EDC Wednesday: What is Everyday Carry?

 I am a big proponent of Everyday Carry. All of us have an everyday carry, whether we realize it or not.

An Everyday Carry is the set of items you take with you every time you leave the house. Most of us make sure we have a wallet, keys, and our phones on us when we go to work or run few errands. It is worth asking, “Is there anything else that might be useful during the day?”

The concept behind Everyday Carry (EDC) is carrying items that prove useful to us as we go about our normal daily tasks. Things like our wallets, phones, and keys they are everyday carry items by default, because they are things we know we need everyday. Building out an actual EDC involves thinking through the items that could be carried with you everyday that would make your life easier.

The EDC world focuses on a few basic items when it comes to a daily carry: knife, multi-tool, flashlight, pen, watch, and handkerchief. This may be the type of gear that EDC people focus on, that does not mean that these are the items that will prove useful in your daily life. For instance I know of a few people who carry nail clippers, not only for clipping nails, but for other small cutting tasks.

This is what my current EDC looks like:

After several years of experimenting with different items, this what I have come to like the best. 

In the picture I have a Leatherman Skeletool, Civivi Baklash, Tom’s Fidgets Flippy Chain, Olight i3t flashlight, Zebra Telescopic Pen, Victorinox Tinker Swiss Army Knife, Dryki Microfiber Handkerchief, and Norwex Optic Scarf.

This set of gear is a good combination of what is practical for me and what I simply enjoy carrying. As a pastor I don’t have a need for a knife the size of the Baklash on a daily basis, but I like carrying it (the Baklash is my favorite knife), so I carry it. I carry it, not because it is practical, but because of enjoyment. The Skeletool, between the pliers and the screwdriver, is enough to do most small jobs the might pop up during the day. I carry it because it is practical and useful on a regular basis.

An EDC is the set of items that you carry that are useful to you on daily basis. They might have a practical function or they might simply bring you joy.

All of us are going to carry things in our pockets and bags as we go about our lives, so lets put some thought into what goes along with us everyday.