What is your favourite camping accessory/gadget??

[PisforPeter]

Thanks for all the tips on here and especially the 'lists'. Any other advice as starting to collect things for our first family camping holiday

Trugs- large one for iced water to throw beers/wine/champagne in. Medium one for tossing dirty dishes etc in.

Ear plugs

Hot water bottles

Flip flops for showers

Lots of nice bedding- fat airic thermal sleep
Mats, cellular blankets, duvets, goose down pillows

Thermal long underwear for pjs

Head Torch
Electric cool box
Crocs/ flip flops for visits to toilet block
Blankets to snuggle in/ extra layer / lay on outside
Ikea bags - perfect for storage and packing. One each for clothes, one for shoes, one for towels, one for games / toys

Icey-teks are £

Electric convector heater.
I love this and at 7 degrees the past 2 nights very much needed.

Butchers hooks. Hang your toiletries and towel and clothes in carrier bags over the top of the shower cubicle when there are not enough hooks and all surfaces are wet. Also for hanging handy objects from on a wading line strung between trees.

I love my Campfire Gtill, my Go Anywhere Weber BBQ, my Icey Tek and my Pie Iron. Or for when we just use the gas stove the Diablo sandwich maker.

My Tiny Light and Vango Eye light for reading and getting up in the night. We manage without battery guzzling big lanterns.

Actually, another thing is my double-walled shiny metal camping mug.

It is boring stainless steel and means I don't get to drink out of all the lovely decorated enamel ones that are around now, which goes against all my natural glamping tendencies, but it keeps coffee and tea hot for ages which the single wall mugs never do. Soemtimes practicality has to win out.

Ineedmorepatience which griddle do you have and where did you get it, it sounds fab!

Usually I have lots of favourites , to include cobb, sofa, comfy beds , pretty lights, matching prettiness, overnight bucket, hook up for fridge , heater etc
But I have found 2 new favourites following a basic overnighter a couple of weekends ago non electric at a campsite with very basic ( crap ) facilities .

My jetboil zip - I had boiling water for my coffee so quickly, it was chucking it down , I just put it outside the tent with no faff, it was ready to pour direct without needing a separate kettle , and so tiny yo pack.
Also a proper flushing porta potti.
The site had one porta loo only, I did use it once but the smell when I flushed it made me retch.
The person I met said it hadn't been changed for over two weeks .....

We love our griddle too and use it all the time. It was from Aldi I think.

I've had loads of camping stuff from ALDI, haven't seen much in there this year though.
I got a camping kitchen with zip up cupboards and a sink and a work top from there a couple of years back for £20, down from £60, it was end of season and every time I went in they were reduced a bit more til only one was left.
Then I bought it.

And this, my very favouritest...

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I think we might have got that same kitchen but when we got it home we found out it was massive and filled our living room let alone our tent so we took it back! We didn't pay £60 either though.

My 10 cm SIM without doubt, the best thing I have ever bought. Never had a rubbish night's sleep on it.

Not a gadget as such, but if we're talking about camping kitchens, my dh built this chuck box (in yellow) that folds out into a sturdy useful camp kitchen. It all folds back down into the stand. We can store ALL of the kitchen/cooking/dining stuff in it for transport, and leave it packed up ready to go for the next trip. It's brilliant.

pictish that is awesome does your dh do commissions?!

No...he's not a woodworker or anything. It was a labour of love that caused lots of swearing

Other camping faves are

coleman duel fuel petrol stove
paraffin storm lamp
gas heaters
rock pegs
windbreaks
stove top coffee pot

Pictish, and I thought I was ott

Can I ask about your awning? I have only pitched mine as a triangle, how did you pitch it to give the height pretty please. Did it seal to the tent? They look nicely together.

Bunting looks lovely.

We have a cadac grill. Fab. Esp paella pan. We always go with a big gang and did a paella for 15 on it once.

The awning is a malu from Karma Canvas - it's a giant square and we pitch it like this.

With a windbreak up both sides it creates a perfect 'room' for cooking and dining in even the wettest conditions.

It's always worth looking at Gumtree for odd camping equipment and bargains.

I just secured this beauty for £20 this morning, having made my enquiry last night. These things cost £100+ brand new!

It's a pressure paraffin lamp, very bright and oh so cheap to run. Can't wait to take it away camping this coming weekend!

Just back from 16 nights away in the new totally fabulous amazing tent and I had a good old ponder while I was away on all the bits of kit I have accumulated over the years and what bits are still doing the job really well and I would buy again.

Cobb - just lots of pleasure still to be had with with it. This year I made garlic pizza bread as a starter while the coals were hotting up to full heat.

Iceytek

Vango table with the four little stools inside. Love a movable stool.

Camping gaz stove with the clicky legs that all fit inside the saucepan. Even though we took this and the two burner gaz stove I still love my clicky legs, and the saucepan is perfect size for pasta with the draining lid that you can clamp onto the pan so pasta doesn't fall out into your washing up bowl when you drain it.

Collapsible boxes. £3 or something from a pound shop, still going strong and holding stuff.

Delta peg peg puller. It pulls out pegs pleasantly.

Aldi head torches.

New favourite gadget though is ehu. I'm on the dark side and it is AWESOME over here. A heater! Dry towels! Dry towels! I dried myself with dry towels this holiday that were made dry by my little heater. This gave me more pleasure than I thought was possible from a towel. It was DRY. Not damp. Dry.

I am so pleased for you and your dry towel!

We have hooked up with EHU twice. Loved it...we took the hair dryer...not for drying hair, but just about anything else. We also took a lap top and DVDs for the kids in case we got a spell of torrential rain...which we did.
It was wonderful...dh and I reading peacefully on the bed, the kids cosied up in their onesies watching Star Wars, and the rain hammering down overhead.

I don't think EHU is an essential, but it's certainly a nice-to-have. We'll take it if it's available and the site aren't charging silly money for it.

My camper van ! Makes camping far more civilised altogether.

oh, that's a shame pictish! I showed it to dh...and said "look at this for awesome camping storage" - with which he agreed, then said "Pictish' dh made it for her " hint hint...to which he just rolled his eyes! Don't think Ill be getting anything similar any time soon!

also love the set up you have going on with your awning...I am considering a bell tent purchase for next year and was pondering the logistics of cooking in the rain....(it always rains it seems when we camp )

Loving all the ideas on here though...am drawing up a good list for next year!

hyper he'd never attempted anything like that before. His joinery skills didn't go much beyond banging in a nail, screwing a screw or sawing a plank before.
I bought the plans on pdf off the internet for £6, and he gave it his best. We're really pleased with it.

If it helps persuade him, that chuck box was my birthday present.

ooo...birthday present you say...now my birthday isn't until June...but there is always Christmas... LOL