Women ALWAYS carry a Survival Kit

A Survival Kit or a Get Home Bag or a Get Out of Dodge Bag or an Every Day Carry or whatever name one may give it, is an extremely important piece of equipment that one should always carry. Murphy does not have a sense of humour and one will find in need of the Kit at the precise moment when one has left it back at home. Not so women. Women always carry a Survival Kit ... whether they realise it or not!

On a lighter note, if anything finds its way into a woman's purse, it finds it very difficult to find its way out again. One in, it stays in. Over time, the purse becomes a veritable treasure trove of equipment that comes in handy for a variety of purposes, survival being one of them.

Let us take a look at a lady's purse. Particularly those items that can be multitasked for a survival situation.

• Lipsticks can be used as fire starters.
• Chapstick can also be used to start fires and can be used as candles. Applying a dab of chapstick can make glasses water resistant. They can also seal small leaks in fabric like taros and tents.
• Same with lip balms. The alcohol content makes them excellent accelerants to add to tinder material when start fires.
• Cotton balls are a part of many purses to clean away make-up. But they have been used as tinder material by almost all survivalists.
• Tampons are useful during those few days of the month. But ripping apart a tampon exposes the fabric inside which acts as very good tinder material.
• Sanitary napkins are manufactured to absorb copious amounts of blood. In a medical emergency, they can be used as a bandage to stem the flow of excessive bleeding. They can also be used as fire starters using the inner material. The outer material can be used as bandaging material for minor nicks and cuts.
• No woman worth her vanity bag is without a compact mirror. Excellent equipment to use for signalling and attracting attention.
• A comb is useful to de-scale fish.
• Break the glass from sun glasses and convert them into arrowheads.
• Prescription glasses can be used to improvise a magnifying glass to start fires.
• Hair bands can be turned into catapult bands.
• Ear rings, bangles nose rings and anklets can be shaped to form hooks for fishing.
• Many powder puffs contain a cotton inner material ... again, very good tinder. It can also be used to filter water.
• A scarf or a dupatta or pretty much any cloth, preferably cotton, can be used for hundreds of purposes including filtering water, making char cloth, as a hobo bag, bandage, tourniquet, seat, shade, headwear, etc.
• Bras and scarves can be used to fish.
• The elastic from the bra or panties can be used to form catapult bands.
• Credit Cards can be used as a cutting tool. Not a very effective one, but one with which one can skin fish, birds and animals. And as arrowheads.
• Shiny parts of necklaces and bracelets can be used as fishing lure.
• Socks can be turned into clubs by putting a stone inside and tying it to a stick.
• Coins can be hung on a trip wire to provide a bit of advance warning against predators.
• Women smokers will have cigarettes and lighters ... tinder and a heat source.
• Pens and keys can be turned into very effective weapons.
• Hand sanitisers, apart from working the way they should, are great fire accelerants.
• Wipes can be used to filter water.
• Wet wipes contain alcohol. The alcohol acts as an accelerant while the paper acts as tinder.
• Toothpaste can be used to polish the underside of a soda can which can then be used to focus the rays of the Sun on tinder to start a fire.
• Safety pins can be used as fish hooks.
• Nail clippers have bottle openers and a knife. A really simple Swiss Army Knife.

As you can see, a woman's purse (and her attire) is a veritable survival kit. What is required is to recognise the importance and usage of such items so that they can be multitasked at a moment's notice. While some may obsess about carrying specialised gear and equipment as part of their Every Day Carry, items that one already possesses can perform the similar tasks without any additional investment.