I would hate to think that people would view the term “EDC(Every Day Carry)system” as an extreme concept. Technically we all have an EDC system in some form or fashion. Think of a woman with her purse that she takes everywhere with her. Her purse is merely a form of off-body EDC with all the goodies and comforts she will need in order to function in her daily life from work to recreation. Heck, even guys have an EDC like their wallet, cellphone, and keys. The concept I am discussing in this article is intended to help you establish an EDC system that merely adds certain items in a way that has minimal impact on your daily life, but adds another level of preparedness, which never hurts. THE EDC CONCEPT The idea of having an expanded and established EDC system is to allow you to have an added level of security and preparedness for when the need arises, not IF. It is vital to approach this with an understanding that bad things happen to good people regardless of how hard we try not to attract it. The best we can do is to arm ourselves with the tools, training, and knowledge in order to adequately handle these situations. This is the basic concept behind an EDC system. It reflects your desire to be prepared, not for IF something happens, but WHEN. CHARACTERISTICS I know plenty of you think that the items you carry or intend to carry are just fine the way they are, and that may be true. However, I would encourage that you evaluate your items to see if they meet the following characteristics: Size & Weight Efficient- Items you carry would be as light as possible but also not take up unnecessary amounts of room. This is something women tend to follow when they look for purse items. After all, you will have to carry these items, so the lower the burden, the better, and you are more likely to stick with this system if it isn’t a burden. Multiple Applications- When you can, try to have items that perform multiple functions such as a phone case that has card slots in order to have all your cards and your phone in one. Or perhaps a wallet that simply clamps your cards together and does not take up unnecessary room like a standard leather or nylon wallet. Minimalistic- Don’t mistake this to mean having less or having ineffective items. This could mean having so many cards that you will definitely not need day to day in your wallet. This can result in the wallet taking on the form of a tumor rather than an item consolidating all the necessary items for day to day transactions. STAGING FOR EFFICIENCY This is something I see people get wrong quite often. Basically, I am recommending that items be staged in an efficient manner to facilitate ease of use and minimal time needed to access and use certain items. For instance, have your defensive tools on the side of the hand that would use the tool. In my case, I ensure that my phone and other non-defensive items are on my left side in order for me to keep my defensive hand free in case of needing to fight. This is an important consideration you will see police and bodyguards use, and for good reason. Keep your “gun hand” free at all times, if you can help it. This will also cross over to which side your spouse, significant other, or friend is on. Keep them off the side that you have your defensive items on. DEFENSIVE/MEDICAL/EMERGENCY ITEMS This is where we have to be very careful about how far we go with item collection to our EDC system. Too many times have I seen people claim to carry a huge number of items DAILY, but really leave about half the items behind when they are “just going out really quick” to the store or gas station. The problem here is that they are falsely claiming to have a full gambit of items for preparedness to the point of creating a burden for themselves and displaying nothing less than unadulterated delusions of grandeur. What I mean is that you have people who claim to carry a huge pistol on them all the time with several extra magazines, pepper spray, 3 knifes, a backup gun, a trauma kit with a tourniquet, and a survival kit. DON’T be that kind of person who has a Most Day Carry system due to heavy amounts of paranoia. Generally speaking I find that people who carry a huge list of ridiculous items lack knowledge, experience, training, and most of all, a sound mind. TRAINING BEFORE PRODUCTS I can not count how many times I have heard people say to have a tourniquet on you at all times. I find this to lack much sense if this person is claiming to be trained and experienced. One of the characteristics I talked about was multiple applications. A belt for carrying your gun can easily substitute an official tourniquet once you understand how the tourniquet works. Same with certain survival and medical gear. Learn how these items work and I am sure you will find that they can be substituted with everyday items. They may not be THE BEST, but it won’t interfere with your everyday life by adding crap, and you will realize how nice it is to know how to improvise. This is the reason why training is so important. Use it to learn concepts and how things work and think for yourself on how certain things can be improvised or minimized. Far-be-it for me to make dictations of what you decide to fill your pockets with, but I am merely sharing my experience with you. For some of you, living with a lot of crap in your pockets daily sounds more comforting. I generally find that this is not a sustainable practice, thereby adding credence to my recommendations of minimizing junk, learning to improvise, and stick to reality and not delusions of grandeur and paranoia.
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