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It's important to stay sanitary. Lack of sanitation can make disease spread. On the field or at home it's important to keep clean. I'll start us off with some more gear for the bug out bag then some general ideas to keep clean.

Hygiene Supplies

1. Toilet Paper. When you do your business you need to clean yourself up. TP can be a bit bulky but you can reduce the bulk by unrolling it, neatly folding the strands, and putting them in a ziplock. The lack of a tube can significantly reduce the size if you're running low on room in your kit.

2. Oral hygiene. It's important to keep your teeth clean even in an emergency. You can usually get a small tooth brush to use.

3. Hand Sanitizer. It's important to keep your hands sterile especially when preparing or consuming food, and after using the bathroom.

4. Soap. You can get a small bar of soap for washing up.

5. Feminine hygiene. That should be self explanatory.



Sanitation Tips
In the U.S. Civil War for every soldier killed in combat 5 died from disease. Getting sick makes the situation worse for everyone. It's a lot easier to avoid disease than it is to treat it.

1. Wash your hands. When you're in the field or at home you need to wash your hands. Like I said before when preparing or eating food or after you use the bathroom you need to wash your hands.

2. Wash food preparation areas and utensils after use. I've been in a home where they have a knife for slicing cheese. After they use the knife they just set it out on the counter then come back and use it again later. I notice they do that with a lot of their food preparation utensils and surfaces. Naturally they keep getting sick. When you do that it gives pathogens a nice home to grow on. When you prepare food in the future that can transfer them to your food that goes right in your mouth.

3. Don't cross contaminate food preparation. Use separate surfaces and utensils when preparing both meat and vegetables. If you have to share surfaces prepare the vegetables first. Raw meat is a great breeding ground for disease. We can handle raw vegetables pretty well but not so much with raw meat.

4. Be aware of your bathroom. On the field this is important. During the Civil War many soldiers dug their latrines (bathrooms) up river from their camp. The waste seeped into the river where they got their water supply.

5. Clean your water. It's good to avoid contaminated water sources but all the same you should purify your water. You can check out the water guide right here.