Hygiene and Sanitation

Hygiene and Sanitation. Having some personal experience in this are due to many long Boy Scout, High adventure and hunting trips, so I will try to give you my perspective on it. Then I will also pass on the recommendations from a few sources. Once again, if this is your first time putting together a 72-hr kit and have a limited budget start out by planning for simple methods and then add or increase as you can.

Things to consider for Hygiene and Sanitation:

Consider who you are preparing for, Adult, child, baby or special needs individual.
Weight (this is probably the hardest, since the more you take the more it weighs)
Size of you kit (space can be a premium in your kit)
Consider the other parts of your 72 hour kit. Do some of the items cross over based on the other things you have in your kit?

I would recommend at a minimum the following, then add or adjust as needed, also some may overlap with other areas we have already discussed:

On many of my trips with the Scouts for High adventure or hunting, I have found it very important to try to keep one’s self relatively clean. If facilities are not available (or not safe to use) or a creek/lake close by I have found baby wipes to be the most convenient and easy thing to use. You can wipe down and clean your whole body with a few of these. They are relatively cheap (especially at Walmart) and I found they do a good job. Unlike a washcloth, you don’t really need water either. Another trick we learned on the youth handcart trip was if chafing does occur, a product such as Chamois glide (probably other products out there, don’t know the names) helps, it’s used by folks biking or running to help prevent sores, etc.

Sanitation and Hygiene Items