It is one thing to prepare bug out gear for you and a spouse. It is a totally different story to do it when you have kids to think about. You have to consider what everyone's skills are, how much each person can carry and more. It can be challenging but these five tips will help you distribute gear in the best way possible for when a collapse occurs.

The Five Tips You Need To Keep In Mind When Distributing Gear To Your Family Include:

1) Have redundant survival capabilities
Just as with the critical things in your individual survival/bug out bag, you need to make sure you have redundant capabilities. Essentially, each bag should be able to allow you to cover all your survival bases but not all gear works in every scenario, so having different ways to do the same thing just may come in handy.

For example, you may be carrying a Trangia alcohol stove in one pack. They’re super portable and pretty capable little stoves  but they require alcohol.
If you only had three stoves, you’d be stuck when you ran out of fuel. Instead, in one of the other bags, put something like the Emberlit wood stove.

Don’t forget that each bag needs to have water and be able to filter water too.
2) Be able to survive with any one bag
You may have three bags in your plan but that doesn’t mean you’ll have three bags when you find yourself in a survival situation. It’s all well and good to have a tent on one pack and just a poncho in the other two if you have all three bags but what happens if you lose your main pack or can’t get to it in time for you to have to head out?

3) Consider each person’s individual skills
In addition to being together and not having all your bags, you also have to consider that you may not have everyone in your group. What happens if you or one of the others are on their own with their bag? That person will have to rely on just what they’re carrying. If that pack only has a Doan magnesium fire starter  because you needed to save space and weight in their pack and they don’t know how to use it, they’re kinda out of luck without you.

4) Don’t overload anyone’s pack
If you’re a 200-pound dude and your pack is 60 pounds, you’re not gonna be able to carry that very far or very fast. If you’re an 85-pound girl, you won’t be able to carry it at all.

5) Leverage your EDC kits
Each person should have a few items on them that they carry every day. This system is called your Every Day Carry kit. Your EDC kit may actually change based on where you’re going for the day but you should always have some essentials such as some kind of knife, some way to start a fire, flashlight  and whatever else you think you may need.

These five tips for the best way to distribute  bug out gear to your family will help make figuring out which person needs what so much easier. This way everyone will be better prepared to and be able to stay calm when SHTF.

To learn more about how to distribute gear and other survival skills, please visit Graywolf Survival.