TSD Cleaning Articles

A Clean Campsite

Pack it in, pack it out. Those are the rules for a clean campsite and keeping the environment clean and healthy. Litter is harmful to the natural habitat the forest animals live in and can take years to biodegrade. It also leaves your campsite looking like a mess.

To keep your campsite clean and safe, follow these simple tips:

Always bring a couple extra large garbage bags. Many times campers with even the best intentions forget this and simply run out of room to stash their trash. Even if you are camping in a state recreation facility with garbage cans all around, you should still bring a couple extra. If you are wilderness camping, it’s a necessity.

A clean campsite is easier to keep if the site is organized. Remember, for all intents and purposes, you are moving to the wilderness for a few days, so bring anything that might help keep it clean, like several zipping plastic bags for storage. Extra clothes and swimsuits will stay cleaner longer if stored on plastic bags.

Bring along a small garden rake and a bucket for water to put out the fire. After wetting down the fire pit, use the small rake to shape up the area, it’s like an outdoor broom, and the next campers will appreciate it. It will also help if there is any smoldering wood left at the campsite, unearthing it will let you know where to dump more water. And here’s another thought, if you smoke, always throw your cigarette butts into the fire pit.

Always hang food stuffs in the trees or keep in a locking cooler. Raccoons are natures burglars, and can get to even the best hidden food if they really want it. Leaving out food is just inviting animals into your campsite, and if you’ve ever come back from swimming and found that a bear has gotten to your food, you know what I mean. It does happen. Scent travels and animals have great noses, so keep all food locked away where the smell won’t find them.

Ring out wet swimsuits and hang in the trees to dry, or better yet, bring a small length of clothesline to tie out from the tent to a branch. Keeping wet suites off the earthen floor and hanging to dry will help them last a lot longer.

Food scraped off into a garbage can makes scraps easy for animals to plunder. This is one area where paper plates are an excellent choice, just throw them into the fire for a quick clean up. Use biodegradable dish soap for cleaning pots and pans, and you can buy special 1 ply toilet paper for camping at a outdoor supply store. This keeps portable outhouses cleaner longer as the chemicals used to break down wastes don’t have to work as hard.

With a little planning and common sense, you can keep your campsite clean and ready for the next campers, and do your part to keep our national parks and recreation areas safe and environmentally healthy.