Your next trip will be a game changer when it comes to organization.
In this article I am going to share with you some really useful camping tips and hacks. This is specifically for car camping when you can drive up to the campsite. These are some of the things that make it a lot easier when you go camping.
Bring Stasher Bags
First up, I recommend bringing a bunch of Stasher Bags. They are made of silicone and I always bring a big stack of these when we go camping. Because stasher bags are great for leftovers.
Most campers love to make food in the Dutch Oven and the cast iron over the campfire. But we have leftovers and so these are great. Because they don’t take up a lot of space, and you can put leftover food in the Stasher bag and then just slide them into the cooler.
So bringing a stack of these is definitely one of my favorite tips.
Bring Gelato Containers
Next up, bring some gelato containers. They are awesome for all sorts of things. We save them and they have a nice little screw on the lid, and they are pretty durable. So they are great for not only storing food stuff but also like cords. And just like little knickknacks that you might have to bring camping.
So a lot of times you don’t want to bring like a huge box of rice or a huge box of pancake mix. You can actually just put a serving or two in these containers, and then take these camping.
Bring Fire Starters
My next camping hack is to bring fire starters, because it just makes things so much easier.
You can make some fire starters at your home and they burn for about 10 minutes. They are awesome to have on hand. We just keep them in our camping bins. And then we always have these to help us start a fire really easily.
Some Cooler Hacks
In our cooler, we actually do not have any store bought ice cubes instead we freeze gallon Gatorade containers. So obviously this is just water in here, we can reuse these instead of buying big bags of ice at the store. This will actually stay frozen, a lot longer. And it will keep things in the cooler a lot longer.
Another thing about this is: if for some reason you do run out of water, or you’re somewhere, where you don’t have access to refill your water jug, you can technically drink this as it melts instead of having to drain it out of the cooler at the store bought ice cubes melt.
So this is sort of one of our biggest camp hacks and then we’ll take this home, and actually just put it back in the freezer and it’s ready to go for the next camping trip.
Clean and Wash Vegetables
My next hack is to actually clean and wash all of your vegetables at home so that when you get to camp, all you have to do is just start to cut and prepare your meals.
So just washing everything at home first will save you a step at camp when there’s often limited water and no sink.
Bring Cash
My next trip slash hack is to bring cash. Specifically, some of the smaller bills like ones and fives. Because a lot of times you need exact change for the camping fee. If you do not have the exact money then you have to give more or you have to go find some other campers and ask them if they have changed. It’s just like a serious pain.
So making sure that you have a bunch of ones and a bunch of fives or even checking the camping feed before you go to make sure that you have the proper amount of bills makes things a lot easier when you’re at camp.
Stay Organized With Bins
So my last hack is I think the best one, and that is to stay organized with bins. This bin is for a lot of our camp cooking essential. You can put here essential things like- the cast iron pan, a pot, silverware, plates, spatula, stuff like that.
You can use another for pantry items and things like snacks and our coffee and other food items.
So, you always have this distinction so that you always know where things are. The other benefit is when you get home, you can wash and clean anything that’s dirty but then you put it back in here, and you are basically ready to go for our next camping trip.
Bonus Tip
After the camp journey and arranging everything, you will feel tired. There’s nothing better than having a good cup of coffee when you’re camping. It will make you energized and reduce your tiredness.
Here is a simple method I’m going to share with you:
You can’t have good coffee without having some good coffee beans. After you have your water, you want to make sure you boil it.
The best temperature for coffee is around 95 degrees which is you know most of us don’t have thermometers out in the field. So what you want to look for is just some bubbles popping up in the water.
For the drip coffee. Use a paper filter. The problem of the paper filters is that they will kind of carry with it a little cardboard flavor. So the first you want to do is just pour a little hot water onto the filter and that’s going to take away some of that cardboard flavor.
Once that’s done, scoop a couple tablespoons worth of coffee into the filter. It doesn’t take a lot of coffee. I usually do about three tablespoons of coffee for the drip method and you just dump the excess water and that’ll get you a nice strong cup of coffee.
Once that’s done, just pour it right over. It’s going to be pouring the coffee over the grounds for about two minutes. That’s usually about the best time. You want to make sure that you have a nice froth over the top. You know the coffee is doing its thing. Then pour your cup of coffee and enjoy!
Conclusion
If you feel overwhelmed by like camping gear that you need just stay organized, take some time to put some things in the bin, get a second set of spices, get some pantry items, it will just make things so much nicer when you go to camp.
There you have it, I hope that these camping tips and hacks are helpful as you go on your next camping trip.
