If you’ve ever been in the great outdoors, you almost certainly know that camping is all about adventure, and freedom. But spending time in the wilderness mustn’t imply you should forget about cleanliness completely.
Not many individuals enjoy washing dishes at home and especially doing them at a campground. With no dishwasher, no sink, and limited water, camping dish washing can be complicated. But, if you know the system, it won’t be that difficult.
In this article, you will learn how to wash dishes while camping, and also a few useful tips.
Contents
How will the way you wash dishes depend on the situation on your hike?
Each camping trip is unique, and your dishwashing approach will differ depending on aspects like the duration of your trip, the kind of camping you’re doing, and the facilities obtainable at your campsite.
Let’s talk about it in more detail.
Large group camping
Using disposable paper plates, cups, and utensils is fairly widespread for some campers. This is certainly not an environmentally friendly choice, and this option is not proposed. Nevertheless, it is an alternative, and probably it will be well-fitting for your situation.
Brief weekend car camping/camper trip
If you’re on a brief camping trip, a weekend getaway, for example, there is a possibility you won’t do any dishes whatsoever.
If you plan your meals in a way that will diminish dirty pots and so on, you might just be able to let the dirty dishes pile up and toss them in the dishwasher when you are at home again.
Camping with access to your own sink and hot water
If you have a camper with hot water and a sink, it is very fortunate. Your dishwashing setup is almost will be comparable to it at home.
Camping at campgrounds with dishwashing facilities
Some campsites provide a convenient station for washing dishes. If you`re planning to camp for a week or so you may even want to choose a site that puts you nearer to this station.
Backcountry or remote primitive camping
If you are planning to head into the wild without amenities, this is where you’ll need to be more resourceful. This article concentrates more on car camping.
Equipment needed to set up a camping dishwashing station
A few easy things will make camping dish washing less complicated:
Collapsible camping sink
It is recommended to use a two-sink system to wash your camping dishes. You’ll need a wash sink and a rinse sink.
So, camping sinks will be a great choice. They’re collapsible, durable, easy to carry, the ideal size, and fairly inexpensive.
Microfiber towel
Air drying is probably the most sanitary option, but in case you don’t have much time, you can use a clean microfiber towel to dry your dishes.
If you want, you can bring a large mesh bag to put the wet clean dishes in and hang them from a tree branch to dry.
Microfiber towels are amazing because they’re incredibly absorbent and they dry fast.
So it will be irreplaceable for your camp kitchen when you are doing camping dish washing.
Biodegradable camping dish soap
Also, you need biodegradable soap. This is what you will use to clean dirty dishes. Such biodegradable camp soap will be quite helpful when you are washing dishes while camping.
A strainer
A small strainer will be an excellent item if you want to capture food from your dishwater before it is tossed into the woods.
It’s essential to do this because if you’ve got food mixed into your dishwater, it will attract animals when it is dumped in the woods.
Pot scraper
Before you commence washing it will be fairly useful if you use a pot scraper to scrape off any food bits into the trash.
It will help to prevent food from collecting in your wash bucket and make disposing of the water after cleaning more effortless because then you don’t need to strain out the food scraps.
How to wash dishes while camping?
So, how to wash dishes while camping? There are fairly easy steps, following which you will be able to wash dishes while camping without any problem:
Eat all the food
- For a start, all your food must be eaten. If you make the right amount of food and eat everything on your plate washing dirty camping dishes will be a lot simpler. Also, it will help to diminish food waste and human impact on the environment.
- Be certain to get a precise level of everyone’s hunger before the meal so you will be able to determine the exact quantity that ought to be cooked.
- Then any leftovers must be stored and a pot scraper or a piece of paper towel should be used to scrape any food scraps into the trash.
- Also, a bunch of food scraps must not float in your wash bucket, so it is better to get as much of that off and into the trash first.
Fill the sinks
- The first step is your wash sink must be filled with warm or cold water. It’s typically simpler to clean with warm water and it’s a lot more comfortable.
- To make warm water, a bucket must be filled with some clean cold water, then a camp stove has to be used to boil water. The hot water should be added to the cold water to produce a comfortable warm water sink for cleaning.
- Next, your rinse bucket ought to be filled with clean water.
Wash
- First, a small quantity of soap should be added to your wash sink, then it must be blended around, and after that, your dishes ought to be added.
- It is suggested to commence with the cleanest dishes and leave more dirty ones with stuck-on food to the end.
- It will be fine to leave the dishes soak while you clean up other items from dinner. After that, it proposed to glance around camp and ensure you have everything that must be cleaned.
Rinse and dry
- Once you’ve cleaned the thing, it must be moved to the rinse bucket with clean rinse water. You have to do this to rinse off any soap. After this, you can air dry or towel dry everything.
- Now the dishes are clean.
- Bring a collapsible dish drying rack to help your tabletop area be preserved while everything is drying.
- A little information about hand drying: You must use a clean cloth, otherwise there is a chance that bacteria will be transferred back onto your clean dishes. Cleanup.
- First, the sinks have to be cleaned up and then the water must be disposed of properly.
- Then, the water must be poured from the rinse bucket into the wash bucket.Look for more dirty dishes
- Once you are finished washing the last dish, you need to check once again to make certain it was the last dish.
- There’s nothing more irritating than realizing that somebody forgot to bring their dish over after you’ve already dumped your water and broken everything down.
- Ensure you’ve gotten all the cookware, too. It won’t be great to clean everything only to discover you forgot the pot you cooked in.
Tips on cleaning your dishes while camping
Nobody desires to spend time washing dishes while camping.
Following a few easy tips you will be able to make the process more effortless:
Clean your plate with the help of the bread after eating
The washing will be much simpler if you sop up all the delicious sauce, soup, or dressing using the bread.
Don’t bring meat
Cooking meat only makes a mess and might attract animals. A greasy pan quite swiftly mucks up the dishwater, and then the pancakes might taste like burgers.
So, it is advisable to choose vegetarian while camping. For the loyal meat eaters, you can bring jerky, pepperoni, and tuna fish, which are typically eaten right out of the pouch.
Don’t use disposable tableware
It can become a sort of temptation, but as an outdoor lover, you owe it to our only earth to tread lightly and lessen your impact. Washing up isn’t that terrible.
Try to use as little soap as feasible
This will presumably end up back on the ground, so it is better not to use the big quantity. Inspect the bottle for instructions on how much ought to be used, but you need to ensure it’s no more than a few drops. Just sufficiently to get a bit of suds going.
Use a small rag to dry the clean dishes or let them air-dry
A nice breeze and especially some sunshine will do the task for you in several minutes. If you’re in a hurry, you might ask someone to dry as you wash. This will keep them from getting dirty again with bits blowing in the wind, too.
You need to be certain everything is dry before you commence storing for prevention of bacteria growth and then store everything as soon as it’s dry to keep it fresh and clean.
Use hot water effectively
If you have a campfire to prepare a meal, your water kettle ought to be added to boil water for your hot wash water at the same time. Hot water must reserved for the wash bin.
How to dispose of dirty dishwater when camping?
You should inquire about this for your location. Many campgrounds will have a specific place they want dirty water or gray water to be dumped.
Usually, it is suggested that you dump your dirty dish water into an outhouse or a specific greywater drain system.
If you don’t have a dump location, you’ll want to filter out food particles and put them into your garbage. You’ll then want to walk far away from any campsites, about 200 feet, and 100 feet away from water sources, dig a hole, and dump your dish water there.
Also, in case you are in a bear country, you will probably need to dig a hole and bury the water instead too.
It is advisable to use minimal soap if you need to dump it in the wild.
It is important to properly dispose of the dirty water created by doing dishes.
Some parks have a utility sink marked for dishwater disposal. It is better to be mindful that cleaning dishes at that sink might not be permitted.
Frequently asked questions
How do people wash dishes when camping?
With a scrub pad or some equivalent, use the hot water to clean the camping dishes.
If feasible, then the wash water, also known as gray water, must be collected into a single pot. After the gray water should be strained into a single pot using mesh, a bandana, or a plastic bag with straining holes cut in it to capture food residue.
How do you wash while camping?
If you just rinse off plates in rinse water it will remove extra dirt and oils.
In case there is no water, it is recommended to bring extra water and biodegradable soap to wash yourself.
It must be stripped down no less them 200 feet away from your campsite and 100 feet away from any water source that may exist.
What is the 3-bucket wash method camping?
This is a pretty easybut practical technique for washing dishes when camping. For a start, you need to set up a camping dishwashing station.
For grease and food particles to be removed you have to wash dishes and utensils in the first bucket of hot, soapy water.
After this dip rinse in the second bucket of hot rinse water. Immerse particles in the third bucket of chlorine solution for 60 seconds.
Can you use Dawn dish soap while camping?
The Dawn dish soap is mostly not dangerous. But even such soap can be not that safe if you don’t dispose of it appropriately.
Anyway, it is almost without any effort to remove grease, so you can use it, but it should be disposed of properly.
Conclusion
So, washing dishes while camping is not that difficult.
Following the easy steps from this article you will be able to clean your camping dishes at your without any issue.