DIY Camping Hacks to Prep Before Your Next Trip

If you're super into nature and the wilderness, then you certainly view camping as a fun experience. You're surrounded by the best aspects of earth, sleeping under the stars, waking up to the sound of birds chirping right outside of your tent, and you're eating barbecue throughout the day! There's so many things about camping that makes us constantly go when the weather gets warmer. And we can't forget about roasting marshmallows over the blazing fire pit and telling ghost stories... and hoping the monster doesn't pop out behind the bushes.

But camping away from home is actually pretty tough, especially if you're not used to it. Since you're relying on nature to take care of you, there aren't many tools you can use. Other than sticks and the ground, we basically do everything by hand. Meaning we start fires by hand, make our tents by hand, even set up a barbecue grill by hand. But none of those have to be difficult anymore, now that there are DIY camping hacks to make camping a more fun experience. Next time you head out on your camping trip, consider any of these hacks to prepare you for a great nature adventure!

Outdoor Kitchen Organizer

When it comes to organizing kitchen utensils and tools, it can become a total mess. If you’re really into cooking or grilling when camping, you know exactly what I’m talking about. You bring a giant bag of everything you need to whip up great barbecue, but it takes nearly forever to find that one knife that cuts all of your meat like butter. Instead of rummaging through that giant bag for your special knife, try getting your hands on a shoe organizer. Rather than organizing your shoes, use this as an outdoor kitchen organizer!

Since shoe organizers feature so many pockets, each pocket can be a specific storage for your kitchen utensils. In one pocket you can place all of the spoons. The pocket next to it can be for knives. And the pocket right below that can be perfect for storing snacks. Then, simply hang the shoe organizer anywhere, like on a tree branch, and never search for a fork again when camping.

DIY Fire Starters

If you're an amateur, like many campers, starting a fire is a huge challenge. You'll need the right wood, the right rubbing technique, and proper sunlight to really see something happening. Even if you brought light matches with you on the trip, you'd have to collect the best wood to burn.

Don't trip over starting fires anymore with one of the best DIY camping hacks to quickly create fires in an instant—DIY fire starters. This hack is actually pretty brilliant. What you'll need as a fire starter is laundry lint, toilet paper tube, and newspaper. Yes, that’s it. Once you’ve got your matches in hand, lighting this will be a breeze and the fire will last for a long time.

Egg Carton Briquette Storage

Bringing along charcoal can be messy, no matter where you store them. But you need to bring charcoal for camping for either your fire pit or grilling. You have no choice but to dwell on the mess charcoal does to your other belongings.

However, there is actually a better way to transfer charcoal from your house to the campground and it's with this egg carton briquette storage hack! Among the coolest DIY camping hacks you can do, this allows you to bring charcoal with you camping without the mess. Simply grab an empty egg carton and fill it with enough charcoal to bring with you on your trip. This way, none of your belongings will be covered in charcoal dust and residue.

Mason Jar Matchbox

You can only bring so many matchboxes to start up fires and light up grills. And many of these matchboxes are pretty tiny and hard to find in your bags. You can also go through so many matchboxes to finally light up your grill. But there is a much easier way to store many match sticks to bring with you camping, and it's with this Mason jar matchbox hack.

The Mason jar matchbox is seriously one of the most useful DIY camping hacks you can do. Instead of bringing 20 matchboxes with you camping, simply grab a mason jar, stuff it with as many match sticks as it fits, and cut out a piece of sandpaper to place it on the lid of the jar. Now, you have an immense amount of match sticks to last you your entire camping trip!

Camping Lantern

Rather than relying on fire as a source of light, how about a camping lantern? Camping lanterns are the best sources of light when you need it the most and it can sometimes last even longer than burning fire. These lanterns look really cool, too, and they're quite easy to make. But you do need a few supplies to get you started.

In order to create a camping lantern, what you'll need is kerosene fuel, a small glass bottle, small cup or container, small funnel, aluminum can, cotton t-shirt, and scissors. After you follow the steps, it'll be easy enough for you to make a couple more lanterns! Be careful where you're placing them, too. Know where you're always leaving lit objects when camping. This hack can also be used as a great DIY backyard project!

Tin Can Grill

Either you brought your own grill or you're relying on nature to provide you with a grilling station, barbecuing is one of the many great aspects that comes with camping. You can grill meats like hotdogs, burgers, and even steaks on the grill when living in the wilderness for a few days. But if you didn't bring a grill with you on your nature adventure, it can be difficult to whip one up.

No worries, I've found one of the best DIY camping hacks you can do for grilling food—the tin can grill. What you'll need to create this amazing grill is an empty tin can, cutting it into strips, placing a heavy duty foil over it, place charcoal in the center, a rack right on top, light the charcoal, and you've got yourself a fine grill. It can grill whatever meat you like! Don't bring your heavy grill anymore, just grab these supplies and you're good to go. This is also one of the surprising aluminum foil life hacks you can do!

Toilet Paper Container

Even at the campground, when you need to go, you need to go. If you suddenly have an emergency, finding the toilet paper can be a challenge. Leaving the toilet paper outside can cause it to become filthy from the dirt. A great way to always have the toilet paper in sight and away from the dirt is this toilet paper container hack.

This hack allows you to store your toilet paper in an empty plastic Folgers bucket. Cut a slit on one part of the bucket to release a strand of the toilet paper to use it. Not only can this hack make it easier to share toilet paper with those camping with you, but it's simple to refill it with more toilet paper and it never gets dirty.

Tic-Tac Boxed Spices

If you're someone who's serious about grilling when camping, then you're definitely someone who never leaves spices back at home. Spices make food taste better and don't you want your barbecue to taste amazing when you're out there in the wilderness? You can only bring so many spices to add flavor to your meat and it can also be a messy situation if you're storing your spices in bags. It's possible for these bags to rip right open and waste your best spices.

How about a more simpler way to store and take spices with you camping? Like these Tic Tac boxed spices that is seen to be among the handy DIY camping hacks ever. Grab empty Tic Tac containers, fill them with any spices you like, and label them if you're not sure which spice is which. This hack also makes it easy to distribute spices onto the food with the little opening on the top of every container.

Camping Hand Washing Station

Even when camping, proper hygiene like washing your hands is super important to prevent catching an illness. Sometimes washing your hands in the nearest river, pond, or lake might make your hands even dirtier than before. And wasting good water bottles to wash your hands isn't the best choice, either. So, what is a better way to thoroughly wash hands when camping?

This camping hack can be your lifesaver in situations like those! The camping hand washing station is easily one of the best DIY camping hacks you can bring along with you in the wilderness. Using a water jug is so much better than wasting water bottles to clean your hands. Make sure you bring hand soap, too, for a good washing.

Camping Washing Machine

Among the greatest DIY camping hacks you can do, this last hack is actually really useful if you're camping for more than a week. Since we're staying outside every hour of the day, our clothes can easily get dirty. And if we're camping for a long time, the amount of clothes we bring along might not even cover every day. While there is no washing machine in nature, you can make your own!

The camping washing machine can get your dirtiest clothes fairly clean with the just a few tools and supplies. What you'll need is a large bucket, a plunger, water, and soap. The plunger is used to plunge the clothing and attempt to remove stains from your clothing. Hey, this hack is certainly better than wearing your filthy clothes for three days straight, and it can be used to clean towels, too.