Prepper Color Coding | How to Get Organized
You can get organized at any point in your preparedness journey, but the sooner the better. The longer you wait, the less effective and less familiar you are with your supplies and equipment. It doesn’t have to be difficult- thanks to a survey several years back, it can now be as easy as prepper color coding.
We also made a handy DIY version of the color-coding kit if you want to try something homemade. It’s easy to use, makes all of your gear easily distinguishable, and has no drawbacks.
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Our latest update revamps the colors from the original survey to a more comprehensive format that covers in-place gear just as well as bug-out. When you buy through our links, we may earn a commission. Disclosure»
Why Organize by Color?
If you use similar bags or containers to organize supplies and gear, how do you recognize which is which?
Most people write on them what they are. The limitation there is that the writing has to stay in a spot where you can easily read it.
If you use an initial or symbol, you can spot it from further away and without reading at all. But, it still might not be easily visible at an angle. Plus, first and food both start with ‘F’, so you can’t label those kits the same.
That’s where color comes in. Barring the 8% of men and 0.5% of women who are color blind, color coding is the quickest and easiest way to label and categorize.
The Colors of Prepping
Here are the colors of prepping and the categories they match up to:
- Red: First aid and medicine.
- Orange: Shelter and warmth (tents, blankets, tarps, clothing, fire kits)
- Yellow: Power and energy (lights, power stations, solar panels, chargers)
- Green: Food (edible food storage, food prep, utensils)
- Blue: Water (purification, filters, storage)
- Purple: Navigation and communication (maps, compasses, radios)
- White: Hygiene and sanitation (toothbrush, soap, wipes)
- Black: Security and protection (self-defense, home hardening, high-level PPE)
- Grey: Tools (knives, axes, multitools)
- Pink: Personal items and documents. (photos, games, books, checklists)
Do you have to use these colors when organizing?
Of course not.
These are just a guide to get you started and thinking about how getting organized can help your inventory management and even reaction time during emergencies.
You don’t even have to group by these categories. I like to combine clothing and shelter, but you’ll see that’s a little different than how others have approached it.
The Urban Prepper Survey
You may recognize all of these color-coordinated organizational tools from The Urban Prepper about a decade back (yes, it’s been that long!) He sent out a survey to his subscribers to help color-code the various areas of prepping. You may also recognize him from our Top 10 Prepper YouTubers, where Cliff consistently ranks.
The Urban Prepper, like us, is a big fan of component-type kits that can benefit from being labeled and easily recognized.
His survey helped solidify the colors used for the different areas of prepping.
Many were straightforward, with colors being selected in a landslide, but other results were more convoluted. In this video, he breaks down the results:
How Our Categories are Different
After using the Urban Prepper’s colors and more specifically, categories for over a year, I’ve made some improvements. Fire and Cookware aren’t used enough to make them useful categories. Although they are important for survival kits and preparedness, they fit into broader categories much better.
Here are the differences:
| Color | TruePrepper Category | Urban Prepper Category |
|---|---|---|
| Green | Food | Food |
| Blue | Water | Water |
| Red | Medical + First Aid | First Aid |
| Orange | Shelter + Warmth | Fire |
| Yellow | Power + Energy | Comms + Nav |
| Purple | Nav + Comms | Clothes + Personal |
| White | Hygiene + Sanitation | Hygiene |
| Gray | Tools | Cookware |
| Black | Security + Protection | Tools + Tactical |
| Pink | Documents + Personal | N/A |
| Coyote | N/A | Shelter |
Why I Updated the Categories
Cliff’s focus was on mobile kits and their organization. I was excited to first adopt his color system since I have a lot of gear to keep organized between my prepping supplies and all of the survival gear I test.
I ended up having a lot of lopsided categories- solar panels and power stations didn’t fit well into any of the categories, and many at-home supplies were shoehorned into categories that didn’t quite make sense.
My shift in categories aligns better with the gear and supplies’ intentions and main use. Cookware is mostly used for food, so it fits right in there and frees up a mostly empty tote. Power stations finally have a home, along with headlamps and other lights. Sanitation is combined with hygiene, and clothes are back under shelter and warmth, where it makes sense for clothes’ basic function.
I previously had PPE combined with clothing, but that has now been moved to the ‘Protection’ for high-level PPE, like gas masks, or ‘Medical’ for low-level PPE, like nitrile gloves and N95 masks.
I’ve been pleased with the changes over the past few months, now that I have to think less about where the gear goes. I also abandoned ‘Coyote’ brown and stuck with pink for the Personal/Documents category because pink stands out more. There were a lot of dark colors in the original color organization that could be hard to discern in low light (black, gray, purple, and brown, especially).
Yellow is where the lights are, as that’s the easiest color to make out in low light.
Prepper Color-Code Kit
As an alternative to the pre-made color coding kit, you can make your own. You can print off this image that we’ve made into a 2″ x 3″ card with a color printer to start.
You could use weather-resistant paper or laminate it, but once you have your reference card ready, you’ll need the colored labels.
We’ve used:
Duct tape works well since it sticks to bags, gear, straps, etc. This colored assortment of duct tape is what I’ve been using lately, and it includes all of the organizational colors (except gray) and will leave you with navy and dark green rolls as extras. It’s not the most durable duct tape, but it works just fine for marking everything you have.
You can get creative, as long as you know what you are trying to signal, anything will work. For some gear that comes in color options, we started getting the color that corresponds.
Premade Color-Coding Kit
The good folks over at Vanquest put together a kit based on The Urban Prepper’s survey results and video.
It consists of:
- 1x 2.25” x 3.25” PVC hook and loop reference patch
- 10x AnchorWrap strips (1″x 3″) in the corresponding colors.
One downside is that it covers Urban Prepper’s colors and categories rather than ours.
It’s a great little kit to get your EDC loadout or bug out bag organized quickly and easily.
*Price at time of publishing; check for price changes or sales.
More Organization Hacks
Resources that can’t be found aren’t resources at all. They might even be worse than not having them, since they can give you a false sense of security.
Getting organized is important if you really want to be prepared and utilize all of your supplies, gear, and equipment.
Here are some other helpful organizational tips:
- Use FIFO: First-in, first-out is useful for all kinds of storage. Don’t let things sit in the back and expire, rotate your supplies just by how you store them.
- Reach matters: Store high-use supplies at eye level. Heavy supplies should go low, and bulky lightweight supplies should go high.
- Chalkboard paint: Mark on anything by turning it into a chalkboard
- Dry-erase wallpaper: Turn anything into a dry-erase board (I even put one on the back of my laptop)
- Practice: Do your family members know where important supplies are? Dry run your emergency plan at least once a year.
The Final Word
Color organizing your prepper gear will help you out more than you know. Colors are instantly recognizable, and when seconds matter, being organized can make all the difference.
If you are looking to learn more, check out a few related posts:
- Survival Caches and Resource Dispersal
- Best Gray Man Backpack for Survival and Prepping
- Everyday Carry List | 25 EDC Essentials
Hopefully, this guide has helped you get organized or, at the very least, inspired with ideas to make your prepper color coding organization go smoother.
See more of our expert-written guides, resources, and reviews in your search results – add TruePrepper as a preferred source.
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Organized our Go Bags similar to this. Used zipper pouches and colored tape. It came in extremely handy when we narrowly survived a house fire with the cloths on our backs and our go bags which were stored next to the outside door. We lived out of our go bags for three days in a hotel before we could receive help from our insurance company. I can attest that when you are in mental shock and confusion after a life and death experience it makes it much easier for the brain to recognize what you need by a color.