Use this free printable family camping checklist to guide your when you’re packing up for your next – or your first – camping adventure with the family!
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!

What’s On the Printable Camping Checklist
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!
The Free Printable Camping Checklist
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.
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!
- Five Ways to Trick Yourself into Loving Camping
- My Favourite Camping Lighting Ideas
- Super Clever Dollar Store Camping Organizer
- Camping Activities Using Stuff You Find on Your Campsite
- Potato Chip Fire Starter
Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.