Survival Uses For Everyday Products

One of the key components of any survival situations is being adaptable. You need to change the way you think and do things in order to do what is needed to survive. This mindset needs to be taken into the tools you have to hand as well. There are most likely items around your home that you can re purpose into tools to add to your survival kit.

Paperclips:

These little clips have a number of survival uses such as:

• A fish hook for catching some food

• A splint for broken fingers and toes

• Perfect for cleaning fingernails after a day of foraging!

Rubbish bags

Great for keeping you warm but also as:

• A raincoat – cut some arm holes into the bag

• A sling for an injured arm

• Tourniquet

• Fill it with leaves and you have a comfortable mattress to rest on

Socks

Apart from keeping your feet warm, socks have other survival uses:

• Gloves

• Water filter to get particles of dirt out of a water supply

• Fill it with leaves and you have a pillow to go with your rubbish bag mattress

• Fill it with rocks and you have a weapon to defend yourself

Aluminum cans

Once they have reached the end of their drink holder life here are some extra uses:

• Distress signal – the bottom of the can will reflect sunlight to show rescuers where you are

• Tops of cans make great fish hooks

• Pots for heating water

• Cans can be turned into a stove for cooking and boiling water

Condoms

Great for survival situations:

• Condoms can hold up to 1.5 liters of water so fantastic water carriers

• Use them as latex gloves

• My personal favorite – turn it into a weapon by using it as a slingshot!

Dental Floss

It is beneficial to keep hygiene levels high during a survival situation so flossing is important but you can also use dental floss for other things:

• Cordage to tie things together – particularly helpful when building a shelter

• Snares for hunting small animals

• Fishing line to go with your drinks can or paper clip fish hook

Cable Ties

Helpful for tying branches together when shelter building but also for:

• Making hooks to hang clothes and cups

• Securing groundsheets to stop them blowing away

• Handcuffs for neutralizing a potential human threat

Vaseline

Lots of important uses such as:

• Fire starter when used to cover cotton wool balls – fantastic tinder

• Skin protection

• Lubricant for tools

Duct tape

This is an invaluable tool to have:

• Bandage to support a sprained ankle or similar injury

• Fire starter

• Blister care, place a gauze over blisters then place duct tape on top to keep bacteria away

• Fixing tears in tents etc

Tampons

Most ladies will have at least one with them the majority of the time and you can use them in a survival situation:

• Tinder – pull it apart and fluff it up

• Absorbent wound dressing when flattened out and taped over a cut

• Plastic wrapper can keep matches dry

• String can be used as cordage

Bandanna

Apart from looking cool they can also be used as:

• Protection from the sun as head-wear

• Cool yourself down by wetting the bandana and wiping over your face

• Dust filter by covering your mouth

• Water filter

Wristwatch

Apart from looking stylish a watch has survival uses such as:

• Signalling to rescuers to show your location

• A compass – use it to work out North and South using the hour hand and the sun

• Storage for small survival objects – take your watch apart and store fish hooks, small bundles of tinder etc behind the watch face

Crayons

Anyone with kids will likely have a lot of these in the house:

• Emergency candle – light the crayon and it will burn for quite a while

• Boredom buster for kids and some grownups too

Egg Boxes

Simple survival uses:

• Plant seeds and get them sprouting in the boxes

• Cardboard as tinder

Shower curtain

Pretty big and useful:

• A hammock to rest in

• Water catcher

• Shelter material

You are only limited by your imagination so have a look around your home and see what survival kit you can come up with.