Camping can be easier and more fun when you learn some of the tricks that other campers have come up with. These ideas are so awesome, you wonder why someone hasn’t written a blog… oh, wait… here we go.
1. Toilet paper –
Here’s a simply great idea. Drink a ‘can’ of Folgers coffee, or any other coffee that comes in a plastic container. Clean it out. Cut a slit from top to bottom on one side. Put your toilet paper in the can and feed it out of the slit. If you put a rope through holes in the top and bottom and through the toilet paper roll, you can carry the TP around and not have to worry about rain or humidity ruining your precious toilet paper.
2. Fire starter –
Getting a fire going is one of the great challenges of camping. Coat a cotton ball in petroleum jelly (Vaseline) and wrap it in aluminum foil. Cut an X in the foil and make a wick out of the cotton ball. It will light on fire easily.
Bonus – Can’t find kindling; use Doritos (if you can find any of those the next day).
3. Calzones on the fire –
Use tube biscuits and a muffin tin. Oil the outside of the biscuits and put them into the muffin tin. Fill with pizza-type stuff. Bake on the fire.
4. Aluminum foil –
The single most important cooking device you have is aluminum foil. You can cook anything – ANYTHING – in foil. You can boil water, bake a pizza or make stew. All you need to do is make sure that the stuff inside stays inside. Be careful not to poke any holes in the foil while you cook.
5. Reading glasses –
You can buy glasses at the dollar store (for a dollar!) and use them to make a fire. Simply focus the sun through a lens and you will have a fire in no time. Bonus: They can help you get splinters out by being able to see them better.
6. Hot dog machine –
A garden rake is the perfect way to cook a package of hot dogs all at once. Simply put a dog on each tine and you have a party.
7. Flooring – Get those foam tiles that they make for kid’s room, the ones that interlock and use them on the floor of your tent. Not only will you be warmer, but you will save the floor some wear and tear. It will keep that damp feeling out your sleeping bag.
Bonus: For warm clothes in the morning, put tomorrow’s clothes in your sleeping bag the night before. You will prewarm them.
8. Pancakes –
Who doesn’t love pancakes? No one we would talk to. You can use a pancake mix and put it into an old ketchup bottle. Keep it cold. When you’re ready to use it, just squeeze it out onto the griddle.
9. Porta-potty – A five gallon bucket, some trash bags that fit (heavy duty), and a pool noodle (those foam things you can get at the dollar store [for a dollar!]). Put the bag in the bucket. Cut a slit down the side of the noodle. Put enough noodle around the top of the bucket to make a seat.
10. Lights –
You can easily put lights into your tent. You can buy battery-operated strings of lights at the dollar store (for a… you get the idea!). A couple of batteries and you have mood lighting in your tent.
There are a lot of people who spend a lot of time solving life’s great camping dilemmas. These are just a few.
Have fun in the woods.
