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A bug out bag list for three days comes down to 20 things: water and a way to make more, food, light, phone power, first aid, warmth, documents and cash, all within what one pack can carry. Start with the pack: Osprey lists our pick, the Farpoint 55, for loads up to about 35 lb, and three days of water alone weigh about 25.
A framed, front-opening pack whose 55 liters include a detachable 15-liter daypack, listed by Osprey for loads of about 15 to 35 lb.
Three days of water and the empty pack already come to about 29 lb of that.
A full-size squeeze filter that screws onto standard 28 mm bottles, so the bag can carry less water and make more on the way.
It does not remove viruses, so a chemical disinfectant goes in after it, and Sawyer gives no warranty once it has frozen.
Sealed 125 ml foil pouches with a 5-year date printed on each, which TruePrepper says won't burst if they freeze.
Each pouch opens once and cannot be resealed, and a full case weighs 20.5 lb.
A headlamp of about 3 oz that runs on the three AAA batteries in its box.
Black Diamond says to take the batteries out for storage and transport, so they travel in a small bag beside it.
About two or three full phone charges in all, with the USB-C cable built in.
At about 431 g it outweighs the headlamp and the knife together.
A 4.1-inch stainless fixed blade of about 4.2 oz, with a friction sheath and a belt clip.
GearJunkie says it handles only lightweight batoning of thin branches, so split firewood with something else.
The bag gets packed on a Sunday afternoon, on the bed, with the list open on somebody’s phone. The youngest adds a deck of cards and a stuffed rabbit, and nobody argues, because Ready.gov’s kit list does include games for children. The rabbit is a gray area.
Then somebody stands on the bathroom scale holding the bag, steps off, and subtracts. That number is what this page is about. A bag nobody can carry is just a very organized pile by the door.
So the list below is short on purpose: 20 things for one person and three days, in the order they go into the pack. Six of them have a product on this site. Most of the rest are already somewhere in the house.
Most of these lines come from Ready.gov’s kit list. The CDC adds the disinfectant, and Black Diamond’s own headlamp manual asks for the second light. It is one general list for leaving home, with no separate lines for a wildfire or a flood; Ready.gov asks you to add items based on your own needs. Screenshot it or print the page: those 20 lines are the whole checklist.
Starting from nothing, buy the pack first, because everything else has to fit under the load Osprey lists for it. The water lines come next, because water is the heaviest part of the bag. Then the headlamp, the power bank and the knife.
Three days is the plan here. The Prepared notes that you will often see bags labeled 24 hour or 72 hour, and the CDC’s floor for stored water is 3 days. Ready.gov’s kit list says several days.
Water is the hard part. Ready.gov asks for one gallon per person per day, for drinking and sanitation, and a US gallon of water weighs 8.34 lb. Three days of it come to about 25 lb for one person. Add the empty Farpoint 55 at 4.12 lb and the bag is at about 29 lb before anyone packs a sandwich.
Osprey lists the Farpoint 55’s load range at 7 to 16 kg, about 15 to 35 lb. That leaves about 6 lb for the food, the clothes, the sleeping bag and everything else on the list, and The Prepared expects at least 20 to 40 lb of gear in a bug out bag. The full three gallons and the full list do not both fit under that line.
One prepper on r/bugout put a number on their own bag after a practice walk of 67 miles in three days:
“The total weight of my pack, which included 4 lbs. of food, 2L of water (used my Sawyer Mini multiple times), the pack and all its contents was 33 lbs. which is far lighter than most.” Prepper on r/bugout, 2019 (post)
They still arrived “with shin splints, swollen knees and utterly exhausted.” Light is relative.
So this list carries water three ways: a bottle you drink from, a filter that refills it from water you find, and sealed pouches for the stretch where you find none. The filter does not shrink the gallon. It changes where the gallon comes from. If you leave by car, the full gallons can ride in the trunk, and the pack carries what you would need if you had to walk the rest.
The Osprey Farpoint 55 is first on the list because its number limits every other line: Osprey lists a load range for it, and Teton lists none for the Scout.
With the Farpoint, you at least know where the line is.
Its 55 liters are a 40-liter main pack plus a detachable 15-liter daypack. The Prepared says most people end up with a bag of 40 to 55 liters and puts fuller kits above 45, and a list with a sleeping bag on it is a fuller kit. The whole front of the main compartment unzips like a suitcase, which matters because The Prepared calls front-loading bags much better than top-only loaders in an emergency. It has a LightWire frame and a padded hipbelt, and The Prepared wants a hip belt on any bag over 30 to 35 liters so the load does not hang from the shoulders alone.
The daypack gives the list a second home. Put the first-hour things in it: the headlamp, the phone and the power bank, the medicine, the paper and the cash. If you leave by car, that is the bag that walks away from it. One owner found a way to carry both at once:
“I spent 6 months with it, it’s a very good system you can even hook the bag on the front via the shoulder straps then run the big bag’s hip belt through the front loop of the smaller bag and it’s secure while balancing the weight evenly.” Owner on r/onebag, 2025 (comment)
Skip it if the walk is long and rough. Outdoors Magic says it lacks hiking features such as hipbelt pockets, and found that “The minimal hipbelt padding becomes a little noticeable on extended carries.” The review does not say which version. If your torso is 15 to 19.5 inches, Teton calls the Teton Scout 55L a pack for shorter torsos; it loads from the top. If your kit fits in 40 liters, the Osprey Farpoint 40 has the same front opening and hipbelt in a lighter pack, 3.27 lb empty against the 55’s 4.12, with no daypack. Our bug out bag backpack guide puts all three side by side.
Full details: Osprey Farpoint 55 Bug Out Bag
The Sawyer Squeeze SP129 is the full-size Squeeze, not the smaller Mini from the walk above or the Micro.
The kit comes with two squeeze pouches, inline hydration pack adapters and a mesh storage bag. Sawyer says the filter also fits standard water bottles with 28 mm threads, which is why line 2 of the list asks for one.
Owners use it three ways: squeeze a pouch through it into a bottle, drink through it on a hydration pack hose with the adapter, or hang a water bag and let gravity do the work. One owner hangs it:
“I personally use the Sawyer Squeeze, with the gravity hang adaptor and a 2 litre CNOC.” Owner on r/UltralightAus (comment)
It is a filter, not a purifier. The CDC says portable filters will not remove viruses and asks for a chemical disinfectant such as chlorine after filtering, which is line 4. Water with fuel or toxic chemicals in it is a different problem: the CDC says boiling or disinfecting cannot make it safe, and to use another source.
Two more things before it goes in the bag. Sawyer gives no warranty for a filter that has frozen, so a winter car trunk is the wrong home for it. And the video owner of an SP129 kit found the included pouches wore out within weeks, so the 28 mm bottle is also the spare pouch.
Skip it if nobody will carry the disinfectant on line 4 too. The emergency water filter guide compares it with a straw filter.
Full details: Sawyer Squeeze water filter
The Datrex DX1000W pouches are the water you do not have to find.
Each one is a sealed foil pouch of 125 ml, a little over 4 fl oz, about the size of a 4 by 6 index card and 4.66 oz full. Datrex gives them a 5-year shelf life from the date of manufacture and prints the date on every pouch.
The case of 64 holds 8 liters, about 2.1 gallons: roughly two days of water for one person at Ready.gov’s gallon a day, and 20.5 lb for the whole case. So nobody packs the case. A gallon is about 30 pouches, about 8.7 lb of them, and the bag takes as many as its scale allows.
TruePrepper says emergency water pouches are designed for mobile kits, and that Datrex pouches “don’t leach a plastic taste in the heat of a car trunk, and won’t burst if they freeze.” One commenter on r/preppers takes the long view:
“I’ve found that the Datrex plastic survival water bags remain palatable and keep their integrity for many, many years though. If there’s migration there, it’s fairly low.” Commenter on r/preppers, 2023 (comment)
The Prepared’s bug-out bag list says not to store go-bag water in flimsy pouches and prefers sturdy bottles. That is why the bottle is line 2 and the pouches line 5. The bottle is the plan; the pouches are what you open when the filter has nothing to filter.
One buyer on r/preppers found 24 of 64 pouches already expired when the case arrived, so read the printed dates the day it comes. The Mayday pouches are the same kind, 125 ml each, but TruePrepper calls their weld thinner and less durable in freezing conditions, so they suit a bag that stays indoors.
Skip them if you want water you can close again: each pouch tears open at a notch, holds one serving and cannot be resealed.
Full details: Datrex emergency water pouches
The Black Diamond Spot 400 is the light for this bag because it asks the least of it.
It runs on three AAA batteries, the kind the TV remote probably takes, and they come in the box. With them it weighs about 2.7 to 3.0 oz; Black Diamond’s own pages disagree on the exact grams. On alkaline AAAs, Black Diamond lists High (400 lumens) at 2.5 hours, Medium (200) at 5 and Low (6) at 200, each until the beam is down to a tenth of where it started.
One reviewer got a long way on a single set:
“We were able to use the same batteries in the Spot 400 for the entire 800 miles of the Arizona Trail, a lot of which was spent hiking at night, using more lumens.” Treeline Review (review)
Treeline also calls the red mode handy for preserving your night vision, which makes it the setting for a tent full of sleeping people.
A bag that sits for months needs the manual’s two rules. Black Diamond says to take the batteries out for storage and transport, and to use the digital lock whenever the lamp rides in a pocket or a backpack. So the AAAs wait in a small bag beside the lamp, and the lamp gets locked the moment they go in. One owner’s lamp drained fresh AAAs in two days while it was off and locked, and the replacement unit did not. Try a new lamp the week it arrives.
The same manual asks for a second light and enough spare batteries in critical situations, which is line 8. Spare AAAs are easy to find. For the second light, our Fenix E35R flashlight page covers a handheld that recharges over USB-C in about three hours. Fenix says to lock it or take its battery out before it goes into a pocket or a backpack, and one owner says theirs turned itself on in a pocket even when locked.
Skip it if you want a rechargeable lamp straight out of the box: the BD 1500 battery is sold separately. The emergency headlamp guide covers the modes and the lock.
Full details: Black Diamond Spot 400 headlamp
Ready.gov puts a cell phone with chargers and a backup battery on its kit list.
The Anker A1383 is the backup battery here: 20,000mAh, with a built-in USB-C cable plus one USB-C port and one USB-A port. SmartGadgetKit’s review puts it at about 72 Wh; Anker gives no watt-hour figure. Plan on two or three full phone charges from it in all.
“I’d only get a bit over two full charges on a Samsung Galaxy with 5,000mAh battery.” Owner on r/powerbanks (post)
At about 431 g, a little under a pound, it outweighs the headlamp and the knife together. The built-in cable means the cable is never in the other bag, but one owner says theirs went bad after a year of use. The USB-C port still takes an ordinary cable, so one plain USB-C cable goes in the daypack too.
Anker’s general advice is to store a power bank at about 60 percent and top it up every three months. There is no wall charger in the US box.
Skip it if a laptop has to work for days: one video reviewer says it takes a MacBook from 50 to 100 percent about once. TechRadar calls it a sizable unit and notes there are smaller 20K banks. The emergency power bank guide covers a faster bank for a laptop.
Full details: Anker 87W Power Bank
Every bag of trail mix was sealed by someone who assumed you own a knife.
The Morakniv Companion (S) is the knife on this list: a 104 mm (4.1 in) stainless blade in Hi-Vis Orange, 118.4 g or about 4.2 oz by Morakniv’s figure, which does not say whether the sheath is included. The plastic sheath holds the knife by friction and has a belt clip. Between Lakes, which reviewed it, names the same two jobs this list has for it: prepping food and carving tinder. The orange helps too: it is easier to find in the leaves or at the bottom of a pack.
One commenter on r/bugout explained what made the cut:
“I personally carry a leatherman wave and a mora companion in my BOB. I’ve carried hatchets and large heavy knives for bushcraft on camping trips, but they aren’t necessary for building a fire, and I’ve come to realize that it’s better to have a light pack.” Commenter on r/bugout, 2025 (comment)
If you want a sharpener in the bag too, the Smith’s Pocket Pal weighs 1 oz, and The Prepared picked its older PP1 version as a simple sharpener with go-bags in mind.
Skip it if you plan to split firewood. GearJunkie says it is strong enough only for lightweight batoning of thin branches, which means tapping the blade through wood by striking its spine, and MM Gear says heavy batoning or long, hard wilderness trips need something stronger. For three days of food and kindling, it is the right size of knife. Morakniv also sells a carbon-steel Companion and a thicker Companion HeavyDuty; the button below is the stainless orange one. The camping knife guide compares it with three other camping knives.
Full details: Morakniv Companion knife
Lines 6, 10 to 12 and 14 to 20 need no product from this page. Ready.gov’s kit list adds a few details worth having when you pack them:
Ready.gov also asks you to store kit items in airtight plastic bags and to fit the whole kit into one or two easy-to-carry containers. For this list, that is the pack and its daypack.
What the packs, the water and the small products on this page weigh, by the maker or the source behind each number. Our sources give no weight for the Sawyer filter.
| Weight | Who says so | |
|---|---|---|
| Osprey Farpoint 55, empty | 1.87 kg (4.12 lb) | Osprey |
| What Osprey lists the Farpoint 55 to carry | 7 to 16 kg (about 15 to 35 lb) | Osprey |
| Osprey Farpoint 40, empty | 1.48 kg (3.27 lb) | Osprey |
| Teton Scout 55L, empty | 4.3 to 4.5 lb, with no load range listed | Teton lists both weights |
| One US gallon of water | 8.34 lb | The standard weight of a gallon of water |
| Three days of water for one person | About 25 lb | Our math on Ready.gov's gallon a day |
| One Datrex pouch, full | 4.66 oz (132 g) | Datrex |
| A Datrex case of 64 | 20.5 lb for 8 L, about two days for one person | Datrex; our math on the gallon a day |
| Black Diamond Spot 400 with its AAAs | 77.5 to 86 g (2.7 to 3.0 oz) | Black Diamond's own pages, which disagree |
| Morakniv Companion (S) | 118.4 g (about 4.2 oz) | Morakniv, without saying whether the sheath is included |
| Anker A1383 | About 431 g (about 15 oz) | Anker |
| Smith's Pocket Pal | 1 oz | Smith's |
| One walker's whole three-day pack | 33 lb, with 2 L of water and 4 lb of food | A prepper on r/bugout, 2019 |
Add up every weight our sources give for this list and you get about 30.5 lb: the pack and three days of water at about 29, plus about 1.4 for the headlamp, the knife and the power bank together. Our sources give no weight for the rest: the filter, the bottle, the disinfectant, the food, the second light and the spare batteries, the radio, the first aid kit and the medicine, the sleeping bag, the clothes and shoes, and the small things on lines 14 to 16 and 19. All of that shares the last 4.5 lb under 35. Your own total comes from the bathroom scale.
A bug out bag list is also a list of things that do not go. The walker from r/bugout wrote one line of it plainly: “A military pack is for the military.” The Prepared adds that a bag covered in conspicuous PALS webbing, the rows of sewn-on straps for clipping pouches to the outside, reads as more of a target than a plain one. The knife commenter above left the hatchets and large heavy knives home, for a light pack.
Then go over the bed one more time. Anything that is not on the 20 lines needs a reason to be in the bag. Might-come-in-handy is how a bag turns back into a pile.
A list only turns into a bag once somebody has carried it. The same commenter on r/bugout starts there:
“My advice is to go on a primitive camping trip with your bug out bag. Lots of things seem like a good idea until you have to carry it 15 miles in a day.” Commenter on r/bugout, 2025 (comment)
Before that trip, pack in the order you will need things. The first-hour things go on top or in the Farpoint’s daypack, and the sleeping bag goes in first, at the bottom. A commenter on r/preppers gave the reason: “If it’s pouring rain you don’t want to have to pull out your sleeping bag to find your raincoat or a snack”.
Then weigh it the bathroom-scale way and write the number on a strip of tape inside the lid. If the number is over what your pack lists, the list gets shorter, not the walk.
Ready.gov’s advice for a home kit is to keep it in a designated place and have it ready in case you have to leave your home quickly. For this bag, that place is a hook by the door, not the back of the hall closet behind the holiday decorations.
Ready.gov asks you to replace expired items as needed and to re-think your needs every year, as your family’s needs change. In this bag, most of the dates are already printed somewhere:
The shoes in a child’s bag expire faster than anything else in it.
A year from now the bag comes back to the bed, the rabbit is still a gray area, and the bag goes on the scale again. In one version of that afternoon, the number matches the one on the tape, and the bag goes back on its hook. In the other, nobody remembers what it weighed, and the bag is a very organized pile again.
A bag packed ahead of time so you can leave home quickly in an evacuation, with what you need for the first days. Ready.gov's advice for a home kit is to keep it in a designated place and have it ready in case you have to leave your home quickly. The list on this page plans one bag per person for three days.
Water and a way to make more, non-perishable food, a headlamp with spare batteries and a second light, a phone with a backup battery, a battery-powered or hand-crank radio, a first aid kit and medicine, a fixed-blade knife, matches, a whistle, a dust mask and hygiene items, a sleeping bag or warm blanket, a change of clothes and sturdy shoes, copies of documents, cash and local maps. All 20 lines are at the top of this page, six of them with a product.
Plan for three. The CDC's floor for stored water is 3 days, and The Prepared notes that bags are often labeled 72 hour. Ready.gov's kit list says several days. Every extra day is more food and more water, so weigh the bag before you plan a fourth.
Ready.gov asks for one gallon per person per day, for drinking and sanitation, and a gallon weighs 8.34 lb. Three days come to about 25 lb for one person, and with the empty Farpoint 55 the bag is already at about 29 of the 35 lb Osprey lists. Carry a sturdy bottle, a filter such as the Sawyer Squeeze with a disinfectant for after it, and sealed pouches as the reserve. If you leave by car, the full gallons can ride in the trunk.
No heavier than your pack is built for and you can walk with. The Prepared expects at least 20 to 40 lb of gear. Osprey lists both Farpoints for about 15 to 35 lb, and Teton lists no load range for the Scout. The weights our sources give for this list (the Farpoint 55, three days of water, the headlamp, the knife and the power bank) add up to about 30.5 lb, before the filter, the food, the sleeping bag and the clothes, which have no weight in our sources. One prepper who walked 67 miles in three days with a 33 lb pack arrived with shin splints and swollen knees. Weigh yours on the bathroom scale.
The Prepared says most people end up with 40 to 55 liters, puts fuller kits above 45, and wants a hip belt on any bag over 30 to 35 liters. A list with a sleeping bag on it is a fuller kit, which is why the pack on this page is the Osprey Farpoint 55. If your kit fits in 40 liters, the Farpoint 40 has the same front opening in a smaller pack.
Everyone who carries one needs one that fits them. Ready.gov asks for a sleeping bag or warm blanket for each person, and adds formula and diapers for a baby and food and extra water for a pet. This page does not cover packs for children.
At least once a year: Ready.gov asks you to replace expired items and re-think your needs every year. The power bank needs a top-up every three months by Anker's general advice, and the dates on the water pouches and the medicine decide the rest.
This page does not cover ready-made kits, and none was in our research. Whatever you buy or build, check it against the 20 lines and weigh it before it goes on its hook.
Sources checked October 22, 2026. Every product fact on this page comes from the documents below. We have not handled or tested these products ourselves.
The basic and additional kit lists: water by the gallon, food, radio, flashlight, batteries, first aid, whistle, dust mask, sanitation, maps, a phone with a backup battery, medicine, documents, cash, sleeping bag, clothing, matches, children and pets; items added for your own needs; airtight bags, easy-to-carry containers and a yearly review. Last updated July 1, 2026.
At least 1 gallon per person per day for at least 3 days.
Portable filters and viruses, a chemical disinfectant after filtering, water with fuel or toxic chemicals.
Pack labels, 40 to 55 liters, fuller kits above 45, at least 20 to 40 lb of gear, hip belts, front access, PALS webbing. Updated March 26, 2025.
Against flimsy pouches for go-bag water. June 22, 2022.
The Pocket Pal PP1 as a simple sharpener, with go-bags in mind. March 2022.
Capacity and daypack, empty weight, load range, frame, hipbelt and front opening. Plain text, no link.
Torso range, top loading, weight figures, no load rating. Plain text, no link.
Missing hiking features and hipbelt padding on longer carries. Version not stated.
Six months with it; the daypack hooked on the front for balance. Version not stated.
67 miles in three days with a 33 lb pack, 2 L of water and a Sawyer Mini; against military packs. Not about any product on this page.
On reaching gear in the rain.
Kit list: two pouches, inline hydration pack adapters, a mesh storage bag. Fits standard water bottles with 28 mm threads. Plain text, no link.
No warranty for a frozen filter. Plain text, no link.
Pouches worn out within weeks.
The Squeeze with a gravity hang adaptor and a 2 litre bag.
125 ml pouch, its size and weight, the case of 64 and its weight, the 5-year shelf life and printed date, the tear notch. Plain text, no link.
Datrex pouches in a hot car trunk and in a freeze. May 12, 2026.
Pouches for mobile kits; the Mayday weld. April 13, 2026.
Datrex pouches over many years (2023).
24 of 64 pouches expired on arrival (2024).
Weight with AAA batteries; the two pages disagree. Plain text, no link.
Runtimes on alkaline AAA, the ANSI FL-1 definition, batteries out for storage and transport, the lock in a pocket or backpack, a second light and spare batteries. Plain text, no link.
800 miles on one set of batteries; the red mode.
One unit drained fresh AAAs while off and locked; the replacement did not.
Charging time over USB-C; lock it or remove the battery before pockets and backpacks. Plain text, no link.
It switched itself on several times even when locked.
Capacity, built-in cable and ports, weight, what is in the box, storage at about 60 percent and a top-up every three months. Plain text, no link.
About 72 Wh.
A bit over two charges of a 5,000mAh phone.
A built-in cable that went bad after a year.
Tops a MacBook up from 50 to 100 percent about once.
A sizable unit; smaller 20K banks exist.
Blade length, weight, 12C27 stainless, the sheath. Plain text, no link.
Food prep and carving tinder.
Lightweight batoning of thin branches.
Heavy batoning and long, hard trips.
A Mora Companion and a multitool in the bag; a camping trip with the bag first (2025).
1 oz. Plain text, no link.
