Many people associate camping with “roughing it” — spending a week in the wilderness without many of the amenities and everyday necessities we’re used to having. However, today’s families that go camping quickly realize how comfortable, even luxurious, a camping excursion can be. That might be why 43 million Americans decided to take a family camping trip in just the last year!
Believe it or not, but it’s easier than ever to go tent or cabin camping with kids — you just need to have the right “life hacks” at your disposal. Finding your own unique ways to make camping easy and comfortable can be a fun activity on its own!
Here are a handful of our favorite genius camping hacks that will make any camping trip with the family simple and fun. We guarantee everyone will be a happy camper!
- Line the bottom of your tents with foam floor tiles to make your sleeping space softer and more comfortable
- Before leaving the house, familiarize everyone with poisonous plants like poison oak, poison ivy and poison sumac and what they look like
- Glue sandpaper to the lid of your match holder to make starting fires simple
- Use an old coffee can to hold — and protect! — your toilet paper
- Cut a straw into pieces and fill them with toothpaste to make single-use pouches. You can close the ends with a lighter.
- Bring some packets of instant coffee to satisfy the caffeine cravings without a coffee maker
- Bring biodegradable soaps to avoid contaminating local water sources and to show respect to the environment
- Make single-use leaves of soap by “peeling” a bar of soap with a vegetable peeler. Pro tip: rubbing soap on mosquito bites helps stop the itching!
- Fill a cardboard egg carton with pieces of charcoal for an instant, easy-to-carry fire starter
Have any other useful tips, tricks and hacks for easier family camping to share? Spread your knowledge to your fellow readers by leaving a comment below! More research here. Links like this.