Camping Tips

We all love toilet paper. It’s nothing spectacular, but we should have a deep respect for it (well, not that “deep”). When camping, this is not one luxury item you want to skimp on. But then again, over-packing can be a burden on you if you don’t want to have a ton of unpacking to do and then repacking (especially if it’s a quite a hike away to your camp site from where you parked). If you’re lugging a lot of crap, you may as well get a hotel because camping is all about roughing it.

I’m not about to go into wilderness camping tips – I have never had to dig a hole to answer the call of nature and I don’t intend any time soon. These camping tips are for outdoor enthusiasts that might have some knowledge of camping, but would like a camping checklist and a few survival tips for the great outdoors.

Camping Essentials Checklist

“Don’t cry for me Argentina / The truth is I never left you.” – Take a page from the Evita musical when it comes to packing for your camping trip: Don’t bring everything in your entire house when you go camping. It’s no longer camping if you bring your laptop, gaming device, make-up, jewelry, pots and pans, etc. While it was very admirable for Cleopatra to bring Egypt to Caesar, you don’t need to bring Argentina with you camping. You just need your essentials:

• Comfortable clothes you plan to wear – bring something warm for nighttime and cool for daytime and check the weather forecast before you go.
• First Aid kit – just in case you lose a fight with a cactus.
• Aluminum Foil – you can cook just about anything on it and it helps the food not fall into the fire
• Charcoal, wood, lighter fluid, matches – don’t expect to find these. About the only thing you’ll find is kindling such as twigs or dead grass.
• 1 gallon of water per day – you typically use about 1 gallon of water per day for camping, which includes drinking water, brushing your teeth, and a quick rinse for your face.
• Red flashlight – your night vision can’t kick in if you’re an idiot that likes to use a white light at night. Be smart and use a red camping flashlight or head flashlight.
• Toilet paper, toiletries, a towel, and hand sanitizer – it gets annoying washing your hands and you waste a lot of water that way. Stick with hand sanitizer.
• Paper towel, paper plates, trash bag, spatula or cooking fork, finger food – if you can’t eat it with your hands, don’t bring it. You shouldn’t be eating with knives and forks when camping – it’s lame.