outdoor camping This travel towel absorbs 10 times its bulk in water, and I just ordered a dozen of them for our outdoor camping trips. Why so many? Because there are four of us, and we like to use a clean towel each day and I thought I'd use two of them for drying the dishes when we are outdoor camping. When they come, I'm going to put everyone's initials on them so they know whose is whose. When we're outdoor camping, I like to pack as light as we can. Before we started car camping in earnest, we would go backpacking, so it's just a habit to pack as simply and lightly as we can. Bringing bulky bath towels from home takes up too much room and these towels are just perfect for either car camping or backpacking.

We even bought new water containers online that collapse when they're not in use. We wait until we get to the campground to fill them so that we're not hauling all the water weight up the hill on our way to the mountains. We have mastered stuffing our sleeping bags in their stuff sacks when we're outdoor camping. When we're outdoor camping, our motto is small is beautiful.