Print | Close X

Tips for Camping and Cookouts

Tricks for a more enjoyable camping experience.

From Extraordinary Uses for Ordinary Things

Aluminum Foil

You're about to relax in your backyard with a well-deserved glass of lemonade or soda pop. Suddenly bees start buzzing around your drink -- which they view as sweet nectar. Keep them away by tightly covering the top of your glass with aluminum foil. Poke a straw through it, and then enjoy your drink in peace.

To keep meat drippings off your barbecue coals, fashion a disposable drip pan out of a couple of layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Shape it freehand, or use an inverted baking pan as a mold (remember to remove the pan once your creation is finished). Also, don't forget to make your drip pan slightly larger than the meat on the grill.

After the last steak is brought in, and while the coals are still red-hot, lay a sheet of aluminum foil over the grill to burn off any remaining foodstuffs. The next time you use your barbecue, crumple up the foil and use it to easily scrub off the burned food before you start cooking.

Brighten up the electrical lighting in your backyard or campsite by making a foil reflector to put behind the light. Attach the reflector to the fixture with a few strips of electrical tape or duct tape -- do not apply tape directly to the bulb.

When you need a convenient disposable platter for picnics or church suppers, just cover a piece of cardboard with heavy-duty aluminum foil.

Don't feel like lugging a frying pan along on a camping trip? Form your own by centering a forked stick over two layers of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Wrap the edges of the foil tightly around the forked branches but leave some slack in the foil between the forks. Invert the stick and depress the center to hold food for frying.

Keep your tootsies toasty at night while cold-weather camping. Wrap some stones in aluminum foil and heat them by the campfire while you are toasting marshmallows. At bedtime, wrap the stones in towels and put them in the bottom of your sleeping bag.

Place a piece of heavy-duty aluminum foil under your sleeping bag to insulate against moisture.

It's a tried-and-true soldier's trick worth remembering: Wrap your kitchen matches in aluminum foil to keep them from getting damp or wet on camping trips.

None of your fancy fishing lures working? You can make one in a jiffy that just might do the trick: Wrap some aluminum foil around a fishhook. Fringe the foil so that it covers the hook and wiggles invitingly when you reel in the line.
See more uses for Aluminum Foil.

Aluminum Pie Pans

There's nothing like a cookout in the great outdoors. Whether you're planning a day trip or a longer excursion, be sure to pack a few aluminum pie pans. Put a small hole in the middle of each pan, then push them up the sticks used for roasting hot dogs or marshmallows. The pans deflect the heat of the fire, protecting your hands and your children's hands.
See more uses for Aluminum Pie Pans.

Balloons

Bring along several helium-filled balloons on your next camping trip to attach to your tent or a post. They'll make it easier for the members of your party to locate your campsite when hiking or foraging in the woods.
See more uses for Balloons.

Bubble Pack

Get a better night's sleep on your next camping trip: Carry a 6-foot (2-meter) roll of wide bubble pack to use as a mat under your sleeping bag. No sleeping bag? Just fold a 12-foot-long (3.6-meter-long) piece of wide bubble pack in half, bubble side out, and duct-tape the edges. Then slip in and enjoy a restful night in your makeshift padded slumber bag.
See more uses for Bubble Pack.

Buckets

Here's a great way to wash clothes while camping. Make a hole in the lid of a 5-gallon (19-liter) plastic bucket and insert a new toilet plunger. Put in clothes and laundry detergent. Snap on the lid and move the plunger up and down as an agitator. You can safely clean even delicate garments.
See more uses for Buckets.

Coffee Cans

Bring a few empty coffee cans with you on your next camping trip. Use them to keep toilet paper dry in rainy weather or when you're carrying supplies in a canoe or boat.
See more uses for Coffee Cans.

Film Canisters

Just because you are roughing it, doesn't mean that you have to eat bland food. You can store a multitude of seasonings in individual film canisters to take along when you go camping, and you'll still have plenty of room for the food itself in your backpack or car trunk. It's a good idea for your RV or vacation cabin too.
See more uses for Film Canisters.

Foam Food Trays

If you need a quick disposable serving platter while you're on a cookout or camping trip, you can make one from a foam food tray. Wash it with soap and water, cover it entirely with foil, and load it up with food. Use these serving dishes to bring goodies to the church potluck, local bake sale, or sick neighbor. No worries about losing your own platters.
See more uses for Foam Food Trays.

Jars

When you're boating or camping, keeping things like matches and paper money dry can be a challenge. Store items that you don't want to get wet in clear jars with screw tops that can't pop off. Even if you're backpacking, plastic peanut butter jars are light enough not to weigh you down, plus they provide more protection for crushable items than a resealable plastic bag.
See more uses for Jars.

Soap

Nip cookout cleanup blues in the bud. Rub the bottom of your cast-iron pot with a bar of soap before cooking with it over a sooty open flame. Look, Ma! No black marks!
See more uses for Soap.

Toothpicks

Your guests want their steaks done differently at the family cookout, but how do you keep track of who gets what? Easy. Just use different-colored toothpicks to mark them as rare, medium, and well done and get ready for the accolades.
See more uses for Toothpicks.

Vinegar

Planning a camping trip? Here's an old army trick to keep away the ticks and mosquitoes: Approximately three days before you leave, start taking 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar three times a day. Continue using the vinegar throughout your trek, and you just might return home without a bite. Another time-honored approach to keep gnats and mosquitoes at bay is to moisten a cloth or cotton ball with white vinegar and rub it over your exposed skin.

Serve the ants on your premises with an eviction notice. Pour equal parts water and white vinegar into a spray bottle. Then spray it on anthills and around areas where you see the insects. Ants hate the smell of vinegar. It won't take long for them to move on to better-smelling quarters. Also keep the spray bottle handy for outdoor trips or to keep ants away from picnic or children's play areas. If you have lots of anthills around your property, try pouring full-strength vinegar over them to hasten the bugs' departure.

Keep your water supply fresh and clean tasting when hiking or camping by adding a few drops of apple cider vinegar to your canteen or water bottle. It's also a good idea to use a half-vinegar, half-water rinse to clean out your water container at the end of each trip to kill bacteria and remove residue.
See more uses for Vinegar.