Camping Hacks to Make Life Easier
Whether you’re a full-timer or a weekend warrior, check out a few of our camping hacks to make life just a bit simpler whether you’re in a 40-foot mansion on wheels, or a 20-foot tent camper.
Note: Although we will be mentioning specific products in this list and may have links, we have no affiliation with any products/companies listed/linked here.
Indoors:
Microfiber cloths: Use E-Cloth microfiber cloths to clean surfaces without chemicals. They use only water to clean everything from mirrors to the floor, and remove the worry of scratches.
Stay Warm with Fleece Covered Water Bottles: We’ve all experienced a chilly night or two. Fill a fleece covered water bottle and put it at your feet when you sleep. Thanks to the fleece covering, they stay warmer longer and are soft to the touch. This is particularly useful if you’re off grid!
Museum Putty: If you’re leaving anything on counters or shelves during travel having non-slip matts in the pantries will help, but museum putty can keep things like coffee pots or breakables from moving even during harsher stops.
Kitchen:
Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. The words branded into every child born after 1992. Unfortunately, camping isn’t super great at adhering to that saying. We use a lot of disposable cutlery and dishes, tin foil, plastic wrap, and single-use containers. So, what can we do instead? Make those single-use containers multi-use.
Keep empty 2-liter soda or water bottles, clean them out, fill them with water, and freeze before your next trip. Use these as ice packs in your cooler or RV fridge during travel, they’ll last longer than ice-cubes and when the ice melts you’ll have clean drinking water!
Keep coffee and hot chocolate tins, cleaned out well they’re great to store anything from phone cords to matches so those small things don’t get lost or fall behind bigger items.
Dromedary bags for water storage. So, you don’t want to reuse bottles or jugs, how about investing in a dromedary bag. Like the name implies, these flexible bags take up less room than jugs or bottles, and many have a secret spout hidden in the cap to make it easy to pour.
Have you ever heard the phrase: duct tape can fix everything? It’s not a lie. Duct tape can fix everything from a busted backpack strap to a marriage when affixed correctly. But what works as well as duct tape without the sticky residue?
Bungee cords. Secure items in place in the back of your tow vehicle, hold a camper screen door open, hang a paper towel roll in the kitchen, strap your free-standing chairs down so they don’t slide. A bundle of different length bungee cords will always come in handy someday.
Other ways to secure items include adhesive mounting strips and hooks. Hang everything from pictures to shelves (check your weight limits for hanging). Velcro strips are also a great way to keep any stubborn drawers or cupboards closed while driving. If a tie-down strap has broken or a door keeps swinging, a simple strip of velcro can do wonders.
Shower and Bathroom:
Rubber floor tiles for your outside shower. Great to keep from tracking mud and sand inside, your outside shower has so many uses. But we all know the pain of rinsing off and struggling to dry your feet to put your shoes on. Many a clean toe has been lost to off-balance stumbles back into the dirt and then you just have to start all over again! Rubber interlocking floor tiles make for great outdoor shower floors, can double as a non-slip surface inside, and easily rinse off for storage. (just remember: NON-SLIP)
Soap savers! We’ve all experienced the moment you realize the soap bar is just too thin to work anymore. All weird and curly and breaking apart. This is going to sound like I’m trying to sell it, but have you heard of soap savers? Mesh bags to hang your soap not only keeping it dry and giving you some extra exfoliation, but help you use those thin leftovers for longer!
Magnetic strips. You can get small, lightweight magnetic strips to avoid losing things like bobby pins, or even bigger ones like magnetic knife bars for heavier items. Install them on the wall or even inside your medicine cabinets and you’ll never lose your nail clippers, razor, or tweezers again!
Remember 30 seconds ago when we mentioned microfiber towels for cleaning? That’s not limited to your RV, but you too! Fast drying microfiber towels often have loops to allow for easy hanging and with the quick-dry aspect, remove worries of mildew!
Outdoors
Aside from our tried-and-true tips on deterring bugs and critters, we’ve got a couple more to add to the list:
Using cotton balls infused with peppermint oil can deter mice and bugs, plus it smells good. You could also use an essential oil diffuser like this one if you don’t want to leave cotton balls around. (Do note that this may be less efficient in some cases)
Motion sensor lights: skunks, racoons and the like don’t like being in the spotlight. Some say that others like snakes and creepy crawlies will also avoid direct light. You can get magnetic motion sensor lights to stick under your RV while you’re parked. At night the lights will be activated and spook the pests away when they try and creep in.
Safety
Another dim-light hack: If you’re like me and tend to run into every corner possible in the dark, try glow-in-the-dark tape. Apply strips to any surface you need to see in the dark, like your entry steps or the corners of your slides. They can also be great for trailer hitches, handles, and uneven surfaces.
On the note of clumsiness: pool noodles. Not just a fun way to hit your friends or attempt to float in the lake. Aside from acting as a weapon of water war, you can cut these to size, and split it down one side to wrap it around sharp edges, like your slides for example. Or, put it around your tie-downs or the ropes of your awning. Light colored rope tends to disappear on us, this hack can save you from some dangerous incidents. Also, put it at the top of any door you don’t want kiddos slamming on their little fingers and it’ll bounce harmlessly back.
Binder clips, besides duct tape, are one of the universal standards to keep around. They’re great to use as tie downs, keep chip bags closed, hang lights to your awning – the works. It’s really the simplest and cheapest option for those random situations that always pop-up.
So, did you already know any of these hacks, are you keen to try them out? Let us know!