It’s no easy feat to take on camping in the wilderness with little ones (and even not-so-little-ones). Whether it’s one kid, 3 kids or 8 kids, it’s a J.O.B. and you have to approach it like a B.O.S.S or you will F.A.I.L.

I always laugh when people ask how our “vacation” went when we return from camping. I mean, really? That’s a pretty loose term when applied to sweating over an open fire trying to cook rudimentary potatoes and meat, or to describe the act of sleeping outside with the only barrier separating you and trash pandas is a thin piece of canvas or attempting to play cards on a picnic table under a tree canopy in the rain. Don’t get me wrong, the positives definitely outweigh the negatives of enjoying the great outdoors with the fam. But still, I’m literally Suzy Homemaker in the middle of the woods with limited supplies, bugs everywhere, stinky kids, stinky shoes, stinky towels, stinky dogs, stinky everything and typically no washer, dryer, dishwasher or actual bathtub in sight. And don’t even get me started on the “Camping 10” (you haven’t heard of the Camping 10? Think Freshman 15, Covid 15 etc…) Eating is the main past-time for our trips. (I’m fairly certain for me it’s actually stress-induced eating. Plus, it’s s’mores guys. Come on….)

In all honesty, we really do love it. The joy I see on my kids faces when we’re camping or when they’re retelling a funny camping story from the past makes all the list making, packing, food shopping, sweating, dirt and laundry (so much friggin’ laundry) worth it. We log off the internet and log in to each other. There’s conversations, laughter, fighting and games – it’s what memories are made of, my friends.

Through the years I’ve tried loads of different hacks or tricks to survive our camping trips. With over 20 years of many successful endeavors and many, many failures, I’ve compiled a list of my best tips to survive camping with kids and pets (and husbands).

Lists

Lists are your friend, my friend. Before you leave to go shopping, before you order anything from Amazon, before you raid your pantry, make a list. Plan out your meals (breakfast, lunch and dinner). Now, don’t panic. I don’t mean necessarily plan every single meal for every single day (although you totally could if that puts you at ease). I simply mean to figure out what you’re going to eat during the trip as a whole – one day hot-dogs, one day pizza pies, one day meat and potatoes, etc. Then you can break up those meals into your grocery list.

• How much you buy and pack before you leave relies heavily on how long you will be gone and if you are planning on doing any grocery shopping while camping. If you are camping for an extended length of time and will be making many camping stops along the way, plan for a few days to a week of food at a time. Map out local grocery stores closest to where you will be for reference and give yourself one day in your planning to shop and restock.
• Most campgrounds have general stores within them for emergency supplies (camper accessories, parts for repair or basic medicine) and camping basics (ice, forgotten marshmallows, a can of soup or a quart of milk) but expect to pay more for these items.

Supply lists – This is not something I throw together the day before. I usually start these about a week before we head out. This allows me time to add to it as I go about my business. You’d be surprised how easily you can forget to pack a package of chocolate, a phone charger, a ball cap or socks.

Next Time List – I keep a notepad and pen in the camper so I can write out my Next Time List at the end of each trip. It is all the things we wish we had brought, forgot to pack or need to remember to do before our next outing (there’s always something that needs fixed after each trip – I guess it’s part of the joy of camping in a 5 decade old camper am’i’right?!)

Snack Basket

Instead of packing loads of boxes and bags of individually wrapped snacks, I open them all up and dump them into a big plastic tote/basket with handles. Easy to grab and throw in the van during travel, in the camper or tent at night and on-the-go to the beach or pool.

Meal Prep

I try to clean, cook and prepare as much food as I can beforehand. For instance, if we are planning on having taco salad one night, I brown and season the meat the day before we leave, store it in a plastic bag and throw it in the fridge or cooler. If we are having a dinner with potatoes, I peel, cut and boil them for a few minutes at home. Potatoes take forever to cook over a fire. Having them already blanched will save you loads of time. Fun foil meals (for example: ground beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and seasoning) can be packaged and wrapped at home and stored in ziplocs (don’t forget to boil your potatoes and carrots first!). Sausage, biscuits and gravy is a must-have breakfast for us. My aunt taught me years ago to bake the biscuits before I leave home (genius!) Veggies – wash, cut and individually bag to make for easy addition to lunches, snacks or salads. The more work you do at home before you leave, the more “relaxed” the trip will feel and will relieve a lot of the stress at meal time.

Frozen Foods

Freeze as much as you can before you go. Water bottles, chocolate bars for s’mores, yogurts, bags of water, etc. Not only will it help keep your cooler well, cooler, it will also provide a super cold drink or a great snack for a hot day – frozen yogurt tubes are the bomb!

Water Bottles

We’re not big soda pop drinkers. And we try to encourage using reusable water bottles as much as we can. But sometimes we can’t help but grab a case of water bottles while camping for the convenience. When we do, only one case/trip is our rule. I have a plastic food storage canister in the camper that holds a sharpie marker, a pair of scissors and a whole bunch of individual water flavoring packets. Each kid gets one water bottle at the beginning of our trip. The very first thing they do is label the bottle and the lid. They can refill the bottle at the spigot and if the water is especially “campy” flavored (if you’ve often drank from campground spigots you know what I’m talking about) a packet of fruit, tea or lemonade flavoring will mask the strange taste and keep the kiddos well hydrated.

CrockPot

Planning on going out for the day to swim, hike or explore? Throw your meal into a CrockPot before you leave on low and have dinner ready and waiting for you when you get back.

• Our personal favorite is BBQ Chicken Sandwiches – chicken breasts and barbecue sauce in the CrockPot on low for 5-6 hours. Shred cooked chicken (we like to recoat our cooked chicken with a new bottle of barbecue sauce) and serve on a hamburger bun.

Pots & Pans

A plastic storage tote is perfect for holding your camping pots and pans. The tote keeps them all together, clean and slides right underneath the camper when not in use.

Clothing

We’ve camped in a tent, in a pop-up and now we have “upgraded” to a 50 year old smaller travel trailer. When we pack for our trips, no matter where we are sleeping, space is always a factor. Not many campers are built to hold all the food, clothing and supplies for a family of 10 so I’ve had to get a little creative and think outside the box.

• Extra clothes. Basic rule – the younger the child, the more extra sets of clothes I pack. One outfit per day, with an additional 2-5 per child. Note: A lot of campgrounds offer coin washer and dryers. I try to keep a handful of rolls of quarters in our camper for emergency washes. ‘Cause *hit happens.

• Clothes Roll, Clothes Roll, Clothes Roll. This little extra step in packing our clothes has saved us loads of space and headaches during the dreaded end of the day, crabby kids shower house packing time. Lay out shorts or pants, the shirt on top, a pair of underwear and then socks. Roll the outfit like a burrito. Wrap a rubber band around it and you’ve got an easy-to-grab clothes roll. Typically we place each kid’s clothes rolls in a paper grocery bag and shove them in the under bed storage.

• No pajamas. We gave up PJ’s while camping years ago. Shower in the evening, wear tomorrow’s clothes to bed, wake up and go in the morning. No muss and fuss with pajamas and the kids love that they can literally wake up and start their day.

• Big canvas laundry bags are amazing for storing dirty clothes. We typically store them in the back of the van when they get full (who the heck wants to sleep next to those stinky, nasty bags anyway?!) I throw them in the wash at home along with the clothes and store them back in the camper until the next time we go out!

Shoe Storage

We pack one pair of shower shoes (flip flops), one pair of creek walkin’ or river wadin’ shoes and one pair of tennis shoes. That’s 3 pairs each for 10 people and a whole heckuvalotta shoes. And after a few days, they get quite smelly (if you have boys, chances are they smell from the start anyway). I’ve learned that a plastic laundry basket is the key to our shoe dilemma. The holes allow them to air out and one basket means one spot for easy and quick storage. It probably should be noted, that due to the general aroma of said shoes, the basket stays outside the camper door. * I do try to line up the water shoes or any wet shoes in the sun during the day to try to dry them up and sanitize them a bit.*

Hanging Shoe Storage

These babies are not just for shoes! They’re amazing for camping crap storage, too! I prefer the heavy-duty canvas hangers to the cheap dollar store plastic ones, but either will serve the purpose! I have one hanging right inside our camper door to hold all the little things we need while setting up, tearing down or just daily (zip ties, hooks, flashlights, dog leashes, trash bags, etc.), one on our teeny tiny itsy bitsy bathroom wall to hold the toiletries (soap. toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, etc) and one in the storage closet for batteries, bug spray, sunscreen, lightbulbs, etc.

Shower House Buckets

Who knew a 5 gallon plastic bucket (found at Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart, Menards, etc.) could be so useful in the shower? We have one “Girls” bucket and one “Boys” bucket. Each holds all the shower basics – shampoo, soap, face wash, washcloths, etc. The kids grab their clothes roll, grab their towel, stuff them in the bucket and walk down to the shower house with only a bucket to carry between the group of them. For us, there’s multiple bars of soap and bottles of shampoo in both buckets to allow more than one person to shower at a time – but the bucket is big enough to hold it all! Plus, if there’s a line to take a shower, the bucket gives the impatient little people a place to sit while they wait.

Plastic Drawers

Plastic drawer carts are a great solution for pet supplies, diaper and wipe storage, toy storage, and even food storage. They can be placed in the back of your vehicle for easy access, in your camper or even in your tent. Lightweight and easy to move, they’re a must-have for organized camping.

Beach Survival

Heading to the beach? Grab a bottle of baby powder!

You know that moment when you’re leaving the beach at the end of a hot day, everyone is tired and crabby, you’re sweaty from carrying all the supplies a gazillion miles through the steamy sand to where your parked and you realize that everyone is about to get in the van covered in sand? And you also uncomfortably realize there’s sand in places that sand should most definitely not be? Baby powder to the rescue! Just sprinkle on legs, feet, arms, in underwear, in pits, on the back of your neck, etc and brush the sand right off. You’re welcome (’cause I know you’re gonna be thanking me later!)

• Beach toys (which for us is also rock toys, dirt toys, grass toys, everything camping toys) are a necessity. Grab a cheap white mesh net laundry bag from the dollar store to hold the toys. Most have a drawstring for closing which is just a bonus for carrying around! The mesh fabric allows sand and dirt to fall through and air circulation for anything that may be still wet when thrown in. Plus, if it gets really gross, you can just wash the bag out in the water!

• Plastic zip-up comforter and sheet bags are ideal for holding camping supplies! We have one that holds our silverware caddy, one that holds our plastic plates, cups and bowls, one for napkins and a few larger ones that hold our towels. We place our storage bags right on the picnic table or food prep table outside. They keep your dishware and silverware dry and clean while allowing easy access for use.

Back-Up Activities

The weather can change in a minute – especially if you are camping in the mountains. I keep a big plastic tackle box full of coloring books, notepads, crayons, markers, a deck of cards and a few travel-sized board games for rainy days, when I need to keep the kiddos close but busy while I cook or clean or simply to give myself a break.

Bug Fan

I’m not a fan of eating my food while covered in flies, mosquitos and gnats. It’s a major sanity breaking point for me. My husband learned years ago that his wife is much happier at dinner time if there’s a box fan on the table, set to high, blowing all those obnoxious bugs away while we eat. Game.Changer.

Light

A few cheapo solar light garden stakes are a perfect way to light the path to your tent, your camper or your picnic table without worrying about extension cords all over the place.

Plastic Trays

Plastic art & activity trays are a great addition to any traveling or camping trip. The trays stack up for easy storage and make a great solution to eating in the car on-the-go or eating in a cramped camper or tent if the weather is uncooperative. They’re also great for holding toys, art supplies and legos while the kiddos play in the car.

Hand Washing Station

Even if your campsite sits fairly close to a water spigot, you will be surprised how much little ones will need to wash (or at least rinse) off their hands and feet. A 5 gallon water carrier sitting on the edge of the picnic bench seat, on a stool or on a stump with a roll of paper towels bungee-corded around the top and a pump of soap right next to it will be well worth the 5 minutes it takes to set up.

Camping Supplies

The more you camp, the more supplies and gear you will accumulate. Keeping your camping stuff in the camper when not in use or in plastic storage totes around the house makes for way easier preparation packing. There are a few shelves in our garage reserved for our extra supplies. This makes it a simple grab and go when it comes down to packing day. Trust me: a little garage, shed or basement reorganizing to give yourself a place to store your camping crap together will be well worth the effort later.

Odds & Ends

Sometimes there are things you don’t even think about needing until you need it, ya know? Like backpacks (great for hiking, swimming, walking or exploring), binoculars, a small travel cooler, table cover, sunglasses, hammocks, a radio, tissues, toilet paper, baby wipes, eye drops, q-tips, extra paper towels, trash bags, umbrellas, clothesline, citronella candles, a firefly catching jar and a hatchet)