Related: Camping Gear | Plein Air Art
A comprehensive list of all the gear that we use on our trips travelling in a variety of conditions. Please note: that we’ve been collecting gear for years! We started off borrowing all our camping equipment and added to our own collection bit by bit. We consider a lot of these investment items that’ll last for a long time and will usually only replace gear if it’s unrepairable.
Tent in Bon Echo Provincial Park
Small Space Living in the City
We don’t travel strictly ultralight but we incorporate a lot of the practice because we are simply limited on space! We aren’t able to keep bulky gear as easily as someone with a basement or garage (we have neither). Instead, we live in a small home in a dense city (Toronto) so we only have storage available within the house itself in places like closets and furniture. We also have a very limited outdoor area to clean and dry on. This means I pick gear that is as compact and multi-purpose as possible.
Cleaning camping gear on rooftop in the city
Shared storage in linen closet
Storing and Organization:
❶ Keep your sleeping bag and tent loose
This is to prolong good insulation by maintaining loft. Don’t keep these items in their compression sack. I like to store our down sleeping bags in a breathable cotton pillow case (pictured on second shelf).
❷ Clean and thoroughly dry your gear
Our larger gear (tents, hammock, chairs, etc) are cleaned once a season unless noticeable dirty whereas frequently used items like the cookware and clothing are cleaned after every trip. Everything is bone dry before storing away.
❸ Keep everything visible
I like to be able to scan my gear in one go - otherwise it’s easy to forget what you have! Try to organize like you would a library: a single layer with the “spines” of the gear easily visible. The exception is to have 1-2 catch-all boxes for smaller equipment such as knives, firestarters, etc.
➍ Limit Allotted Space
This happens naturally with small homes, but still, to prevent over-buying gear, I allot only a few shelves in our linen closet and part of our under bed storage to our camping equipment. Anything that fits is fair game, anything over-flowing needs reevaluating.
During Camp Care Tips:
❶ Air Out Everything
I’m not messy, I swear this is a good thing! I scatter all my clothing in our tent to air out throughout our trip. Camping is not particularly clean, so this is to prevent musk. When the weather is nice, I set up a clothing line at camp in a shaded area. The perfect place to air out yesterday’s clothing as well as dry that toothbrush.
❷ No Direct Sunlight
Obviously this isn’t possible for some areas, but I make sure to keep everything in a shaded area. UV light will degrade your gear over time. For smaller gear, I’ll keep it stashed deep within a bag, especially electronics like battery banks.
❸ Be mindful of touching gear while wearing heavy sunscreen or bug repellent
There’s a lot of complex chemistry going on, so some topical products are non-reactive with your gear and some are. So this tip isn’t something I stick to strictly, but to say that I’ll favour physical barriers over topical skin products whenever possible like UPF clothing, or mosquito netting.
Unscented liquid soap, Soak, Nikwax and Granger brand washes
Gear Washes:
❶: Lightly Soiled
I use plain water and mechanical scrubbing for anything lightly dirty, such as shoes and tents during short-term storage.
For sleeping bags and insulation layers I’ll air them out for atleast 24 hours after every trip.
❷: Moderately-Heavily Soiled
I believe in gentle is best, so I use mild unscented liquid dish soap. Caked on dirt will be soaked for a few hours and I’ll do spot cleaning for heavily soiled areas, but generally dish soap works for the majority of our cleaning.
❸: Material-Specific Wash
Wool: Soak Laundry Soap
Down-insulated Gear: Nikwax Down Wash Direct
Waterproofed Apparel: Granger Wash + Repel 2-in-1
Goretex: gentle liquid laundry detergent (no powders)
*Disclaimer*: this is a complete list of gear, but each trip has different needs so I will omit certain items depending on the circumstance.
Personal Items
These are everyday essentials that I bring on every trip, and yes! I do count a lot of “luxuries” as essentials since I consider them actually pretty important for enriching the camping experience. Time moves much slower in the wilderness, so I always like to have my paint kit nearby and some printed guides for screen-free browsing.
Painting supplies and a Southern Ontario plant identification book
General
Entertainment
Hygiene
Clothing
Our garments are deeply personal, especially factoring taste, our unique physiology and climate conditioning. For those who have higher muscle mass, you may be able to pair down. If most of your time is spend under stable air conditioning, you may want to layer up at night. I have to carry a wide variety of clothing since I bounce between extremes: very hot when active, but very cold when inactive. A mix and match flexible system is key.
Packing cube with layers of outdoor clothing
Base Layer
Mid Layer
Outer Layer
Footwear
Accessories
Gear
We bring a lot backpacking gear even when we car camp because it’s the most multi-purpose equipment you can have: lightweight and packable. Like I mentioned, our stuff has to be small-storage friendly so we often optimize for backpacking above all else.
Camping kitchen kit with an array of garden-grown foods
Packs
Equipment
Tools
Light
Electronics
Sleep System
Organization & Cleaning
Kitchen
Watersports
You’ll notice that we use our inflatable paddle boards on most of our trips so paddling gets its own section: wether its recreational or to commute from campsite to campsite. This list is transferrable to canoeing, just omit some of the gear.
Two inflatable stand-up paddle boards by Joe Perry Lake, Bon Echo Provincial Park
Now that you’re all geared up, adventure awaits! Check out a Trip Report to get started.
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