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CAMPING HINTS & TIPS
General Hints & Tips
1. Use
channel lock pliers as good pot holders.
2. Make an oven by lining a moving box with aluminum foil and pushing
coat hangers through both sides about half way up the box to form your
grill. Put coals in a pan and put the pan on three stones on the bottom
of the box. Close the doors (Box
Lid) and bake away.
3. Cook your eggs in canning rings for egg sandwiches.
(Works well for English Muffins or
Hamburger Buns)
4. Nylon rope can be used as shoe laces.
5. Use a large Ziploc plastic bag, filled with air, as a pillow.
6. Plastic butter tubs make good storage containers for your camp
kitchen. (Not a good idea to use in
a Backpack)
7. A plastic bottle makes a good latrine for cold weather camping.
(You don't have to “go” very far
from your sleeping bag) Keep it just out side the
tent flap.
8. An old closed cell foam exercise pad will makes an excellent and
passable sleeping pad.
9. Plastic bottles can be used for canteens. Make sure the lid does not
leak before using in a backpack.
10. The pins which hold the backpack and shoulder straps to the frame
can be replaced with a small piece of coat hanger threaded through the
hole and twisted around itself.
11. Twist ties can be used to hold up a tarp to form a wind screen.
12. A small automotive water hose clamp can be used as a stop for your
upright poles.
13. Drill a hole in the bottom of nested poles and put a screw in to
stop inner poles from sliding out.
14. Short lengths of coat hanger or wire can be threaded through the
holes and springs of summer camp cots to replace the missing springs.
15. Carry several pieces of lumber cut into two inch squares to camp and
use these to level your platform, tent, and cot.
16. If you sleep on a cot in cold weather, insulate yourself from the
cold air under the cot with several layers of newspaper.
17. Old shower curtains make great ground sheets.
18. Make a double boiler for melting paraffin from a 1 lb. coffee can
and a 2 lb. coffee can. Bend a coat hanger so it will support the 1 lb.
coffee can inside the 2 lb. can. Pour some water in the 2 lb. can and
put the paraffin in the 1 lb. can.
19. Waterproof matches by dipping in melted paraffin.
20. Make fire starters by filling paper coffee or condiment cups with
saw dust and pouring paraffin into the cup.
21. Put matches in corrugated cardboard strips
(About every other hole)
and dip into paraffin for fire starters. Cut off what you need to start
a fire.
22. If your hand warmer came without a bag or the bag has been lost,
replace the bag with a sock.
23. 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.
24. Use a cookie tin as a Dutch Oven.
25. Keep batteries in an appropriate size prescription bottle to insure
that they cannot run themselves down by accident.
26. Prescription bottles make good match safes.
27. Prescription bottles or 35mm film containers make good storage
places for small items.
28. Grills from old ovens can be used for fire grills, refrigerator
shelves cannot be used as they will release toxic gasses when heated.
29. A Frisbee
will add support to paper plates when the plate is placed inside the
Frisbee.
30. Make a camp washing machine from a five gallon bucket and a toilet
plunger.
31. Placing a
plastic garbage bag over logs in a triangle will create a wash basin.
32. Making a slit in a trash bag large enough to let your head through
will make an emergency poncho.
33. Laundry lint makes good tinder.
34. Cutting slivers off scrap lumber and heating in the oven to dry out
the wood will produce some very dry tinder. Remember to store in plastic
bags for your next camping trip. Save candle stubs for fire starters or
to use as paraffin to make other fire starters.
35. Insulate your backpacking stove from the ground in cold weather with
a 6" X 6" piece of plywood.
36. Cover the ice in a picnic cooler with foil to help it last longer.
Keep the water in your canteen cooler by wrapping the canteen in foil.
37. Use foil ring dividers for frying eggs. Put rings in the greased pan
and drop eggs into each ring.
38. Cubs – Scouts – Guides - Find it hard to put patches on straight?
Tape them in place first with two-sided tape. When you are half-way done
sewing, remove the tape.
39. Save a Camping Guide or Handbook that's getting battered looking by
putting on a transparent contact paper cover.
40. Run candle stubs along the edge of a saw to help it glide better.
41. When it comes time to pack up at the end of a camping trip, a wet
face cloth, toothbrush, and bar of soap, wrapped in foil won't dampen
the other things in your kit.
42. To prevent night accidents in camp, use phosphorescent paint to mark
the edges of latrines, the top of corner pegs of tents, or other items
you may trip on.
43. Before starting to sew a tough material like denim or canvas, stick
the needle into a bar of soap. The coating will help the needle slide
more easily through the fabric.
44. Cubs – Scouts – Guides -To make sure you don't sew a pocket together
while sewing a badge to the front, slip a jar lid, preferably plastic,
into the pocket, then fearlessly sew away.
45. To help
shed burrs easily, rub the laces of your hiking boots with paraffin
before hitting the trail.
46. Keep a dry bar of soap in your sleeping bag to combat musty odors
which develop during damp-season camping.
47. Waxed milk cartons are an excellent source of emergency kindling.
Cut cartons into slivers, wrap a bundle of them in a Ziploc Bag and
carry them along in your pack.
48. If children have to take medicine, give them a break by letting them
suck on an ice cube to numb their tongue before swallowing the vile
stuff.
49. Ice cubes are handy when you have to remove a splinter from a hand
or foot. Use the ice to numb the area around the splinter before
operating.
50. Make your own 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.
51. When handling evergreens or pine cones, you can remove the sticky
sap from your hands easily if you use baking soda instead of soap to
wash.
52. Water proof matches by dipping them in nail polish.
53. To prevent batteries from wearing down if a flashlight is
accidentally nudged on while you're traveling, put the flashlight
batteries in backwards.
54. 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.
55. The little plastic tags from bread and bun packages are great for
pinning up wet bathing suits and towels while camping, and they take up
a lot less packing space than clothespins.
56. To protect your feet from blisters, smear soap on the inside of your
inner sock at the heel and underneath the toes. Carry along a bar of
soap and, when you feel your feet become tender, give it a try.
57. Wear nylon sockets next to your feet to help prevent blisters.
58. To keep mosquitoes away rub the inside of an orange peel on face,
arms and legs.
59. Wax-paper
milk cartons have several lives left in them after the milk is gone:
- make a drinking cup by cutting off the carton about three inches
from the bottom.
- make a water scoop by cutting off the top.
- cut a container into slivers, wrap them in plastic and put them
in your pocket for emergency kindling on a camping or hiking trip.
- make a leak-proof mini-garbage can by opening up the top of the
container and putting in your scraps.
60. Discarded roll on deodorant bottles make an excellent insect
repellent applicator because it enables you to keep “bug dope” off your
hands and out of your eyes. Snap off the plastic top or snap out the
ball, rinse out the bottle and refill with your favorite liquid insect
repellant.
61. Make handy fire-starters by filling egg carton cups with lint from
the dryer and pouring melted paraffin over the lint. Break the cup off
to start each fire.
62. Keep your toilet roll dry by packing it in a coffee can with a
snap-on lid.
63. Remember that mosquitoes and biting flies seem to like dark colored
clothing and the perfumed scents of many grooming products
(Soaps, Shampoos, Colognes, Perfumes)
Dress so that you won't attract the biters, and try
using unscented grooming aids.
64. Certain fibers can be damaged by insect repellants. Don't apply
repellants to spandex, (From which
bathing suits are made) rayon, or Dynel fabrics. Tent
fabrics, plastic, and painted surfaces, can also be damaged by insect
repellents.
65. An insect repellant will not keep bees, wasps, or hornets, from
stinging you. Your wisest move is to move away from stinging pests.
66. Try using a 35mm film canister when collecting insect specimens. A
drop of alcohol makes the canister a fine killing jar. Label the
canister with tape and keep the specimen in it.
67. It is easier to cut plastic containers if you soak them in very hot
water immediately before cutting them.
68. Wrap fishing gear in foil to keep line from tangling and hooks from
rusting. By lining the compartments of a tackle box with foil, you can
prevent rust damage to plugs and other equipment.
69. Wrap a wet washcloth in a foil package and put it into your pack.
You'll have a handy “wet-wipe” for cleaning hands and face after a
satisfying camp meal.
70. Foil
provides good packaging material for a campers personal toilet articles.
71. Water proof matches by dipping them in shellac.
72. To remove musty a smell from a 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.
73. An empty plastic soda bottle, cut off to a convenient height, will
work as a camp bowl. You may want to sandpaper the cut to smooth the
edge.
74. Make a survival fishing kit out of an empty 35mm film canister. Wrap
fishing line around a small empty thread spool. Tie the end to a
fishhook, and place in the canister. When ready to use, take the spool
of line out. Lay the line across the opening of the canister and snap
the lid back on for use as a bobber.
75. Make a fish scaler by nailing metal bottle caps to a wood block.
Scrape against side of fish against direction of scales.
76. Make a flag stand using a two pound coffee and fill with cement. To
make hold - wrap the flag pole in wax paper.
77. To conserve rope, mark each length of rope with a distinctive color
and make a rule that the rope is never cut.
78. A rope tied to a bleach bottle with an inch of water in it will make
an effective water rescue throw line.
79. Save inner cardboard tubes from kitchen and toilet rolls, stuff with
waste paper and use as fire-lighters.
80. Cut a rubber glove, when discarded, into thin strips to create
varied rubber bands.
81. Did you know that the egg whites left in empty egg shells makes good
glue? Great for scrapbooks and many other things.
82. When using a bucket for a messy job, line it with a plastic bag
which can be thrown away afterwards.
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