We had a wonderful camping season this past summer and I can’t believe that we are going to embark on our third season of camping next year! It feels like yesterday that we were just going to go pick up our camper.
While we will always be learning about how to do things more efficiently and effectively, we have picked up a couple of essentials that I wanted to share with you.
But before I share our essentials with you, make a list (it will be long at first) of everything you need for the interior. If looking for sample lists, I follow the Keep Your Daydream couple, Mark and Trish, and they have some great lists on their website.
Sometimes people can forget the start-up cost of getting into a camper. All those items on the lists you have created add up. And anything you can do to reduce that start-up cost is going to pay off for you!
First thing you will want to do, is ALWAYS consider what you have around the house. Do you have bedding that you no longer use taking up space in a blanket chest? We have a queen short (five inches shorter than a typical queen) and I REFUSE to buy the expensive sheets for those mattresses. Instead, I took a sheet set that was I ready to upgrade in our bedroom and shifted it to our camper. And to accommodate for the size difference, I used a…hair elastic to gather up the extra bulk of the sheets.
Next, consider those “Buy Nothing” or “Community Gifting” groups on Facebook. Check them daily or put out an ISO post (In Search Of).
After that, look at places like thrift stores. I scored all of our dinnerware and cookware at Goodwill and thanks to those 50% off colored tags, I got it all for under $30.
Finally, after you have exhausted all those options, it’s time to consider buying new. For example, the vacuum mop you will see below. It just made sense to buy that new. It was a very specific item and we preferred to buy it new (think… return policy, warranty, etc.)
The essentials below became our essentials through trial-and-error and frustrations of spending money on things that didn’t end up working out. So…I wanted to pass them along to YOU in hopes to minimize any of your frustrations, especially if you are just starting out. Or, if you are seasoned pro at camping, to peek at what works for us.
OK, here are my top 5 INTERIOR essentials we use every time we go camping! Let’s jump into them!
Interior Essentials
Label Maker: Label, label, label! It might be the teacher in me or my type A personality, but with everything labeled, it just makes things easier to locate! While the label maker does not go on our camping trips with us, we label every tote, bag, and containers that holds anything related to camping.
Plastic Spice Jars: Camping can produce a LOT OF WASTE. One of the ways that I try to cut down on that waste is at the beginning of each camping season, I pour some of our essential spices from our spice draw into these mini jars. I use the label maker to write which spices are in what jars. I travel with about 5-6 jars each season. And then, at the end of the camping season, I pour the unused spices back into their respective home-based jars. Plastic jars help during travel days too; no need to worry about breakages.
Portable Sound Machine: Even though those baby years are long gone, my daughter continues to use one to sleep. We picked this one up a long time ago for those nights away at hotels, grandparent sleepovers, etc. The sound machine is rechargeable and therefore doesn’t need a direct electrical connection to run. It is also compact and easy to store for travel days. We find it helpful especially because it cuts down on the noise coming from campsites at night and in the morning helps reduce any noise I may make when I’m getting ready for my morning walks.
Yeti Mugs: If you have been following along for a while, you know that our camping coffee journey. First, a french press followed by a compact 4 cup coffee maker, and now, despite the waste it produces, we have landed on a single-cup Keurig. Well, the same kind of goes for our journey with coffee mugs. First, we brought some ceramic ones from our house (again to reduce waste) but..they didn’t travel well (hello, ceramic!), and then we tried enamel mugs. Loved the designs but they were hot to the touch and cooled off quickly. So…we landed on Yeti Mugs. While the Yeti Mugs are somewhat bulky, they travel well because they are stackable, keep our coffee warm and our hands not burned.
Shark Cordless Mop: This cordless vacuum is a god send! Again, we have been on a journey to find something that works for our camper. We have tried cordless dusters and a Swiffer wet jet. We have gone with nothing and just waited until we were home to do a deep floor clean. But nothing was really working…until we found this. This Shark device is a vacuum and sprayer in one so…perfect for dirt and spills! We are storing this bulkier item in our underbed storage.
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For more on our camping adventures as well as all of other activities, check out my stories and reels on Instagram and Facebook.
Happy Adventuring!
~Natalie