Prepare for Summer Heat and Camping with an Outdoor Water Station

My outdoor drinking water station complete with a collapsible Wolverine Smart Bottle and Zero Water Pitcher.  I always have clean water right when and where I need it!

If you are camping without full hookups, you may be limited on water supply.  Or, maybe you are tent camping.  You might even want to keep kids from running in and out of the camper over and over.  Whatever set up you have, you can create an outdoor water station that will make life easier at the campground.  I've created an outdoor water station for both drinking water and washing dishes.  Be prepared for the summer months ahead with this simple set up.

What You Need

Anytime you are setting up an outdoor water station, think about your overall needs.  Some campgrounds have electric hookups but not water and sewer.  We don't have fresh or gray water tanks.  So, this makes our situation more like actual tent camping in a lot of ways.  On a recent trip like this, I needed water for both washing dishes and drinking water.

To accommodate both of these needs, I used the following items.

• Wolverine Collapsible Water Container
• ZeroWater Pitcher for filtering clean drinking water
• Collapsible dishpan for washing dishes
• Collapsible Dish Drainer for drying my dishes
• Dish drying mat
• Electric kettle for heating water
• Soap
• Grey Water Container
• Grey water treatment

You do not have to use all of these things.  But, if you are going to be camping a lot, these are all handy.  And I think they are practical as well.  

The Wolverine Smart Bottles are completely collapsible and store flat.  They are also American made!

Drinking Water Station

I like to set up something when camping that has constant drinking water available.  If you are camping without hookups, you can fill up a Smart Bottle(s) and place on one end of your picnic table.  Next, to the Smart Bottle, provide a pitcher of filtered water for drinking. 

If you have never used Smart Bottle's before, these are great.  They store flat.  You can purchase a variety of sizes.  They have a spigot for faster use.  And they are double walled and have handles for carrying.

The 2 1/2 gallon size is fairly easy to carry.  Water weighs 8 pounds per gallon, so this is going to weigh about 20 pounds when full.  We found that we use about 5 gallons of water a day for drinking and washing dishes.  Having 2 of these containers would be perfect for a small family.  You can refill them easily throughout the day as needed.  The five gallon Smart Bottle would weigh 40 pounds to carry, and this may be too much for some to carry.  

Pour water from your Smart Bottle in your filtered pitcher.  And you have drinking water on demand when you need it.  Having a constant water source is really important in hot weather.  We use this station to refill our water bottles all throughout the day while playing, hiking or just being outdoors!

My outdoor dishwashing station sets right up at the end of my picnic table to wash dishes and store away when I am done!

Dish Washing Station

On the opposite end of the picnic table from where my drinking water is located, I wash dishes.  This gives me a place to stand while I'm washing.  I heat up a kettle of water to give me warm water to wash dishes.  Then, I wash dishes in a collapsible dish pan.  If you have two dish pan's you can use one was soapy water and one for rinsing.

I only have one dishpan.  So, I wash my dishes.  Then, I drain off all of the soapy water and add clean water to rinse.  I only camp like this some times, and I don't feel the need to have multiple dish pans.  Ordinarily, I'm washing dishes in our camper.  

An electric kettle may seem like overkill, but I like to have warm water to wash dishes.  Plus, you can use the electric kettle to make coffee or tea.  I use this a lot on camping trips.

When I finish washing up the dishes, everything is put away and stored.  I don't leave my dishwashing station set up all of the time.  Since I am able to collapse everything down, it just stows away.  I don't like a lot of clutter lying about at the campground.  Plus, we are eating meals at this table.  I want the room to eat and enjoy our meals.  

An Aquatainer for grey water disposal and grey odor control treatment are key for keeping critters away and maintaining a sanitary site.

Grey Water Disposal

Don't forget about your grey water.  I saw a family washing dishes and pouring the dirty water on the ground.  This is an excellent way to attract varmints at your site.  Just don't.  Plus, it's unsanitary and against many campground rules.  

Get yourself an Aquatainer to pour your grey water into once you are done washing dishes.  You can empty this as needed.  There are lots of different options for this.  Camco makes a 15-gallon tank on wheels that would work well if you camped without hookups often.  There are also sizes much larger than this.  It all comes down to how much you want to pack and store.

We just have an inexpensive one.  Add some greywater treatment to keep odors at bay.  Odors are just another way to attract critters at your site.  

Having an outdoor water station makes camping much easier.  Plus it makes you prepared for whatever you are doing throughout the day.  Everyone knows where to go to fill up water bottles or wash hands.  For washing hands, you could leave out some hand soap and a dishpan for this if needed.  Just place the dishpan on your picnic table next to your Smart Bottle, and you are ready to wash those dirty hands before meals.  

Until next time...

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