What is an every day carry really when you get down to it?

[Paul_B]

What is an every day carry really when you get down to it? Isn't it just a list of kit that you think you need for what you are planning? I mean wouldn't a real kit change with the things you have planned for the day? So if you are heading into town for a day in the office your everyday carry might be your credit card, some spare cash for a coffee machine, phone, keys (with a small torch attached perhaps for thos times you need to check the cables in the back of your work desktop computer is in properly) and perhaps your packed lunch (also coffee and milk for the week if there is no coffee machine). However, at the weekend you are out for a walk so you have your hiking EDC. Perhaps you are doing a bit of DIY and need to buy stuff so you might pack a tape measure to check the size of what you are buying.

Of course I could be wrong here and it is what you might need for a zombie apocalypse or breakdown in society. If this is the case then it is a misnamed kit because AFAIK I have not heard of these two things happening in most places that the posters on here tend to come from. Certainly not something that happens every day.

I am not taking the mick or anything but I just wonder what the purpose of your EDC kit really is. Do you actually look at your life and activities and look at what might reasonably happen and carry as small and practical kit that would allow you to cope with that. I use the two words "reasonably happen" because I wonder if some kits might have a bit more of a fantastical element or be more about gear freakery kit collection.

From my personal POV I really don't bother with an EDC kit. I just pack what I need or believe I need. For example we protect the bench seats of the van with folded up blankets to stop staining the seats if we eat in there (a converted van camper BTW). Could have other emergenct uses if we breakdown (have done so 3 times on the same road, our nemesis road). We also have a campingbox under the back of the rock and roll bed bench seat. Stove and camping pots, also trangia and gas cans. We just kept doing this when we went camping more and found that if we decide last minute to go camping we have it there ready. But that is only there because the garage wass a real mess when we got back once and kind of couldn't be bothered sorting it out to unload the van.

When travelling along our nemesis road we always have snacks and a football. The number of times we have broken down on a side road and ended up entertaining the boy with a game of footie while we wait for recovery, well it makes sense to have a football. Plus battery packs for the same reason, to keep our phones running (ours for emergency use and our son's for entertainment).

 

[Pattree]

I’m exactly the opposite. I carry the same boring stuff every day regardless of what I intend to do. i don’t think about it.

No knife, no torch, no keyring gadgets except those clever little tools that open doors.

If I’m off doing something outdoors then what I need is in a bag or a rucksack that I no longer have any intention of carrying. It’s a big handy organiser.

If I’m whittling, leather working, rope working, potting or turning etc. then I get out the tools, I don’t carry them.

 

[Chris]

I take EDC very literally. It’s what I always have in my pocket whether at home, work or generally out and about, which comprises my wallet, phone and a knife.

I sometimes add a lighter or a torch, but the three items above are in my pocket all day everyday.

 

[Wildgoose]

My consistent EDC is my house key with a leatherman micra on it, wallet, phone and pen.

if I’m rural I’ll have my penknife and a small pouch with a few plasters, compeed and a maglite solitaire, if I remember it.

My work bag is far more comprehensive, a result of being caught out a few times. It has my laptop and charger, powerbank and phone cable, torch, water bottle.
I also have a packing cube with gloves, woolly hat, stowaway shirt, socks, buff and a very small wash kit and meds kit.
I do try and trim it down every so often with anything not recently used being removed but the above combo has been with me a while.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Hi Paul, it sounds like you are having trouble with what “every day” means, because you are listing stuff that is “on the days when…”.

Every Day means exactly what it says on the tin. Every. Day. The most variable is “every day when I…” which allows for people to carry different stuff every day for work vs every day when not at work.

That handful of Bags For Life that you carry every time you go to the super market are not Every Day Carry just because you carry them every time you shop.

Maybe the confusion comes that some items are designed or sold as “EDC” gear, but some people carry them only occasionally. That person could say they like buying EDC (adjective) gear, as in the gear designed for EDC, but it may not be their EDC (noun) because they do not actually EDC (verb) it.

The reason there is an acronym phrase is that there is a common defining characteristic for such kit; it is carried Every Day. There is no commonality, and therefore currently no meaningful phrase to cover “the ever changing collection of stuff you might have in your pockets depending on the day, activity and weather”.

Maybe we need some new acronyms?

• FCO Frequently Carried Objects
• MDC Most Day Carry
• ODC Occasional Day Carry
• SOC. Special Occasion Carry

 

[Pattree]

WIC - Wish I’d Carried.

In fact, for me, this is such a rare item that it’s not worth carrying.

Edited to take issue with the autocorrect.

 

[Pattree]

That handful of Bags For Life that you carry every time you go to the super market are not Every Day Carry just because you carry them every time you shop.

……. erm - well - since you mention it: I do carry two bags for life every day. They just sit flat and weightless in one of the nine pockets in my EDW Caribou trousers. I use them vastly more often than I’d ever use a knife or a multitool on the go. I even use them in camp for laundry and foraging.

Yay perhaps there is hope for me as a bushcrafter yet!

 

[TLM]

Tools that have "saved" (immediate help or fast repairs) the day. SAK and some Leatherman, at the cottage always a knife too. Some medication most of the time and often Micropore.

 

[C_Claycomb]

Every day, all day, in my trouser pockets, I carry
Key ring with house key, whistle, peanut lighter, Photon light, Tritium fob, sliver gripper tweezers.
SAK Camper or Huntsman
Another knife, single blade, good steel. When at home this will lock, when away from home this will be a sub-3” slipjoint, I have four or five of each which get rotated as I feel like it.
Almost always have my phone in a pocket too.

I go to work in an office, I carry a small bag for bits and lunch. in addition to pens, calculator, headphones, VDU prescription glasses and a note book, I have a Fenix single 123A torch, and a small first aid kit. These stay at my desk. I carry wallet and phone with me when away from desk, in addition to car key and previously listed pocket list.

Outside work I almost always have an OLight SR1 Baton II light in a trouser pocket.

When I walk to town I generally take a the FAK from my work bag in a bag or jacket. This has dealt with blisters, splinters and grazes, plus place to carry antihistamines.

I do not consider my FAK as part of my EDC because I don’t carry at home and not always when off home base.

 

[Bearmont]

A small AAA light attached to the keyring. Have used it countless times when it gets dark out while still in the woods, for example. I will also EDC a backpack when going out for walks, to be able to grab herbs or mushrooms I find. Rarely a knife, it's mostly been dead weight so far.

For actual camping or day hikes that would be very different, but then that's all part of the kit and not EDC.

 

[Laurentius]

To go to the shops I will take my keys, my wallet, my phone, my watch, a handkerchief, a bag for the shopping, my bus pass in case I get lazy, my sturdy walking stick to fight off any bears or wolves, and usually my clothes

 

[slowworm]

I think I've said this before but I don't really EDC anything apart from my clothes. I don't really like things cluttering up my pockets or having to carry stuff. So no knife, key, phone or even a watch. The only thing I could store something in would be a belt buckle as I normally have a belt on.

No doubt there's a vast array of belt buckle gadgets I could buy...

 

[Keith_Beef]

I have a Leatherman tool on my belt just about every day. It comes off if I know that it would get me into trouble, but in those cases it goes into a bag.

I have a super lightweight "parachute silk" shopping bag that folds into a 5cm x 5cm x 0.5cm square.

I have a keyring with a small maratac AAA torch, tiny caplifter pry bar and as an experiment I currently have a tiny capsule knife on there, too.

At the moment I have a CRKT Kiss as a money clip with a bit of dosh, a couple of bank cards, driver's licence, residency card, health service card, EU health coverage card, Fresnel lens, diamond honing plate (credit card format). And a pair of reading specs and the prescription card for new specs.

Phone, wristwatch, house keys (plus office keys on work days).

I have a small sewing kit.

If I was at work and something happened to the public transport to stop me using it to get home, I'd have enough to be able to walk the 20 to 30 km, hire a car or rent a hotel room overnight.

If I was on a long distance train that was stopped in the middle of nowhere (never more than 50km from a motorway or town) I'd have enough to be able to get back home.

The sewing kit has got me out of a few embarrassing situations. Not just buttons popped off a shirt or pair of trousers. I once forgot to take a pair of cufflinks to a wedding. Leatherman saw + sewing kit + bay tree = rustic cufflinks.

If I'm wandering around closer to home, in the woods or the streets by my house, I'll have a lunge rope and a few horse treats in a pocket. I've caught quite a few escaped dogs and horses over the last twelve years that I've lived here

 

[grainweevil]

Maybe we need some new acronyms?

OMDB*

"EDC" can seem to mean Every Day Craving as much as Carry - the desire for shiny toys. Throw in a bit of "one day this will absolutely the thing that's needed to Save The Day and I will be a Hero" fantasy, and I think a good deal of the EDC labeled stuff is explained.

My own "EDC" is exactly that - everyday, whether I'm in the house or out, round my neck first thing in the morning and taken off last thing at night. A chain with a Victorinox Manager, Olight i3e EOS, small whistle, and a couple of safety pins. No heroic expectations, but it's saved me a lot of bother over the years.

*Over My Dead Body

 

[Paul_B]

Hi Paul, it sounds like you are having trouble with what “every day” means, because you are listing stuff that is “on the days when…”.

Every Day means exactly what it says on the tin. Every. Day. The most variable is “every day when I…” which allows for people to carry different stuff every day for work vs every day when not at work.

That handful of Bags For Life that you carry every time you go to the super market are not Every Day Carry just because you carry them every time you shop.

Maybe the confusion comes that some items are designed or sold as “EDC” gear, but some people carry them only occasionally. That person could say they like buying EDC (adjective) gear, as in the gear designed for EDC, but it may not be their EDC (noun) because they do not actually EDC (verb) it.

The reason there is an acronym phrase is that there is a common defining characteristic for such kit; it is carried Every Day. There is no commonality, and therefore currently no meaningful phrase to cover “the ever changing collection of stuff you might have in your pockets depending on the day, activity and weather”.

Maybe we need some new acronyms?

• FCO Frequently Carried Objects
• MDC Most Day Carry
• ODC Occasional Day Carry
• SOC. Special Occasion Carry

That is exactly what I am trying to say. You hear of people putting together so much kit into bags they have with them just in case and call them EDC. Then you have people putting together kit to survive armageddon or something, prybars, tactical this and that.

For me I have my glasses (I am short sighted), watch (I hate being late), money or means to make payment such as cards with drivers licence. Keys and separately car keys if going by car. I carry a phone if leaving my village but not if staying in the village. The other stuf I listed kind of my way of matching those who put together grab bags for every theoretically possible event and call them EDC.

For me it is the tools of modern life security for your accommodation, making payment and communication. I don't even see things like keyring penknives or bottle openers or whatever as truly EDC but I accept others see a use for it. I just see them as a compromise for planning ahead and carrying the tools needed or making do. I have used the fob part of keys as scredrivers because I didn't have a screwdriver and TBH I found it worked as well for me as a basic SAK I had back then.

I do have a Cyber Tool SAK that is tuly useful because of the pliers and the various scredriver bits that work very well indeed. Not many SAKs have them and those that do are seriously bulky SAKs.

The reason there is an acronym phrase is that there is a common defining characteristic for such kit; it is carried Every Day. There is no commonality, and therefore currently no meaningful phrase to cover “the ever changing collection of stuff you might have in your pockets depending on the day, activity and weather”.

The other point I was making was that what you need one day is not the same as the next depending on your activity. I think this is your comment in bold in the above quote. Are you saying EDC in that part is whatever you have in your pockets and that changes. So everyday varies day to day? What you carry varies but perhaps what you always carry doesn't so chances are it is keys, money / cards and phone, all others are just kit whether they are knives or prybars or tools.

I suspect the EDC tag is too widely used and that is the issue. I have yet to see someone who carries a big prybar with their keys and wallet. Perhaps with a cord so they can carry over the shoulder and across their back?

 

[Pattree]

……… but we all know what a particular post means by EDC from the context.
The post about prybars surprised me but I understood fine.

I think we’ve got it!

 

[C_Claycomb]

Are you saying EDC in that part is whatever you have in your pockets and that changes. So everyday varies day to day?

Errr, no, that interpretation is the opposite of what I meant. That is why I said there is no acronym to cover it! If I thought that day to day pocket content was covered by EDC, I would have said that it was.

One school of thought is that language and words are better used with precision, where there are clear and textbook correct meanings. Other schools of thought prefer the idea that context matters more, and that every individual is equally entitled their own version of truth. Where it is fine, laudable even, to stretch the meaning of existing words and phrases to cover more things, even to replace previously precise terms to make matters open to interpretation. I fall in the former camp, I think precision is better, more efficient at conveying meaning and ideas, and gives rise to fewer arguments and pointless debates.

 

[Pattree]

Ah! I feel a thread contrasting neuroscience, cognition and philosophy coming on.
Who more philosophical that folk who can sit staring into a fire into the small hours.

 

[TheCraftedCarry]

I don't think EDC to most people really means "every day" - Not in the context of "EDC enthusiasts" on social media anyway.

The numerous "EDC" groups would be a very boring place with people posting the same

 

[Pattree]

Are you suggesting that EDC means portable on a key ring or in a pocket? Is EDC equipment primarily for emergencies.

Is my pack of paper handkerchiefs EDC in your terms? What about my medical-id?

Edited because I hit send too soon.

WARNING. BOREDOM THRESHOLD APPROACHING.
​

In my opinion the cypher “EDC” has become a term in itself. As such it has no etymological root or derivation. It is open to many (I believe totally individual) interpretations. Once an individual has settled on their own meaning then they are less and less likely to unpack the acronym and even if they were to unpack and decipher the individual words and interpret the assembly, that interpretation would also be individual. The rest of us have to judge another persons interpretation by context.

I did wonder when I first came to this site why you were all equipping yourselves for delivering a baby. My learned context sent me in the wrong direction.

Recent events mean that you could be referring to an Election Duty Certificate but context suggested not.

The BcUK security suggests that we might not be subject to Electronic Data Capture.

Could it be that every definition counts?