I got tired of making camping lists.

Generally speaking I know what I need to bring when we go camping. We’ve been many times before and we packed the camp bins. But it always seems like I find myself questioning or wondering if I have forgotten something and it inevitably turns out that I find out I have when we are four hours from civilization – oops. I eventually got tired of making lists and wondering if I left anything off the list that is crucially important.

The solution: a master list; I wrote down everything in my camping gear and everything that was missing for a couple camping trips and left the list in my camp gear. Then when I was relatively confident I had a complete list I made a master list and I taped it to the underside of my two main camping containers. Then I ‘laminated’ the lists with packing tape.

Last night while my partner marveled at my brilliance he requested that I write a blog post sharing my idea. As we went through our camp gear for the first time this season I got out my trusty rusty crayola marker and crossed off the items we already had in the bins and circled the ones that were missing we soon had a short shopping list of the items we knew we needed. With minimal thought we quickly ran some checks and were confident we had well stocked our gear. I also left some space at the bottom of each list where I could write down anything I forgot or extra we wanted to bring.

There were four lists in total:
1. Smaller general items – cutlery, knives, utensils, matches, garbage bags, etc (and the camp stove goes on top of this little indispensible bin)
2. Larger, mostly cooking items – dishes, cooking pots, wash bin, misc handy camping stuff you don’t use that often but sure are glad you brought when you do actually need it, fuel, etc.
3. Groceries (this list is tucked into a pocket I made from the other list) – staples that we always bring like oatmeal, pasta, granola bars etc.
4. Sleeping stuff – tent, pad, sleeping bag… I am sure you get the idea

And that pretty much covers it. I should have taken some pics last night for you all to enjoy and get a visual of what the heck I am talking about but I am sure you get the idea. I could of course post the lists if you really want.