10 Tips & Tricks of Camping

Since I have been a life long camper I have learned a few tips & tricks along the way that really seem to help us out, so I thought I might share those things with you in no particular order. They are easy, easy tricks that help make camping loading & unloading easier, faster and less of a job, and also just help keep things cleaned around the campsite & in your camper.

1. Pack Everything In containers

Since we do not have a fancy camper, with the dressers that now come in the campers for each bed that is also in the camper, and we just have a big huge coat closet type of thing I pack my children's clothes in 3 separate boxes & stack them on top of each other. One box for each child & I stack my youngest ones diapers, swim diapers & wipes on top of his box to make changing time easier & accessible for me. I fold all clothing (with the exception of our jackets, which are hung right above these boxes) and place them in these boxes.

This way I pack each box inside the house before leaving & only have to carry out the entire box to the camper when camping. The boxes keep things contained so it isn't a free for all disaster in the closet after the first change of clothes happens. And when we get home after camping the kids each take their own box inside the house & put away their clothes that were not used.........easy for them, easy for me :)

I also pack as many of the items as I can into individual containers. Example: I store all my wash cloths, toilet paper, & bowls in ice cream buckets. This way they stay clean, fresh, don't move around in transportation & at the end of the camping season you can leave them in the buckets in your camper & ready to go for next season without having to worry about the mice getting into them

2. Electricity

If your campsite does not already come equipped with electrical plug ins available then I HIGHLY suggest bringing a generator. They come in hand for so many things....... if you need to blow up a huge tube, or other large water toy or air mattress this way is much faster, you can run your lights  longer at night for the kiddos, you can run your air conditioner if wanted (we RARELY do), if it rains outside & you are lucky enough to have a t.v. in your camper your kids can watch t.v., or you can listen to music....see the possibilities are endless and ours is actually so quiet you barely even hear it running.

3. Solar Lights

Although we do bring our generator & fully charge all our batteries for the camper I still try to use the lights as little as possible to conserve the batteries when really needed, so I made & packed my own solar lights to go around the camper so the kids could find the camper at night without having to leave the outside lights on constantly.

All I did was use things I had around my house - Mason jars, solar lights, wire & shepherds hooks. I like the lights hanging instead in just stuck into the ground because it seems like the kids manage to kick, run over & step on the lights like stepping stones when they are just stuck into the ground & this way when I hang them they actually leave them alone!

So the lights charge all day int he sun & as it gets darker at night they light up the way - very cool!

4. Clothesline

Clothesline is pretty self explanatory. I realize you can use trees, tables, cars or whatever else you may have around to hang your clothes on, but I prefer a clothes line so then I don't have to keep moving the clothes around.

5. Fold-able Hampers

I did not take a picture of this, but we use fold-able hampers to put all our dirty clothes into throughout the day so that when we get home to unpack the camper I can easily just take the hampers to the laundry room & start immediately on laundry.

6. Soda Stream

Alright I know most of you are shaking your head at me right now, thinking this is not true camping, but let me explain.......It does not use electricity, or battery power, you do not have to buy pop, juice, flavored water, plus you not have the waste & garbage of the empty beverage containers you would have from buying the bottled pops, juices and any other beverage. 

All you need is the soda stream, the CO2 cartridge, water & your beverage mixture of choice. We used it the whole time for everything from the kids' juice for the morning, an occasional pop, & pop for the adult mixed drinks of course ;)

7. Bring extra tubs

Again sorry I did not take pictures of this but we always bring extra Rubbermaid tubs to do dishes in. so at the end of each meal, we pour out some of the water from the HUGE jugs of water we brought, heat up the water, pour the heated water into the tub & wash dishes outside.

8. Collapsible Garbage Cans

Self explanatory - keep your site clean!!

9. Use Plastic Silverware

We store our plastic silverware in a Rubbermaid container again. This way you can bring it out the first time and once you are done eating you just put the cover back on , place on the container on the outside table and go & have fun, then they are ready to go for next time. you don't have to keep taking them out each time you  need them & you will have less dishes to do each time which means more play time!

10. Dryer Lint/ fire starter
I also bring old dryer lint and stuff into an old toilet paper roll or cut up paper towel rolls. it works as a great fire starter & costs you absolutely nothing!

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