10 glamping tips/ideas/hacks that have made our lives easier.

1. No shoes in the trailer. We learned this during our first trip with the Schobers. Your trailer is such a small space - when it gets dirty, it gets dirty fast. We take our shoes off outside the trailer - they're not even allowed on the stairs. Then we bring them in and hang them up on coat hooks on a low wall. This helps keep the trailer grass, dirt and pebble free, and really helps with cleanup when we get back home and have to put the trailer away.
2. Save your toilet/paper towel rolls and your dryer lint. Stuff the rolls with the lint and you have a great fire starter. We have a huge box of rolls and containers of lint in the outdoor storage. An added bonus is, you have a stash to access whenever your kids need them for school art projects.
3. Purchase a separate set of everything for your trailer: kitchen stuff, likes plates, cups, mugs, utensils, cutlery and even appliances; toiletries, like hairbrushes and toothbrushes and all your soaps and shampoos; and tools. Pack older, not-as-nice clothes from your wardrobe for the trailer and plan to keep them there. Buy sheets, towels, and even pillows specifically for your trailer. This makes packing to leave so much easier, and you will never forget things. When we get back, I wash the linens and the clothes we used and they go right back in the trailer. When leaving for the next trip, all we have to do is pack the perishable food (we also leave non-perishables in the trailer), our devices, any medicines we need, and off we go. We're usually on the road an hour after getting home from work.
4. Purchase a propane fire pit. They are expensive - Dave complained for hours when I first purchased it - but it has already paid for itself many times over in less than a year. Especially in Alberta, you never know when they'll have a fire ban. We camp a lot in Banff, where real fires are never allowed. And we have several trips scheduled in British Columbia this year, where fires are banned because of the forest fires. Glamping without a fire of some sort sucks. Really sucks.
5. Purchase bins and baskets of all shapes and sizes and cram them into every inch of space in your cupboards in order to maximize their space. Buy lots of hooks and put them everywhere. Living in a small space can be a challenge, but extremely rewarding if you do it right. Knowing you have a specific basket, hook or nook for every item you need really makes you feel like you've got the one-up on glamping instead of the other way around.
6. Get rid of the prison mattress your trailer came with and buy yourself a good one, like memory foam. Seriously, the stock mattress is the same kind they give dangerous offenders in Kingston Pen. After a long day of hiking, biking, chopping wood and bending over a camp sink, you want to treat your old bones to a good night sleep.
7. Pack easy-slip-on shoes. There's so much in-and-out when glamping, who wants to sit down and tie laces every time? For our family, these are crocs. We rinse them off at the end of each trip and they go right back in the trailer for next time.
8. Relatedly, purchase a good pair of hiking boots or running shoes. We found out the hard way that crocs are no good for a long hike or bike riding. These stay in the house and make sure we are wearing them when we leave the house for a trip.
9. I know I mentioned this before in a previous post, but it's worth mentioning again: wear gloves when you are dumping the sewage. You'd be surprised how many people we see who don't. Things splash. We buy the disposable kind because the thought of storing anything that may have touched poop makes me cringe.
10. Leaving for glamping on a Friday evening after work makes for a very rushed night at the campsite. We like to bring a prepared dinner that I can just heat up while Dave sets up the trailer and the site. The first few times, I actually made a meal from scratch and we didn't eat until 9 or 10. And then right to bed. Now we just heat something up, eat quickly, and still have time to do something fun before hitting the sack. Relatedly, we bring something easy for the morning we check out. Most campsites require check-out by 11am. That's early when you sleep until 9. So we bring pastry or cereal in the little boxes (a real glamping treat!) for that morning, something that can be on the table quickly and that requires no dishes. There's enough to do when you have to pack up an entire campsite and leave!
11. Yah, I know I said 10 things, but this one is a good one worth mentioning. When we started glamping, many other campers/glampers we talked to complained about the cleanup involved with the trailer once they got back home. We don't do a lot at home because we do it all at the campsite. On the day we are leaving, Dave does all the outside stuff, like putting everything away and dumping the sewage. I put everything away inside and then start cleaning. Kitchen, table, bathroom. I even clean the shower and vacuum the floor. As well, everything that we are taking back into our house with us gets put by the front door. Then when we get back home, we just grab everything by the door, give the trailer a quick steam mop, and we're done - the trailer gets driven back to storage. It's in our driveway for an hour, two hours if we decide to hose it down first.

Got any more tips/ideas/hacks to share? Lay ‘em on me. I’ll share them on this blog and give you credit. :D