Everyday Carry (EDC) Guide, Gear List, and Checklist [2023]

Everyday Carry (EDC) Guide, Gear List, and Checklist

This is a dynamic everyday carry guide curated by all of our authors for preppers both new and experienced. It is constantly being updated with up-to-date and accurate information, so please check back frequently for updates.

Every day carry encompasses all the items you carry on your person every day. It is less of a kit and more of a daily loadout. EDC (Everyday Carry) is popular far beyond prepping and survival- many people try to optimize what they carry with them for every single day of their lives. It can include pouches, multi-tools, and CCW or just be your keys and wallet.

EDC also includes the clothes you choose to wear. Versatility, weight, size, and functionality are all important for EDC gear.


Contents (Jump to a Section)


EDC Holster on Belt
Everyone has an EDC, and it looks different for everyone.

Everyday Carry Essentials

The everyday carry essentials with our recommended gear for each area. Outfitting yourself in most of these will give you the resources to tackle emergencies, disasters, or just every day life without notice.

Carried EDC Essentials

Worn EDC Essentials


Suggested Additions for Your EDC Loadout

This gear may not be essential by definition, but adding any of these to your EDC will improve your loadout’s versatility for even more situations.


Extra Supplies for your EDC Kit

Essentials and suggested additions have been covered, so this is the area will you will find everything else that could be useful to have on you every day. These extra supplies will help you in very specific situations, are less versatile, and may take up a lot of space. Even still, they could be the difference makers in an emergency- so it could pay off to consider adding these.


The Definitive Everyday Carry Checklist

A perfect EDC loadout doesn’t exist- what is right for you depends on your situation and risk tolerance. That said, we have as close to perfect of a starting point for you: our definitive EDC checklist.

Our checklist is available as both a pdf download and as a Google Sheet/Excel file where you can check off items yourself, and even add and subtract items from the checklist.

Full EDC Checklist

Everyday Carry Printable PDF Checklist

If you are looking for the simplest way to print and use the checklist above, download our printable PDF version. It is one page long on 8.5″ x 11″ paper if you reduce the margins to 0.5″. This EDC PDF makes gathering and tracking your EDC gear extremely easy. Once you open the every day carry PDF checklist in your browser, you can either print it directly or save it through your browser.

Everyday Carry Excel / Google Sheet Checklist

If you are looking for a comprehensive way to track your EDC loadout, open our Excel / Google Sheet version. The sheet is sharable, and you just need to copy it to your own Google Sheet account or download it to excel to edit it. We also keep links to our reviews for each category linked to simplify shopping for any equipment you may find yourself missing.


The Next Step

EDC adds tons of versatile functionality to your everyday life. You’ll find yourself using many of the tools you added very often. Now we’re going to pivot and move on to the items you won’t use often at all.

Specialized kits are designed for people in specific situations. Not everyone needs every type of specialized kit. Knowing your capabilities and threats will help you as we move on to the next section: Specialized Kits.


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Every Day Carry EDC Guide