DIY Camping Essentials

As you may remember from my #FridayFavorites post, I just got back from a weekend of camping fun at Fisherman’s Bend Campground in Mill City (just east of Salem, OR).

dog hair, don’t care. #ew

I cannot stress just how cool this campsite was.
Our little section boasted a super clean bathroom, showers, multiple labeled recycling receptacles, two volleyball courts, a nice play structure, a river within walking distance, a huge pavilion with gorgeous varnished wooden tables, our own private pavilion with an electrical outlet and multiple large fire pits.

Okay, so it was a little like glamping with all the amenities.
SUE ME.

Turns out, you can DIY some pretty useful stuff when you’re “roughing it”.
These camping essentials are simple and efficient, which allow you to save time and money when preparing for and enjoying your camping excursion.

Peppermint essential oil as mosquito repellent.
I’m telling you, this stuff works wonders. Due to my sweet disposition, I’m sure, the mosquitoes can’t get enough of me. I just use a small amount of coconut oil (as the carrier oil) and some peppermint essential oil, give myself a good coating and I’m good to go. I’ve tried a variety of bug repellents and this has been my favorite because it is so easy and effective.

Tea Tree essential oil for burns.
Camp stoves mixed with metal pots can be a dangerous combination.
When it comes to burns, after the initial neutralization of the burn with a cold compress, using a burn cream can help prevent infection. You’ll find that the active ingredient in many all-natural burn creams is melaleuca oil, also known as tea tree oil. Tea Tree oil is anti-fungal, anti-bacterial and anti-viral, which make it ideal to use in the healing process of a burn.

Petroleum jelly to start a fire.
A friend of ours demonstrated the flammability of petroleum jelly when he dropped some globs of it on some kindling and ignited a roaring fire for all of us within seconds. This is great because its just one ingredient unlike the fire starters I see on Pinterest which require multiple components and pre-preparation. To compare, we tried to start a fire with the lint fire starters that a different member of the group had brought which ended up taking much longer to get a good fire going than just using the petroleum jelly.

Freeze water in plastic bottles/jugs to use in a cooler.
I did not expect this trick to work as well as it did, honestly. Not only did it keep the melted, icy water contained so I didn’t have puddle making the things in our cooler soggy, but once it melted, we could drink the ice water inside which was much more refreshing than the water we could get out of the spigot on our campsite. BONUS: you save money here by not having to buy bags of ice, which was especially great for us because we had a huge cooler, but not much we needed to put in it, so it would’ve taken many bags of ice to fill. We used large soda bottles and a milk jug to freeze our water, but if you were worried about the frozen bottles being too bulky, you could fill multiple smaller bottles and place them strategically throughout.

Yoga mat as a sleeping pad.
I don’t know what it is about sleeping directly on the hard ground, but come morning my hips are always sore and achy. Yoga mats are a lightweight solution to give just enough cushion to be comfortable without having to lug around a bulky air mattress.

Bring on the nature!

Do you have any simple DIY camping tips and tricks you would add to this list? Let me know in the comments!

Until next time, cheers!