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Homemade Camping Equipment
One of the great things about camping is that it forces you to be inventive and creative. You simply can't bring the kitchen sink with you when your braving the outdoors. From the website of the Boy Scouts of America, a generally innovative group, here are some easy to make homemade equipment you can use on your next camping trip.
- Canning rings can be used as equipment to cook your eggs
- Lock pliers make good homemade pot holders when camping
- A small automotive water hose clamp can be used as a stop for your dining fly's upright poles
- Carry several pieces of lumber cut into 2 inch squares and use these as homemade levelers to level platforms, tents, cots and other camping equipment
- If for health reasons you must sleep on a cot when camping insulate yourself from the cold air under the cot with several layers of newspaper
- Old shower curtains make great camping ground clothes
- Make homemade fire starters by filling paper condiment cups with saw dust and pouring paraffin into the cup
- If your hand warmer came without a bag or the bag has been lost, replace the bag with a sock
- A length of chain and a piece of coat hanger bent into an S-shape will allow you to hang your lantern from a tree limb
- Use a cookie tin as a homemade dutch oven
- A frisbee will add support to paper plates when the plate is placed inside the frisbee
- Make a homemade washing machine for camping from a five gallon bucket and a toilet plunger
- Placing a plastic garbage bag over logs in a triangle will create a wash basin
- Making a slit in a trash bag large enough to let your head through will make an emergency poncho
- Laundry lint makes good tinder
- Cover the ice in a picnic cooler with foil to help it last longer for your camping trips. Keep the water in your canteen cooler by wrapping the canteen in foil
- Use foil ring dividers for frying eggs. Put rings in the greased pan and drop eggs into each ring
- Keep a dry bar of soap or a sheet of fabric softener in your sleeping bag, backpack, tent and other camping equipment to combat musty odors which develop during damp-season camping
- Waxed milk cartons are an excellent source of emergency kindling
- Make your own homemade insect-repelling candle from an ordinary thick candle. Drill a 1" deep hole near the wick, fill the whole with citronella and cover it with melted wax
- Water proof matches by dipping them in nail polish, shellac or melted paraffin
- Kitchen foil can add extra warmth to your boots. Trace each foot on a piece of foil and add a 5 cm border. Place the foil inside your boots, shiny side up so you benefit from radiant heat
- The little plastic tags from bread and bun packages are great for pinning up wet bathing suits and towels when camping, and they leave more packing space for other equipment rather than using clothespins
- To keep mosquitoes away rub the inside of an orange peel on face, arms and legs
- Keep your toilet roll dry by packing it in a coffee tin with a snap-on lid
- When camping, foil provides good packaging material for your personal toilet items and grooming equipment
- To remove musty smell from canteen, put three teaspoons of baking soda into the canteen with a bit of water. Swish it around and let sit for an hour, then rinse out the canteen
- Cut a rubber glove, when discarded, into thin strips to create varied rubber bands
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