Get Home Bag (GHB)

A get home bag (GHB) is a compact kit kept in your vehicle or at work with just enough gear to get you home on foot when normal transportation fails.

Also known as: GHB

Why a get home bag matters

Most preparedness quietly assumes you start from home, surrounded by your supplies. Real disruptions rarely honor that assumption. An earthquake, a regional power failure, a chemical spill, or simply gridlocked roads can strand you miles away with nothing but what you happen to be carrying. The get home bag exists to answer one specific, high-probability question: if you were cut off from home right now, could you make it back to your family and your stockpile on your own two feet?

Its value is that it covers the single most dangerous gap in an ordinary day, the commute, where you are most exposed and least equipped. A GHB turns a potentially desperate walk into a managed one, keeping you fed, hydrated, warm, and oriented long enough to close the distance. That is a far more likely scenario than the dramatic collapses that get the attention, which is exactly why the GHB is one of the highest-value kits a person can assemble. It addresses the everyday geography of your life rather than a worst-case fantasy.

Paired with a known rally point and a simple family communication plan, a get home bag also removes panic from the equation. You are not improvising under stress; you already know what you will do and where you are headed, which is half the battle in any emergency.

How a GHB differs from a bugout bag

The two are often confused but face opposite directions. A bugout bag supports days of self-sufficiency as you leave home for somewhere safer. A get home bag is scoped to a single journey in the other direction and is deliberately lighter, matched to your realistic commute rather than a wilderness trek.

What to pack

• Water and a few calorie-dense snacks
• Sturdy walking shoes and a weather-appropriate layer
• A flashlight, basic first-aid, and personal medication
• A paper map and a way to navigate without a phone
• Cash, a backup phone battery, and a small multitool