Whenever summer comes along, the first thing you should do with your family is going out on a camping trip out in the wild. Deep forests and mountainsides away from society are great destinations for such camping trips.
For this, you and all your family members have to free up the schedules and decide on a specific week when you can go out camping altogether.
After your schedules have matched, you next need to create a family camping checklist.
This checklist is necessary to ensure that you do not miss anything important when you are out there in the wild. In the list, you will have to include all kinds of necessary items and some other things needed explicitly for your family members.
Let us now begin checking off essential items to get and pack up for the camping trip.
Our Camping Checklist For Families
Making a family camping trip checklist is the most crucial step before you all head out on an adventure. We will now talk about the essential things you will require for this trip and some extra items you might need depending on the situation or the members’ personal needs. Below the list of important items are given:
Food
Since you will be out on a camping trip, it will obviously not last only a few hours. Usually, long family camping trips last for about a week, more or less. For that, you will need to make sure you have an abundant supply of food.
You also need to consider the number of family members as you have to make sure there is plenty of food for everyone. In this item, lots of water and some other drinks must be included because dehydration is a deadly thing to suffer when hiking on foot into the woods or the mountains.
It’s impossible to bring already cooked food over and expect it to last without a fridge out there. The food will get spoiled eventually, and you will have to throw it away. There are some specific kinds of foods you can take on your journey.
But if possible, you can get an icebox or cooler for some non-perishable goods or food or to keep your drinks cooled down. You can carry some ready-made food that will not spoil.
Bread or cookies are some examples. Dried food can sustain you for many days, plus it can also fill you up for a while. But they do not provide you the sustenance or nutrition you need for your body.
That is why you will also need to bring some raw groceries to cook out there. Bringing meat will not be a good idea since it needs freezers. And if it is possible to fish in any lakes or ponds in the forest or mountain, you should definitely do that if you want to eat fish.
Cooking Tools
Since getting the proper nutrition is very important, you need to make sure you also carry various cooking tools and utensils. Since you will be in nature, it would be more environmentally friendly if you avoided one-time plates and utensils.
Try to bring metal plates and glasses along with other appliances. There will be water sources in any lake nearby where you can wash everything.
You need to bring a compact cook set, fuel in a bottle, matches, and a camp stove among the cooking tools or equipment. A pot or pan made of cast iron is also necessary.
If you have the survival skills to create a stove from wood, you will not need the portable stove set or fuel. But you still need to bring knives and a cooking board for chopping groceries.
Hygiene Essentials
Since you will be out there camping for days, you must wash your body and stay clean. There are more chances of getting dirty and muddy in a forest or mountain than getting dirty or messy in the city areas.
You can at least hope to find a water body, whether big or small, in the wild. But the usual hygiene products that you are used to using at home will not be provided by mother nature.
Some of the products you need to bring are a sponge or dishtowel, a bath towel, and some biodegradable soap. For a change of clothes, you will also need some resealable storage bags. Also, do not forget to get a clothing line to dry the clothes you have washed in the lake.
It will be set near your campsite. Toiletries, including toothbrushes, toothpaste, razors, shaving cream, lotion, first aid kit, personal medication, insect repellant, sanitizer, hair comb, etc., must be included in this part too.
Gear for the Camp Site
For the main shelter you will be making, you need a tent or two. Depending on the size of the tent you buy and the size of your family, make sure to buy the right one.
Besides tents, some other essentials also need to be bought. Some of these are the tent cords, hooks, etc. And to make your shelter more homely, you need to bring portable sleeping bags and pillows.
If you want to stay more elevated from the ground, then you can try taking air mattresses there instead. Do not forget to buy the air mattress pump so you can pump air into the empty and shriveled-up air mattress.
Since the forest at night time tends to be cold on some days, it would be wise to bring some blankets. Aside from the sleeping or shelter arrangements, you can add some more gear around the campsite. Foldable chairs, umbrella shades, foldable tables, etc., are handy to have around.
Lights
Campfire might be nice as a light source. But following this traditional form of lighting is not safe or long-lasting. You still need backup lights that illuminate way more than campfires do.
Some lighting equipment you can get is flashlights, overhead lights for the campsites, and portable lanterns to move around anywhere and set down.
Miscellaneous Items
Sometimes you might get bored when you can’t leave the campsite. When you gather around to cook and eat together, there will be a long wait until the meals are prepared. So during that time, you might want to spend that boring idle time with something fun.
Board games, musical instruments, books, a sporty game that involves balls or bats, etc., are some things you can use to spend your time without feeling bored.
Final Verdict
There is always a risk of forgetting something from the family camping checklist that you have worked so hard to prepare carefully. But a solution to that would be to print out the list and hand a copy to each family member so that others can remember what you might forget
And right before you head out from your home, make sure to check off everything on the list while you are officially packing up all your bags so that you know you have everything.