Along the same vein of my setting up camp I figured I would post something on how I break down camp because my friends and I have very different opinions on it.

So let’s say you go tent camping for a long weekend and all the fun has been had, the food has been eaten and unfortunately it’s Monday morning which means it’s time to pack up and go home. What do you do? Do you have kind of a system for putting things away or is it kind of just haphazard?

For me, being the anal-retentive type guy I am, there is a method to my approach.

First thing I do is empty the tent of everything we have in it. Pack up all the personal clothes, sleeping bags, pillows and whatever else in the tent. This all gets piled on a extra tarp we have which is out of the way and yet still accessible if we need to get extra clothes, toiletries etc…

Sweep out the tent and remove all dirt and debris. Depending on the size/type of tent I try and put the tent on its side to dry out any/all condensation on the bottom of the tent. Once it’s dry and clean I will roll up the tent and put it back in the original bag it came in. Yes, I am that guy that has figured out how to roll up the tent and put it back into the bag it came in. It actually does work!

Once the sleeping area has been cleaned up and put away I switch gears and begin working on the kitchen area. First I clean out coolers and dry food bins throwing away anything that isn’t worth bringing home or that has been spilled or not stored properly over the trip. I clean out the coolers and bins removing any dirt or spilled food. I will condense all of the perishable food into one cooler that still has ice in it so when we get home we only have one cooler to worry about.

I then clear an area of the picnic table that is almost always provided at a campground and wash, rinse and sanitize every pot, pan, plate, cup and utensil that came out of its bin over the weekend. This usually takes the most amount of time during cleanup because I want to make sure that every that was used is as clean if not cleaner than before we used it. I hate nothing more than going on a camping trip and finding unwashed, dirty, smelly kitchen equipment.  Once everything is clean, I dry it all and put it away the way it belongs.

Finally I begin packing up all of the kitchen equipment, tarps, the kitchen itself and any supplementary equipment that was used during the trip. This all gets packed away first because it gets taken out and put away last.

At this point the only thing left is to pack up the personal gear, clean up the campsite and dispose of the trash.

Lots of my friends call me anal for how I spend my last couple hours of camping trip cleaning all this stuff but I have found that if I don’t do this then I have to spend time once I get home cleaning it all or I have to spend the first couple hours on the next camping trip doing it.

To me it is better to spend the time right then and there doing it because when I get back to the “real world” I don’t have to make time in my schedule to clean all this stuff. It also always me to setup camp and be sitting down enjoying a beer and building a campfire while my friends are still setting up and cleaning the debris from their equipment that was left over from the last trip.

So yeah…go ahead and call me anal while I’m drinking a beer and watching you work!

Tags: breaking down camp, Camping, camping basics