Six Tips to Make Camping Easier

Having returned from a camping trip recently, and having another one coming up before the summer is over, I’m thinking this might be a great topic for WFMW. On to the post…

Six Tips to Make Camping Easier

My darling hubby and I headed out on a three day camping trip. We were taking the small car, and needed to pack light. Tent, air mattress, sleeping bags, suitcases, water, food, and cooler.

Okay, we had an ipad, laptop, and our iphones, too. Books, notebooks, curling iron…hubby needed those. Okay, I needed them. It wasn’t camping in the truest form I suppose, but we did rough it some. It was a tent afterall.

We soon realized we forgot some things, but overall, we had a blast. Here are some things we either learned, or actually did right:

1. When tent camping, include a tarp or canopy for added protection from rain. Our recent camping trip found us enjoying one misty weekend. A tarp placed over and extending past the edges of the tent can help keep the tent drier. It’s especially nice to have it extend out a bit over the front to give you a dry place to get in and out. If you have room to pack it, a canopy is wonderful to have over a tent.

2. Make sure you have the right size tent. I know, it sounds obvious, but let me tell you our story. Hubby bought a tent that was 7’x7′. Plenty of room for the two of us. Until we put in the air mattress. Making the tent a little less than 6’x6′ by the time we crawled in there. Now at 5’2 1/2″, I was fine. Hubby, however, is a little over 6′. His head stuck out one end, and his feet out the other. I, of course, found this very funny.

3. Bring lots of bottled water. Bottled water can be used for drinking (hehe), putting out camp fires, making hot tea or cocoa, cleaning up, brushing teeth, and for an impromptu hair washing session outdoors. Talk about refreshing! Our last camping site didn’t have showers, and I needed one. We’d been outdoors tromping around in the woods, on the beach, and in the rain. So I lay down on the seat of the picnic table, and hung my head off the end. Bob wet my hair down with bottled water, lathered me up, and rinsed me out. It was c-c-cold, but so. much. fun.

4. Pack a small axe or hatchet. We bought some firewood, but had to borrow an axe to chop some up for kindling. We now own one for future trips. Very handy for firewood, and chasing obnoxiously loud campers around the campground in the middle of the night. Okay, maybe not, but it’s tempting.

5. Bring marshmallows and long sticks. You may think you won’t miss having them, but there is something that comes over you while you sit around a campfire. It’s powerful, and hubby immediately remedied that mistake.

6. Pack your clothes in a Rubbermaid container with a lid. Clothing will get moist when tent camping. Crawling into damp clothes on a cold morning is not fun. Treat yourself to some dry clothes.

Hope you find these six tips helpful. Leave your best camping tips in the comments, and maybe we’ll use them for our upcoming trip: hubby, me, five kids, and two dogs. Oh my.