Homemade Camping Gear

With more and more people getting interested in outdoor activities and camping, the demand for camping and outdoor gears has increased over a period of few years. This increase in demand has led to the introduction of advanced and sophisticated equipments, which though safe and steady, are really expensive. And if you are not a regular outdoor person, investing a huge sum of money on the fascinating outdoor equipments can seem to be a waste. The question then arises is that how will you manage the small trips that you make once or twice in a month or two months? Did you know that many of the essentials required for camping can be made at home from inexpensive or recycled supplies? If you have some experience in making things, you can save a lot of money and get your supplies for the occasional camping tours with your friends. Unless you are camping in extreme conditions, the camping equipments made at home can serve the purpose.

 

You can make a tent for camping use with the help of an old trap, some ropes and few sturdy sticks. A small secondary trap or a couple of large trash bags on the floor will help keep the moisture out. If you only have a small trap, you can still make a one-person shelter by tying one corner of the trap to a tree and use stakes to secure the other corners in the ground.

 

You can make use of a thermal survival blanket, which you are carrying in the survival kit as your sleeping bag. These blankets are quite good in keeping the body heated and come in fairly cheaper rates than the top range sleeping bags. You can carry two of these blankets and turn them into a sleeping bag.

 

If you are habituated to take a pillow while sleeping and can’t do without one even when out for camping, you can fill in a plastic bag with your socks and spare underwear. Apart from serving as a perfect pillow for you, it would save you the space you would have otherwise used to carry an extra pillow.

 

You can make use of large trash bags to save yourself from the rain when outing. Cut holes for your head and arms in a big trash bag and use it as a quick protection from rain. If you want a steadier option, then you can cut down and sew an old shower curtain into a raincoat.

 

It sounds easy to make a campfire out of rubbing logs of wood or by carrying a metal/flint kit, but the conditions might not always be favourable. The best homemade fire starter that you can use when out for camping is cotton balls soaked in petroleum jelly or a paper cup filled with sawdust and paraffin. You can also make use of shredded, dry milk cartons with wax coating to ignite fire.

 

The common kitchen foil is the jack-of-all-trades cooking gear for outdoor cooking. You can also make use of the tin cups in which some of the baked items come. As for the stove, you can use of couple of old cans for the purpose. However, make sure that you make the stove properly after going through the online instructions, as it can turn out to be hazardous otherwise.

 

You can also prepare a homemade insect and mosquito repellent. However, this would take at least two weeks to prepare. So, start in advance lest you have no time to make one. For this, make use of some fragrant herbs like spearmint, lavender or catnip. Place these herbs in a jar and let them stand for two weeks in a cool and dark place. Strain the herbs and fill the liquid in a spray can after two weeks. This will protect you from the insects and mosquitoes and can be used on your skin, clothes and equipments.

 

Store up the empty milk cartons, rinse them well and save them for your next camping trip. You can cut the cartons into half and use them as bowls to serve food and likes on the camping day. It will also serve the purpose of a dipper to catch small fishes when you go for a fishing trip.