Every true survivalist and prepper has a survival kit at-hand, but very few will have this simple item in their kit: Chap Stick.

Believe it or not, Chap Stick is one of the most useful items you could have in a catastrophic situation. Of course, it will serve you well healing chapped lips, but it is also an incredibly versatile survival tool that will benefit you in other areas.

No survival kit is complete without some Chap Stick thrown in the bag, and here’s why:

1. Treating a wound.

Maybe you’ve gotten a cut or a bruise. Chap Stick will help to protect the wound or bruise by keeping external matter outside of the affected area, and thus lower the risk of developing an infection. If you’re stuck out in the wilderness and develop an infection from a cut with scant medical supplies, you’re in a bad situation. Fortunately, simply having Chap Stick in your survival kit will greatly alleviate this problem.

2. Waterproof lids and Ziploc bags.

We should always be prepared to get wet in a survival situation, and you should always have at least some means to protect yourself from rain in a survival situation, such as having a poncho, tarp or garbage bag in your survival kit. However, you should also be concerned for the items inside your pack as well — many of which you need to keep dry.

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In this situation, you can rub your Chap Stick between the zips in a Ziploc bag, or around the edges on a lid. Simply zip up the bag or screw on the lid, and your items inside the bag or bottle will have an additional layer of protection from any rain water that tries to seep in (at least until you open the bag or bottle again).

3. Protect your knives from rusting.

The same rule that largely applies to waterproofing your bottles and Ziploc bags also applies here as well. If you find yourself stuck in the rain, you’ll want to do what you can to protect your knives and hatches from rusting. You can simply put some Chap Stick on your finger and then run it along the blade of the knife (just be careful not to cut yourself). This will serve to protect the blade of your knife from rusting.

4. Fire starter.

Chap Stick works effectively starting fires, too – with some assistance. If you have cotton balls, or a similar material in your survival kit, you can rub Chap Stick into the filaments. You can even use natural kindling, like moss or dried bark. Simply strike a match or a spark with a magnesium flint striker, and it should take and hold a flame for a few minutes. If you find yourself cold and huddled under a tree on a rainy day, having Chap Stick and some form of cotton balls or kindling will definitely come in handy in getting a quick fire going.

5. Smooth out zippers.

A lot of the bags and backpacks available as survival bags today are zipper bags. After long use, it’s not uncommon for friction to develop in the zipper. While this is by no means a serious issue in a survival situation, it still is an annoying one. If you put some Chap Stick on your finger and then run it along the zipper, it will make it much smoother.

6. Use the empty Chap Stick.

It’s no secret that when Chap Stick runs out, we’re most likely just to throw it away in the garbage (just like what we do with most things we don’t need any more). But in a survival situation, you won’t want to throw anything away. When the Chap Stick runs out, simply pull out the small screw inside the bottle and then clean out the inside. If you are able to have both ends still screwed into the bottle, then you will be able to place things into the empty Chap Stick container, like money or other survival items.

Nothing should go to waste in a survival situation, and an empty Chap Stick bottle is certainly no exception.

As you can see, Chap Stick is one of the handiest items you can throw into any survival pack. It’s small, compact, and you can keep a lot of them in your pack with only a minimal amount of space taken up. Plus, Chap Stick can be easily acquired just about anywhere and it is incredibly cheap.

Chances are you’re going to want more than just one Chap Stick in your survival pack!

Do you know of other uses for Chap Stick? Tell us in the section below:

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