Now that we’re three years into traveling as a camper family, we’ve found some things that make our lives so much easier once we’re on the road. We’ve learned a lot of what does and doesn’t work for us and I honestly feel we get better every single time we camp. But, there are 5 things I do before I leave in my camper that make the rest of the trip so much easier. Like, every. single. time. I figure that all the camper families are getting ready to kick off their camping season, so I wanted to share them with you!
I Organize the Kids’ and My Clothes
Sometimes, it’s wrongly seems like the quickest thing to just throw things places. Especially, when we’ve inevitably put packing off until we are heading out the door for a 14+ day trip about 6 hours before leaving time. But, then, I’m on the road and can’t find anything. I’ve definitely found that when I’m able to organize mine and my kids’ clothes, it makes getting ready for each day and whatever it holds so much easier. So take the extra 30 minutes or so, get going ahead of time and get (and stay) organized.
Bonus Tip Within This: If you have little kids that you’re realistically still picking the clothes for (mine are 3 and 5), fold their outfits into each other. Shirt, pants, undies and socks all together.
This actually translates into all aspects of camping being the easiest time possible. Start off and stay organized, as best as you can.
I Meal Prep… Well, Sorta
I like to have some meals, or even just portions of meals, prepped and frozen in the camper freezer. If I know we’re going to have a handful of meals that need a pound of ground beef. I cook and freeze individual pounds of beef. We will freeze things like chili, soup, muffins, or casserole portions. This makes it a lot easier for busy days on the road that we can quickly eat, keeping our budget more in tact, and prevent us from just eating junk on the road, which can be easy to do.
Other Things That Make Cooking Easier on the Road: a blackstone and a crockpot.
Have a Toy and Book Bag Prepped and Ready That I Keep with Me or in the Camper
Something I have learned along the way is to not give our kids all the toys and books all at once for a road trip. I used to have a big basket with everything in the middle of their seats. Now, I let them each pick a handful of toys and a few books. Those go in the basket between the seats, plus, I start them out with something new or haven’t used in a long time. Then, once a day or so, I pull out “something new” to add to the basket. I hand something to each of the kids directly and then that becomes part of the basket of things to play with. This keeps things fresh and new. If they get a toy or book along they way, that’s their “new thing” for the day. But, I also learned not to do it immediately after a restroom stop, because then, they ask for a bathroom stop when they don’t actually need to go… damn, these kids are smart. These are our favorite screen-free toys for the kids.
Make Sure We Have EVERYTHING We Need for Work
We only get to travel in the camper as much as we do, because we both work either entirely or partially from home. I have my blog, obviously, and I do marketing work for the brewery I run events for and beertend at when I’m home. And Matt is fully remote. We need those paychecks to live the way we do. So, being sure we have every single thing we’d need is super important. I have a checklist of everything I need and I keep it in my travel notebook to check off before every single trip. Starlink, work notebook, camera, batteries, computer, chargers, all of it… But there’s nothing worse than having to blow money on something you don’t truly need and having to take time out of an adventure to do so.
Have a Loose Idea of Things to Do in Each Destination
I love a spontaneous trip with little to nothing planned. Roaming far and wide, wandering where the wind takes you. But, when you have a 3 and 5 year old, and don’t have a plan, often the wind leaves your sails 5 days into a trip and you don’t have the mental capacity to plan a single thing. We experienced this in Estes Park where we honestly blew almost an entire day because we simply had no plan and couldn’t get it together to come up with something. Now, are rest days important? Absolutely, but this wasn’t a rest day, I spent the day filled with guilt because I wanted to do something, but couldn’t get it together. Now, I like to have the same number of ideas of things to do as full days we’ll be in a destination. We might do more than what’s on this list, we might do less. We might do multiple of these in a day and find something completely different to do a different. But it’s at least a backbone of things to do and see that make us excited to get up and do them.
I have loved learning from fellow-campers along the way, so I want to pass anything along that I can to anyone new to camping. If you’re a seasoned camper, what are things you never leave without doing? If you’re new to the camping world, which of these felt most helpful?
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