Traveling With Your Camping Gear

There are two approaches you can take to packing your camping gear in your vehicle: throw it in randomly or pack it thoughtfully. Especially if you have a large vehicle and you want to get on the road quickly, it’s tempting to throw everything in randomly. But that will mean you will spend a lot of time looking for something when it would be more fun to hike or roast marshmallows.

The first step to packing is to make a list. It is helpful to start this list when you have just gotten home from a camping trip because all the things you took and all the things you wish you had had will be fresh in your mind. Who is going along—what does each individual need? Are you going fishing? What equipment will you need? What do you wish you had had? Make a note so you can get cheap camping equipment locally (instead of having to buy something on the road).

It’s important to think about food, since that is a fun part of camping! How many days will you be camping? What meals will you be eating? What do you need for snacks? Are there special treats you need? Think about how you plan to prepare these meals. For example, if you plan to catch fish for one meal and the fish decide not to bite, what will you do? If you have a soaking downpour, will you have something you can eat without cooking?

Once you have your list, think about the order in which you need items. If you are car camping, then probably the first thing you will do is set up the camping tent on your camp site. So, the tent needs to end up on top of everything else. It is also helpful to have things that go with each other close to each other—such as cooking gear with eating gear.

Are you camping along the way to a destination? You have two types of items—those you need for camping and those you need at your destination. Items that are needed for the destination such as sports equipment or gifts should be packed on the bottom.

Scavenge your house for storage units—crates or boxes or go to a store that sells discount camping gear—they often have stuff bags and other storage possibilities. Label the outside of each unit so anyone picking it up knows what is inside. That means instead of you being the one to get stuff out of the car because only you know what is where, someone else can take a turn fetching.

Encourage family members to put things away in the right container. That way you will stay reasonably well-organized and you won’t spend time searching for the spatula while your pancakes are burning. Organizing for a camping trip prior to actually leaving is not difficult and will make your time camping less stressful and more fun.

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