Crappy Housewife Camping Tip of the Day

When you get home from ten days of camping, make laundry soup. Fill the bathtub with hot water and several scoops of Oxy Clean. Add all of the filthy laundry, and let it soak all day, mixing occasionally. When you're ready to wash it, transfer to the washer in small batches, using a Rubbermaid tub.

Crappy Housewife Camping Tip of the Day

Pajamas are not to be worn outside of the tent. There's no reason to get them grungy, too.

One exception to this: You can wear your pajamas outside the tent if they double as your clothes for the day. For example, if you are a baby and your clever mom figures out that a footed sleeper, coupled with a brimmed hat, protects 95% of your body from bug bites and sunburns without chemicals.

Crappy Housewife Camping Tip of the Day

You know the clean clothes you put on today will be just as dirty as yesterday's clothes in five minutes, so here's a tip: just pretend you woke up five minutes earlier and put on yesterday's clothes!

Crappy Housewife Camping Tip of the Day

Prepare as much as food as possible at home before you go. I know, I know, forethought and preparedness are not the Crappy Housewife way, but this is one instance where it's totally worth it. This year, I made our foil packet dinners ahead of time at home and froze them. My foil packet dinners involve raw chicken, which is a huge pain to clean up when you are camping and have to drive two miles to fetch water and heat it over the fire. I set up a little assembly line at home and assembled the packets in about half the time it would have taken on the camping trip, and the clean-up took about a quarter as long, what with the hot running water and all.

We go camping with a big group, so if each of us prepares two or three meals ahead of time, we have hearty, home-cooked meals for most of the trip, without a lot of on-site prep. Soups and stews are especially good make-ahead camping meals, because if you freeze them early enough, they will be solid bricks of ice and keep your cooler cold until you use them. I didn't even buy ice until after I thawed my stew on day three.

There are certain meals we always make when we go camping, because they freeze well, or require little to no fresh ingredients. Freeze ahead meals usually include: beef stew, vegetable potage, pulled pork, and foil packet dinners. Non-perishable meals for later in the trip usually include: spaghetti and chili. Sometimes I'll pick up some ground beef to add to the chili, otherwise, it's an all-canned recipe.

Another food work-saver we do when we go camping: Breakfast and lunch aren't fancy. Cold cereal, instant oatmeal, pop tarts, fruit, coffee, sandwiches, yogurt, granola bars. If you really want a hot breakfast, make sure to do it on an easy lunch/dinner day, or better yet, do breakfast for dinner one day.

Crappy Housewife Camping Tip of the Day

Bugs are attracted to the smell of clean bodies, soap, and shampoo. So not showering isn't the lazy option, it's the smart option!

Crappy Housewife Camping Tip of the Day

If you can squeeze it in, pack the dish drainer. I know it seems ridiculous, but it could save you 30 minutes per day in drying and putting away dishes. When you're done washing dishes, just put them in the drainer, throw a towel over them to keep the trail spice off, and just grab them right back out of the drainer for the next meal. You can put them away overnight if you feel so inclined, but as long as they are clean, they should be of no interest to nocturnal creatures (unless you are camping somewhere with very civilized bears who prefer to use cutlery).

Crappy Housewife Camping Tip of the Day

All the kids' clothes are going to get stained anyhow, so don't bother packing anything nice. Anytime you can't get a stain out of something, just stick it in the "save for camping" box (which you may occasionally dig into on "don't feel like doing laundry" days). Now you can let your kids (or your husband, or yourself) crawl in the dirt without worrying about all the scrubbing and pre-treating you'll have to do when you get home. This is also a great opportunity to pack ugly clothes that you have received as gifts from relatives. This comes with an added bonus, because you will probably take lots of pictures on your camping trip, which you can then send to said relatives, who will be touched that you appreciate their gift so much. "Look, Aunt Ellen, we're wearing the matching puppy tank tops you crocheted for us!" We love them so much, we only wear them on special occasions when no one we know is around.