Get Outside! With a Free Camping Checklist

Time to go Camping!

Y'all, it's hot outside. I mean what-happened-to-Spring-how-did-we-end-up-in-the-middle-of-Summer hot. Around here, we escape to the mountains whenever the desert gets too hot and dry. One of the best things about New Mexico is the mountains are never far away, and they are always cool and refreshing.

Where it All Started

A few years ago, we bought our first camper, a sweet little vintage Apache pop-up camper. I really had no interest in camping before that. My husband is an outdoors-man who loves hiking, backpacking, and generally any sport that requires peeing in the woods.

Me, not so much. I'll take my "roughing it" with a side of comfort and modern plumbing, please.

But I was looking for a project and decided I needed to remodel a vintage camper. I think he thought it would be a good way to get me to love camping, so he agreed and we found our Apache.

Turns out we were both right. I thoroughly enjoyed the remodeling project, which you can read all about here, and in the meantime, the whole family fell in love with camping.

A couple of years later, we sold the Apache and bought a newer trailer camper, which is a lot bigger and more comfortable, but not nearly as cute as the Apache was. I got the remodel out of my system, and then we moved on to some serious family camping time.

Update: I ended up

Why I Love Camper Camping

Camping with a camper is really the best of both worlds, if you ask me. You can call it camping because you do it in the woods and generally don't have wi-fi, but with the camper, you can easily carry everything you need and get to enjoy all the conveniences of home. Win-win.

He gets to be close to nature, and I get to sleep through the night without waking up 15 times, thinking every little noise is actually a bear about to eat me and/or my babies.

However, carrying all the conveniences of home with you is a bit of an undertaking. As I was packing for our trip to Colorado last weekend, it occurred to me that I should share my camping checklist, in case some of you are planning trips of your own.

When we first got our camper, our friend David gave us a list that he got from a friend of his. I thought it would help me as we were getting started on this new camper adventure, which it did, immensely.

I still use that list, with a few of my own revisions, every single time we get ready to go. (Maybe because I love lists, but that's a topic for another day.)

So without further ado, here's my camping checklist. Feel free to use it and change it any way you want. I hope it helps!

Free Camping Checklist

Download your checklist following the instructions below.

This list is pretty specific to our own camper, so it doesn't include some things that just live in the camper, like bedding and such. If you're tent camping, you'll probably end up with a very different list.

Feel free to download the checklist whichever way you think you'll use it best. It comes in two versions:

• The Trailer Camping Checklist in PDF format for easy printing as is.
• Trailer Camping Checklist in Word format so you can change it to better fit your needs.

Let me know if there's anything you'd add or change - I can always use help fine-tuning my list!

(Update: One thing I'd add to my list now is a mini flower press! Check out this post to see how easy it is to make your own.)

Soon I plan to spend a little more time sharing some of our camper organization hacks that have evolved over the last few years, so be sure to check back for that post. Happy camping, friends!