chain contains 17 door keys of various sizes, one Allan key, one electronic rfid key, and one car key. Oh, and a little LED light. I went to the one-big-ring solution to optimize me not leaving my keys anywhere, after I went home for the weekend and left my office keys hanging from my office door. Now all the keys are on the ring with my car key, it's impossible for me to leave without them.
I do still like to travel light, but now that I'm retired I spend a lot of time hucking my laptop around to various coffee shops to write in, etc., and I do carry a purse to church and a couple of other places. I have recently decided that the three absolute essentials that I have to have with me (beyond the pocket items) are breath mints, lip balm, and a pen. So I have multiples of those things and have stocked them in my purse, my backpack, and my laptop bag, so that if I do need to grab a bag as I leave the house, whatever bag I grab is guaranteed to have the Basics of Life.
The other EDC essential, if you check the pockets of all my outside jackets, appears to be dog-poop bags. Not because I always take the dog when I go out, but because when I do take her for a walk, it's just easier to have every possible jacket pre-loaded with these essentials.
My youngest son wears his every day, mostly for carrying his headphones which are his every day essentials. Mine is for carrying a book, keys and my phone. I don’t carry much and I just put what I need in in a bag (I have several bright colours) as and when.
When I go for a walk I just put my keys in a pocket. I’ve had a small pen torch on my key ring since I was a student nurse for testing pupil reactions (and later in my career for quick eye examination in eye casualty). It is currently used daily to light the route from my garden office in the evening. So that is my EDC essential.
Everything fits easily into pants pockets.
For a quick shop in Aldi across the road I put bank card and door key in my pocket.
I still have leather bags of many types belonging to Mr P which none of the family wants: manbag, laptop bag, various holdalls, briefcases, robe case, satchel type bag, all in good condition. He seemed to accumulate such things, amongst many other accumulations. Gradually they are going to charity shops when I remember.
Can you wear cardigans or hoodies?
Nowadays, away from home, I habitually use my Nordic poles for support as, having used them for their proper purpose for years, I am habituated to use that rhythm when walking.
Of course they do occupy both hands, so I now carry everything in a cross-body bag with numerous zipped compartments.
I do have to take Mr RoS with me if I am shopping, as I can't carry the extra bags
You can definitely get that selection in a sling (some of which are waterproof or water resistant), base that on videos of people showing how they pack their slings. But you would have to pick the right one. This kind of thing.
Some - usually the cotton carriers - get adopted as project bags to hold the yarn for a particular knit or crochet.
Some small round the neck bags were travel bags, holding money and documents needed en route. But one of these mysteriously disappeared with, I suspect, my passport at the time. Yet it could only have been after I got home, or I would have discovered the loss at the airport.
After that, the next trip abroad, I sewed pockets onto the front of a T-shirt.
I carry phone/wallet, EpiPen, tissues, lip balm and keys.
I think that doesn't bother me because I don't suppose it's going to happen. I'm just about to cycle to the nearby hospital to pick up a prescription. If I don't ever post again I am clearly very foolish.
My own name & address, name & phone number of spouse, names & phone numbers of LP Attorneys, list of medications, list of assorted ailments, and printed information about my ICD - which comes in an A5 size plastic envelope that I was told I should carry at all times.
All the other stuff just got stuffed into the same envelope as I thought if I was in a situation where someone needed the ICDdetails they'd probably also need the other info.
And that is why I now have an EDC, as I don't have big enough pockets.
I think we all do, really, though I’m not a Freudian myself. It’s part of being human, and—
I’ll get me coat. 😛
I used to carry one handbag that had various smaller bags in it, in case of this and that. This year I have pared this down to a small cross body bag with purse, keys, phone and a strip of painkillers.
If I am going out on a trip or further away, I will add in a few more urgent medicines or bits and bobs that I might not automatically know where to get.
When I first saw the thread title, I had to wonder if it related to a weapon!!!
I have a matching (also waterproof) small cross-body bag and if I'm just out for a short outing that holds my keys, phone, tissues and small purse with cards in. If I'm out for the day, especially on public transport, my cards and phone and tissues go in there so I don't have to take the backpack off my back every time I need to check my phone or tap on/tap off the bus; the backpack will also hold a smallish reading book for a day out.
It's taken me a long time to find a combination of bags that works and doesn't hurt my back or shoulders.
My husband bought himself a man bag a long time ago but he never uses it and now doesn't know where it is, so his shirts have to have a breast pocket for his phone.
I think all of us in the States who drive always have our ID on us, as it is also our driver's license.
Once upon a time, I had a small crossbody purse that was light and easy on my back and shoulders. However, my emergency medical stuff didn't fit at all. Recently I got a small backpack that holds my collapsible cane, my emergency inhaler, medications, wallet, reading and sun glasses and all the other bits that I might need.
Right hand coat pocket: keys, dog treats, poo bags.
I don't usually carry a handbag except in the summer, and then only when I am in an outfit that doesn't have any pockets. Of which there are FAR TOO MANY (outfits without pockets, that is).
Carrying ID is not compulsory in the UK (except in polling stations, thank you Boris) but I do it anyway because otherwise I'd never be able to find my driving licence when I wanted it.
I actually keep a duplicate driver’s license in my car.
It is compulsory if you're a dirty foreigner like me.
Technically it has always been compulsory, but until the current administration, it was one of those old laws that was on the books, but everyone ignored.
I'm far from enthusiastic about having to carry my paperwork everywhere with me, because the hoops that you have to jump through with the INS in the event that your paperwork is lost or stolen are rather painful.
I realise this rather hyperspecifc and niche - but I like to hope that somewhere on the internet I will find one.
My wallet, keys, multitool and pocket knife live in my pockets. I am also working towards a zippo bit kit. (Buy old knakered zippo on eBay for cheap, remove inards and insert zippo bit vault accessory, fill with double ended steinwal bits, and ideally a bit that will do eyeglass screws)
My phone has all the details needed, including emergency contact etc on the lock screen (ice).