welcome to the channel i am amanda and today i'm going to share some reasons why you hate
camping and what to do about it if you've tried camping before and you hated it maybe this will
help or if you have friends or family members who think they hate it maybe this will help as well so
let's dive into the list reason number one that you hate camping is you did not plan appropriately
i just uploaded a video a couple weeks ago all about how i plan a camping trip so that's a great
resource if you want to dive more into this but planning is not necessarily about creating some
rigid timed itinerary it is about figuring out the who what when and where of your trip so all those
very specific details and one of the reasons you want to do that is because you're going to leave
that information with several people back at home so people back at home always know exactly
who what when and where of your camping trip now another reason to create a good plan is it allows
you to adapt on the go if things don't go the way that you're expecting so so many people just plan
for the expected and not the unexpected but a good plan kind of assesses both so for example let's
say that you want to go to a specific campground and it is a first-come first-served campground so
you can't make reservations you just have to hope you get there early enough to secure a
spot before a bunch of other people get there so let's say that's your plan and you get there and
it's completely full what do you do now right so a good plan at home would kind of have some
other areas in mind that you know you can go and try to find some campsites so it's about
allowing you to actually adapt and reducing so much stress and frustration when you actually
get out there camping another good reason to have an understanding of who what when and where is it
allows you to pack appropriately with your gear and your clothing and your food for the trip that
you're going on trips where you just kind of like go out on a whim and throw all your stuff in the
car hope you got everything and hope you're gonna just figure it out on the go it doesn't generally
set you up for success and it just creates the very least some tension and some stress that
is kind of unnecessary if you do some research at home and have a really good understanding
of the area that you're going and places that you can camp and securing any reservations ahead of
time if that's applicable reason number two you hate camping is you are unorganized now
this is not at all meant to be a criticism because if you are new to camping and you don't really
know a whole lot about it it's hard to know what and how to organize right like it's just kind of
something that's unknown you don't have experience so it's very understandable
to be a little bit unorganized and scattered with your gear when you're first starting out one of
the things that i do is i organize my gear into bins so i have basically one bin that is my camp
kitchen gear and it has just my bowls my plates a spatula a pan like all that kind of stuff and then
i have another bin that is what i call my camping pantry bin and that has all the food that doesn't
need to go in the cooler all right there in one place and then i have a cooler which i'm currently
sitting on and then my other gear like my tent and all that stuff just kind of gets put in the car
having bins to organize your stuff and you can come up with your own organizational system
just makes things so much easier when you actually get to camp and when you're trying to find things
because it's super frustrating when you just throw everything in the car and then you get to camp and
you don't know where anything is you can't find anything you have to take everything out and then
things get even more confusing and unorganized and so i found that staying organized using bins is
a game changer when it comes to camping the other thing about this i use clear bins so i can easily
see what's inside and what i'm actually grabbing but it also makes it so easy to bring your stuff
to your campsite from your car because you're just lifting a bin and bringing it to your site
you're not like going back and forth a million times for a bunch of different bags so staying
organized with your gear will make your camping experience so much better and again i have tons of
other resources on this channel for organization and just streamlining that whole process
reason number three you hate camping is you do not have the right gear or good gear now i want to
be clear good gear does not always mean the most expensive gear i do not think that you need to go
out and spend thousands and thousands of dollars to get into camping but there are some areas
that you might want to prioritize that will make your camping trip i think a lot more enjoyable so
that main area in my opinion is your sleep system so your sleeping pad your sleeping bag and your
tent we've all had those nights at home where we just don't sleep you toss and turn all night
and it sucks just laying there for hours and then you wake up and you have to go through your day
really tired groggy cranky it's just not fun so if you come out camping
and every night you're camping you're miserable all night long you can't sleep well that's one
not fun but you're also not gonna have fun during the day probably because you're just going to be
super tired so prioritizing a good sleep system i think is definitely worth it and specifically i'd
like to highlight the sleeping pad there are so many different sleeping pad options on the market
but the sleeping pad is not just for comfort it's also for insulating you from the ground so it will
help keep you warm as well so these that i have here i don't know they're not blown up all the way
but this is an exped mega mat and it is amazing i bought this kind of on a whim and i've had it for
i think three maybe four years now and it totally upped the game for me when it came to camping
i sleep so comfortably it's like this thick when it's blown up and so it's great for side sleepers
it's just super super comfortable this is not something i would take backpacking so this is
for car camping when you're driving your vehicle up to a site but this was one of the pieces of
gear that i wish i upgraded to sooner it is a bit pricey but for me being able to sleep comfortably
at night while camping is super important and so i definitely would prioritize a really good sleeping
pad as i said earlier the mistake is also maybe not having the right gear for the area that you're
going the time of year the climate the elevation weather so all these things should be factored
into what you take and why and so again kind of going back to that planning thinking through this
stuff at home having good gear and the right gear will really make your camping trip so much better
reason number four is you're not comfortable slowing down so what i mean is in our modern world
it's pretty fast paced right like we wake up from the moment we wake up we usually have a ton
of stuff to do or we're scrolling through stuff on our phone that is like super stimulating and
requires a lot of focus i know for me i stare at a computer for a lot of hours like intensely focused
we're very uncomfortable i think slowing down and maybe being even a little bit bored or not having
a whole lot to do and i think that that's actually an important thing for us to do is actually
slow down and to take a moment to like breathe and to not have a ton of stuff to do and not be
distracting ourselves with instagram and just that constant scroll where our mind is focused
and we're like getting fed so much information that either makes us happy or rage or whatever
it is like it's just so much noise and it can be a little bit uncomfortable at first to slow down
to come out camping and you don't have service so you can't dial in to everything that's going on
in the world on instagram on other social media platforms with your job and so you have to kind of
slow down and be present and since we don't do that very much in our lives anymore it can just
feel uncomfortable at first and so i guess what i would say is i would kind of encourage you to be
with that boredom to kind of be with that slowness and just let it be give your mind a break there's
this book that i'm going to refer to called the comfort crisis it is one of my favorite books
it's so so good but there's a whole section on boredom there's a lot of flies here can't do
anything about that so there's there's a section on boredom and the author is interviewing this
guy named james who is a researcher and he studies people's brains and what's going on in the brain
when a person is feeling the discomfort of boredom so the author kind of boils it down to uh you have
sort of these two modes you have focused mode and unfocused mode and like i already said we spend
so much of our lives in this like focused mode and the research is kind of suggesting that this
unfocused mode is actually very good and important for the brain if you feel burnt out in your life
then maybe pay attention to this because i think this is something that does help me a bit so i
just want to read you one paragraph here that i really thought was interesting to know especially
relative to what we're talking about so unfocused mode occurs when we're not paying attention
it's inward mind wandering a rest state that restores and rebuilds the resources needed to work
better and more efficiently in the focused state time in unfocused mode is critical
to get [ __ ] done tap into creativity process complicated information and more so
there's so much in this book if this is your kind of thing definitely check out this book
i will link to it below if you kind of are uncomfortable initially slowing down or not
having a whole lot to do there is some research to suggest that this unfocused mode is actually
really good for the brain and helps you be more productive and you actually are working
and i will say just from a personal note i always seem to get my best ideas when i am out camping or
when i am hiking and when i do kind of have that inward mind wandering when my mind is not focused
on something or tuned into some sort of social media thing where i'm getting so much stimulation
at every second a lot of people get good ideas in the shower right because you're in that unfocused
mode your mind is wandering and so that's actually it seems like a very important state for your mind
and just something interesting to consider reason number five that you hate camping is you eat
crappy food now just because you're out camping that does not mean that the food has to suck
i know for me if i eat like really heavy processed foods all day long like i don't feel good i want
you to eat some good food when you're out camping there are tons i can't even list
them all at this point tons and tons of camping meal related videos on this channel i even have
in the description below a free camp cooking starter kit it has a meal planner guide a camp
kitchen gear checklist and a bunch of recipes so you can download that if that's something you're
interested in it will help you stay organized and just really streamline the whole
meal process when you're out camping it doesn't have to be complicated in order to be good
a lot of my meals are incredibly simple either camp stove or campfire meals free printable
recipes on the blog so definitely take advantage of that if you want to up your camp cooking game
for me that's one of my favorite parts about going camping is cooking outdoors and sharing those
meals with friends and family in an undistracted environment is so special and i really want you to
have those moments and those memories as well when you're out camping you don't need to eat
ramen all day every day when you're camping even though i do love a good bowl of ramen
don't get me wrong but if you just want to do some cooking and eat some fresher meals
then i got you reason number six that people say they hate camping is they say it is uncomfortable
and to this point i will say yes sometimes it is uncomfortable i don't want to paint the picture
that camping is always just rainbows and unicorns and me just enjoying the sunshine and this perfect
beautiful outdoor space with no discomfort and no problems and no adversity it is not always like
that there are so many things that can derail your plan you have weather that may be unexpected i
mean so many things it's not always easy it's not always comfortable and that's one of the reasons
i like it i'm just going to share some of the ways that i sort of reframe that discomfort and
why i actually think it's it's pretty good for me in my everyday life i live
in a pretty comfortable condo i have a temperature controlled environment it is very
easy to go to the bathroom i have food and water readily available and these things are easy to
take for granted because they're just part of your everyday life but when you go camping and you
have to walk to the bathroom when you have to go fetch your water when things are just a little bit
harder it really is for me kind of like a reset button and it puts everything into perspective
and allows me to be super super grateful for the things that i do have in my ordinary everyday
life it really kind of puts into perspective just how extraordinary that ordinary stuff
is and i think that that's a really special thing one of the things that i've really tried to do
is is reframe discomfort and i even tell myself like this discomfort is good for me
exercise is a perfect example like when i go to the gym and i do a workout it's not always
comfortable it sucks sometimes i can't breathe my muscles are burning but that discomfort is
ultimately good for me it makes me stronger it builds mental resilience and so i keep coming
back for more right because it's more than just the physical workout the same with camping it just
reframes everything else in life and so i try to embrace it as part of camping and what makes
camping so great so i hope you like this video if you've maybe tried camping before and you didn't
love it hopefully you've got some tips to help you get more organized and even just mindset stuff to
make it more enjoyable next time or you can share this video with friends and family who might
not love camping the whole mission behind this channel is to really help people get outside
more camping and hiking and backpacking all these things that i talk about on this channel
have really really enriched my life and so i just want to create content that helps you get out
there and experience that as well so if you like this video share it with a friend give it a like
and comment below i love camping so that i know you got this far i would love to see
you in another video so hit that subscribe button i will see you in the next video