Most people won’t need a bug out bag. Almost everyone could use a get home bag. Here’s how to build one.
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I keep a get home bag. It lives in my car and I don’t think about it most days, but it’s there. The idea is simple: if something goes wrong while I’m away from home and I can’t drive back, I have what I need to walk.
That might sound extreme if you’ve never thought about it before. But it doesn’t take a major catastrophe to make driving home impossible. A bad winter storm, a multi-car accident shutting down the interstate, a power grid failure that kills traffic lights across a city, an earthquake that damages roads. These things happen regularly and they strand ordinary commuters who were just trying to get home from work.
The get home bag isn’t a prepper fantasy. It’s practical insurance for everyday people who work or go to school away from home, which is most of us. Here’s how to build one that actually makes sense for your situation.
7 Things to Know Before You Start Building
1. It’s Not Just for Catastrophes
The get home bag is not a doomsday item. A severe winter storm, a hurricane, a major traffic event, or a localized power outage can all create situations where walking home is the only option. Even if the situation isn’t life-threatening, having the right gear makes the walk significantly more manageable. Think of it as being prepared for inconvenience at minimum and genuine emergencies at maximum.
2. Quality Over Quantity
Every item in your bag should be something you’d actually trust when you need it. This isn’t the place for cheap gear that looks fine on a shelf but fails in the field. A knife that won’t hold an edge, a flashlight that dies after an hour, or a first aid kit stuffed with bandages so thin they fall apart are worse than useless because they create false confidence. Buy the best you can afford for the critical items and don’t cut corners on anything that keeps you safe or healthy.
3. One Bag Per Person
If you have a family, everyone who travels away from home should have their own appropriately sized bag. Kids can carry a smaller version with the basics. More importantly, everyone should know how to use what’s in their bag and know how to get home from the places they go regularly. A bag nobody knows how to use isn’t much help.
4. Keep It With You
The best get home bag is the one you actually have when you need it. Ideally it goes into the office with you and sits under your desk. At minimum it stays in your vehicle. Don’t leave it at home.
5. Distance Determines Size
The contents and size of your bag scale with how far you’d need to walk. Someone who works three miles from home needs a much lighter bag than someone who works fifteen miles away. Use Google Maps to calculate your walking distance and time from your most frequent locations. That number drives most of your packing decisions.
6. Plan to Walk
Build your bag with the assumption that you’ll be on foot. If you can drive home, great. But if you can’t, you want everything you’d need to walk the full distance comfortably. That means appropriate footwear, water, and supplies scaled to your walking time.
7. Blend In
Your bag shouldn’t draw attention. In a crisis situation, a bag that screams “this person has supplies” makes you a target. Go with a neutral color, nothing too tactical-looking unless you’re in an area where that’s common, and nothing so large it looks like you’re bugging out of the country. The goal is to look like someone walking home from work, not someone prepared for the apocalypse.
Choosing the Right Bag
The bag itself matters. You want something comfortable enough to carry for hours, durable enough to handle rough conditions, and discreet enough not to draw attention. Here are the main factors to consider:
Fit your torso, not just your back. A bag that doesn’t sit correctly on your frame will cause shoulder and back pain long before you get home. If you’re buying in person, try it on with some weight in it.
Waterproof or water-resistant. You could end up walking in rain. Your gear needs to stay dry.
Appropriate size for your distance. A 20-24 liter bag covers most commuters. If you’re more than 8 hours of walking from home, you’ll need something larger.
Here are the bags that consistently come up as the best options for this purpose:
5.11 Tactical Rush 12 2.0: The most recommended bag for this exact use case. 24 liters, MOLLE compatible, built for daily use and durability. Laptop compartment makes it look like a work bag. Check current pricing on Amazon.
5.11 Tactical Rush 24 2.0: Step up to 37 liters for longer distances or if you want more room to work with. Same build quality as the Rush 12. Check current pricing on Amazon.
Mystery Ranch Blitz 30: Best overall tactical backpack per Men’s Journal testing. 30 liters, extremely durable, comfortable for long carries. More expensive but built to last. Check current pricing on Amazon.
What to Pack: The Three-Tier System
Your gear list scales with how long you’d be walking. These three tiers build on each other. Start with Tier 1 no matter what, and add from there based on your distance.
Tier 1: Up to 3 Hours of Walking
This is the baseline every get home bag should have regardless of distance:
Water: At minimum one liter in a stainless steel bottle. Stainless matters because if you run out you can boil water directly in the bottle for purification. I carry two canteens for redundancy. Check stainless steel water bottles on Amazon.
Food: Keep it light and calorie-dense. Energy bars, trail mix, a couple packets of tuna with crackers. You’re not camping, you’re walking home. You don’t need full meals, just enough fuel to keep moving.
Fire starting: Three BIC lighters minimum. I also carry a firesteel and a small tin of Vaseline-soaked cotton balls as tinder. Vaseline cotton balls catch fast and burn long even in wet conditions. Redundancy matters here.
Folding knife: A quality folding knife is non-negotiable. That said, even a cheap knife is better than no knife at all; you’d at least have a blade when you need one. Buy the best you can afford and work up from there. Check folding knives on Amazon.
Multi-tool: A good multi-tool covers saw, knife, screwdriver, pliers, and more in one compact package. I carry a Leatherman Supertool. It’s heavy but it’s built like a tank and I trust it. Check current pricing on Amazon.
Flashlight or headlamp: A small, high-quality LED light. A headlamp is better than a handheld flashlight because it keeps your hands free. Bring extra batteries. Check headlamps on Amazon.
Basic first aid kit: A commercial kit is fine as a base, but add an Israeli bandage and a blood clotting agent. Know how to use both before you pack them. Check first aid kits on Amazon. Note: familiarize yourself with how to use every item in your first aid kit before you need it. Consider taking a basic first aid or Stop the Bleed course.
Cash: Some bills and coins. Card readers don’t work when the power is out.
Emergency radio: A small hand-crank or solar-powered radio so you can get information without relying on your phone. Check emergency radios on Amazon.
Rain gear: A military-grade poncho takes up almost no space and can also double as an emergency shelter with some cordage. Three 50-gallon trash bags also pack flat and have more uses than most people realize, including waterproofing your pack contents, improvised shelter, and insulation stuffing.
Good footwear: Don’t get caught in dress shoes or heels. Keep a pair of broken-in hiking boots or sturdy walking shoes in your car. This is one I feel strongly about. Your feet getting wrecked three miles into a ten-mile walk is a serious problem. One important note: whatever boots you buy, wear them around the house and on short walks before they go in the bag. New boots will destroy your feet on a long walk. Break them in first, then pack them.
A few options that consistently get strong marks for comfort and durability: Merrell Moab 3 is one of the most trusted hiking boots available and holds up well over long distances. The Salomon X Ultra 4 is lighter and works well if you prefer a trail shoe over a full boot. Both are available in wide widths if needed.
Gloves, hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, insect repellent: Weather protection matters more than people expect on a long walk. Don’t skip these.
Bandana: Two cotton bandanas. Water pre-filter, dust mask, sling, tourniquet backup, signal flag. One of the most versatile items per ounce you can carry.
Paracord: 200 feet. Multiple uses including shelter, repairs, and improvised gear.
Duct tape or Gorilla tape: A few feet wrapped around a lighter or a small card. Takes up no space and fixes most things.
Map and compass: A laminated map of your county with your routes marked. A mirror/compass combo is compact and handles both navigation and signaling. Don’t rely on your phone for navigation when the cell network might be down.
4-way sillcock key: This opens the outdoor water valves on most commercial buildings. In a situation where you need water and you’re in an urban area, this is genuinely useful. Check sillcock keys on Amazon.
Pen and waterproof notebook: A wet-capable notebook with a couple of mechanical pencils. You might need to leave notes or record information.
Tier 2: 4 to 8 Hours of Walking
Everything in Tier 1 plus:
Extra food: Additional energy bars and survival rations. Ben’s Ready Rice packets and a couple of Starkist Tuna Creations pouches with crackers are compact and calorie-efficient.
Extra clothing: Warm socks (one or two extra pairs), a wool or synthetic base layer. Cotton is not acceptable here for the same reason we covered in the walking health benefits post. Once cotton gets wet it stops insulating.
Wool or fleece hat: A 100% wool beanie. Wool stays warm even when wet, which synthetics and cotton don’t.
Blanket or bivy: A wool blanket or emergency bivy sack in case you need to stop and rest or wait out conditions.
Water purification: A good water filter and water purification tablets as backup. I also keep 2% iodine: 10 drops per quart of questionable water works reliably. Check portable water filters on Amazon.
Medication: If you take daily medication, keep a supply in your bag. Rotate it regularly so it stays current.
Personal hygiene kit: A small zip bag with wet wipes, hand sanitizer, mini deodorant, toothbrush and toothpaste, travel soap, and Vitamin C packets. After 6 hours of walking, this matters more than you’d think.
Garbage bags: Three 50-gallon bags if you didn’t include them in Tier 1. Versatile and weightless.
Thin zip hoodie: One that folds into its own hood and doubles as a pillow. Adds warmth without weight.
Tier 3: More Than 8 Hours of Walking
Everything in Tiers 1 and 2 plus:
Extra food: More rations. You’re looking at a full day or more of walking.
Large fixed-blade knife: For cutting firewood, clearing brush, and heavier tasks a folder can’t handle. A Morakniv Bushcraft is reliable, affordable, and well regarded. Check current pricing on Amazon.
Enhanced first aid kit: Add a tourniquet for severe bleeding control, moleskin for blisters (which will absolutely happen on a long walk in unfamiliar footwear), a SAM splint for immobilizing a suspected fracture, and Potassium Iodide (KI) tablets. The KI tablets are specifically for nuclear or radiological emergencies. They saturate your thyroid with safe iodine so it can’t absorb radioactive iodine if you’re exposed. Most people will never need them, but they’re small, cheap, and the one situation where you do need them is exactly the kind of situation a get home bag is built for.
Sleeping bag: Choose based on your climate and the coldest conditions you might encounter.
Walking stick: Reduces knee stress on long walks, useful as a shelter pole with a tarp, and doubles as a self-defense option.
Small ham radio: A Wouxun or similar compact radio kept in an anti-static bag inside a Faraday bag. When cell networks go down, ham radio still works.
Packing It Right
Heavy items go at the bottom closest to your back. Lighter, frequently accessed items go near the top and outer pockets. This keeps the weight centered on your hips rather than pulling on your shoulders. A poorly packed bag that digs into your back for eight hours is a real problem.
Check your bag every few months. Rotate food, replace expired medication, make sure batteries still hold a charge, and verify your cash is still in there. A bag you packed two years ago and haven’t touched since might be missing half the things you thought were in it.
The Bottom Line
The get home bag is one of those things that feels unnecessary right up until the moment it isn’t. Most days it just sits in your car. But the day you actually need it, having the right gear already assembled and ready to go makes an already stressful situation significantly more manageable.
Start with Tier 1, get comfortable with what’s in it, and build from there. The goal isn’t to carry everything imaginable. It’s to carry the right things for your specific situation, your distance from home, and the conditions you’re likely to face.
What’s in your get home bag? Anything you’ve found essential that isn’t on this list? Drop it in the comments below.
