Preparedness
13 Everyday Items You Could Use For Survival
Your everyday items might just be your ticket to survival.
Everyday Items List for Survival: Your Life Depends On It
1. Coffee Filters
Coffee filters are not just for making your daily cup of Joe. You can get even more out of a coffee filter by using it as a plate or bowl because it is lightweight and easy to dispose of.
Other alternative uses for coffee filters include the following:
- Filtering water or juice
- Wipe cleaner for eyeglasses
- Emergency toilet paper
- Potting soil
- Gardening
2. Tabs
Don't be so quick to throw away those soda tabs! These humble everyday items can actually be quite handy.
For example, if you run out of fishing hooks while fishing, you can twist and cut these tabs to create a hook. Be sure to use pliers and protective gloves to prevent the makeshift hook from cutting your skin.
3. Drinking Straws
Plastic drinking straws provide a quick method for sealing and packaging.
For example, you can stuff a straw with petroleum jelly soaked cotton and burn both ends to create an airtight container. Voila! Small torches.
The following are other useful suggestions for sealing your plastic drinking straws:
- Spices
- Ointments
- Medicine
- Liquids
- Survival fishing kit
4. Glass Bottles
A glass bottle is definitely useful for transporting water or other dry powders.
If you break up these bottles, the glass shards can be used as knives, arrowheads, scrapers, and other weapons after shaping down.
Needless to say, glass bottles can be one of the most useful survival items.
5. Wax
Wax is not just for candles, but can also be great for making objects more water-resistant. To do this, simply rub a thin layer of wax to completely coat the object.
Additionally, wax can be a useful lubricant and means to combat rust on essential tools made of metal.
6. Hygiene Products
There is a variety of different uses for male and female hygiene products such as condoms and tampons. These uses go far beyond what these products are intended for. For instance, condoms can become tourniquets for first aid, part of a slingshot, or a water container.
On the other hand, tampons can also be useful as wound dressing, fire starters and filtering water in the wilderness.
7. Dental Floss
Dental floss comes in small, compact packaging, thus making it very easy to carry every day. Aside from helping maintain your oral hygiene, a string of floss can be an essential survival item.
Securing your gear and creating a trap and tripwire among many other things are just some of the uses.
RELATED: 10 Everyday Things That Can Absolutely Save Lives
8. Duct Tape
Duct tape is another great tool to secure objects, as there are limitless uses and possibilities. For example, it can be used to DIY survival arrow spines, or even use it to repair a boat.
Additionally, duct tape can be useful for building and mending an emergency shelter or survival tools.
9. Egg Cartons
After you have exhausted your egg supply, do not throw away your egg cartons. These cardboard trays can be useful when it comes to maintaining a garden.
Not only will your egg carton garden be affordable and easy, but it will also be more space efficient and easy to transport.
Plant your little seedlings in the small pits where the eggs used to be and watch your tiny plants grow.
10. Bandana
A bandana is a very handy household item to keep on your person in case of an emergency.
These everyday items are used in making smoke signals, a makeshift bandage, or an edible plants holder. Should you need it, you can also create a slingshot with a bandana.
Additionally, colorful bandanas are great for appearing more visible to your companions in the thick of the jungle.
11. Tin Cans
If you cut up a tin can just right, you can actually turn it into a mini stove. These stoves can cook food more readily when you are encountering heavy winds, which is key to speeding up meal preparation.
A makeshift stove can also be useful in wilderness survival for added heat in when you are settled for the night.
12. Pantyhose
Having a pair of pantyhose on hand is great for water purification, food dehydration, and also keeping the bugs and mosquitoes away at night.
This makeshift tool is so light, compact, and easy to carry. Heck, you even have the option to wear it if you do not want to add more to your pack.
13. Chapstick
We know dry lips will be the least of your problems while trying to survive. But, bringing lip balm with you can actually be one of the best things you can do to improve your chances.
Given the waxy composition, these little sticks are a great emergency source of fuel.
It is also helpful that it comes in very light and compact packaging, which makes it easy to throw in your pack.
Check out these 7 simple survival hacks using household items in this video from Survival Life:
We hope you find these everyday items for survival tips to be useful, should you find yourself caught up in a struggle for survival. However, you can definitely learn more about the different uses of ordinary items through a simple web search.
This short list is a great start if you are in a rush to secure a useful emergency survival pack. Next time you see these everyday items, set one or two aside for your survival kit.
Do you have any other everyday items for survival you have used in the past? Please let us know in the comments section below!
Up Next: DIY Rainwater Collection System
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Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on April 17, 2018, and has been updated for quality and relevancy.
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Vicious Pitbull
August 20, 2014 at 12:26 PM
Hi survivallife. I really am glad I found this website was looking for the top survival tips but never reckoned I could find a whole WEBSITE based on survival.
True Believer
August 26, 2014 at 10:34 AM
The tine can stove was great but required extensive work so instead take an old fashioned v tipped can opener and put three holes near the botton on the side of the can (this allows for the smoke to go out. The cut a door hole on the side of the can to slip your buddy burner through. light your buddy burner place in tine can (with top removed) and you are ready to cook breakfast. Really great for bacon and eggs. Use to do this at camp in the summer time (Girl Scouts). To make a buddy burner, take a tuna can, cut cooregated cardboard into strips no wider that the can, in a spiral put the cardboard in the can and then fill with was (I use my old candles that are no longer good as candles. For an oven, take three shinny cookie sheets bolt together in a V shape with one in the middle to hold lets say a cake pan. Sit this in front of a bon fire. Cakes are especially good cooked this way however, you can do meat, potatoes, actually anything that you would normally cook in an oven. Happy camping.
Anonymous
August 19, 2019 at 2:43 AM
if the advice is as good as the spelling of the True Believer then I would not even bother trying out his suggestions.
Read through your comment before you post it, man/girl!
What are tine can, cooregated, or cookie sheets?
How about spell check?
Not such a true believer.
Crystal Hayward
August 30, 2014 at 8:01 AM
I like your ideas but when I click on the part to read more on it, it don’t come up only get a blank page
steve
August 30, 2014 at 9:33 AM
Okay.. I’m curious…just how many condoms will it take to keep an avg. size adult afloat??? I can see the bobber thing, even the slingshot is do-able.. tourniquet.. that might be a stretch..no pun intended!!
Old Soldier
August 30, 2014 at 10:11 AM
A Condom can be put into a pillow case and filled with water until it fills the pillow case. Old college boy trick. Makes for a laugh and a wet bed. If filled with air, not to that extreme, a couple should do fine and be durable if enclosed in a shirt or other protective covering. When stretched that thin, even the best of condoms are fragile.
Aussie C-B
January 14, 2018 at 1:54 AM
I’m with Old Soldier on this one.
When I was a young soldier I was once forced into a stupid research study on troop survival, (by some idiot General who’s nephew was trying to get a doctorate) and instructed to use the various methods that could be employed. To be told by some ‘nigel’ who had never spent a day in the Australian bush in his life what and how to keep alive was “interesting” to say the least. Anyone who tells you a condom can be used to carry water has never done it – you just cant keep them protected enough and they burst.
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SmokeHillFarm
December 10, 2014 at 3:43 AM
For fire-starting, let’s not forget the easiest, most reliable tool available — the disposable cigarette lighter, such as Bic. The cheap foreign clones are seldom worth bothering with & often fail after a dozen or so lights, whereas a Bic (and probably other “big-name brands like Ronson) is good for over a thousand lights, based on my days as a heavy smoker. For a buck apiece, less in quantity, that’s hard to beat. And the shelf life seems to be YEARS, just sitting in a drawer. I have about a hundred or so stockpiled in my Prep closet. They should also be useful as trade goods.
I also stockpile lots of tinder, usually in small Zip-lok bags for ease of carry. In my closet I store the tinder bags & other flammable items (like Vaseline fire-starters) into large metal cookie or fruitcake tins, for safety (and ease of stacking & moving around). I suspect that Crisco might work as a substitute for Vaseline on cotton balls, though I haven’t tried it yet. Should be a lot cheaper than Vaseline, if it works.
Mac
January 13, 2018 at 1:29 PM
Great tips! One more I’ve used is to collect clothes dryer lint for fire starter, compresses well in a samwich ziplock bag, lightweight & easy fit into my BOB…⛺️
Lcs
January 12, 2019 at 9:51 AM
I put the dryer lint I a tolet paper core or in old medicine bottles.
Charlie
January 13, 2019 at 2:02 AM
I combine the fiber egg cartons (don’t use the styrofoam ones..) with dryer lint, and then pour melted wax over the carton to make a dozen fire starters. They can be cut apart, and pl aced in a metal can for safety around the home. Cat food cans, or tuna cans can make small stoves if you clean our, put in an inexpensive votive candle and heat in a pan of water so the candle melts and fills the food can. A larger can might take two candles, just be careful that the wick(s) stays upright.
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Dean J. Kilburn
November 29, 2017 at 2:56 AM
Thank you for sharing this article for survival tips. This would be a great help.
Jeff Poole
January 17, 2018 at 7:43 AM
That little blip about panty hose. Guys, don’t be so self conscious about YOU wearing them! They are great for another layer in very cold weather. If you are in a survival situation, the homophobic tendencies have to be put on the back burner in favor of staying warmer. You wouldn’t think that thin little layer would do much in the heat retention department, and by itself, it won’t. But under your other clothes, it helps more than you think it would. It is one more layer in the way during a 10-100 break, but you can modify your own as you see fit. Can’t say it wil help if you wanna use em later as a water filter, but in a pinch, grit you teeth and strain out the bigger chunks with the fabric. Just don’t use the part from your feet or your butt, and don’t think about it.
Biggest trick is finding a pair big enough for a big guy. Sometimes “queen size” just ain’t gonna get it done.
Robert Dailing
January 26, 2018 at 6:30 PM
I’m with Jeff. Panty hose or tights make lighter,better,cheaper longjohns.
Dryer lint,paraffin & pinecones make great firestarter. Tampons & feminine pads are great for bandages & a myriad of other uses.
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