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?

One of the best purchases I have made in the last year has been clear plastic condiment bottles with a sealable top that I bought at WalMart for less than a dollar each.

While most people I know use them for ketchup and mustard, I put canola oil and olive oil in mine and use them at home and at camping.

It is so much handier than having the whole big bottle of oil out plus it eliminates any worry about dropping and breaking a glass olive oil bottle, especially at a campground where some campers like to go barefoot.

When I need a squirt of olive oil for cooking or a squirt of canola oil for giving my dutch oven and other cast iron cookware a light coating, I grab one of my plastic bottles, pop the top, and give it a squeeze.

This picture is of my bottles and yes, it’s almost time to refill them. The background may look a little bizarre but I took the picture at home and decided to set them on my deck railing, hence the field and woods in the background.

I also use the bottles as dispensers for homemade salad dressing. They’re especially nice for vinaigrettes, and I always take one with thousand island dressing in it for making reuben sandwiches and one with Parmesan peppercorn or ranch dressing.

To make sure everyone in the family knows what is in each bottle, use self stick labels such as mailing labels or; if you don’t mind having the writing on the bottle forever, use a Sharpie marker.

If you cannot find them at WalMart, check with a local restaurant supply store.

Camper refrigerators can get pretty stinky and stale smelling because they aren’t in constant use. Plus, if they aren’t completely dry before closing the door and storing the camper until the next trip, the dampness can cause mold to develop or rust to form on any exposed metal.

I have always kept a container of baking soda inside my pop-up camper’s fridge to keep it smelling fresh and really like Arm and Hammer’s boxes specially designed for the fridge and freezer because now I don’t have to worry about it tipping over and spilling; but it didn’t help if we closed the fridge up after cleaning and hadn’t made sure it was 100% completely dry inside.

Now we keep crumpled brown paper bags inside our camper fridge when we’re not using it. The bags absorb odors and dampness, keeping the fridge dry and clean in between uses.

I don’t know how it works, but I got the tip from a fellow camper who said it worked great for her so I decided to try it too.

When we get to the campground and put our camper up, I take out the crumpled bags in the fridge and set them aside to use when we start our campfires or when we start charcoal in our chimney starter for dutch oven cooking.

When I clean the camper after the camping trip, I crumple new bags and put them in the fridge until the next time.

It’s pretty much “no fuss, no muss.”