Transcription
I am camping right now with my family. It has been rainy; it is wet. Kids get hungry; you're worried if they're cold at night. There's all these things that go into a camp out, so you might be wondering, if you're thinking about going camping, what are the essential items that you must have in order to have a dry, comfortable, safe, and fun camp out with your family? Stick around, because we're going to cover all the essentials for camping gear up and get outside.
First off, when you prepare to go camping, you should think about things in terms of systems: a cook system, a sleep system, a shelter system. But the way I prioritize these, and even group these many systems within systems, is to think about things in order of priority for your own safety. And that is, first and foremost, first aid. You want to make sure you're somewhat prepared for emergencies. Then we're going to move on to shelter; then we're going to move on to water; and then we're going to move on to food. And after that, we get into some of the comfort items.
Now, before I get too deep about these camping essentials, I will be providing a free PDF download that you can get that's going to have a list of all the essential camping gear items that I believe are important for you to have. There will be a link in the description below where you can sign up for our email newsletter and get that free PDF download of the essential gear that you need for camping—the real essentials.
When it comes to first aid, they're pretty simple. You want a decent first aid kit with also a few extra survival or emergency items. I'm not going to cover everything that's in this first aid kit, but suffice it to say that you want something to clean and bandage wounds—so something antiseptic—as well as a few different types of bandages. Then you also want something to treat pain, like some painkillers: ibuprofen, Tylenol. Talk to your doctor if you're wondering. And then you also want to be able to address things like stings or allergic reactions. So I always carry some Benadryl, and then, uh, some After Bite or something like that to soothe stings. Also, I bring a little tick remover, or tweezers or something like that, to remove ticks or bee stingers or slivers—things like that. I throw a few extra things in here, like an emergency Mylar blanket; I've got an extra pocket knife; got some Hot Hands. You know, you get the idea. Just make sure you have a first aid kit and you've got the basic stuff you need to take care of any emergencies. You should also make sure you've got any medications that you're going to need to take, whether they be prescription or otherwise. Also think about carrying something for an upset stomach, or if you drink something that's bad.
So, once you make sure you have a first aid kit, you're going to need some shelter. Shelter is important because you need to protect yourself from the elements: rain, wind, cold. And this might depend on your climate, where you're at, and how, what kind of camping you're doing. You don't always necessarily need a rainfly like I have here. We had a lot of rain last night, so I set that up. But I would recommend for anyone to have at least a tarp, even if it's one of those cheap blue tarps. Just have a tarp in your vehicle, or some rainfly, something like this that you can set up if you need it. And with that, that's not going to do you a whole lot of good if you don't have a way to tie it out, so some polycord is also essential, and probably some stakes. Okay, something like this does the trick. But the main kind of shelter you need is a tent of some sort. And I understand some people out there are going to be RV or camper people, and that's great too; that is shelter. But we use a tent. Now, this is a really nice canvas tent from Spring Bar. These are pretty expensive relative to other tents, so you don't necessarily need to start with this kind of a tent. This is something I might look at investing in after I know I like camping and I'm going to be doing a lot of it. But, uh, some kind of tent is essential. Some of those at Costco or Walmart or any of those kind of big box stores will probably do the trick for most folks to get started. And don't feel like you have to go large. Honestly, if you're just two people, just get a small tent. But if you got a family and you need a family tent, you're going to want something that fits you.
Okay, so this is kind of a mess in here, but, uh, we are really camping, and I'm not going to bother cleaning it all up for you guys, so I'm just going to show you how it is. Your shelter needs to keep you dry, and that is its main job. And we had a lot of rain last night, as I said, and this did the job. Also, with five people, you can see how much room we have in here to spare, even though we've got tons of junk in here. I will point out right now, cuz you're going to see these hiking backpacks, you do not have to go out and buy hiking backpacks if you're just doing some car camping. We're actually going backpacking next, uh, after we camp here for a couple nights; that's why we have these. But don't think you need to go get it. I would also say, normally I wouldn't have so much gear in here or laying around. This is just one of those exceptional trips where we're doing a lot of different stuff, so we had to bring a lot of gear. But in your tent, what you do need besides the tent itself for proper shelter is some sleeping stuff. So you need some—okay, go back in there—you need, you need some, uh, you need some kind of sleeping bag or sleeping system. I like to use a quilt, so does my wife, and then my kids use these mummy bags. But you just need some kind of sleeping bag, and then you'll want some kind of sleeping pad. What I definitely do not recommend, even though the internet and Amazon will make you think like that is the right thing to do, which is get one of those big thick air mattresses. I don't like those: one, they're not very comfortable; two, when you're sleeping on it with another person, one person's always moving, uh, the other person, and nobody sleeps very well; and three, when it's hot, those are hot, and when it's cold, those are cold. You want something that will insulate you from the ground. Pads like this do a good job. Air mattresses like this, some of them are good for insulation, some of them are not, but they're usually pretty comfortable for most folks—comfortable enough anyway. This is a really nice air mattress that does the job too, that can be used for backpacking or car camping like we are. But my real favorite are these here. These are like 4" thick; there's foam in there, but there's also air in there. Not essential, but they do a really nice job, and they're maybe not quite as expensive as you might think. These are—I think I paid around 100 bucks each for these—and they're very comfortable. We also often use cots, but again, that is not an essential. What I would say is essential is a sleeping bag, some kind of pad to insulate you from the ground below, and then, for me, a pillow is also essential. Normally when we're car camping, we just bring a regular pillow from home. My kids like to bring their giant Squishmallows, but when we're trying to pack light or if you're limited on space, there's a lot of these kind of blow-up, uh, rollable camp pillows. Some of them aren't too expensive, not nearly as comfortable as a regular pillow, so if you can just bring one of those.
Okay, so that should cover it for shelter: a tent, a tarp or some kind of thing to be used as a rainfly, probably some polycord and some stakes. I'd put that on my essentials list, and then a sleeping bag, a mat, and lastly in my shelter system I would include some kind of light. Now, a headlamp like this, a flashlight, be some of those string lights—you're going to want something to be able to find your way around at night if you must. But I've forgotten those in the past, and you can survive.
Next, you want to think about water, because water is essential to survival and also to doing a lot of things around camp, from cooking to doing dishes and so on, putting out fires. If you're car camping like we are this week, then something simple like this will suffice. I think this is a S'gon jug, but these are pretty inexpensive and you can get them just about anywhere. I think I paid around 20 bucks for it. You need something to carry water; that is essential. But you don't need to necessarily go all fancy and get something really elaborate. Now, if you're going to be camping somewhere remote, you might also want to carry a water filter of some sort, but I'm currently in a developed campground where there's water right down the way, so I can go and fill this up anytime I need. I did fill it up at home this time before I came as well. And anytime I go dispersed camping where I'm not in a developed campsite, then I will fill this up, and I—this is just kind of my rule of thumb; I don't know if it's even accurate—but I figure on about a half a gallon per person per day; that usually gets us by. So one of these jugs gets us by over on a two-night camp out pretty easily for our family of five, but we don't usually use this water to do things like put out the fire and whatnot, which brings me to one other thing you might want to think about when it comes to water, which is just a simple pail of some sort. Let me show you what I take. This is a little collapsible pail we have; it was really inexpensive. I got this one at Decathlon, but they're all over like this, and it's handy because it's just—it collapses down really small, but then it does the job to be able to just go scoop some water out. But we mainly use it to have a pot of water next to the fire so that if we're going to have a campfire, we can put it out quickly if we need to.
Speaking of fires, if you do plan to have one, you're going to need some firewood, obviously; that's one essential item. And this firewood is something I got locally. It's always a good idea to get firewood locally wherever you can, because then you're not spreading disease from one place to another, so I try to do that when possible. If I'm camping pretty close to my house, I'll take some from home, but, uh, just think about that where you get your firewood. You're also going to need a way to process your firewood, so I just have this little hatchet. In my opinion, this is an essential item for camping, but some people wouldn't, wouldn't bother with it. This is just an Estwing; I think they call this the Camper Axe. It's not too expensive, but it does the job, and it's been really reliable, and I just like it simple. Some people might prefer to use a big camp knife like this, and that's all they need to just get some kindling and things. And then I would just reiterate that bucket, because if you're going to have a fire, you absolutely need a way to put it out quick. Now, a fire isn't necessarily essential, but if you are in some kind of quasi-emergency situation, a fire does become essential, so I do put that pretty high on my priority list, just because I want to make sure I can start a fire if I need to. And the last piece you're going to need for that is something to light it, right? A lighter, flint and steel at the bare minimum, but something to light it. This certainly doesn't fit the necessary category, but I also got these little fire starter plugs and, uh, this little fire starter rope from this Blackbeard company. I don't have any affiliation with them, but I really like these; they're just handy to have, but not essential.
Moving on to the next essential item: you need to be able to prepare food. Now, there's a few things that we take for this at a minimum, but then I'll tell you what may or may not matter for you depending on how you want to camp. First and foremost, we have a cooler. Now, I'm a cooler guy, as you probably know if you've seen any of my other videos, and if you're looking for a cooler, go check those out. But this is a, a very nice cooler, a high-end, roto-molded cooler. So is that one. You don't necessarily need to spend a whole lot of money on a cooler, however, and if you're just getting started, I would recommend that you not—these coolers are great if you're going to places where you must use a bear-resistant container, like where I am now. I can put padlocks on these at night, and then I know that I'm following the rules and I'm also preventing any bears from getting in there or getting habituated eating people food. But unless that fits what you're doing, then I wouldn't bother with a nice cooler like this to get started. I would just get something simple like a Coleman from Walmart. And the reason that I have to, right now, just in case you're wondering, is because I have the cold stuff in here, and I use this one as a dry food storage box that I can close up and lock up also at night. What is essential here though is that you have some way to store your food safely, not only from bears but raccoons, mice, squirrels, critters, birds, pests—all those things you want to keep out. So do think about how you're going to store your food. Then, of course, you also need a way to cook food. If you're going to be doing some cooking, this is a simple Camp Chef camp stove, the Everest 2X. Apparently, I do really like this particular stove. I don't remember it being too expensive, but the idea is that you just need something like it if you're going to be doing any cooking of food. And I say that because a lot of people, myself included, sometimes don't even cook anything when they go camping. You can pick up sandwiches on your way; you can have Pop-Tarts in the morning, like we just did, and you can have everything cold. But it is more enjoyable when you get to cook some things, and we have a few dishes we really like to cook. In fact, I did a video a while ago with of our favorite camping meals that are pretty easy. I'll put a link up here; you can go watch that video if you're interested.
Along with the way to cook your food, you're also going to need stuff to eat your food on. So this is a frying pan; I think we received when we got married, and it's, it's really old; it's not fancy; the non-stick stuff doesn't work anymore, so we just put it in our camping box. We've also picked up a pot or two at thrift stores, so don't think you have to go buy fancy camping-specific cookware. Some people just use paper goods, but I hate having to buy stuff all the time and having so much trash, so we just have these simple enamel dishes. We got a whole set for not too much money—that's a pretty inexpensive way to go as well. So here's some other our stuff; this is our camp box. I mean, I know it's a mess, but we are just really camping and I'm not doing anything fancy, but this is everything we have to cook, and we get away with less than this most of the time. We do have a cutting board; we threw in an oven mitt; I think we got a couple dish towels from home too. But again, that stuff doesn't have to be fancy or camping specific. Just compile some old junk from home, combine with a few thrift store finds, and maybe if you're going to spend some money, get a decent camp stove that you can rely on, which you'll also need propane. And you don't have to do it like I did; the little green, green bottles work fine, but I bought this extension hose and have a small propane tank that just makes it cheaper to buy propane over time—probably not for your first trip, but if you find you like camping and you're going to do a lot of it, I like doing this because I think it saves me a little money in the long run, plus it just means I have more propane for longer camp outs and I don't have all those little ridiculous bottles I have to cycle through and figure out what to do with after. Also, not essential, but we like to have something—this little sink. We use it as a sink to wash dishes.
That really covers the essentials that you must have to go on a safe and fun camping trip. You need to have your first aid kit; you need to have shelter, which I would include your tent system, your sleeping system, and even a rainfly system if you're going to have weather. Then you're going to need a way to transport and hold water, and finally you're going to need a cook system and a food storage system. That leaves us with some comfort items. Comfort is not essential when you're camping, but it can certainly make or break a camping trip, especially for folks that are just getting into it and expect they might be miserable. For me personally, there are two things that are vital when it comes to comfort: one is a chair. I want to be able to sit down in a camp chair like this and be comfortable, whether I'm by the fire, by the lake, wherever. The second thing for me is a koozie. I like to have really cold sodas when I'm camping; they're just something about that I love. Another thing I didn't really go into here, because at this particular time in this particular place it's not a problem, but is going to be bug spray or some way to deter insects—so insect repellent, one of those Thermacell devices, bug spray that you're going to reapply—that is probably an essential for much of the camping you'll do, if not most. So throw that on your list too.
As far as clothing goes, I wouldn't go out and buy anything new; that's not necessarily essential to have it be special for camping. If you do feel like you need something, the only two things I would really consider are good socks—some socks that are going to wick moisture well, either synthetic or made of merino wool or something like that—and the other thing I would add is maybe a really good base layer. So if you don't have thermals or long johns or something, especially that's synthetic or merino wool or something like that, those will make it very much more comfortable to sleep in and to stay dry in, and also to use as another layer underneath everything else when the weather gets bad.
If you want a free PDF download of the essential gear that you need for camping, click on the link below; that will let you sign up for our email newsletter, where I'll send you not only the free download but also a lot of good information about excellent outdoor gear deals and, and how to have fun outside with your family. I hope you found this video helpful. If you did, subscribe to the channel. I do a lot of helpful camping tips and tricks and a lot of gear reviews that are going to help you figure out what you need and what's good, what's worth buying and what's not. If you're just getting started camping, keep it simple, keep it safe, keep it fun, and keep it inexpensive when you're getting started. Don't think you have to go out and buy all that fancy gear. You can find good deals sometimes on used stuff, sometimes on new stuff. Just don't go out and buy the top-of-the-line everything because that's what your friends are doing. Now, if you are interested in this kind of canvas tent, I did a comparison of four different ones; you can go watch that video here. And if you're in the market for a cooler, go watch this video next, where I compared 38 different ones to test which ones hold ice the longest and which ones are best. Then gear up and get outside. Hope to see you camping. Bye. That was weird.