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We camped for 9 days earlier in the month. We always get about a week in June to take the kids. Honestly, it's easier to camp with kids for longer stints than just the weekend like Mr. and I did while we were dating and newly married. Over the years, I have implemented things to help keep our campsite organized and functioning well. It really does make for a better experience and more time to make memories.
Here are some of the things I do to keep us organized while camping:
1. Each person has a backpack for their personal items. This keeps what we take to a minimum. The backpack is all we have for personal items. Mom and dad also stick with this rule.
2. We each have one of these drawstring bags. We Keep them beside our beds to keep bathroom bags, flashlights, and other things we need to grab quickly or use a lot. Tbomb puts his lightsaber in his. Snapper puts her crafting things in hers. They both have nerf guns handy. I have my book, flashlight, reading light, and deodorant in mine. It helps keep things handy while keeping the tent floor clear of clutter. (bags here: https://amzn.to/3Vuv1xV)
3. Organize your food. I do this in 2 ways. I have these large fabric flower pots I use. They are similar to shopping bags but sturdier. (find here: https://amzn.to/3RvxdUN). I use 3 of them: snacks, lunches, dinners. The dinner one has a bag for each dinner so I can just grab my ingredients at once. Once again, keeps the tent floor clear of clutter.
4. While prepping to go camping, I create snack bags for the kids. Each zipper storage bag has 2 poptarts, and 2 of each kind of snack. I make sure there are enough snacks to last all day. Because they are more active while camping, they snack more, so I make sure they have a mix of healthy and fun snacks. There is one bag per day- I grab it when I grab my coffee stuff and put it on the picnic table. They usually divide them up first thing into their own bags. These go in the snack fabric pot.
5. Have "stations." Like things together. All fishing gear stays together once cleaned up, floats, boogie boards, life jackets, and goggles go in one spot. Other outside toys like water cars, digging stuff, etc goes in a large utility tote.
6. We use a picnic cooler for all of our meal stuff like plates, cutlery, tablecloths, etc. We're able to leave it sitting on the picnic table bench or under the picnic table and it is always ready to go. We have the Igloo with the fabric top, but I would suggest this one because not only is it another surface, but it is water tight. We had a big rain and water did get in ours- I will replace it with the one above (find here: https://amzn.to/3RpKvSn).
7. We have 2 pop-up hampers just for camping. One holds our trash bag and we bungee it to the lantern pole. The other goes in the tent with a trash bag for dirty clothes. When we clean up camp, we just take that trash bag out and everything that needs to be washed is ready to be taken care of when we get home.
8. We put all of our camp set-up items in a plastic storage bin. It has a clothesline, extra tarp, light poles, camp lights, tent stakes/ hammer, toilet, collapsible, etc- all the items we need when we first get to camp and the items that must be stored once we get home. While camping, we can put the tent bag and other items that we only need when putting up and taking down camp. This bin sits outside the tent because it is watertight and has no food in it.
9. Set up a cooking area. That way, when it is time to cook, everything is ready for you and you are not scrambling.
10. Hand washing station. This is a big one for us. I put camp-safe soap in an empty hand sanitizer bottle for a backpack- the silicone case allows me to hang it from the spigot. I also hang a hand towel with a bungee from the back of the spigot. We use a neck light wrapped around the pipe for light after dark.
Every family has different needs, but figuring out a camp setup that works for your family is essential to a peaceful and productive trip. If our camp is not organized, I can't enjoy the time with my family. I hope some of these ideas help your family.
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