Right. need to slim down stuff

[Daisybell1]

I took everything and it was so stressful, I couldn't find anything, and lost track of all the essentials in amongst the clutter.

Does anyone have a packing list for weekend camping?

Oh and tips for storage/organisation.

I took big zip up laundry bags and they were just too large.

Daisy (will reply to you by the way now I am home .

Less really is more for weekends. I have just sorted out and washed my kit (we took a couple of things from our weekend stuff)

Have taken a photo - this is it, plus SIMS, bags, pillows, a 10" square compartmentalised bag for valuable things like lanterns, battery light and tools.

Plus tent, groundsheet and now stove .

Just going out but I can make a list later on if you want. It includes a trangia, heat pal, bog in a bag, crocs for the shower, knife/utensils/cutlery/crockery, two coffee makers. Trangia kit saves lots of room as it all nests - 3 pans and a kettle. Also includes sit mats and the new chairs I bought (ergo I think from memory).

Meths fuel is in the separate cream bin and the blue box is for food.

Oh, two of those gelert aluminium tables, steel bowl and chopping board a paraffin lamp and three candle lanterns. That is probably it but I will check to see if there is anything else in there later on.

Thanks Lavender, that's really helpful, on reflection, I don't think I took masses of those 'essentials' but must have over-packed on food, blooming fairy lights which I couldn't be bothered to even fiddle with, and particularly clothes.

I think with better storage/organisation, it will be easier. A lot of stuff will have to live in the car as beds and dd's peppa pig toys took up the entire tent!

I just had a look in my weekend box, everything I said plus three sit mats and two SIM pillows.

The utensil box/cutlery thing and paraffin lamp aren't there (in the trailer) but it all fits (paraffin lamp goes in that cream thing with the meths and paraffin).

On Friday there was a lovely family in a camper van, just sitting on the floor on a picnic rug. We were there in our big tent with a table and stools and two recliners and both of us said that we weren't sure we needed it all anymore .

We seem to be looking for a simpler set up all the time to be honest - I think we peaked a few years ago and have been taking less stuff ever since.

The green bag is extra, doesn't fit in the box but contains our games kit, indoor and outdoor games.

It looks good! I know what you mean about less, and I thought I'd be all for glamping it up but I just couldn't be bothered.

I need better pans as I really can't justify a second stove (although a tiny £1 B&m bargains one appeals for kettle boiling) and a wind shield for the cadac. And a smaller chair for me.

And that's it.

Oh and smaller laundry bags or similar for clothes.

Thing is though that if we decide we don't need all the extras and are happy in the tipi with the floor chairs and stove etc., etc.. then we don't need the used for four nights new Dewaard and the trailer and all the gear we take on two week trips.

DH already prefers the tipi and the weekend stuff - camping, definitely no where near 'glamping'. Not that we do all the 'faff', just take more stuff.

How funny. The way you talk about peaking in terms of stuff is exactly what we've been doing the last couple of years.

We went to a festival last weekend and had to really cut back on stuff and now we are wondering what we bring a lot of it for. We road tested a new family pop up for the first time and are now thinking maybe we don't need the.massive Vango that takes 40 minutes and several rows to put up. We have a LOT of stuff though so there could be some serious ebaying coming up!

Well Lavender, if you ever need to re home the Albatros you know where we are!

I don't think we take a lot anyway Frozen tbh, same cooking set up as weekend plus a hago stand. Just that the big tent is so massive that it needs a trailer so we then add weavetex things with rag rugs on top and take a table and stools with a couple of big lafuma chairs and a couple of paraffin lanterns extra.

Trouble is that DH was always a walker and backpacker/cycling camper before children. He lived in Colorado for a long time and skied x country with a backpack staying in little huts with not much else so he knows it can be done with nothing , even in the cold.

I am fairly minimalist too to some degree, just not the same as him! We now have this lovely tentipi for weekends which is fab, but I am not sure that we would want to spend two weeks in the rain in it with not a great deal of room to move around with DC. Our DeWaard is actually the same size floor space wise, just has lots of headroom that the tipi doesn't have because of the angle of the sides and a big canopy that we can put up if we want to.

So difficult .... we are camping at Christmas this year in the tipi with stove though .

DH is heading that way Daisy - I have said that it isn't going anywhere - tipi is lovely but so little standing space for a family for a 2-3 week trip.

^
Trouble is that DH was always a walker and backpacker/cycling camper before children. He lived in Colorado for a long time and skied x country with a backpack staying in little huts with not much else so he knows it can be done with nothing grin, even in the cold.^

I've come to family camping via a mountaineering youth. Our "big" tent is still so tiny on the campsite. I think table and chairs are extravagant!!!!

Stop it BikeRunSki, we spent nearly £3k on that tent last year and need a table to justify the size of it. I do really if I am honest, I feel like we will be paring down our stuff even more until he eventually convinces me to sell it and do tentipi only.

We booked a large pitch last week to find that our neighbours with absolutely humungous tents hadn't bothered (ours is 4m x 4.5m, just one big room but a big slope at the back).

That's it though lavendersun. We have more or less the same cooking kit for weekends and weeks away. In fact the practical stuff goes everywhere. It is the extra glamping.comfort stuff I tend.to chuck in if we have space because we have it and because I used to want to glamping the bell. Now I don't really feel the same way with normal.tents.so it is.all.sitting.in the loft making me feel guilty. But packing, especially to go home, is so much quicker without it. We have a huge stand too - love it.

I sort of roll my eyes at DH Frozen, he drove the DeWaard train, always buys really good quality stuff which I am fine with, but if it wasn't for me he would be selling it right now. In fairness he was keen on a Tentipi last year when we eventually bought the DeWaard.

We definitely do not glamp though (apart from rugs which I justify as adding warmth), I really couldn't be bothered with all the extras, but we do enjoy the room.

A couple more rugs these days but the inside of our tent looks like this, as empty as it can be . I think it is just a (nother) realisation that we really don't need a table and stools, that we prefer the small REI and ergolife chairs to the big lafuma things (that remind me of something my parents would have if they still had a touring caravan).

So many iterations over the years.

Gosh - my last post was illiterate - stupid phone. I meant a hago stand, of course, not a huge one - that would be our other camping kitchen.

I am with you with all the iterations, only instead of selling them like your DH wants to, we are storing them in our loft. At some point the ceiling will just cave in.

We have a bell tent (which I love to much to sell but keep failing to take camping), a massive Vango, two Quechua family pop ups and loads of little two and three man tents acquired over the pre-child years.

We have tables and chairs of all sizes and styles, all sorts of cookers and kitchens and lights and sleeping bags, SIMs, cushions and outdoor sports sets, picnic sets, rugs and blankets of all shapes and sizes.

Ultimately, we are reaching the same conclusion you and other people are - less is definitely more when camping.

Now if only we could find the time to sort out, photograph and sell the stuff we don't need...

I have also reached the conclusion that I am NOT a glamper. I have just bought another stove but my justification is its a trangia so therefore practical. And I need a smaller seat but that's it.

We're going to be eating camping food forever!

Yes I have a bag full of rugs, sleeping bags and blankets but that's practical. It's the fairy lights that are (still) bugging me from a far.

My only other addition would be, having paid for an electric pitch (only one available) an electric blanket

And I think I may need medical help - as well as lusting after Lavender ' s Albatros, I also quite want one of Frozen's quechuas!

Sounds like you mainly need better in tent organisation daisy ?

Most of our kitchen stuff lives in a wicker basket.

I use collapsible plastic crates quite a bit - one for shoes near the door, one for kids' toys, one for food etc.
Also those big blue Ikea bags are handy. I packed the kids' clothes in one on our recent trip and it worked really well. Easy to squash into the car, easy to access in the tent and it just sat on the end of their bed.
We also had another big Ikea bag for all coats. Was great as we could just lift the whole thing in and out of the car (weather was very variable!) This was packed full of towels and blankets on the journey to and from the site though.
Sturdy bags for life (eg the hessian sort that stand up) are quite a good useful size too. I agree that those enormous laundry bags are just too big.

Some stuff has to get squashed in wherever but I do try as much as possible to pack stuff into its final destination at home if that makes sense. So the washing up stuff gets packed into the washing up bucket for transport and then when you arrive it's ready to go.

Does that help at all? We do seem to have masses of stuff but very little of it is non-essential unless we want to sit on the floor (we don't )

Daisy .... an electric blanket - really??

Better tent (or at least, car) organisation is needed, yes, however its a 3 man tent with no separate living space, so in-tent storage is really limited (read non existent). I could do with some smallish, sturdy but soft walled clear plastic bags. They'd then stack or squish into small places, and I could still see what's in them.

Lavender - I know. I am suitably ashamed . But in my defence, and I realise this is a very lame excuse, it was 4 degrees and we were having to spend the evening in our friends' flappy, extremely thin and cold poly tent. We were warm in the body, but inside the tent was so cold my face was freezing peeping out of my mummy bag.

I've bought myself a small plastic chest of drawers from Aldi for cooking stuff. I'm hoping this will revolutionise my camping. :D

I use one for work things and it's terribly useful.

Ikea bags for bedding.

Instead of cases I'm going to use stacking boxes, you know the giant Tupperware sort.

The thing that takes up most space IMO is kids clothes & shoes. I have a pop-up laundry basket from primark for wet stuff.

I don't know how to downsize with small children!

I did camp a few weekends ago with just the OH and bought just the tent and sleeping stuff. It was sooooo much easier. We forgot torches though.

I will let you off Daisy - I thought you meant on your recent trip. Did anyone come back to you? Cotton Star haven't responded.

It was our recent trip

The downside of camping with friends who have a large tent - we were obliged to socialise in it getting colder and colder and not being able to warm ours up either.

I'd like to make a practical case for fairy lights - I wind them round guy ropes, and it makes it a lot easier to see them when you have to leave your tent at night....