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PaperclipPerfector  5d ago (text post)   3293 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 19, 2026

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What do you carry in your pockets every day?

For me, it used to just be my keys, wallet, and phone. When I started to consider concealed carry, I realized that I had a pocket knife and pepper spray that I never carried around even though it's really not much more cargo than what I already had, and I just need to build the habit. I don't have the pepper spray oriented in a way that makes it very easy to get out and use, but the pocket knife has already been quite useful; at work, cutting off zip ties or opening packages is useful. At July 4th, other people handling the fireworks were asking to borrow my knife quite a lot. The knife you bring with you is a lot handier than the knife you leave at home! Even a dull one.

I also bought an OLight Mini 2 for my keychain. Pretty nice, though I think it's only really come in handy once or twice so far. It seems to be marginally brighter than my phone light, and a lot quicker to bring to bear. It was cheap.

Things I have considered:

  • A telescoping baton. Like the pepper spray, I was considering it for dog defense, mostly, but apparently it's legally questionable to carry one and actually ever use it in a self-defense scenario. I wonder if one would be useful for anything else.
  • A lighter. I don't smoke. When lighting off fireworks for the 4th, I was using someone else's long lighter for lighting grills, and it was very unreliable, bad for what we were trying to do which was synchronize 4 different mortar tubes of fireworks at once. I thought that if I had my own lighter, I could have just used my own and not been as frustrated.
  • A multitool. These are commonly carried, but I don't know if I would use most of the functions or not. Many people swear by them, though.

Car key, a separate bundle of keys for everything else, wallet, phone. It all fits well enough into cargo pants pockets. When I wear other kinds of legwear, I usually take only what I intend to actually use.

But then again, I carry a backpack to work and to hikes. I drive a car pretty much everywhere. And the backpack and car contain a host of other items. Which of those containers it is depends on plans, but the following items are usually within reach:

  • Swiss pocket knife, beverage opener edition.
  • Leatherman multitool.
  • Hunting knife (no I don't hunt, hunting licenses are too expensive, the knife is a heirloom).
  • Hat.
  • Mud pants.
  • Hygiene kit, including toilet paper, trash bags, a few diapers and toothbrush and toothpaste.
  • A book. Regularly switch that one out.
  • Backup shoes.
  • A hoodie in summer, a thick jacket or blanket in winter.
  • Binoculars.

Of course, this being Germany, I go unarmed. The big knife is buried deep in the glovebox, where nobody grabs it by accident and no policeman sees it when I reach for the car's papers, and is practically inaccessible without a flashlight and the grim determination to go spelunking so deep one might as well start in the engine block. But grandpa used to have it in the car, and I'll be doing the same.

I just don't go anywhere where I would think myself well-advised to be armed. Just about the best I can do in this country, and thankfully still somewhat easy to do here in the countryside. Otherwise I might need to step up my martial arts game.

The items you listed sound sort of close to what you'd call a "bug-out bag" a.k.a. a "three day survival kit" if you stocked just a few other items. Nice.

True, but I doubt I'll be bugging out anytime soon. Hell, around here, I wouldn't even know where to bug out to. You can't just go innawoods; the entire region is covered with a dense network of towns, villages and hamlets, and any woods here aren't wilderness either, and are highly frequented by hikers, bikers, dogwalkers and whatnot.

Those items are really just my "Car breaks down in the middle of the night and the phone battery is empty" kit.

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