I know this post is a departure from our typical Montessori posts, but stick with me: it’s all about the prepared adult and camping with our two daughters. We live in Central Massachusetts and will camp anywhere within a 5 hour drive, Acadia and far northern Vermont have been our driving/camping limits so far. I’ve afflinked to items we use when we camp in this post in case you’re just getting started and they’ll open in a new tab so you can keep track of what you need without losing your place.
We had severely minimized our camping gear a decade ago and had to start over a couple years back, so this is where we ended up! This list isn’t exhaustive, there’s certainly more to add but this is a good place to get you started. I’m sure I’ll come back to it over the years and add more to it or edit things that worked for us!
Now that both of our daughters, at 7 and 9, are firmly in the second plane of development (between the ages of 6 and 12) we are enjoying a lot of family time, independent time and life adventures that involve question asking, introspection and lots of activity. The perfect summer activity for us the past three summers has been camping. When we say camping we mean in tents, haul our own water, and sometimes even hike-in campsites nowhere near our car. It’s become such a special time for our family, but also an activity that requires a lot of preparation.
First some background: we live in a modestly sized home, we have extremely limited storage (No garage! No real attic! Small basement! Closets? I don’t know her.), we have two small cars, and we’re on a budget. Our requirements for camping is that the materials for our 4 person family can all fit into the trunk of our Camry plus a roof bag or in/on top of our vintage Prius. Going with vintage on that one, since she’s a trooper and recently turned 200k! Which car we take depends on if we are also bringing our bikes, which further impacts what we pack. Our goal is to eventually backpack together, so we have (mostly) purchased items that are small, can do double duty and are (for the most part) lightweight.
We usually camp for a week at a time and bring most of our food, activities and even inflatable watercraft and then make our site home base. Not everything that works for us will work for you, but if you’re just getting started and don’t want to overpack and spend all your money, then we should be friends.
The Kitchen
First, one thing you should know is that I will organize everything by what “room” the items would typically live in — first up is the kitchen because so much of camping is meal planning/cooking/storing/cleaning.
Most importantly, water. We like water cubes because we can keep them small and folded on the trip and fill them with potable water when we get there.
We mostly eat Freezer Bag meals out of dehydrated ingredients (like my most favorite dehydrated refried beans), create a weekly menu and then make sure everything is stored in our dry sacks in the opposite order than we would need them, with last going in first. We use a really simple propane burner for all of our cooking.
Safety Note: (Never cook inside/without ventilation!) It’s important to note that we use our dry sacks and hang them from a tree to keep them out of reach of bears/raccoons/squirrels if we are hiking in and where we camp are able to keep food in our cars. If you’re in bear country that can get into cars and climb trees, definitely abide by campsite rules regarding food. And never keep food, scented items or food-scented items in your tent; that’s a big no-no that can get extremely scary at night/when you’re away from camp. Kitchens and bedrooms should always remain separate when camping. Firm rule.
More kitchen items include easy to clean dishes, marshmallow roasting sticks, a kitchen sink, a water pot or kettle, Campsuds biodegradable soap, a sponge, garbage bags, a sharp knife, a pour over coffee maker, everyone has their own water bottle, and a small frying pan.
We use these quick dry microfiber towels for so many things, but they’re especially useful to have a clean surface, dry a dish or provide insulation when our food is cooking/dehydrating. They’re easy to rinse off and dry on the clothesline as well. We keep everything for our kitchen in a backpack and bring it out of the car and set it up, clean it up and pack it back away after every meal to keep any curious critters at bay.
You may opt to have pop up canopy as well, totally optional, but super nice if you have the room/budget!
The Wardrobe
Our wardrobe is simple and fast drying. Our favorite shoes to wear are Crocs because they float, they’re easy to wash off, they’re light and they’re comfortable. We even had fun a couple summers back with shoe charms in lieu of camp badges, they’re just a great camp shoe, just don’t get them too close to the fire! We bring at least 2 swimsuits that can double as shirt/shorts and love the long sleeve SPF shirts because they cut down on sunscreen application time. We camp in New England where it can get cold quickly, so it’s nice to have a light layer to wear as well. Everyone has their own headlamp, too!
The Bedroom
We use these Sleepingo sleep pads for our mattresses and they’re really comfortable and super small. We use a USB rechargeable pump to inflate most things when we camp but you could also do it the old fashioned way. The kids’ sleeping bags we have are no longer made, but these are really similar. We’ve had our adult bags for years, but we like ones like this that are mummy, in stuff sacs and lightweight.
The Bathroom
Don’t forget your towel! We have 4 of these Rainleaf towels in Large which work great for the shower/post swim and they come in super fun colors so each member of the family has their own. We hang them in our tent to dry so they don’t get rained on the clothesline and stay much cleaner for us. Don’t forget a first aid kit, too! And always be sure to restock between trips! Don’t forget the bug spray, too!
You might also be extra like us and bring your own latrine… if this is you, this is the one we like and the little tent to go around it as well as the refills and the (HA!) Poo Powder. Never thought I’d share with the world our camping bathroom, but it works for us!
The Living Room
Everyone should have a chair. I felt like this was extreme but if you’re car camping and have the room, a quick collapsible camping chair is a must. There’s nothing like sitting around the campfire at night, or the morning drinking your coffee. Each campsite we go to has a picnic table, but that’s just not as comfortable as you want it to be after a long day on the water or hiking. We also usually have a citronella candle going when we’re eating/around the fire because man oh man do the mosquitoes like to come hang out with us! A hammock is also super nice to have for afternoon naps/reading time if your campsite has trees, we have two because they’re always popular.
The House
I know there are about a million options for tents. We have spent way too many afternoons researching them, weighing the pros and cons… and it turned out the tent my husband bought on a whim worked out really great for us. We’re giving it some more waterproofing this year after almost 6 solid months of setup time over the last 3 years, but it has served us through huge storms, floods, wind, freezing cold and heat. The 8-person tent we have is giant (definitely not for backpacking), but it fits all of our gear we want to keep dry, and where we camp it rains a lot… so it’s nice to have a dry place where you can stand up (we’re also not tall people, so that helps). We always setup our tent on a tarp, and this tarp is large enough for the tent we have. These lights are nice for the inside.
The Garage
Something we don’t have at home but we do have when we camp! Don’t get too excited, when we camp we have a single bag that’s our “garage” — it has duct tape, rope we use for laundry line, extra fabric tarps, extra stakes, a hammer for putting tent stakes in, you get the point. Anything you need to repair/install camp goes here, gets used, and gets put back so we always know where to find it.
For Fun
We have inflatable kayaks (and life jackets!) and a stand up paddle board as well as our family fleet of bikes (and helmets!). We use this bike rack for our Camry which holds 4 bikes (2 adult and 2 kid). It did cause a couple new scratches, so beware, but worth it to us to be able to have our bikes with us! Depending on camping location we will bring a combination of these items. If we need to bring the bikes plus a watercraft, then we end up bringing two cars. It’s not ideal, but most of the point of camping is to have fun, so we bring our walkie talkies and make a caravan of it!
Don’t forget to bring books, some fun solar lights for outside at night, whatever sounds fun and relaxing for you!
Also, please always make sure you bring and use safety equipment, oftentimes you’re camping far away from everything, and the last thing you want on your hands is an avoidable emergency!
In the off-season we clean, dry and store all of this equipment in four large stackable plastic tubs in our basement and make a note of what needs repair/replacing for the next year since tired/camped out August us doesn’t necessarily remember again in June when we go to get setup again! Well, if you’re still with me, thank you for reading! I hope you find this list accessible in terms of space and budget and you consider minimalist tent camping with your family! We have an upcoming trip this summer where we can only access our site by ferry with no car, so that will be a whole new adventure for us, I’m sure I’ll be back with edits!
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