Have nothing in your tent that you do not know to be tidy, or believe to be shiny

[PerArduaAdNauseum]

New arrangements which worked for me this year were:

Washing up bowl with handles from Ikea, which happily transported:

• enamel mugs
• proper kitchen knife (in a scabbard)
• micro-plane parmesan grater (best way of pureeing garlic for cooking and salad dressing),
• 'chop to pot' chopping board (saved many an onion from spilling on the grass)
• handled-scoop colander thingy
• aeropress coffee maker
• plus washing up liquid, sponge etc and tea-towels

King sized aerobed mattress with own duvet and pillows. Some mornings I hardly hurt at all

Small s-hooks for hanging wet coats on tent poles

Moon chair - just the right size for the bedtime story with DS

Small lidded wooden box - about the size of a car footwell, used as a nightstand for glasses and lantern and holding:

• Wet wipes
• Tissues
• 2 wind-up lanterns
• Torch
• Booklight
• Electric tealights and paper tealight-lanterns
• Playing cards
• Backgammon
• Scrabble
• Cooks matches
• Roll of binliners

For next year I've already added a flat-packed plastic vase from Ikea, but mostly just to annoy my sister who's a bit pshaw about flowers in a tent

So what's on your list - stuff which worked this year and stuff you want for next year? Tell me all

Best things ever this year were the two smallish Really Useful plastic boxes that I gave to the children. Fun stuff (lego, comics, eye spy books, magic wands, juggling balls, felt tips etc) to be contained within, and whatever fitted was allowed with no quibbles. If it didn't fit, it didn't go. Full stop. And they used the boxes as night stands/tables/bananagrams-stations too.

I took two HUGE plastic boxes with all the rest of the stuff in, including beautious tablecloths so that those boxes could become not only Very Very Useful Tables, but also looked lovely.

I heart plastic boxes now.

Oh, and also the Ikea pop up tub thing that took up zero space when packed, but which we used as a waste paper bin inside the tent. How luxurious is that!!

oh this thread will excite slubber!

Loved our stool with a table top.
Used as stool, drawing table, drinks table; when sitting outside tent, bedside table for lamp etc, extra food preparation table and top as a tray. Going to buy one more.

Oh yes, I'm sure I'll be making space for a tablecloth next year

Tell me about your table Florence - sounds rather handy

I bought one of these fabulous things from TKMaxx for £3 (well bought 2 actually) and they are great for washing veg, straining boil in bag rice/pasta - and storing your melon in.
Pack flat, clip open - fab! Look out for them

Hi
Our table is one of those Outwell Bafin Stools (sorry new to this so no link but google).
How lovely to talk camping stuff - we just got our tent - so all very exciting.

ah hah the stool Florence was talking about. But would it hold all the cocktail ingredients?

Lucycat - I'm so jealous that you found the fold-flat colandars for £3 - I had to pay full price for this but it was pretty useful

by drinks table I mean just for a glass of wine
PerAd love your list might keep it for next year.

I bought DD some solar orchid fairy lights which she has by her bed at home and they come with us and I hang them by her bed (we have a soulpad with loops all the way around for rolling the bottom up, and it gives her light and also makes it feel like home for her when she wakes up with night terrors. We also have some normal solar lights for the rest of the tent/behind our bed and will get some blue/other colour ones for next year for beside DSs bed. It will look beautiful and very functional, and won't need to worry about running of of batteries.

The absence of items this year. We have got rid of our chairs. We are going more for the floor cushion/bolsters and throws type of thing and it saves space in the car. Once we made the decision not to sit on bloody uncomfortable camping chairs, our camping became much happier!

I also agree, could not go camping without aerobed and duvet/pillows.

Great thread. Love the fold flat colander - will hasten to TKMaxx in hope.

Haven't got any great tips to contribute, but have decided that we really NEED a proper kitchen stand ie. a shelf for the stove to sit on, with shelves/cupboards underneath for pans, plates etc. DH has poo-pooed this for years but I am going to demand one for Christmas

Am fed up with rifling through boxes to find things, and falling over said boxes in the middle of the night.

I am also a first time camper and had a fab time this year! We took LOADS of stuff but I am very proud to say that everything we took got used and we were really grae=teful for lots of things, including...

big double sleeping bags - I hate being restricted in the skinny ones and all of us like to sprawl a bit
fairy lights (sorry slubber) - great for a nightlight for ds
baffin table - we have one too! Great aren't they. Used as a tray, stool, drawing table, drinks table, food prep table, general things.
Ikea candle lanterns with citronella candles inside - light and bug-preventing :o
Crocs. Fab things. Slip on and off easily for in and out of tent, and good for wearing in showers.

I also have a list of things I want for next time but I think it would make the real campers cry hehheh

Try the sillicone pop up collanders you can get - I got one from ASDA for £4. They also do a pop-up sieve and a pop-up mixing bowl which is perfect for travel sick kids if you put a bag in as a liner then fold flat so take up no space .

This year I took 2 identically packed wash bags that you can hang over the shower curtain bar. Was brilliant with the 5 of us as DH and I could shower at the same time with the DC divided between us. Was so much easier and quicker.

We have the collapsible colonder and bowl which were brilliant as well. Will get a couple more bowls for next year.

We also got ourselves a camping fridge this year, which has been a godsend. I thought it might be to small but it was brillint, just right.

Our biggest buy this year has been the trailer tent which we absolutly love We can get it up in half the time of the tent.

Ooh pop-up silicon bowls - I feel a shopping trip coming on . Although for travel sick DS we now have an acceptable combination of sturgeron and half a stack of vomit bags nicked from the ferry we were on .

Am tempted by fairy lights but I think I need to break DH in to the idea gently. I also think that kitbit should tell us her wish-list so we can take notes jeer

MrsGokWan - which camping fridge did you buy as I am looking for one and would appreciate a reccomendation. I have been using an electric cooler box but I worry it will over heat as you are not meant to leave them plugged in for long. Thanks.

We bought THIS ONE from Go Outdoors and it is brilliant.

This year we got a Kampa Karzi. It's fab.

Also, I got a Fat Airic and love it. It's sooo comfy and supportive, even for a 'traditionally built' lass like me.

I always hang one of these from the loop at the top of our bell tent's central pole. It contains all those bits you need to find a home for ( loose change, stray dummies, paracetamol!, baby wipes, sun lotion...AND it looks pretty!

OOh, what a lovely thread!

Some fabby ideas - what I love about camping is it feels like playing "house" when you were a kid!

Love the ideas about the separate shower packs MrsGokWan - we always end up with someone having to shower with washing up liquid as someone else (usually me I'm afraid!) has left the shower gel in the showers...

My essential is a dustpan and brush for the tent.We have a camping box in the garage with all our cooking stuff in; saves trying to remember everything and makes packing nuch easier.

Collapsible crate for shoes in porch
Kids have their own small fabric washbags with refillable bottles of stuff in.(They shower by themselves).
Travel washing line..usually manage to find a tree to put it around.
We have one of those collapsible buckets which comes in it's own bag...really really useful
Oh and one of those pasta cook things which means you don't need to use two burners at the same time. You can boil a kettle first and fill up the pasta jar..then use the burner to do your sauce on the burner while your pasta is 'cooking' in the jar. It also strains the water away.

Lucycat...was it tkmaxx stockport or Manchester?...i need one of those!

Oh - I've been hunting for a reasonably priced collapsible strainer thing after a manged to tip hot water on my foot this summer (ouch).
We have all our camping stuff stored in large plastic boxes so when we go we do a quick check and then just shove it in the car.
We also use those collapsible garden waste bags - one as a bin and the other to put dirty clothes in.
Last week I brought a very small dustpan and brush from homebase for a £1 - great for us for us who have a sewn in groundsheet which collects all sorts over a weeks camping..
I love buying small/compact things for camping :)

We also invested in some vacuum bags this year and all the bedding, clean clothes, dirty clothes and anything else that can have the air sucked out of it goes in them.

MrsGok - doesn't that mean you have to take a hoover with you though?

Nope we have a thingy that plugs into the cigarette lighter of the car, it blows up the air beds and if you reverse it it sucks air instead of blowing and Bobs your uncle :)