Make the Most of Your Summer Camping Trip
Camping is one of those favorite family summer past times. Whether it is just Dad and his boys, Mom and the girls, or the whole family. The last thing you want to do is spend your entire summer over a stove or doing dishes. Then again the worst dread of summer fun CLEANING!
It is all set-up and ready to go. It’s clean and everything is pretty much in place. Or so you think. By the time you start moving your own things into the camper to give it your personal touch, kids running in and out, and packing food into cabinets and refrigerators the place is a mess once again.
Some easy and some common sense tips for keeping your summer fun and not just another day at the old grind doing the same ole same ole.
When you are planning a weekend get away to your camper, make a list. Use this list. Make a list that has everything you think you are going to need for that weekend. List clothing, shoes, coats, food, pet food, fishing needs. Anything you can think of. Then go over this list in a family meeting of sorts. Make sure you’re not leaving anything out that someone else in the family wants for that weekend trip.
You do not necessarily need to make a special trip to the grocery store for your weekend of fun. On the food list, start with things that you have at home. Make a daily menu from breakfast through dinner and the snacks in between. If you have a dozen eggs, bacon or sausage, and biscuits in the fridge at home take those. Milk, you’ve got a gallon, pack it in a cooler. Lunch made easy is always a sandwich and some chips. Get inventive with your sandwiches you do not have to do bologna and ham everyday of your trip. Make up some tuna or chicken salad before you leave home. Or take a few cans of tuna, or a container of pimento cheese . Think of things your whole family will eat so your not making five different types of lunch. If you think you will have hamburgers or hot dogs for dinner one night, check out your freezer chances are you have a couple pounds of ground beef to make your own hamburger patties out of. With kids there is usually a pack to two of hot dogs in the fridge pack these things in the cooler too. If there is something special you are wanting for one special nights dinner and you just don’t have it, make another list for that, and make a quick stop at the grocery on the way and pick up fresh veggies for a nice salad, or a couple nice rib-eyes for a grilled steak dinner. Point being here you had things at home if you took the time to look and plan that covered most of your food needs. You just saved yourself at least fifty dollars at the grocery store, by packing a lot of the food you already had in your house.
Once at your camper and you have all this food that you mostly brought from home, you do not want to spend the entire time cooking and cleaning the kitchen area. The sandwiches for lunch if you did decide on bologna or ham can be made into grilled ham and cheese or grilled bologna. No need to mess the kitchen when it can be done outside. Paper towels as plates for sandwiches are a wonderful idea, then there are no dirty dishes to wash, and no utensils to wash. If you went the other route and decided to make some type of other sandwich topping, still use the paper towel idea and save a dish to wash or a paper plate. Use the paper plates or plastic plates anytime you can to save on the dish washing time, if you make hamburgers or hot dogs then break out the paper or plastic plates. Still keep a few normal glass or ceramic plates handy as well as some normal utensils for things that are harder to eat with plastic ware or on a flimsy plate. I am sure you know that eating a steak on a paper plate or trying to cut a steak with a plastic knife and fork does not work the best. Utilizing paper towels, paper or plastic plates, plastic utensils, and of course re-useable plastic cups can cut down so much time when it comes to cleaning the kitchen area or doing dishes every five seconds.
How do you keep the inside of your camper area clean? First, make sure everyone knows when they decide they want to walk through the door that the shoes come off! If your kids are covered in dirt, ask them if there is something they need that you can get for them, if they say they are going inside to sit or rest, get them into the camper bathroom for a “hose” down first, change them into some lounging clothes and take their dirty clothes outside for a shake off and lay them to the side to be used again when they decide to go play some more. If they’ve been swimming and are dripping wet, keep a towel handy to dry them off and wrap them in temporally until you can get them into the bathroom area to “hose” them off and get them changed. If you have friends over, make sure that they observe your rules as well. No dirty shoes inside, no dripping wet bodies sitting on furniture, no getting a new cup with every drink, and no leaving their trash laying around to make a bigger mess for you!
By doing some of the above tips such as the planning, lists, and rules you will save yourself so much time. If you think about a 2 �½ day weekend, and you take in to consideration how much time depending on your family size you spend on dishes, cooking, and cleaning , you could easily save yourself at least 3 or 4 hours out of that 2 �½ days. That is an extra 3 or 4 hours you have to play with your kids, go swimming with your kids, lounge and rest, or if you are boating family that is an extra 3 or 4 hours of family fun boating time.
By planning and packing mostly food from home that you would use anyway if you were home. You quite possibly saved yourself at least fifty to one-hundred dollars at a grocery store for that 2 �½ day weekend trip.
If you can cut the time and money you spend to buy groceries, cooking, and cleaning, you save yourself so much more then time. You save you and your family headaches along the way. If you prepare and plan for your weekend get away, you have more time to play and enjoy yourself. If you save some money along the way also even better. Cut those un-needed expenses and tasks when it comes to your family fun time at your camper, and enjoy your family and yourself!
