Advanced camping tips...

[Sittinonthesand]

I love reading camping ‘hacks’ and ideas (and looking at all the lovely camping gadgets) but I think I haven’t found any new ones for a while. So, has anyone got any unusual, weird or new advice (or new lovely gadgets)?

My advice is lining your camping loo bucket with a compost bin bag and cat litter (the wooden sort).

If you’re worried about it getting too hot in your tent, cover it with one of those huge emergency foil space blankets (shiny side up). If there’s shade available, fry to pitch it where the shade will be in the afternoon. It will cool your tent before you sleep in it, but you want morning sun to dry it before you pack up on your last day.
Doritos make good kindling for a campfire if you can’t find anything else.
Old pill bottles are perfect for carrying small quantities of cooking ingredients like oil or spices.
Soak pasta in cold water before cooking to soften it and save gas.
Adding sage to your campfire or fire pit keeps mosquitoes and bugs away.
Toast a marshmallow over hot coals, and then dip the warm marshmallow into a cup of Bailey’s.
Slit foam swim noodles lengthwise and slip over the guy ropes to stop people walking into them.

I go without fridge and cooler. I only really need butter type spread for toast. I wrap it up in a cloth and stand it in a shallow tray. Evaporation of the water needs energy which it takes in form of heat from the 'butter'. It keeps it coolish.

Im a guide leader so I have a few xx

Take a bowl With a sieve in it. When you finish eating food pour all the food in the sieve/bowl
That way when you lift the Sieve out all the solid food can be binned and the liquid can go down the sluice.
This stops you having leaking bin bags.

If you want to make the lushest hot chocolate known to man. Add condensed milk!

Get two wooden stakes (old cricket stumps will do) hammer them into the ground by you tent door and put your wellies upside down on them. You will then have a welly stand and they stay dry

If you are using an air bed put a blanket between the ground and the air bed and the air won't deflate as much. It's all due to the lower temperatures.

Never pitch under a tree unless you want a tent full of wood louse!

If you take eggs make sure you lock them away because foxes will steal them!

Loving these! Thank you! Boot sticks! That sounds a hard lesson learnt, butty.

Some excellent advice

We use those zip up washing bags for washing delicates/pants (you know the ones I mean?) to put washed, clean pots, pans and plates in to drip dry hanging off a tree.

We use a bag for life for each person: clothes, chargers, books, games, torches etc it stops the. constant "where's my...?" Also a spare bag for life for showers. They fold up very small for transporting (we have a small car).

I second the pill box of herbs: pimienton, rosemary, oregano etc.

A long, long washing line and pegs, three of us would hang up three bath towels, three pool towels plus swimming kit daily! I made a zippy bag with an old coathanger hook in it to hold everything and keep pegs spider-free.

Electric pump for inflatable mattress is invaluable! Hardly a hack, but well worth the money.

Bucket to put shoes in at entrance to the tent. Bunch of cardgames: uno, monopoly deal, virus. You can play noughts and crosses with twigs and stones.

Make a scavenger hunt for kids (are you taking kids?) : find 3 different leaves, a seed, something red, a pebble, a pine cone as long as your thumb, etc.
We have a basketball of water we keep under a tree for keeping things cool (beer, milk, juice) keep refreshing. Usually cold enough in the morning for cereal milk.I

We don't wild camp, but neither do we camp at places that hire out fridges etc. We have EHU and an electric hotplate, we can charge phones. The last place we camped was really wooded, it was glorious! Great place for the hammock (€10 decathlon job), shaded, so natural, lovely.

Tic tac boxes are also good for herbs.

Find a large piece of cardboard to act as a doormat. Soaks up water and mud, and you can recycle and replace as necessary.

Hamman type towels.

Tumble dryer fluff is also good kindling. If the site has a dryer, use theirs!

Take a box with a few clothes pegs, duct tape, cable ties etc in.

If you go down the cat litter for toilet route, don't stick it in the drain, they will block. It has to go in the normal rubbish.

We store food stuff in big plastic boxes which doubles up as a surface / coffee table inside tent.
Usually go to campsites with fridge a long walk away so last thing at night we decant a little milk into a small flask for morning coffees.
Doormat for shoes (I like the bucket idea though)
Usually take two frozen meals plus pasta and sauce type stuff. Always plan to cook elaborate meals but can never be bothered.
Bikes for loo trips.

Fill flask with boiling water before bed - no faffing with gas/waiting for water to boil for first cuppa in the morning.

Ikea bath mats as door mats (inside) the ones with the nobbly bits? Super absorbent.

Freeze one pot meals in large sandwich bags. Flatten the package out before freezing, acts as ice pack. I make a couple for the first couple of days.

Shorts or slip on summer dress for shower blocks. Tricky to get long pants or leggings on when you are slightly damp or without them getting wet on the floor/balancing on one leg.

I haven’t got anything exciting to add but shamelessly place-marking.

Dressing gowns. You might not look the most fashionable, but they definitely keep you warm in the evening or for night time loo trips.

Save the campsite emergency phone number on all phones. Very useful when your teenager locks themself in the shower for example (as in the lock broke and it was a fully enclosed room....)

We have a camper van but I'm taking note of some of these ideas. Thank you.

Oh! I do have one. Have just bought dry robes for all of us, brilliant for keeping warm round camp fire or going to loos in middle of night. Fab for wild swimming( obviously) but so warm and the ones we have are poncho style so can just slip over your head.

Vacuum storage bags are great for packing your sleeping bag, clothes etc into a much smaller space.

As above, tumble drier fluff is good kindling. I make our own firelighters from tumble drier fluff stuffed into an egg carton, and then covered with melted wax (I save up the dregs of old candles and then melt them down in a pan on the stove once in a while). Cut them into individual egg shaped firelighters when they are cold - they burn for about 15 minutes each.

I recently bought a collapsible lantern that is solar (and USB) charged that provided really good light in the evening but folds away to nothing.

I also treated myself to a stainless steel thermal cafetiere so that I can just make one pot of coffee in the morning and it lasts for a few hours. Plus washing it up is nice and easy!

Oh, and for washing up I always take one of those washing up brushes that you can fill up the handle with washing up liquid.

Great tips, thank you!

Butchers hooks / S hooks. Keep them in your washbag, there are rarely enough hooks in the showers - hook them over the door. Also useful if you tie a rope round a tree or between trees and then use the S hooks to hang pots and pans etc or wet macs.

You can freeze wine boxes of white wine - keeps your cooler cold, gives you cold wine as it melts.

Pouches of microwave rice - empty into a pan and heat with a splash of water - saves your gas. Straight-To-Wok noodles were made for camping.

Get one of these washing up bowls (or similar - with handle) - leaves a hand free when going to the washing up sink www.amazon.co.uk/Tiawudi-Collapsible-Washing-Dishes-Camping/dp/B08F9Y8GTG/ref=sr_1_25_sspa?hvlocphy=9045892&psc=1&hvnetw=g&keywords=collapsible+washing-up+bowl&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUE0MUo4Q0NGMUwxWUgmZW5jcnlwdGVkSWQ9QTAwNzQxNDkyNklURDlBVzBaSjNSJmVuY3J5cHRlZEFkSWQ9QTAzOTA2NDUzRUdHN1MzTUQ1OTdBJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfbXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm90TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==&hvadid=259059902087&qid=1621516694&dchild=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwkZiFBhD9ARIsAGxFX8CvgYkR2WtDnuJiHMjxnFImllN8uMQHOCY_wATA6KIAOVGMkhYJ2FoaAoKREALw_wcB&s=kitchen&hydadcr=18479_1816595&hvdev=c&hvqmt=b&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=kwd-314591865062&adgrpid=52644069985&hvrand=14274004339097322786&sr=1-25-spons

Wipe your feet with baby wipes before you get into bed. Or as much of you as necessary to keep your sleeping bag habitable.

Pringle lids to put under the legs of anything on your groundsheet, to prevent risk of holes / wear and tear.

Freeze some bottles of water, and fill up the cool box with them
Wrap a spare sleeping bag around the cool box

With a good cool box, extra lagging from the sleeping bag, and some shade then some frozen items may still last a long weekend to a week

@JocastaNu

Vacuum storage bags are great for packing your sleeping bag, clothes etc into a much smaller space.

Do you take a vacuum cleaner with you to pack them again when you leave? If so would a hand held one work?

Vacuum bags come with hand pumps.

@Poorlykitten

Vacuum bags come with hand pumps.

I haven't seen those. Mine, that I use at home, need a vacuum cleaner.

All the ones I have came with pumps. It’s quite common. www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01HWY12BM?aa_adgroupid=122882226616&maas=maas_adg_api_6728553200402_macro_1_2&ref_=aa_2&aa_campaignid=12919723594&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&aa_creativeid=ad-522589008619_kwd-370171094127_dev-m_ext-