1st long camping holiday kitchen set help!

[Orangebadger]

So we are going camping for 2 weeks this summer. I am trying to figure out the kitchen set up. Please give me your tips and suggestions. 4 of us with 2 kids.

Hiya! We always go camping for a fortnight in the summer. How you set up your kitchen depends on a lot of things.
Where are you going to set it up? We use either the extension for our 8 man tent as the kitchen, or a separate gazebo. We have a 2-ring gas stove on top of a kitchen cupboard unit. We keep our plates, cups and pans in the cupboard unit. We have a separate storage cupboard for food, as if you keep it in bags in the tent it attracts ants and other pests. We use an electric coolbox as a fridge for short trips. Last year we went to France and hired a proper fridge from the campsite for our holiday, which was a game changer. Obviously, try to avoid cooking in a tent, extension or gazebo as far as possible, but if you have to, make sure that it is well-ventilated and that the stove is well away from any tent fabric.

As above really we also have a Petrol powered stove it works in any weather and much quicker to boil than gas. We use it outside to cook smelly things!
Plastic boxes are great used for storage, packing, seats etc.
This sort ignore the price usually a few on Facebook Market place for about £6 each
https://www.plasticboxshop.co.uk/boxes-for-industry-c5/pack-of-2-56-litre-attached-lid-alc-containers-310mm-high-p1928

@Funf they look good but surely they can't be so expensive! Are they OK to sit on then? They do look useful, I'd love to have all our camping mess organised into a few of these.

Take a slow cooker if you have an electric hook-up. Best thing ever

If you have the budget I'd really recommend a Cobb, available from lakeland. It's like a small covered bbq and you can stick stuff in there for ages to cook, we had a bunch of roasted stuff, sausages, sweetcorn, burgers, and jacket potatoes! Needs less looking after than hob cooking I think, and varies what you can cook if you're away for a whole fortnight.

The Boxes are what many shops use to shift stock about they are about £25-£50 new but they do pop up on Market Place most weeks. You can stand or sit on them if turned upside down, if the right way up cut a piece of wood slightly bigger than the box cover in foam and its a great seat. We have our Log burner in one and the petrol stove in the other. Look for ones with no vent holes in the base. Just pack your stuff in different coloured boxes, easy to load and find stuff. If you are posh you can use Zagres but these are the rolls Royce of boxes but over £200 each https://www.zargescases.co.uk/shop-cases/?gclid=CjwKCAjwpayjBhAnEiwA-7ena8Bdwk--EhZXOn1Wgz0pG6kY1a64cLhuWqY71NnCK_hZMi4erbuJfRoCgRoQAvD_BwE

It does depend if you're using electric or not and how big your tent is, no good suggesting a large kitchen if you've no room to put it.
Generally though an all in one kitchen cupboard is great to store /prep food and cook on. Check out a local camp shop to see them on display.
A decent cool box either electric or standard. Freeze as much as possible before going to keep the temp down and pre cool box overnight before you go it will last longer and try to keep opening it to a minimum.
Please be aware of carbon monoxide posioning as if you're cooking on gas it needs to be outside or well ventilated

A couple of cheap little ideas which make our camping life easier.
We have a small bucket sized bin with a lid. It stops seagulls/foxes ripping up the bin bag and spreading food waste and wrappers around.

We take lots of cloths and teatowels.

Take some pegs and string and then you can make a washing line for towels, swimsuits and all those tea towels.

Instead of an ordinary washing up bowl we bought one from a camping shop with handles. Much easier to carry back and forth from the washing up stations.

We store all our food/crockery in plastic boxes too, but buy the cheap storage boxes from the Factory shop/Wilkos. If you buy clear boxes you can see what is in each of them.

Battery fairy lights make your tent look like home.

Hot water bottles are a boon. We put them in our bed after dinner and by the time we go to bed the air in the mattress is toasty warm and the damp of the ground is driven out of the bedding.

We take our duvet and proper home pillows. Much nicer than sleeping bags.

Thank you everyone.

We are in a 6 man tent, 4 of us. We have a gas hob. Was considering buying a tarp and creating a kitchen under that. Would that work?

We have one of those cheap stripey wind breaker things to keep the wind off of the gas burners. It really reduces the amount of gas you use and creates a private kitchen area.

The tarp is a good idea but we've been to many campsites where tarp covers or gazebos aren't allowed (fire risk I suppose).

Yes that's what I worry about. The fire risk. A windbreak is a good idea to create a kitchen space. I just want a space to keep my 5 yr old away from us when we are cooking too.