Outdoor Camping Hacks and Tips

Campsite hacks:

• Take your bar of soap and drop it into one leg of a pair of pantyhose and then hang it near where you wash your hands. You can still use the soap through the pantyhose, but it keeps the bar up and out of the dirt.
• To make a perfect ground cloth, lay out a large piece of painters plastic. Spread out your tent on top of it and then trace it with a sharpie. Cut the plastic just slightly larger than the outline.
• Once you have a perfect size and shape ground cloth, always just fold it and roll it up with the tent, makes for easier set up when you roll out your tent and it’s already there.

• Find four trees that make a decent size square and run a rope around them about waist high. Only one person is allowed in the square at a time as this is now the area where you chop wood with an ax or hatchet. Especially useful for keeping kids safe from harm. Can also be used for campsite wrestling in a pinch.
• Note: when in the chopping area, never cut wood near the rope. I once caught the blunt side of a hatchet to the front teeth after I swung it down and it bounced off of the rope and came back at my face. Self-correcting error.
• Plastic bins are your best friend. Keep all of your camping stuff packed away in plastic bins with lids to protect it from moisture and critters in the attic or garage. Also, makes packing real simple because you just grab the bins and go.
• Note: whenever you run out of an item (like paper towels), put a sticky note on the plastic bin. That way you will know to replace it next time. I don’t know how many times I have forgotten to do so and got to a campsite and realize I am out of paper products, soap, spices, or bug spray. You would think I would learn after having to buy $5 rolls of toilet paper from the camp store.
• Another note: don’t store batteries inside of items that use them. They will often erode and ruin flashlights and lanterns.
• Another another note: stocked bins will also come in handy when the zombies come and you have to quickly leave.
• Make a menu of every meal so you aren’t bringing unnecessary items, or missing items, for your meals.

• Note: some items can be prepped or made ahead of time (granted you have cooler space). Chili is a great meal to prep ahead of time and just set it on the fire to warm up or cook while setting up the rest of the campsite upon arrival.
• Once you are back home after a camping trip, lay the tent and sleeping bags out to air dry before packing them away in their bins. Between body sweat, dew, and condensation, these items are usually damp and will mold.

• Select the site for your tent on your camping pad carefully. I have an unintended tradition of finding that one rock that wasn’t there when I set up the tent but is once I lay down to sleep. Many campsites have premade tent sites, but some that I have seen with sand, pebbles, or mulch won’t hold a stake. While stakes aren’t always necessary for dome tents, if you ever had one blow away from you, you may decide to be safe rather than sorry.
• Those strings that go from the tent to the stakes are a good place to tie a ribbon or two. While it can be entertaining at times, I have seen many kids go all superman after running past the tent and trip over them. Being on the receiving end of such an event, I am allowed to laugh.
• All food and beverages, other than water, need to be kept away from tents and sleeping bags at all times. For some with very sensitive noses, that smell will never go away. This may not seem like a big deal until the very first time you go camping in bear country.
• Note: while not nearly as dangerous, there are other critters far more annoying than bears. Mice, raccoons, and skunks can ruin any tent or sleeping bag regardless of how much you spent on it. If a bear mauls your tent, you at least have a good story to tell.

• If you brought along a canoe on your camping trip, be sure to store it upside down when not in use. That unexpected rain shower may provide you with a full bathtub. Also, you can store gear under it to keep it less wet than just sitting on the picnic table.
• Speaking of tables, always bring one even if the campground says that they provide picnic tables. They are almost never big enough. Besides, it’s better to set up your camping grill elsewhere or you will be sitting in the grease from that morning’s bacon.

• Know the temperature rating on your tent and sleeping bag. You may even want more than one of each for different temperatures. You will only go camping once in the snowy winter with a tent or bag rated for 50 degrees and up. You may also not enjoy going in August with a bag that’s rated at -32 degrees (though this is easier to deal with)
• Always bring more water bottles or jugs than you think you need, also freeze them so you don’t need to take up extra cooler space with ice.
• Note: for the opposite problem of your canteen freezing during winter camping, just drop it down to the bottom of your sleeping bad (before its frozen dummy). It may be body temperature warm when you drink it in the morning, but at least it’s not solid.
• Wet feet happen and suck. At night just stuff a shirt or newspaper into each shoe to speed up the drying process, you will thank me in the morning.

• You may want to bring your own firewood depending on the campground. If its isolated in the middle of the woods, you should be able to scavenge some, however, if the campground has one tree and 40 guests, you won’t even find a twig that isn’t still green.
• Note: not a bad idea to pack a bag of easy light charcoal just in case.

• I only use cast iron while camping, however, an old boy scout trick was to rub the outside of your regular pans that go on the fire with some dish soap and the black char wipes right off.
• Never forgo the sleeping pad, cot, or air mattress under you when you sleep. The cold ground will suck the body heat right out of you.