We’ve used a trailer on our camping trips for the last couple summers, which provides a lot of comforts. We went back to tent camping for our recent camping trip to Big Sur, and I wanted to work out a few kinks. (Also, I used “short cuts” in the title because I feel like “hack” is severely over used, but yes, the tips at the end would be called “camping hacks” by anyone else.)

Kitchen

I loved having a kitchen and kitchen storage in the trailer. During our prior tent camping experiences, I felt like I was constantly going through bins trying to find what I needed. I also put our camping stove on the picnic table that almost all camp sites come with, which made eating at the table either cramped, or needing to be switched around before and after eating.

For the organization part of it, I resorted to a Pinterest idea and bought this clear shoe organizer to sort everything. A big key here is that the pockets are clear, so you can see through them and easily know what’s in each pocket. This one also had some very wide pockets and stuff hung out pretty far, so I grabbed my stapler and tucked some of those in before we took off. I used the hanging hooks that it came with and hung it from our tent canopy, which was serving as my kitchen. This worked out SO great – even Jeff and the boys commented on how convenient it was to find the things they needed (smore skewers, lighter, flashlights, napkins, etc.). Knowing me, these pockets will eventually be labeled, but for a maiden voyage, it worked great.

One thing to be weary of is loading it up before heading out. I didn’t want to pack everything separately and have to sort it into the pockets, so I just folded it over and over until I could stuff it into a bin. I had to remove some of the longer items and lay them horizontally, but it worked out fine.

Another Pinterest idea was to use a bungee cord for a makeshift paper towel dispenser. I bought a set like these from Dollar Tree and it worked out so great! I initially used a smaller bungee cord to hang the paper towels, but it was too tight and didn’t allow it to roll, so I’m glad I had a variety pack so I could find the right size.

I also bought large clips from Dollar Tree to clip down my tablecloths (sorry, couldn’t find a link, but they’re HUGE), and this set of carabiners just in case (which did come in handy).

I also took a large folding table and table cloth that functioned as my kitchen counter. This kept our picnic table open for just eating and hanging out. To make this space functional, I brought a round container to hold my cooking utensils (spatula, tongs, wooden spoons, etc.), a bucket for utensils, and a folding wire rack to hold some dishes. Plates went under the folding wire rack, and bowls and mugs went on top (upside down to prevent them from getting dusty).

To wash dishes, I moved the stove top and table cloth aside, and placed my collapsible washing buckets on the table. I have two of these buckets: one for washing, one for rinsing, and a collapsible drying rack like this one.

Ambiance

I really wanted to make our campsite feel homey, so again I researched some ideas on Pinterest and added the following:

Twinkle light strands from Target: I bought two of these, so I used one outside (even though they’re indoor – we did eventually put the battery pack inside our tent through a corner pocket), and one was strung back and forth inside our tent. I LOVED how this looked and the vibe it gave our camp site and the inside of our tent as we got ready for bed. Make sure you buy batteries as well!

Solar lights from The Dollar Tree: at $1.25 per light, it doesn’t get much better than these! I bought six of them, although apparently I left behind the stake for one of them at the store (they stick to the display box, so make sure you get the light AND the stake when you pull it out of the box), and we placed them outside on either side of our tent. One of them went crazy on the first night and was just blinking constantly, so that $1.25 went down the drain, but the rest of them worked really well, even with the fairly low amount of sunlight that our site got throughout the day.

A candle! I had a random candle on my desk, and decided to pack it up at the last minute. I would light it as it got dark and leave it on our picnic table, and it just added a little extra ambiance to the area.

Meal Prep

Last summer I took advantage of cooking meals prior to our trip and freezing them, which made cooking super easy. I made carnitas and spaghetti sauce and meatballs, and froze them in Ziplock bags. For the carnitas meal, I took some rice in a Ziplock bag and cooked that to go with our meal and warmed up some tortillas. I had pre-chopped the onion, lime, and cilantro, so that was ready to go too. For the meatballs, I just had to boil up some noodles, warm up the sauce and meatballs, and our meal was ready!

This was the first time where I pre-made our pancake batter so I could make pancakes for breakfast. I have tried the “ready to go” pancake mix where you just add water, and it’s just not for us (call us pancake snobs, I guess, ha!). I added everything to the batter except a mushed banana (we only eat banana pancakes in this house), which I added the morning I made them. I made pancakes our first morning at our campsite, so it only had to hold for a day. I thought I’d be able to put the banana in and mix up the bottle, but it wasn’t very easy. I think next time I’ll pour the batter in a bowl to mix it in more easily.

Another Pinterest find was to pre-crack some eggs and take them in a jar. I had the perfect glass jar from some cherries we had just finished up from an ice cream social, so I cracked six eggs into that, and made scrambled eggs and bacon for breakfast on our second morning. This worked out really great too: no cracking eggs, no wet, soggy egg box, no accidentally cracked eggs in the cooler.

I have to say, this was the BEST camp set up we’ve ever had. The amazing campsite definitely helped, but I think all of these little additions were HUGE.

What are your favorite tips and tricks when you go camping?