After we packed up our site and headed home from our first tent camping trip with the kids, we immediately started brainstorming things we could have done differently to make the trip even better. In this post, I’ll share all the things we came up with that we were all set to implement on our next trip to Linville, NC in September.
Packing Up
- We planned to use collapsible trunk organizers inside of our storage bins to better organize smaller supplies. We had to dig through the bins for things way too often. This made quite a mess of our containers.
- We should have been more strategic with the way we packed items inside the trunk of our van. The sleeping bags and bedding should have been on the bottom of the trunk, with the tent and tarp on the very top of everything. This would have made it easier to unpack and set the tent up first without making a big mess dragging everything out to get to the tent.
- We also wanted to purchase some type of mat or boot tray for outside the entrance to the tent. Our tent has a small vinyl “porch” that was just covered in mud the whole time.
Arrival
- Have heavy snacks ready for the kids that are easy to access. Let them eat while we put the tent up.
- Have folding chairs (especially the kids’) easy to access
Inside the Tent
- Sleeping arrangements needed to change. We decided to upgrade everyone to cots over time.
- We needed a designated set up for all of our diabetes supplies. There are small pockets/pouches on the sides of the tent in a couple places. We need to designate one of these to hold the supplies we may need to access in the middle of the night, and make sure the adults can get to them easily.
- We decided to use a packing cube for each person’s clothing, which would slide under the cots we planned to get.
- We need to add a second extension cord so we didn’t have to pull the cord we used for cooking back into the tent each night for charging the kids’ devices.
- Fans-we made a desperate trip into “town” to grab some battery operated fans for our second night! Our next experience should be cooler during the nights, but at least we have these now.
- Bugs-We needed to research some type of bug repellent device for when we are hanging out at the campsite.
Cooking/Eating
- Don’t plan on using the fire to cook on the first night if arriving late afternoon. When you’re getting everything set up and it starts getting to be dinner time, you don’t want to have to stop to make a fire.
- Similarly, don’t plan to cook an elaborate breakfast on departure day. This way we can clean most of the cooking items the night before so they’re ready to pack up.
- We needed a better solution for the cooler. Our cooler was really small and didn’t keep the ice cold as long as I’d hoped. Short of buying a $500 cooler, we are still thinking of a solution for this!
- We used a regular electric griddle to cook breakfast both mornings. While it worked fine, it wasn’t an ideal set up. We’ve purchased a Coleman propane stove for our next trip, so I’ll update with how that went soon.
Next week I’ll share part 2 of our tips & tricks for managing tent camping with kids!
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