What to Keep in Your Ultimate Survival Kit

A very important item in the Ultimate Survival Kit is potassium permanganate. It has a wide variety of uses, but one of the most common is purifying water. This alone could be an excellent reason to have it in the Ultimate Survival Kit. However, there is one more very important reason to include potassium permanganate: it can be used to make fire. Yes; it can. When glycerol (antifreeze) or glycerin (present in most soaps in small quantities) makes contact with potassium permanganate, a violently exothermic reaction occurs which results in safe, effective fire. In a survival situation, if you happen to run across any glycerol or glycerin, this bit of information could be your saving grace. A viable source of antifreeze might be your car.

Another very important item is rubbing alcohol. For one, rubbing alcohol can be used to clean your flesh wounds--and in a survival situation, it is highly unlikely that you will not sustain any flesh wounds at all. It may burn like heck, but it's better than waking up with green puss oozing out of a cut. Rubbing alcohol can also be used for the purposes of fuel for your fire. And if you end up taking a swim, you would probably want to clean your ears out with rubbing alcohol in order to prevent such ailments as swimmer's ear, which would make survival even more difficult.

Bring along a flint and magnesium stick, if you can. They're small, but can be very useful. This is the only item in the Ultimate Survival Kit that has but one real purpose (although, there are probably more uses that I hadn't considered); and that purpose is take make fire. Chip off a bit of magnesium from the stick and then scrape your knife against the flint hard to cause a spark to set your magnesium ablaze. Also, it probably wouldn't hurt to have a source of magnesium at your disposal.

Bring a knife--a good knife. Stainless steel or carbon steel, if at all possible. Preferably a knife with a blade that can both slice and rip. In a survival situation, you may need to cut or tear things that your hands alone couldn't do. The reasons for having a knife are obvious.

Bring thick cotton bandages. Cotton bandages are not a uni-tasker, despite common misconceptions. They can be used as bandages (of course), fuel for fire, makeshift torches, sweat rags, makeshift water filters, or socks. It is advised to not use a cotton bandage on a flesh wound after it has been used as a sock.

Several heavy-duty garbage bags. The 40 or 50 gallon black kind, that you take your garbage out in, or that you've seen mafiosos disposing of bodies with in movies. These bags have a variety of uses. If the weather outside is harsh and cold, one of these bags could be a surprisingly effective way to stay warm. You could fashion one to wear like a jacket by cutting holes in appropriate places with your knife, or you could use it as a sleeping bag. Because these garbage bags are made to keep smell in, they are also highly effective at keeping heat in, as well as water--which is another use of these garbage bags. One could be used as a makeshift canteen. While it might get rigorous hauling around a 40-50 gallon garbage bag full of water, it would certainly be much less rigorous than death by dehydration.

Bring along a source of oil (via fat). You may've heard stories of stranded campers burning things like fried chips to help stay warm. This is applying that same idea. Except instead of using fried chips, I suggest you use peanut butter. You could also use any other kind of oil, but peanut butter is my recommendation here for several reasons. It's an excellent source of protein and is very calorically dense. A medium sized jar (buy plastic jars for survival purposes, by the way.) of peanut butter could last one a surprisingly long time in a survival situation, and really doesn't take up much room. It's also a very good source of fat, which makes it good for burning. And because it is sticky, it might be possible to blot some on the end of a stick or one of your thick cotton bandages and make a makeshift torch or lantern.

One should always be open-minded when looking at survival. Think compact but multi-effective.