How often during a camping trip do you think to yourself that you need to remember things such as to pick up more insect repellent before the next trip or more paper towels or to buy a new can opener because the cheap one you bought is really just a device designed to frustrate you rather than open cans or, in my case, to finally remember to buy a corkscrew so I can actually open the bottles of wine I like to buy and want to enjoy by the campfire rather than trying to dig the cork out with a jackknife and getting little bits of cork in the wine.

Or maybe you want a way to remind yourself of an event that is going on at the campground you’re staying at such as a night time hike or guided nature hike for the kids where they can have fun and maybe learn a few things too, but you don’t remember it until the next day.

When I camp I try to not live by the clock and to use the time to relax and unwind a little bit, relaxing my shoulders closer to where they belong rather than up around my ears, which has the downside of me not remembering things like I want to.

Yesterday when I was writing a note to myself on the dry erase board we have hanging on the wall in our house that is one of the best purchases I have made, I realized a smaller dry erase board would be a perfect thing to have while camping.

I’ve tried keeping a notepad handy but it’s amazing how easily that thing gets buried or mis-placed even though we have a small camper but it’s ended up stuck in between a stack of magazines, underneath cushions, and once managed to jump into the food bin and get lost among the marshmallows and graham crackers.

Now is a great time to buy a small dry erase board. Stores are full of “back to school” supplies and dry erase boards are popular items for lockers and dorm room doors. Plus they’re inexpensive - I’ve seen them at WalMart and Target for $5-$10.

Plus they won’t take up much space and the “dry erase” part of them makes them reusable.

I’ll be picking one up tomorrow when I do my weekly shopping.

Then the next time we go camping and I wake up at 5 am wondering where my husband is, hopefully he’ll have been thoughtful enough to jot a note on the board telling me that he “went for a walk” rather than me laying awake thinking he’s taking the longest bathroom excursion ever, and maybe he’ll remember to write “trash bags” on the board when he takes the last one out of the box so I’ll know to buy more rather than finding an empty box on the next camping trip.

A girl can hope, right?

Yes, for real. Everyone wants to channel their inner Martha Stewart, right? I mean the completely organized one with a well marked place for everything with not even one piece of paper out place, not the one that had to spend some time as a guest of Uncle Sam.

I saw an easy way to corral vacation mementos (the paper kind) on her website last week. It’s called an As-You-Go Vacation Keepsake and I think it’s a really good idea.

Even while camping paper seems to pile up and create its own little “clutter monster” and a lot of the time it may be things you’d like to keep such as brochures and fliers from the campground and places you visit, maps, postcards, ticket stubs, etc.

Martha’s idea (or the idea of someone in her organization), is to take a loose leaf ring and a hole punch along, punch a hole in all the papers from the trip as they are collected, and put them on the steel ring. It keeps all the papers corralled in one place and when you get home you instantly have a neat and organized memento.

The rings are really inexpensive. A bag of 16 of the 1″ size costs $3.79 from Staples. A bag of 9 of the 2″ size also costs $3.79.

I use them in my office all the time to keep paper organized so I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t think of the idea of using it to keep trip mementos in one spot before Martha did.

No, I do not mean a real live human being type of guide, but a free publication from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources.

They have a free 72 page magazine that includes color photographs and descriptions of all 63 of their state parks and historic sites, including information about camping.

It is a handy reference guide to have when planning a camping trip or outdoor excursion in Georgia and it’s all yours for the asking.

To receive the free guide call toll free 1.800.864.7275