Picture this. For your summer camping trips, you arrive at the campground unhurried before dinner. You have time to set up your RV and patio area – while it’s still light. You enjoy an easy, delicious dinner. Your fire starts with one match, and you don’t get eaten to death by mosquitos. Your campsite is where everyone can relax and have a good time.
Pinch yourself. This isn’t a pipedream. It’s what happens when camp life runs smoothly. And when your camp runs smoothly, your daily adventures can run smoothly, too.
These are the camping hacks that’ll make your smooth camping dream come true.
But to be clear, we’re not going to share any half-baked hacks that only partially solve your problem and cause more stress than they’re worth.
So, if you’re looking for the “use your headlamp and an empty milk jug to make a lantern” hack, you’re in the wrong place.
(Seriously, just buy this. It’s $11. Solar powered. Easier to store than an empty jug. And they actually illuminate a 6-foot radius. Please leave the milk jugs in the recycling bin.)
But if you’re looking for RV camping hacks that actually solve common camping problems, then you’re in the right place. Keep reading.
Camping Hacks Before Your Camping Trip Starts
A smooth trip starts with proper planning and preparation. Unfortunately, the planning phase is where many of your problems can start. Disorganized camping gear is the quickest way to kill the good vibe of an upcoming camping trip.
There’s nothing more frustrating than knowing you have something but not being able to find it. So, let’s start with camping hacks and tips before your journey.
1. Make Meals Easy: Premix Meals in Plastic Bags
With a little extra prep at home, you can make mealtimes a breeze.
Here’s how:
- Measure your dry ingredients into a heavy-duty plastic bag. (Don’t use the cheap bags that burst easily.)
- Label it with the meal, day. and contents. Add the necessary wet ingredients, including additional baking instructions where applicable.
- Pack it away with the food, and then when the meal time comes, add the wet ingredients listed.
- Skip the bowl and spoon! Mix it with your hands.
(Or better! Let the kids squish it up. It’s an easy way to get them involved. And kids are more likely to eat what they help cook.)
- Once mixed, you can clip a corner to fill muffin tins or pour pancakes–whatever the recipe calls for. This makes clean-up a breeze (more on that later).
The same prepping concept goes for dinners, sides, and snacks. The more you do beforehand, the less you have to do during your trip. Here are some other examples of easy prep work:
- Marinade your meat so you can just throw it on the grill.
- Premix a large batch of trail mix or puppy chow as a go-to snack
- Pre-make kabobs ready for grilling
- Opt for premade sides like pasta salad, slaw, or chicken salad.
Prepping before saves stress later.
2. Stay Organized with Clearly Labeled Bins.
If you’re like me, your family does all different kinds of camping.
- RV-camping
- Group camping
- Backpacking
- Primitive camping
- Car camping
- Canoe camping
We’ve done it all.
Different outings call for different gear, so buy clear bins and label them according to the kind of camping gear they hold. To avoid mix-ups, put your backpacking gear in one bin and your RV camping gear in another.
Some gear is universal. You take it with you every time, like cookware. So you have a bin labeled “COOKWARE.”
Now go one step further and label everything that belongs in the cookware box. Like this:
COOKWARE
- Dutch oven
- Skillet
- Kettle
- Utensils
- Skewers
- Silicon cups (I’ll explain later.)
As a best practice, always store sleeping bags, camp pillows, blow-up mattresses, and/or cots together. And yes, please keep your sleeping bag in a container so that it doesn’t gather dust or bugs in your garage.
With this labeling system in place, just about anyone (of any age) can easily put things away when you arrive back home. This system also makes it easy to take inventory and see what’s missing.
Make your Camping Gear Work for Your Campsite
Now that you’re ready to go, let’s talk about what to bring to your campsite and what not to.
Don’t fall for all the flashy hacks that require you to buy a new piece of gear. If you have a piece of gear for every camping idea you want to try, then you’re just adding cogs to a machine. When things get complex, they break more easily.
Resist the urge to follow all the camping tips and tricks, and simplify your camping checklist. Find the hacks that solve a specific problem you have, and then stick with those.
These are the best camping hacks that I use while camping.
3. Beat the Bugs with a Fragrant Campfire
I’m sure you’ve seen the “all-natural” bug spray “hacks” on Pinterest with random concoctions of essential oils. I’ve tried two so far that work okay, but I hate walking around smelling like
Citronella and tea tree.
Instead, bring along a sprig of sage or rosemary. Wrap it in foil and put it in your fire.
Smoke already bothers mosquitos. But that only helps you if you stand in the smoke all night. The aroma from charing herbs, however, significantly cuts down their number (and smells a whole lot better).
4. Make a Hand Washing Station with an Old Laundry Soap Container
Unless your RV has a sink, it’s not always convenient to go inside and wash up. Unfortunately, washing up is a non-negotiable. Without it, your kids will track sand and dirt into your RV, so you’ll need to scrub those little hands if you don’t want dirty fingerprints lingering on your RV’s surfaces.
But the answer isn’t always as simple as corralling your kids around the sink. For one, it’s annoying when you’re trying to get dinner ready, and someone keeps needing water. But handwashing also increases your freshwater usage. And if you’re not hooked up to water at your campsite, then that freshwater tank holds a precious commodity.
By having a separate wash station with a jug that is easy to refill and transport, you’re saving the fresh water in your tank for drinking, cooking, etc. It’s a lot easier to fill up an old laundry jug than to move your camper and refill your tanks.
So reuse those large, clunky liquid laundry soap containers and save your freshwater.
5. Make Clean-Up Easy
Nobody wants to do the dishes at home – even though you have a dishwasher to do the hard work for you. And the chore doesn’t get easier when camping. (Unless you camp like a caveman and don’t use any dishes.)
Here’s how to make doing the dishes easy:
- Don’t use a ton of dishes to prepare food. If you’re using Ziplock bags like I recommended, you’re already halfway there.
- Use the grill, not a pan, to cook in.
- Plan meals that don’t even need dinnerware, such as hotdogs, kabobs, eggs in a bag, or oatmeal in a pouch.
- Create a dunk station so everyone washes their own dishes.
The dunk station method requires a mesh bag that fits your dishes. In total, you should have around three to four stations. After you wipe all of the food off your plate and throw it in the trash, you dunk your dishes into the mesh bags at the different stations.
- Hot water (like boiling hot)
- Soapy water
- Rinse water (still hot)
- Bleach water (optional to kill all the germs.)
Hang them on the line to dry, and poof, clean up is no longer difficult because everyone only does one set of dishes.
6. Use Silicone Baking Cups to Steam Bake
One of our favorite breakfasts is Biscuits and Gravy. But baking—even with an RV oven—is a tricky proposition. Whether you’re using a Dutch oven, box oven, or propane oven, all of them involve a heavy dose of guesswork and suffer from uneven heating.
Personally, I was tired of burnt-bottomed biscuits!
Enter the silicone baking cup and the Steam Bake Method. (This is nothing new. It’s been used in Asian cuisine for thousands of years.)
Here’s how the Steam Bake Method works:
- Using a pot with a tight-fitting lid, set an inch of water to simmer.
- Then, mix your dough together and fill your silicone baking cups.
- Once the water is simmering – not boiling, gently place the silicone cups in your pot and seal the lid.
- Wait for the prescribed baking time, then remove the lid.
Your biscuits will be light, fluffy, and perfectly moist. I’ve never burned biscuits using the steam method. Even better, there’s no box oven to set up or a Dutch oven to clean.
Super simple.
7. Make Starting your Campfire Easy
Can you even call it a camping trip if you don’t have a campfire for at least one night?
Whether you’re RV camping or backpacking, you’ll want a campfire at some point. However many campgrounds prohibit campers from gathering their own firewood. You’re only allowed to burn the wood they provide.
In these cases, they’ll typically only provide huge logs that you have to break down, so don’t forget to bring your ax.
Skipping over this blatant misuse of capitalism for the moment, you’ve got to start a fire with whatever they give you.
- Wet wood
- Chunky wood
- Partially rotted wood
- Takes-forever-to-lite hardwood…
It’s up to you to get it lit because you can’t make s’mores without a campfire.
That’s why you need a firestarter on hand – and no, I don’t mean lighter fluid.
You can buy a Duraflame Firestarter log as your fire starter, or you can make your own.
Melt down paraffin wax (or broken crayons), and pour the hot wax over wood shavings inside a cardboard egg carton. Once the wax cools, you can cut them up into easy fire starters.
BONUS: When You Get Home…
When the fun is over and you get home, you’re not done. This last and best camping hack is more of a piece of good advice.
Make sure everything gets cleaned and stored properly for your next camping trip.
If you’re using bins, that means checking the inventory to make sure all your gear gets put back. For recreational equipment, like bikes, climbing gear, fishing gear, etc., it means cleaning, performing proper maintenance, and storing it so it doesn’t get damaged or tangled.
And yes, if you use an RV, it also needs proper storage if you’re going to enjoy it for years to come. You need to store it out of the sun and undercover to protect it from debris build-up and storm damage.
I know that’s easier said than done. So, if you’re struggling to find covered storage that’s also affordable for your RV, check out Neighbor.com
Neighbor is a peer-to-peer RV storage marketplace that offers RV storage up to 50% cheaper than traditional storage options.
They have listings in all 50 states, including some right in your own neighborhood. Check out these listings from pre-screened hosts near you!
