Camping is very much like travelling, you never know the exact amount of luggage to pack. You don’t want to overpack and actually need less, and neither do you want to under-pack and actually need more. you find yourself stuck in the packing conundrum.
When packing, many things have to be considered like comfort, necessity, space, ease of movement, and so on. But oftentimes, travellers have to forgo the likes of comfort and others to keep everything lightweight and compact.
Minimizing Your Camping Gear
So, the pertinent question is, how do you pack lightweight while having everything importantly necessary with you on your camping trip? To answer this question, this feature’s going to give you a number of very practical tips on how to minimize your camping gear. Keep in mind that these tips are tested and trusted by backpacking pros and are sure to work for you.
1. Group Your Camping Gear
Before jumping to packing, you first need to decide what’s a necessity and what’s a luxury, and you’ll have to be brutally honest with yourself. A tip is to make three lists.
The first list should contain all the things you plan to take with you or things you imagine you’ll require. Meanwhile, the second is for the essential items that are imperatively vital to your survival like flashlights, and the last list is for luxury items, or better put, things you feel you need but at the end of the day don’t make much of a difference if you take them or you don’t.
In the case of the essential items, your list should contain some if not all of the following:
- Shelter items like tents and sleeping bags or pads, covers and blankets;
- Toiletry items like towels and soap;
- Food items like meals (prepped meals), water storage or filters if you can get water from outside, cooking and eating utensils;
- Fire-making items like matches or lighter, hatchet or camping knives;
- Safety and security items like first aid kits, flashlights, mobile phones; and others.
After these items, anything else is a luxury. Items like extra pillows, coffee-making machines, rope lights, and so on, aren’t that necessary and you can make do without them.
2. Pack Smaller Sizes With Lighter Gear
Camping will not last for an eternity, it’s just for a few days. Hence, you don’t need to pack your entire shampoo bottle or your entire stashed wallet for a 3-day outdoor experience. A pro tip any pro backpacker will give you is to repackage your items into small-sized versions for a lightweight goal. Instead of your large-sized towel, how about a small-sized one? Again, you can also focus on taking light backpacking gear to reduce the weight.
3. Choose Multi-purpose Items
Looking for a way to go lightweight on your camping trip, why not go multi-purpose? Yes, the good news is that many camping gear items can serve more than one purpose, saving you the stress of having to carry along too many items. For instance:
- Multipurpose tools like eating utensils, or multiple knives in one component reduce the load of carrying way more;
- Compression sacks used to store sleeping items can serve as pillows once empty;
- Trekking poles or ski poles can be used to pitch your tents;
- Jackets can serve as pillows too; and many other items.
4. Include Collapsible/Foldable And Reusable Gear
Collapsible/foldable gear makes a whole lot of difference when camping. They aren’t only practical but they also save you space when packing. Many of the necessary items like lanterns, organizers, and the like can be easily compressed or folded to fit into your backpack without problems.
Another option is to take reusable items like cutleries, water bottles, and other important items that require a simple wash or rinse and are good to go once again. That way you can take a limited number of such items to last you the entire camping trip while saving space in your backpack.
5. Pack Practical And Limited Clothing
When camping you don’t have to worry much about what you’re wearing; hence, you should pack less. For instance, you can pack a pair of shorts or cargo pants with two pairs of t-shirts. And to make sure your clothing doesn’t take up much space you can use the military style of folding to keep your clothes compact to avoid taking up space in your backpack.
Another tip is to take along practical clothes that have multiple uses. For example, cargo pants are a great choice for camping as you can store items in your extra pocket and hang things like a mini torchlight in the belt loops. Plus, cargo pants don’t get dirty easily and they are perfect for any weather, be it hot or cold.
6. Carry Out Meal Planning, Prepping, And Rationing
If you’re going to be cooking at your campsite and you intend to still pack light while enjoying the best that culinary can offer, a good tip is to plan and prep your meals before leaving.
To move forward, you can cut veggies and meat and even go as far as seasoning them and packaging them into small-sized containers to avoid carrying an extra load of whole veggies, knives, and seasoning containers. You can even get backpacking foods made in smaller versions that are space-fitting and delicious.
Lastly, rationing your meals, and repurposing leftovers will save you from having to carry way too much food on your camping trip.
7. Books Are A No-No
It sure is a delight to read in the open air, under the gaze of the skies, and with nature playing its own unique lullaby to you. But as tempting as the idea is, if your goal is to minimize camping gear, then books are a no-no. And the same applies to maps and guidebooks.
A very practical option to still keep the entertainment going is to have an e-book device handy. You can pack as many books as you want in a digital device without worrying about the weight implications. And for the likes of guidebooks, a tip would be to take pictures of everything you might require from it before embarking on your trip to reduce the chances of having extra luggage.
Go Camping
Being able to minimize your camping gear isn’t an easy task, yet neither is it impossible. According to backpacking pros, minimizing camping gear is very possible. And with some of the tips mentioned above, you’ll find out that not only is it doable, but you can also find better ways to make your camping gear more lightweight.
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