- keys: very handy for when you need to unlock the door to your apartment. If you add car keys you can also drive somewhere which is very helpful. I use mine pretty much every day
- cellphone: it’s like a multitool with a camera, flashlight and a phone. If it’s a smartphone you can all use it to access internet. Saved my life many times when I was bored and had to look at some videos online or check the news
- wallet: great for carrying cash, ID and credit cards. It’s good to have your ID with you when people ask for your name but you live in a foreign country where no one speaks Polish. You can use cash or credit cards to buy other stuff you need like a bottle opener
Not quite the spirit of what I was asking for, but upvoting anyway cause it reads like item descriptions you would have seen on r/outside lol.
Multi tool wallet or include a multi tool credit card in the wallet. I have a wallet that is two pieces of metal with a rubber strap holding it together, with 2-3 cards in between. The wallet has a frequently used bottle opener and a pointy bit meant for screws that I use to cut tape.
Earplugs
Can’t go anywhere without mine now. Movies, sporting events, bars. Just way too loud without earplugs
Guess I’m deaf 😭
I just use my in ear earphones, they work decently well and I’m getting them around anyway.
For OP and anyone into this thread - If it’s not on lemmy already, there was a dedicated subreddit for this called EDC (every day carry).
What’s a subreddit?
It’s a place where people post inane comments for the sole purpose of acquiring imaginary internet points.
All right, take your magic internet point.
That’s the one I’ve been using, not the most active but seems decent.
Back to the OP. I carry a Rovyvon A8x flashlight and yubikey on my keychain.
thanks for the input giant smeg
A hardware security key, a knife and some pepper spray is usually what I have, plus my phone but thats a given
Edit: I live in a bad area haha
I didn’t realize that even good areas are bad areas until I was homeless. Got jumped by a preppy-looking frat boy in a nice part of Boston.
Now I carry the knife everywhere because it all feels dangerous to me now.
Damn sorry to hear that. I got mugged when I was going through my photographer phase. Recommend pepper spray since its a lot more effective and gives you distance to run. My knife is more for everyday use in my case
I couldn’t get pepper spray without a license, so I went with the knife.
That law has since changed in MA, and I hope that my telling that story to Elizabeth Warren helped change it.
I was utterly horrified to discover I couldn’t get pepper spray. I couldn’t even keep myself reliably enrolled in Mass Health, as awesome as it was.
No license needed for a knife so I got that instead. Now since a knife can’t actually stop an attack very well, I had to use it as a deterrent.
To do that I had to promise myself I would give anyone who attacked me life altering consequences. Once I had that established, I stopped getting fucked with.
Before I armed myself, after the attack, it was like I had a crack in my aura. Predatory people could smell the fear on me. Had a few weird run-ins that almost turned into fights. One time a guy just put his hand out and stopped me. It was terrifying.
The thing that hurt really bad about the attack was the way the guy stumbled drunkenly away, probably forgetting about me, having zero consequences. So at least I can prevent that from happening again.
Boston
the whole place is a bad area
What’s a hardware security key?
Its a method of 2fa that uses a physical “key” a yubikey is an example if u wanna search it up
Ahhhh, ok, thanks! Yeah, I’m aware of yubi. I was thinking it was some special key to open doors.
A towel.
“Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.”
You hoopy frood!
Depending on how much you want to carry, some of these:
- Screw-lock karabiner, rated for climbing.
- Loud whistle.
- Resqme car escape tool.
- Mini pry bar.
- Mini flashlight.
- Keychain Fisher space pen.
- Mini swiss army penknife.
- Keys ;)
Found the impromptu can burglar
Lock up your cans
He hates these cans!
Soft shackle over a carabiner. It’s lighter, stronger, cheaper, and more versatile.
Huh, interesting, I’d never seen those before! Thank you!
You piqued my curiosity. Has to go check into these.
Shortest one is 22"?
Gerber Shard multitool. Thing has come in handy so many times.
Bonus: Only useful multitool I’ve found that the TSA won’t give you shit over.
I just looked this up. It looks amazing! Thanks for the recommendation!
Seconded. My partner has had hers for well over 10 years and it’s barely scuffed. One of the best 10$ I’ve ever spent!
Came here to post the same. Been carrying mine for at least eight years now. Always useful.
Swiss Army knife, bottle opener, pocket pen, and most important of all: one of those wavy keys to open toilet paper and paper towel dispensers
I Second the swiss army knife. Such a handy tool.
Sauce for the wavy key?
Are we still doing “sauce” in Lemmy? It seems a little passe now.
A tiny keychain tape measure. It’s one of those things you have no idea how much you’ll use until you have one on you all the time.
Looking at something online? How big exactly is it? It says 16.5" but can you picture that in your head somewhat accurately? It’s just easier to pull out your tape measure and see.
I’ve also started carrying around a small flashlight everywhere I go. I have an Imalent LD70 Mini. It’s small enough to fit in my change pocket and it’ll put out a blinding ~4000 lumens on turbo (for about a minute before it gets too hot). I do admit that it’s not the best flashlight ever. It has a ridiculous magnetic proprietary charger that will short on whatever if you leave it plugged in but it does what I need it to do.
“Tape measure”
I measured my fists. Does well enough.
And know the sizes of some common items; paper currency, coins, hand, arm, length of stride. You can use these to get a close approximation.
My hand span is exactly 7", and my thumb knuckles are exactly 1" long, with the nailbed exactly halfway back.
I have to admit I don’t get the flashlight, unless you don’t have a phone. Tape measure is funny though. I have to admit I’ve been in that position many times about ordering online, but usually I wait till I’m home to measure 🤣
Don’t discount the flashlight so quickly. I avoid an excessive amount of shit in my pockets and it’s always the same. Money clip, knife, truck key, pen, phone and my flashlight. The Flashlight is fairly small, takes a AAA and is slightly bigger than an AA battery with a pocket clip. It gets used multiple times a day. Makes small print in dimly lit areas easier to read also. Honestly for some reason I despise using my phone as a flashlight:)
My tiny flashlight will light up my whole yard and then some like it’s day. I do admit that’s a little bit excessive but it’s great for when I hear something out there at night. I don’t exactly live in the best neighborhood… Makes clearing the property a hell of a lot easier and when that things pointed right at you, you can’t see shit.
Even on the lower settings though it’s far better and faster than using your phone. Also I guess it’s a little bit more specific to my needs because I am a machinist, it’s a lot easier for me to just pull out a flashlight than to strain my eyes trying to see something.
Whenever my dad visits he always insists on making sure I have multiple flashlights. I always tell him I just use my phone…
A bottle opener, if you can’t open bottles with anything like apparently everyone else.
inb4 reply guys: Please don’t explain it to me and don’t send tutorials I am not asking for help.
A bottle opener.
I second this. Worth it just for the countless “I got you, bro” moments when you’re with friends and family.
I used to carry a bottle opener but it had been YEARS since I used it and decided that 99% of the time that there’s bottles that aren’t twist, that it’s at my house and I have to walk further to get my keys than the opener that is attached to my fridge.
A bic lighter works good too, or anything about the same size and shape.
Yeah, I used to carry an opener before but once you know what you’re doing everything is a bottle opener.
And really what you’re doing is peeling the metal back enough to release let air flow into the bottle. Once you get the edge up, the vacuum seal is broken.
Always freaks me out when people use their teeth though.
Agreed, seeing someone open a bottle with their teeth is like nails on a chalkboard for me.
Titanium whistle, one saved my life when I was incapacitated and freezing to death.
If you’re willing to share, I would be interested in hearing your story.
I think they were freezing and somehow got incapacitated. Thankfully they had a whistle, so they blew into the whistle and someone heard it and came for the rescue. I think that may be the story.
Yes that’s basically it. Not one of my proudest moments, so I’ll leave it at that lol.
Were you floating on a door in the North Atlantic?
Floating on something.
Does it have to be titanium?
Of course, it’s tacticool’
If you really want to go deeeeep down this rabbit hole, the words to search are “every day carry”. Hide your credit card first though 😬
Carrying stuff is a weird hobby.
I used to carry stuff around (tiny flashlight, Leatherman squirt, key-shaped multitool), but I ended up never needing them and them just bulking up my pockets. Nowadays, all I carry on my keychain that’s not a normal key is a Yubikey (hardware security key). I don’t need the Yubikey often, but this ensures I’m not locked out when I’m for example visiting my parents and forgot the main key. Or if I’m on my phone.
edit: Added normal because it was annoying me that I said the only thing not a key is a key …
- I have foldable scissors that are always attached to my keys. They’re useful for, well, cutting stuff.
- Safety pins. Not only that you can use them for clothes (for example if your coat’s button decided to detach), you can use them for self-defense if you can’t have weapons or pepper spray.
- A small notebook and a pen. You can write down important things or just doodle out of boredom.
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Then they just start speaking spanish for the rest of the movie
Stab them in the eye with a pin?
I have had to never use one for self defense, but I guess it would still be better than nothing.
