Camping kit - what items are a game changer?

[RS1987]

We are a family of 4 plus dog - DC are 10 and 8.

We go camping twice a year and am looking at expanding our kit repetoire.

What do you swear by for camping? Especially interested in comfort options for sleeping and sitting. Also organisation, our packing and tent organisation is generally a bit chaotic.

Its another thing to spend money on and another unnecessary piece of tat to store (and eventually send to landfill)... I'm happy with my repurposed flapjack tub 😆

Tesco delivery to the camp site. Saves a tonne of space.

A couple of those hanging storage things with pockets. There'll be somewhere to hang them and they are really useful for storing clean pants, socks, Calpol in case of need, odds and ends like scissors, new batteries etc.

Yes! We do this (or whichever supermarket will deliver there).

My most recent game changer is finding a local launderette that does a service wash - drop it on the way out for the day and collect all clean, dry and folded on the way home.

I can see this being very useful - are there any of these kind of launderettes around? You don't see them much any more at all - it's all the massive washing machines in car parks now!

@Backtosugar I've ordered the Decathlon table with the stools that fold inside, I'm very excited!

So the ones I've found have been mainly for trade, hotel linen, restaurants etc but will often do service washes for people of asked. On our most recent trip it was in a small businesses park in a farm literally down the road from the campsite. £10 for a bin bag of clothes, washed, dried, ironed and folded.

It wasn't a launderette like a shop with loads of machines you could go in and do tour own (like from EastEnders). I found it on Google.

You have just taken it to another level! I love this!

Remote controlled plugs to turn on my heater before I get out of bed and turn it off once in bed.

We each take our own bag and are expected to organise our own. I provide a collective bag for washing.

Do you have a link to this, sounds goods.

Like these nothing overly fancy but means we can do the light and heater without bumbling around in the dark and cold.

www.wickes.co.uk/Masterplug-13A-Remote-Control-Socket---Pack-of-2/p/225374

💖💖💖

Electric cars for business purposes apparently often have a socket where you can draw 230 V from the main battery. Would be genius for Berlingo-sized cars as Campers, as you'd hardly empty the main battery by cooking coffee and dinner.

Adding a sleep bra to the list.
As soon as the sun starts going down I dash off for my shower so I can get into my leggings and thermal t shirt before it gets dark. I put my jeans and sweater over the top. If I change my bra to a sleep bra at this point then I’m decent for the evening festivities, and then just peel off the layers to go to bed without having to expose skin and get cold again before snuggling in my sleeping bag.

After a camping trip this wknd my thoughts are fresh in my mind!

• The new Decathlon table with stools that fit inside was great - we just took two camping chairs for the adults to sit on in the evening, and we managed to fit a couple of extra bits and pieces within the folded table too.
• We should have checked our lights/lanterns before we left - we'd forgotten they're rubbish (IKEA solar ones) 😁 grateful for recs for better hanging ones, ideally rechargeable?
• We took too many clothes, as we always do...
• Camping pancakes with the dry batter ingreds in a bottle (add eggs and milk when ready to make) were a hit again.
• Should have just packed our electric kettle rather than the bloody Jetboil as forgot we had EHU!
• Our water carrier has started to leak and seems to make the water taste more plasticky than it used to - does anyone have a reliable non-leaking one that packs down?
• When we got home I sorted the big kitchen box and wrote a list of what's in it, and a list of what needs adding next time (pans, spices, kitchen roll) so I don't have to empty the whole bloody thing again to check what we've got.
• I don't usually bother with earplugs but I was SO grateful for them this time on a campsite with noisy kids!
• We usually take normal pillows but we really struggled for space this time. We have one Decathlon squishy travel pillow and I'm going to get another couple of those - they bag up pretty small.
• Our Vango double SIM has a leak...tried a tent repair patch on it and no joy. I'm not that attached to it - it rolls up rather than folds and still seems to take up a fair bit of room when deflated. The cheapest Decathlon one looks like it takes up less space but I'll go in-store and try a few out. Should I be looking at the inflatable bed bases too?!

Meant to add - one of my fave things is our folding kitchen cabinet thing - I think it's by a brand called Ozark. It has "cupboards" and an insulated compartment, and a folding flat surface that goes across the top, to put your stove on. It folds down quite small and I'm very attached to it 😍

For water we just always buy the biggest water the local shop sells normally around 5ltr then just refill that bottle when needed.

We also have that I believe it was from Asda.

Funnily enough I just googled and Asda has one pretty much the same as ours but under a diff brand name:

https://direct.asda.com/george/outdoor-garden/camping-equipment/xplor-black-kitchen-stand-with-built-in-cooler/060155202,default,pd.html?cmpid=ppc--geor-------_-dskwid-_dm&utm_campaign=pla:Home-Outdoor-_Performance_Max&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&gclsrc=aw.ds&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=20035329322&gbraid=0AAAAADwhMoDuCdk77kmQnD5GizKdegZy5&gclid=Cj0KCQjwh-HPBhCIARIsAC0p3cemPCgBf9PhtRGYe96vkTcA677PxUlgBqYMvulC1uUwA7RAnw-GVMAaAmKgEALw_wcB

Yes that looks identical but our edges are orange.

This one.

Friends with a campervan for those cold evenings…

More helpfully, a basic storage unit so you can actually find stuff. I hate the disorganised nature of camping!

A trailer to take all the stuff otherwise packing the car is a logistical nightmare

I’ve got the IKEA fold down fabric boxes - one each for the foot of each bed - bloody great idea. Also camping specific cookware and dinnerware so we can leave it all packed. Plastic shelf unit with some boxes - one for toiletries, one for kitchen bits. A bigger box with a lid for food that doesn’t go in the cool box (we’ve got a Tundra). I’ve bought a mattress topper for on top of our floor mattress I posted upthread to make it thicker. It does the 4 of us side by side with our own duvet and pillows - never bothering with inflatable mattresses again. We also have a small dog as a hot water bottle!

Oh I always buy sharp knife’s with the covers great for storing in the camping box.