If you have ever been camping, chances are there have been times where you really wanted a great snack to eat, but all you had were boring potato chips, or you needed to go to the bathroom and the last roll of toilet paper was soggy and wet (Yuck!). Camping is great, but if only there was a way to make the experience much more organized...
Well, you are in luck! Below are 10 great camping hacks that will truly amp up your camp!
Be sure to take a look at the bonus tips marked with the special TIP marker. This article is a summary of the content in the video at the very end of this blog post. The sections marked with the TIP marker, are EXTRA helpful ideas not mentioned in the video.
This is a terrific way to liven up a boring old bag of snack chips! Just take a bag of corn chip type chips (Fritos and Doritos work best), and top with any toppings that you would normally put on top of a taco (shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, sour cream, ground beef, etc.) and place these toppings on top of the chips in the bag. The bag serves as a handy bowl making this a great snack to eat while sitting around the camp fire!
If you are worried or concerned that your toilet paper will get wet during your camping trip, you can help keep it dry by storing it in a plastic coffee can. Just cut a small opening on one of the sides of the plastic coffee can, place your toilet paper inside the altered plastic coffee can, and thread your toilet paper through the opening. Let soggy toilet paper be a thing of the past!
Starting a campfire can be tough – especially if you can't find any good kindling lying around. To make starting a campfire a much simpler task, you can make your own DIY fire-starters by taking ordinary laundry lint, and placing it inside of an empty toilet paper roll.
You might even want to try mixing colors to see what multi-color light shows you can create while enjoying your campfire!
Since there is usually no running water close by to wash your hands with while on a camping trip, having a portable hand washing station close by is real life saver. Take a clean, empty large detergent bottle, and fill it with water. Using bungee cords, strap a paper towel dispenser, complete with a full roll of paper towels, to your water filled detergent bottle, and you will have created, for you and your campers, a terrific way to remind everyone to wash before they eat!
Here is a gentle suggestion - DON'T!!!
The hand washing station can also serve as an improvised eye washing station. Trust me - it would be a VERY unwelcome surprise if someone splashed water from your hand washing station into their eyes only to discover that the water also contains soap.
A bottle of hand soap strapped or taped to the side will work just fine.
Using a cutting board in the wild is not an easy thing to do. And trying to wash the cutting board off after use is also very difficult if you are at a normal camp site that does not have running water. A great way to avoid this problem is to cut up your meats beforehand. Place the meats inside a zip-locked bag along with your favorite marinade and freeze. The meats can thaw safely in your portable ice chest or cooler and this will help to greatly reduce the risk of food poisoning.
Keeping your stuff organized on a camping trip can be a hassle since luggage space is limited, and taking extra containers to keep your stuff organized would take up way too much space. You can easily keep your stuff organized using an over the door shoe organizer!
Just hang up your organizer on the inside of the door of your RV, or string it up between two trees. This is a great way to keep your stuff organized so that you can easily find what you need, when you need it.
You can either leave the items in the shoe organizer rolled up to be used for the trip, or take the items out, and store them in a large container until you arrive at the campsite. You will then be able to easily place your items where you wish inside the shoe organizer!
Pancakes are great during a camping trip, but not the huge mess that comes from trying to mix up your pancake batter, and then having to clean up the dirty mixing bowl and utensils afterwards. One of the easiest ways to have pancakes without the mess is to premix your pancake batter and put it in a clean empty ketchup bottle before your trip.
You will find this to be WAY easier than trying to mix the batter at your campsite. Plus, since the pancake batter is in a squeeze bottle, you can let your artistic side shine through and make pancakes with cool designs!
During a camping trip, most people do their best to avoid drinking a lot of soda and carbonated drinks. Having plenty of water available to drink is essential for keeping properly hydrated. Instead of using bags of ice to keep your water cold, just put some water in a few water jugs, or large water containers and freeze them before the trip.
You can drink ice cold water once the containers have thawed. If you are in a hurry, after drinking some of the water in the container, you can pour regular water over the ice still in the container to give you even more ice cold water right when you need it!
If you really don't want to carry around a large roll of duct tape, you can wrap several feet of duct tape around a lighter or flashlight instead.
One of the best things to have with pancakes is scrambled eggs. But just like with making pancakes, trying to scramble eggs while on a camping trip can be messy to say the least. Instead, try putting the eggs into a mason jar. The lid on a mason jar can be shut type to lock your eggs inside. When you get ready to cook them, just shake up the jar, and you will be all ready to go to make scrambled eggs!
Hopefully, this blog post was able to give you some great ideas on how to get organized when on a camping trip. For even more fun, check out the source video below!
