If you’ve ever been camping or sleeping under the stars, then you know it’s good for the soul. Eating, sleeping and living amongst nature is therapeutic, refreshing and a hell of a lot of fun. However, over time, camping can be down-right tiring. Setting up and breaking down gear, packing it all in your car, and cleaning it when you get home gets old real fast.

When I was a kid, we camped a lot. My parents had every camping gadget imaginable. Back then, portable camping gear was hard to come by, everything was huge and clunky. Our camping gear took up half of our attic where we stored it, and half of our car on trips, that there was hardly anywhere to sit in the car. The amount of time it took to set up and break down camp was annoying, It became un-enjoyable. As my parents got older, they became exhausted from hauling all of their gear for every trip. Finally, they just gave up. That’s it. No more camping.

Here’s our rule of thumb to keeping camping enjoyable long term: you have got to keep it simple. It’s tempting to purchase every new camping product on the market. Many of them provide the comforts of home, making you feel like you’re at home in the wilderness. But guess what? You’re not at home. Being a minimalist when camping and getting by with only a very few key camping items is what it’s about. Do with less, it’s good for you. You’ll find yourself improvising, being creative and thinking out of the box, all wonderful skills to teach your children who may be camping with you, and skills that will translate to adult daily life. Not bad right?

We camp with a lot of different friends. Most of them don’t need half of the gear they have. It takes them twice as long to set up camp, and twice as long to break it down. They don’t really need that big table they bring on every trip, they can really get by with the picnic table provided in every campsite we go to. They don’t really need to have that massive camp chef stove with them either, they can get by with a portable one or a two burner stove.

When camping, we always plan our meals so there are hardly any dishes to wash. Paper plates are not the green choice, but we use them, when in the rough. Using paper plates means less to wash and they’re a great fire starter for after dinner. Utensils? We have sporks. Dual purpose and less washing. Cups? We each have one camping cup, that’s good for hot and cold beverages, that get rinsed after every use.

We also aim to cook most of our means on the grill or in foil. We avoid doing any cooking in pots and pans. Why? It’s because we don’t want to wash them. So what can you cook in foil? Anything really. I plan to camp for the rest of my life. I love it, and live for it. I hope to not grow tired of lugging around my camping gear, because I hardly have any. I have a very select few key items that I find essential and that’s all I choose to have.