#WildernestCamping: A Packing List

As many of you know, we started taking the triplets camping last year. I grew up with camping being my family’s main type of vacation and some of my best, core memories were made on those trips. While camping is an absolute blast, it can also be a lot of work!

I’ll never forget the plethora of “stuff” we had to pack when camping. Numerous toes of gear and equipment, food, etc. After our trips last year, I made a promise to myself that I’d minimize and upgrade our own equipment to making camping with 3 toddlers as easy, and minimalist, as possible.

I’ve removed things we didn’t use last year and upgraded things that took up a lot of room (like our pots and pans, which are now collapsable and fit in a tiny little bag). Afterward, an organized spreadsheet was made. I created multiple lists, each that were actually organized by tote with the ability to leave a checkmark emoji beside each item on packing day.

In this post, I will share out the spreadsheet and also list out some of our favorite gear with links to purchase. So let’s get started!

Here’s a link to the spreadsheet. Click on File > Make a Copy so you can edit it as you see fit

LARGE GEAR

TENT: Zempire Evo TXL 2021 Version

Some of you have already reached out asking for the link to our tent. I did a few months of research starting early in the year and learned that people in the UK and Europe in general really know how to make a proper tent. They have this technology called “Air Tents,” where instead of your tent being constructed with cumbersome poles, the “poles” are pumped with air. They withstand wind and rain better than traditional poles and I can easily sent the entire tent up myself in 15 minutes (without staking everything).

Not only are these tents easy to set up, they’re HUGE. We have a blackout tent within the tent with 3 “rooms.” There’s a “living space” outside of the sleeping area that’s perfect for those rainy or stormy days to set up a table and play some games. In additional to all the space inside, there’s a covered porch area outside as well where many people set up their grills.

These tents aren’t sold in America, but I was able to get one shipped from the Camping World UK website. I had a coupon code that made shipping free, but there was a $100 customs charge FedEx billed to me after the tent arrived. Overall we paid $1300 for this tent, but it will be our forever tent used well into the kids’ teenage-hood.

All of our other larger items can be found below

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SLEEPING TOTE

AIR MATTRESS: This year, I was tired of the bulky, heavy, takes-up-an-entire-tote traditional air mattress. I wanted something better that also packed small. Research led me to these self-inflating, memory-foam like camping pads, but they were also roughly $300 for the two-person one. After a bit more digging, I cam across this Hikensure mattress pad on Amazon. It had amazing reviews, the price was right, and it folded up into a tiny bag. It didn’t need electricity to inflate, which is always a plus for camping if we happen to primitive camp. Jay and I have spent numerous nights on it at this point and we are very impressed. Despite being just 3” thick, we never feel the ground. Movement from the other person is barely felt, and my favorite part is that it doesn’t need to be re-inflated every day like a regular air mattress (I swear we always wake up on the ground in the morning on those). Highly recommend!

For the rest of our sleeping gear, checkout the links below:

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GENERAL GEAR TOTE

The things on this list are a mix of needs and conveniences. I’ll link some of the specific things we have, but other than that, y’all know what kind of bug spray and sunscreen works for you haha.

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KITCHEN TOTE

This list contains the items I need to actually make/prepare/serve our food and snacks. It also contains the items needed to wash the reusable plates/bowls we choose to use, but you can always omit all that if you rather go with disposables.

The collapsable pots and pans were the biggest game changer for us. I had been using the cheap dollar stores pots that we’d keep in the tote, but they took up so much room and added a lot of extra weight. This little collapsable set not only solves for all of that, but even comes with a small tea kettle perfect for making my morning tea.

I think the only thing on this list I would maybe try to find an alternative for would be the utensil holder. I didn’t realize when purchasing it that the lid didn’t latch. I keep it at the bottom of the tote so it never spilled out, but we had a few close calls. Not to mention 3 toddlers who would have thrown it immediately had they gotten their hands on it.

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ITEMS WORTH MENTIONING

While the rest of our packing list is self explanatory (or items tailored to your own families like PJS, pacis, etc), there are a few more items worth mentioning that I’ll link below.

First is the actual tote we pack the kids’ stuff into. It’s a truck organizer for the trunk of a car, but has worked wonderfully for all of our trips. There are 3 large compartments and then dividers you can put within them. I use one compartment for all of their outfits (which are each put into gallon plastic bags with the air taken out so they’re flat). Another compartment for disposable diapers and wipes we use when away. One for their Hatch machine, pacis, and stuffed toys. And so on! Organize it anyway you like. It has all these outside pockets and a lid as well. It fits against one of the walls of our tent and that’s where it stays.

The other item we love is our shower caddy. It’s fits SO much stuff for our entire family, but still compact enough to fit in my personal duffle bag. We were using one of the big plastic ones prior, but things would fall out or it didn’t fit nicely in any of our totes, so it was always misplaced. This bag allows us to hang it up just about anywhere so it’s not touching gross shower floors and fits our shampoo, conditioner, body soap, moisturizer, toothpaste, all 5 toothbrushes in cases, tampons/pads, hairbrush, and various other things.

I’ll also include links to the shampoo/conditioner/body soap containers we use in it that fit perfectly, plus a few other things.

So that’s our packing list thus far! Anything new we discover I’ll be sure to add to this post and also mention in my Instagram Stories. If you have any question, feel free to drop a comment!

Stay tuned for my camping meal plan next :)