A Toiletry Kit for your Bugout Bag
It might sound a little silly, but you are absolutely going to need the basic toiletries in your bugout bag, and in life in general. I do a fair amount of travel, and I always grew up with what I was told was a “Dopp Kit.” Dopp Kits are actually just toiletry bags, but the name comes from a German Leathermaker named Charles Doppelt, who made an (apparently) nice leather “toilet bag” in the early 1900’s. Americans didn’t like the word toilet, so they abbreviated it to Dopp Kit, and the name stuck.
Over the years, what is in my kit has changed, but I have found it to be immensely helpful to have several “sets” of Dopp Kits ready to go. I have three of them:
One In my Bugout bag
One under the sink ready to pack
One in a drawer as a backup.
They all have the same stuff, however. Or close (I don’t always have the same comb in each one, for example). This was very handy when it came time to pack a bag to go to the hospital when our kids were born. Just grab one of my Dopp Kits and away we go. When traveling, you can get by much easier while traveling the world if you have a nice, compact, and comfortable Dopp Kit than if you don’t.
My rules for Dopp Kit Construction are pretty simple
Use the same stuff I use at home
Try to get small amounts of everything, so it is light. No sense carrying more shaving cream than you need.
Make sure nothing will leak.
Make sure everything is TSA/Airline friendly. No big bottles, no blades, etc.
What is in My Go Bag Toiletries Kit?
Below is an exploded view, and I will go through each thing, and talk about what it is, and give you a link to where you can find it if you like. I will start with the bag itself. And I am not gonna cover everything here. I assume you know what Advil is, or eye drops.
The Bag/Dopp Kit: I have tried lots and lots of different ones, but I wound up enjoying the sort of kit that I can open up (like a book) and lay on a counter to get at things. I wanted a few pockets, but nothing crazy, as then it is hard to stuff things in there and it makes it less flexible. I didn’t want anything super expensive. I settled on the bag/pouch/organize you see above from Maxpedition. Maxpedition is a company that makes tactical sort of things (backpacks and the like). Everything they make is VERY sturdy, and I have lots of things from them. This particular pouch is actually an IFAK (Individual First Aid Kit) Pouch, and it works well for me. I have black ones and tan ones. I also buy them during Maxpedition’s “BOGO” (Buy One, Get One) sale, which makes them pretty cheap for as durable as they are.
The “Toiletries” Patch: I like organizing things, so I had a bunch of patches (they have velcro backings) made, so I can know what I am looking at when I pull things out of the Go Bag. I sewed the velcro backing to the pouch itself, and then if I want to use this particular pouch for something else, I can just swap it easily. I got the patches made from a place called “Bull Shoals Embroidery” on Etsy. But you obviously don’t need anything like that.
Sewing Kit: I always carry a sewing kit in my toiletries. When I travel, I usually figure out what shirt has lost a button in the bathroom of the hotel, so it always made sense. As you can see, I took the one in this kit from some hotel. The thing next to the sewing kit is a backup titanium version, where you pop out the buttons and have industrial needles. I can’t remember where I got that, so no link for that.
Deodorant: See that clear plastic “tube” towards the top center? That is my deodorant. I hated carrying around a full size one (VERY inefficient) but I didn’t like any of the travel brands. So I bought these Empty Twist-up Deodorant Containers / Bottles from Amazon and scooped out the deodorant from my full size stuff, melted it in the microwave, and poured it in the the “mold” of the empty bottle, and after it hardened, it was good as new in a travel size!!! They work GREAT! If you click that link above there are pictures of how they work. Really magical, and CHEAP.
Hair “Stuff”: Similar to the Deodorant, I did not like carrying the wax stuff I put in my hair in the morning in full size form. So that little metal circle with the window in it in the middle left is a small screw top container I bought and scooped the hair wax (I barely use any anyways) in to that to make it small and light. I use so little that thing lasts me for weeks and weeks anyway. Click this link for the exact product shown above on Amazon, but know they make a TON of different kinds. They are really cheap, too, so I made a whole bunch of little extra hair wax containers for travel. Very handy.
Super Duper Backup Phone Charger: Yes, I normally have at least two backup phone chargers anyways, but I always leave an EMERGENCY one (small, and sort of inconvenient to actually use, but again… it is a backup to a backup!) in my toiletries kit. Click here to see the keyring one I have above (from Amazon).
Medicine: Lastly, you can see that I repackaged a bunch of my commonly used OTC drugs in to a single bottle. I would never do this with any sort of prescription, or dangerous drug. Ever. But I save a lot of space mixing together Advil, Tylenol, Excedrin, etc. I make sure to label what’s in there, of course.
This was a short topic, but hopefully just enough to give you a few ideas for your own toiletry kit in your bugout bag!