My Easy-Peasy Family Camping Checklist and a Free Printable Version for You!

We’ve just returned home, fresh from our yearly camping trip and I have to say that this year’s trip was a pretty big success. If you follow me on Facebook, then you may remember a month ago when I shared that I don’t always feel like the seasoned pro that I should be by now when it comes to camping. I decided to fix that this year and so I started out by making a list. A big list. A master list! A list for the ages! Well, no. Not really. Just a basic list that I could use year after year for all of the “stuff” that we need to remember to pack. Up until now, I’ve usually just set out a few bins and thrown stuff in there as I think of it over the course of a few weeks. I scoured the web and looked at everyone else’s lists that I could find to help trigger my memory for things that I wanted to bring. It was actually super helpful to see what everyone else liked to take along, so I thought it might be nice to share my list with you. I took it one step further though and made it a bit cuter and made it printable as well. Nothing makes packing easier than having a cute list, right? Well, besides having someone else do it all for you. That’s not happening, sorry!

A simple-to-follow list to get you ready for an easy and memorable family camping trip. Free printable included!

Of course, this is just for the “stuff” portion of what I packed. There was also another list for food and one for kids’ activity ideas too. I should let you know that this list is for your typical family camping scenario. Tent camping, with a car, and no electricity, but with access to washrooms and water for cleaning. If you tried to go backpack camping with all this stuff you’d probably only make it about 27 feet down the trail. So just be informed! My real motivation was that I wanted a list like this all for myself, so I printed one off for my disaster of a binder. I’m trying to get it a little more organized so that I’ll actually use it. Maybe if I make enough cute lists it will just sort of organize itself?

This is about when I remembered that I only bought black ink last time I refilled the ink cartridges so you can see that the blue is running out a bit at the bottom. It’s OK! Still cute! Still totally functional!

If you’d like to download a copy of your own, go ahead and click on the image below. It should fill a full 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper.

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I’m so glad to be already prepared for my trip next year. It’s going to make my life a whole lot easier next June! What about you? Are you planning a family camping trip this year? What do you like to take along? If you’re a happy camper like me, then you’ll want to check back soon. I’ll have a few more little camping tidbits to share with you coming up in the next few days!

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Jenny Piirto says

June 25, 2013 at 4:55 pm

This is getting pinned!

Jocie@TheBetterHalf says

June 26, 2013 at 1:46 am

If only I had had this last summer when I went camping….but i will never be camping again so i guess i don’t need it! lol. we barely survived. haha

Susan says

February 2, 2017 at 7:26 pm

Fantastic list! Only one comment to make. Add and “s” to “tarp”. I’d go with three, but you can get away with just two. One over the kitchen area. Nothing worse than having to keep the sand/leaves/tree bits/dirt end up in your morning eggs. Second one over your tent. On the very, very hot days it makes the tent cool, and on the rainy days it keeps the tent much more dry. Third one in a gathering area. Again, sunny days need shade especially for easy burners and rainy days allow congregating outside.

You caught me on tons of stuff there. I’ve already pinned it!

- Courtenay says
  
  February 3, 2017 at 7:55 pm
  
  Great tip about the tarps! We have a pretty giant one that covers the tent and then part of the cooking area usually, but you’re right about how much it helps! Thanks so much for sharing, Susan!
  
- Melinda says
  
  August 31, 2018 at 11:44 am
  
  Susan, I just have to share, we were camping across Italy one year and we had strung up tarps across between two tents, ours and the kids. There came a downpour and the tarp was sagging in the middle. One of the kids walked over to lessen the sag by pushing the tarp up in the middle. Brilliant idea to get the rain puddle to drain over one side, the rest of us got up to help. Well, it turned out to be a real cheap tarp and the oils in out fingertips interacted with and weakened the tarp so that we had streams of water pouring through the tarp EVERYWHERE we had touched, It was horrible at the time but we have been laughing about it for 40 years.

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