The art of remembering things is not one of my many fortes. As someone who loves to have my specialized gear; I always seem to find myself conveniently a couple hundred miles from home remembering those little do dads and nick-nacks I wished I had brought with me. It’s a quite an unsettling thought you know….Like having smores with no chocolate, it can leave a bitter taste in your mouth. So rather than sulking about it, I began to make a system of gear lists to help guide me when planning for my outings. Put this in a notebook for a quick reference and you’re off!
The Master List:
The Master list serves two purposes…First it is a list of every piece of equipment you own and second it serves as bragging rights to all your buddies who even wished they had such things as the Casterpro2000, or the whip, flip, and fish fishing rod.
Specialized Trip List:
These lists are the meat and potatoes of the system. Take an inventory of the items that you take when you’re on a specific trip. Each trip you should note the common things you bring for each place. For example, make a trip list for desert backpacking, winter backpacking, spring fly-fishing in the Cimmaron, and so on. Jot down what gear you used, some reasons why you used it, what area you went to, and time of year. These lists don’t have to be fancy but serve as a guide for your subsequent outings.
Like To Have List:
This is a wish list of all the things you wished you had, that would have made your trips more pleasurable. An example of this would be a pillow for camping, because we all know a crick in the neck is not fun…Who knows, maybe if you play your cards right and conveniently place this list in a strategic location, it becomes an unassuming prop for gift ideas?
Replace/Recharge/Repair List:
This list of things is usually things that are easily used up and need to be replaced, recharged, or repaired. Things like stove fuel, fishing line and accessories, batteries, sunscreen, and boot laces would all be acceptable on this list.
