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4d ago

What's your best tip or hack for camping?

Any kind–drive-up camping, backpacking, RV camping, in the woods, at the beach, in a shelter, let's hear it all.

147 comments

It's not about the destination, its about the journey
2.Things will go wrong but don't let that ruin your trip, see #1

For anyone reading this thread, my best advice is to learn to identify the different types of camping in order to identify what will be useful information to you. The bushcrafter has a different objective from the van camper, who has a different objective from the ultralight backpacker.
- True this. I love camping but survival type campers say my version of camping isn't actually camping.
  I'm sorry, but just because the campground has a sign out front that says "hotel" doesn't mean I'm not camping. I'm roughing it man. I don't even have my own pillow.

Hammocks are the best tents, especially for solo camping. Some pack up so small I can fit the hammock, tarp and bug net into the pockets of cargo pants.
Thermo-rest is your best friend, even in a hammock. Having a wind pass under your body will make you real cold.
Scout campsites thoroughly for poison ivy, poison oak, anthills, wasp nests, etc.
Pay attention to sleeping bag ratings and remember that a 0°C rating just means you won't die at that temp, not that you'll be comfortable. Sleeping bags are one of the few things with a strong cost/quality correlation.
Always have rope. Bring lots of rope. Know what makes a good rope.
- I'll add to this, know how to use good rope, learn a few knots, and you'll be surprised at how often you use them even in your daily life.
  My favorites, and thus my recommendations, are these, in order of usefulness.
  The Bowline. Obviously. It's one of the most versatile knots you can make. You use it to create a loop around something, and that loop will not move. It will not tighten or loosen, it can support your body weight and more. It's often used to haul people up when they've fallen into a crevice or hole, because a noose would tighten around your chest and hurt you on the way up, but a Bowline will not.
  And, if you need a noose, you can make a small looped Bowline, and pull the lead line through it to make a noose that will self tighten on whatever your putting it around.
  Best of all, the Bowline is easy to remove. You know how hard a regular square knot is to undo? Especially if you've pulled it really tight? A Bowline knot, by design, is always easier to undo, even if it's seen hundreds of pounds of load. It really is the best knot, in my opinion.
  If you can only learn one knot, make it a Bowline.
  Truckers hitch. I use this knot all the time. Have you ever tried to use rope to tie something down? And no matter how tight you pull the rope, by the time you're done making the knot, the rope has slipped a bit, and it's looser than you'd like? Especially annoying when trying to put up a clothes line at camp, and it's all droopy.
  Enter the truckers hitch. This knot let's you cinch the rope up super tight, and lock it in place, so it stays that way. Plus the finished knot always has a tail you can pull to easily undo it. This is useful for clotheslines, hammocks, tying stuff to your truck or bike, plenty of uses, easily my second favorite knot. Tied for first, practically.
  Sheet bend. Have a rope that's too short? Need to extend it a bit to get the job done? Sheet bend, double or triple sheet bend depending on the load. Easily connects two ropes together, and comes undone easy enough when you need it to, unlike if you just used two square knots.
  .
  Clove Hitch. Quickly and easily tie the end of a rope to a circular object like a pole or tree. Goes on easy, comes off easy.
  .
  Butterfly. Make a non sliding loop anywhere in the middle of a rope. Don't load the rope too hard though, this knot can be tough to undo.
  .
  Spike hitch, similar to butterfly, but more likely to slide, tightens like a noose on whatever you loop through it under load, but has a wide variety of uses that become more apparent the more you play with rope and knots. Fun fact, this knot is easy to learn, because it's the basis for the Bowline and truckers hitch.
  There's definitely more knots to learn, and others will have opinions on which ones are the best. But these are my favorites. Just learning the first two will be extremely helpful to you.
  Edit: wow that formatting really got away from me. I'm on mobile, so I'm leaving it, sorry
  
  The explanation I've always heard for the sheet bend is that it is used for tying together differently sized ropes. But honestly, every time I've tied it, it was fiddly to tie and felt sketchy to actually load. For any actual work that is important or possibly dangerous, I would not use a sheet bend. The double fisherman's is far more secure. The flat overhand bend is almost as secure (depending on the rope), and fast to tie. If untying after loading is a priority, you can just tie two bowlines with the loops going into each other - back them up with barrel knots if you expect cyclical loading, as this can cause bowlines to slip.
  Everyone I know talks about how easy the butterfly is to untie after loading. But then, they are comparing to an overhand or figure 8 on a bight. If being able to untie after loading is a priority, I use the bowline on a bight.
  For anyone reading - please do not try to haul anyone up anything using your newfound bowline skills, unless you are in a very safe situation - like, helping someone walk up a steep hill. Hauling unconscious bodies through the air without appropriate precautions can kill or permanently disable a person. Especially don't do this with cheap Walmart rope that is rated for "trust me bro". And especially don't do this if you don't understand how to preserve your progress, gain mechanical advantage, or lower the victim again safely. Source: rock climber for 15 years, WFR certified, SPRAT certified.
- Hammock camping is a very personal decision. Personally, I tried it for a while and just found it to be a hassle, and I never managed to find a comfortable sleep position.
  But the hammock campers I do know recommend getting an underquilt instead of using a sleeping pad. Of course, this can fuck you over if you can't find any trees - but the underquilt isn't weirdly square in the hammock, and instead just conforms to the hammock's shape.
  
  I prefer the thermarest because the shape keeps it in the hammock instead of getting messed up with my tossing and turning. It just conforms when I'm on it.
  I have never had a situation where I couldn't find trees to camp in. Assuming any dessert campers out there know what kind of land they're exploring before they pack their gear. With a few extra pieces you could anchor to rock, too.

Psychedelics and people you trust
- I used to love LSD at festivals but coming down in a tent while people were still partying outside is the worst.
  
  I couldn't ever manage around groups of people like that or being in public for too long. The most exposed I'd be willing is likely just like floating down a river or something, plenty of people, no real reason to interact outside of a quick hello
- Right on!

An old Tesla bought in Norway has free charging the rest of it's (the cars) lifetime. It should work in all (or most) of Europe.

Know where to pitch a tent.
If you are close to a stream, pitch the tent a few meters above the water. If it rains you don't know how quickly it can rise.
In the same wake, if you are pitching on a plain, pitch your tent on a relative rise. If you pitch in a relative depression rain will drench you.
If you pitch on a slope, and there will usually be slight slopes, pitch your tent so, that your head is facing upwards when sleeping.
If a storm is expected you might be inclined to pitch under a tree, but be careful. If a branch breaks off and hits you, that can be very bad.
If you pitch your tent in the open and it is a hot summer, the inside will get very hot very quickly. Make sure to get up and out early, don't get wasted at night and bring reflective covering. People died at festivals when they stayed in their tents when getting wasted and then getting roasted in their tents.
- Being able to read a campsite is a skill to find the best one and where to place everything. Tent placement is key.

Put your shoes in your tent at night so slugs don't crawl in them. Camping in a national Forest is often free. Take nothing but pictures. Leave nothing but footprints.
- Try not to leave even footprints please. People go trailblazing way too often when there's perfectly good trails already.
- In the U.S. of A - in Germany do not camp in the wild if you're fond of your money. Although we have a milder variant of the Allemannsretten, ours excludes camping in the wild
  
  This depends on the state.
  For instance in Brandenburg and Schleswig-Holstein you can camp "in the wild"*
  *there is limits in natural preserves, and what is defined as camping can vary. e.g. tarp vs tent, obv. no RVs...

Headtorch.
- Instructions unclear. Applied fire directly to forehead.
  
  HEADTORCH APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD! HEADTORCH APPLY DIRECTLY TO FOREHEAD!
- some have red light functions, which wont blind people youre looking at
  
  Highly recommended if you camp socially often. Blinding people with your headlamp is a social faux pas among experienced outdoors people.
- Honestly good to have in general if you live in a place that's sometimes night.

Tarps are your friends. Obviously get the footprint sized ones for your tent but bring extras. I like to have one in front of my tent for shoes and things to keep it cleaning going in and out. Or I like to use it to change on if my tent is too small. Great to throw over or wrap things to avoid the dew in the morning. Got to bring a tarp
- Plus you don't have to even buy the manufacturer's special ground tarp for your tent. I picked up a huuuge tarp at a yard sale for like $5. And cut a footprint-size piece for my tent and had oceans of tarp left over for other camping and household uses.
  
  Good point. I got to do that. I have one that's a little too long for my footprint. I'll have to cut it to make it exact
- You can also just grab tyvek scraps from a construction site.

About 2-3 cheap string-lights that run off USB battery packs (EDITed out this: ~~run off the 2x AA-battery-packs~~). Mulitple light angles is better than a single light source. Cheery and festive. Get a multicolored string, if camping with kids or you are a fun camper.
Also OSMand mapping software, configured with offline maps of your camp area. Install the hillshades and height maps for extra detail. Enable and add an overlay-layer of Satellite data. Then scan your camp area and surrounds while online, so that it will cache the satellite map tiles needed when you are off-grid.
- I just want to add that I got a cheap string of LED red lights that just power off a USB power bank. Red light lets you see in the dark while not ruining your night vision! I create a huge circle around me because somehow that makes me feel safe when I’m sitting at a fire.
  
  Nice, I'll check for the USB ones.
  A large red circle... summoned anything yet? :P
- Thanks for sharing the OSMand recommendation and configuration.
  I've got a hike coming up, so I just installed it - wow, it's fantastic. It captures the elevation change and distance. I thought I'd need to limp along with Google maps, but OSMand is sooo much better (and open source).
  edit: a word
  
  You're welcome. OSMand is a fun powerhouse.
  You can test which offline-map tiles you have by switching to airplane-mode.
  There is a 3D map view also, but it may still be in testing status.
  As always, for all people heading out remote, it's good practice to have a secondary map available, such as a laminated paper map.

bring extra food for the first timers. they wont bring enough.

Ear plugs. Because that rustling of leaves is just a raccoon and most definitely not a serial killer. I like wax earplugs for sleeping versus foam.
Maintain hygiene regimens to greatest degree possible. Don't skimp on washing face or brushing teeth that you would typically do at home.
Food makes or breaks a trip for me. The weather could be awful, plans could go awry, but as long as everyone is well fed, there's potential.
I'm not a no-tech purist while camping but do try to use trips as a time to reset tech habits. Can you go for 24 hours without an Internet connected device? Kinda similar to the occasional dry week or break from coffee/caffeine: check in and see how you're interacting with tech.
Have a first aid kit and know how to use the stuff in it.
- Somehow the idea of a raccoon is scarier to me and always causes me to wake up and start growling like some prehistoric dingus
- I'd say earplugs because your fellow camp ground people might not be so thoughtful.

If you are on a budget, camp in whatever vehicle you already own. I lived in a small car with my wife and cat for several months as we were moving. Learned a ton from “Cheap RV Living” on YouTube.
We had a solar generator with some panels, we cooked using electric skillet, had a twin bed, fairy lights use almost no power, and we had a 12v fridge. It wasn’t that bad but we eventually found a super cheap RV and live in that now.
- Society has sunk to a level where living in your vehicle is acceptable as a valid housing option.
  
  I'd say it depends heavily on the vehicle.
  2 people and all their belongings in a Golf is pretty dire.
  But if you're 1 person in a proper Van set-up it can be pretty good depending on your location.

Pee bottle and fairy lights.

Tin foil is excellent for cooking. It works more as an oven and just add water and it is a steamer.

Never piss on your camp fire if it's upwind of your tent. - source, was in the scouts, we did this to another patrol. Man, their tent stank.

Best time of the year to camp is spring and fall. The nights are cool while the days are warm. You are either too early or too late for mosquitos. It can be less busy as well.
Summer camping gets too hot both during the day and at night.
- I'd amend this to say 'know what the seasonal conditions are for your area and plan accordingly.' In Washington for example Spring is generally too cold for comfortable camping (the temperature typically drops to ~30-45 during at night). While August/September is peak wildfire season nowadays. So June, July, early August are your best bets unless you're happy toughing out the cold or the smoke.
  
  There's always a sweet spot for temperatures. I love a 70 degree day and a 50 degrees night.

A lb on your feet is the same as 5 lbs on your back. And bring light shoes for when you've set up camp.
And the chair kit for your thermorest is the best investment you will ever make.
- Visual aide for people who don't know what that is (I had to look it up)
  The Therm-a-Rest chair-kit, looks like MSRP's for around 65 USD
- Love that chair, you can also use it in the tent unlike other chairs. Most of the times i use it as a lounger with the seat area single layered.
  
  Mine is the older style with the ends closed so you have to fold it and stuff it in, can't let an end stick out. But it's fine, and after a day of hiking, it's beautiful to have something with a back to sit in when you're making supper or sitting around the fire.

Hammock tent. All the advantages of a tent and a hammock.
Don’t have to worry about your tent getting flooded, no need for an air mattress or sleeping pad.
- Hammock camping is great for bikepacking too!
  They can can get uncomfortably cold really fast at night though.
  If it gets colder than 60 at night you're going to need an underquilt. That plus a rain tarp and you're golden.
- I have a bug net that came with mine, so no bugs either. Now I just need to find two trees...

Pool Noodles - Place them like this in your canopy so they add tension to the roof. This will prevent rain water from collecting near the edge and weighing down the roof.
I always place the entrance to my tent under a canopy. This allows me to to stay dry when entering the tent. It also protects me from the sun. And I can put a rug down in front of my tent to wipe my feet.
If you are using multiple canopies, considering some canopy gutters. They are basically 1 foot by 10 feet strips of tent material that you attach between two canopies. This way you don't have to avoid the drip-strip under two canopies.
Outdoor rugs can help to prevent the ground from becoming a muddy mess. They sell large, lightweight plastic rugs that work very well for this. They can be folded down to a portable size and are very light. They allow water to pass through, so they don't soak it up and become heavy.
I've learned to not put a tarp under my tent, that just traps water between the tent and the tarp. Put a tarp down inside your tent and then put a rug (or towels) on top of that. Nice dry comfy rug in your tent.
Apparently it rains every time I go camping...
- This man rain glamps

If you're out bike touring, KOA's almost always have spots set aside for cyclists to camp. Both KOAs and state parks are really useful for showers and clothes washing. Was genuinely surprised how many state parks had both when I toured across the U.S.
If you're in Washington state, the state parks are legally required to find room for you to camp if you rolll up on a bike and they're otherwise full.
- That's great info about KOA and Washington State!
  Love staying at state parks on bikepacking trips, the warm showers are always a lifesaver.

When cooking with a skillet, let the fire die down, gather as many hot coals as possible and set your skillet firm on top your coal pile.
When cooking with a pot, hang it above a low fire, in most cases you wanna make sure the flames aren't licking your pot.

This pic is from my last camping trip, if you wanna know how to build the tripod, there are pleanty of youtube videos on the topic.

If you're car camping or RVing, I started bringing my tree limb shears with me camping to cut up kindling from dead branches. So much faster and easier on the shoulder than a hatchet. If they're small enough, breaking them over my knee is fine, but I sometimes find good thick ones and I can't break that sucker down without a sharp tool.
Bring a bucket. Buckets are useful. I have 2 different collapsible kinds, but I also keep a good ol 5 gal paint bucket from the hardware store. It carries wood, water, is a trashcan, can be a seat, used to wash clothes or dishes, can be used as a toilet in an emergency (ideally with a trash bag liner and some kitty litter)...I love buckets.
Use a pill organizer to bring a variety of cooking spices in a tidy lightweight caddy.
Have a good first aid kit always.

Coffee. If you are a coffee drinker, get a way to make half-decent coffee.
Or tea, or hot chocolate if you hate caffeine. Nothing beats the feeling of a hot cup of something after a short, noisy, miserable night.
- What's your go-to brew method for camping? I find the Aeropress tough to beat.
  Although my favourite camping coffee memories are with my parents' beat-up old moka pot and pre-ground beans from the grocery store. I love me a good cup of coffee, but sometimes the best cup isn't about the beans or the brew. It's about the time, space, and people you share it with. Some of my all-time favourite cups of coffee came out of that piece of crap moka pot.
  
  Mine is a small mokka/Turkish coffee pot with a removable handle. On a recent trip, someone bought a portable espresso thingy and it was a really nice alternative to the bottom-of-the-shelf cheap instant coffee we had otherwise. But to be honest, non-terrible instant coffee is fine for me, just don't get the ultra cheap crap.
  At the end (or rather beginning) of the day I settle for "hot, caffeinated, does not make me want to spit it out". I'd rather drink the shitty cheapest possible instant coffee on a cool trip with nice people than the other way round.
  
  An all-metal French press is, IMO, hard to beat. Easy, simple cleanup, not too heavy (depends on the press you get), and makes a good cup o Joe.
  
  I use those small paper tea filters. Bit tricky to pour over, but no need for any holders or whatever. Brought an aeropress a couple times too but figured it's not worth it for me, i will use it at home though. I want to save on the "bulk" of an aeropress though, haha.
  
  Moving camps and space/weight an issue (backpack, xc ski, kayak, bike), instant coffee.
  Base camp with day trips or car camp.
- For the coffee drinkers: https://velo-orange.com/products/soto-helix-coffee-maker?keyword=coffee. We use these as daily drivers with a really good manual coffee grinder. Added bonus: our coffee can be about the same as we get at home.
- Moka pot on a camp stove works great.

Lay a layer of logs on the ground before making your camp fire on top of it. Ideally larger ones. They'll lift the fire off the damp ground, improve air flow and act as fuel once the fire gets going.

That most camping gear is horrendously expensive and over engineered.
Get old and used gear, repair things, and make your own if you can.
A good bug net and a tarp are going to be just as effective as a modern tent, and breathe better.
For a backpack, those old aluminum a-frame packs are so easy to repair, and you can clip/tie things to the frame.
- A good bug net and a tarp are going to be just as effective as a modern tent, and breathe better.
  No. Maybe better than a cheap tent from Walmart.
  Don't buy cheap tents or sleeping bags and take care of them.
  
  I’ve been using the same net and tarp for like 15 years and on more trips than I can count.
  No problems yet, just a few repairs that cost next to nothing.

If you're in bear country, you want to hang your food high from a tree branch. Not right next to the trunk, bears can climb like squirrels. It's really amazing how fast they can climb a tree.
Also hang toiletries; don't keep toothpaste or anything scented in the tent with you.
- That will work in some regions. In others you may need to rent a bear canister. Talk to your local rangers to find out what's appropriate, it depends on the local bears.
- Also for bear country, don't cook where you sleep
- If you catch site of a bear, spread out your arms and legs (and use any jackets like frills) to make yourself as big as possible, and make as much noise as you can.
  Do Not Run Bears can run at like 40 mph
  
  Depends on the bear. Black bears this can work, but if they attack you anyway you have to fight for your life or you are dead since they will keep attacking their prey until they are certain its dead.
  Grizzlies... Be quiet and calm and talk in a low voice, also do not run if possible, if you run they will think you are prey. If they attack you, ball up, protect your neck and head, fight as well if you really have no other option. Making yourself seem big and scary isn't very effective with them.
  Polar bear, you're just fucking dead.
  For all of them, carry bear bangers and or bear spray.

Watch some primitive/bushcraft survival videos on YouTube. There's a lot of good tips and tricks, especially for when you aren't exactly prepared for camping (emergency situations) and need shelter, fire, food, water, etc.
Favorite channels:
Bertram - Craft and Wilderness (off-trail camping videos)
Coalcracker Bushcraft (lots of good info)
Donnie Dust's Paleo Tracks (primitive tools)
Primitive Technology (fire by friction, primitive crafting)
Survivorman - Les Stroud (survival, cooking, history, etc)
Woodsbound Outdoors (good info and demo)

I never really see people doing this, but I've had a great time pitching my tent in the back of my pickup instead of on the ground. You get a perfectly flat surface and some foam or an air mattress make it pretty comfy.

Don't go to bed with the same clothes you wore during the day. The perspiration will make you really cold at night
Even though it's warm during the day, don't assume it'll be warm at night. The temp differences can be quite drastic
pack your clothes for the next day in your sleeping bag so they're warm in the morning. I usually either roll them up and use them as a pillow, or put them deep inside my sleeping bag by my feet.
- As far as it being cold, a water bottle left out at night can get cold. An insulated bottle left out will stay cold through the hottest part of the day

Pack a book. Everything from hammock backpacking to week-long glamping festivals, I've never regretted bringing one along.
- Bring as many as you can. Even on Philmont I had two.

Get some sort of 5 gallon jug that has an on off valve for water. Helps if you want to wash hands or balls

My friends and I just went camping. Instead of bringing eggs in egg cartons, put them in a Blender Bottle. Shake them up for easy scramble eggs and pour!
- What is a blender bottle? but sounds cool
  
  A brand of protein shakers, with a wire ball in them.

Tiny pop-up tent, easier to carry if you can fit inside
Headlamps
Sleeping pad or something to separate you from the cold ass ground
Don't interact with the cute little bear cubs

You can dispersed camp for free in most national forests and BLM lands. Its pack-in pack-out for the most part but some spots have pit toilets. Freecampsites.net is my go to site for finding free camping
- Seems cool. Vibe feels like mostly people needing a safe place to sleep in their cars without getting ticketed with the other people backpackers who are roughing it

For most outdoors-people the terms camping and binge drinking are interchangeable so a couple of luxuries are needed for the next morning.
First up to take care of is the morning AGB (After Grog Bog) so a camping dunny and a toilet/shower tent is a must. Don't fool yourself into thinking a shovel and hole in the ground is good enough, you are not a cat.
Second is some wet bum wipes for cleaning the dags off your turd cutter after dropping off your AGB.
Third is an Aeropress (and a set of scales!) for making yourself a good coffee. This easy to use hardware is well known and the internet is full of peoples favourite recipe for creating the perfect coffee:
18g of coffee
90g of water
90 second brew time
flip over and press into mug (should take about 10 seconds to press down)
add more hot water and/or a little bit of milk to your personal preference

Bring bug spray.
- I swear it doesn't work.
  
  Get the good shit! If its less than 40% DEET it ain't worth a damn.
  
  Then bring someone tastier than you. That's a tried and true method

Birch bark torn into strips and layers makes good kindling. Sticks with little strips cut out and frayed to the side makes good tinder. Cotton balls covered in vaseline are my firestarters of choice. Drier lint is also good. If you're using charcoal, the bag is great for that as well.
Wool socks. And for the love of all that is holy bring some seasonings. Salt and Pepper are great, but they even sell little seasoning bottles for backpacking that screw together. Trust me.
- My favorite fire starter is a butane torch.
  In general, the rule for tinder is that you want things that are dry and have lots of surface area and puffiness. A high surface area to mass ratio allows the tinder to heat up faster and reach it's ignition point, but it needs enough structure to ensure there is oxygen around all the exposed surfaces. So a folded or rolled up newspaper isn't great, but crumpled balls of newspaper go up instantly.

Minivans and specifically the no longer made grand caravan (the ruined the design a bit with the pacifica). For two people you can do no prep camping. Throw whatever you think you might want in the back. Get to site and backup to the firepit. Throw all the stuff you brought in the driver and passenger seat and open the back. If its raining you can sit on the rear seat facing backwards and the rear door gives you shelter. At night you can just sleep in the back of the van since everything you brought is now in the front seats. Because you can flip seats up and down and such you can sit as you like and easily get the sleeping room. Done some very low prep camping this way. On another note the minivan has about as good a mileage as you get from a non car.

good tents are worth the money. The heavy canvas ones are great if not too far from a car, but too heavy to carry far.

Blackout tent so you can sleep late.
- I just pack an eye mask
  
  I keep losing my eyemasks. I started lightly tying a bandana around my eyes. It works great! I always have a bandana around. Not sure why they can manage to stay unlost but my eyemasks can't. I look like I'm headed to the firing squad, lol, but I need it to be dark to sleep.
- There's also birds being loud and the sun making the inside of your tent too hot to contend with

If you go for a tent, first don't forget the tent pegs, and then it's always comfortable having a tiny mallet to plant them, rather than using a rock or your bare hands.
- Find a -soft, dry- spot for the tent. And pound the pegs in first, then the rest of the tent goes up more easily.
  Oh ... and if it's -really- cold out, put a handwarmer, or two, in the toe of the sleeping bag. (Good to well-below zero F)
  
  Depends on the tent. Some stakes first some last. Dome tents stakes last, most everything else first
  
  flat is a lot more important than soft
- Once I forgot a mallet and I drove them in with a frying pan. I never forgot them again.
- If the ground is super fucked and you're car camping, an impact and some long ass lags also works a treat.
- We had a roofing hammer. Half hammer, half handaxe
- You can also take off your shoe and use that

No matter what, don't go in the winter.
As someone who hates the cold with a passion, there's nothing worse than waking up cold in the morning because you either didn't have on enough to keep you warm during a cold winter night in a sleeping bag or had on too much and wake up cold from sweating throughout the night.
Winter campouts are the only camps I absolutely do not miss at all from my time at scouts. The cold mornings are enough for me to not suggest it, despite it not actually being that bad after you've warmed up.
Though, on a more serious note, one of the things I do remember being taught but never followed through with for various reasons is to put your clothes for the next day under your sleeping bag so that way the next day they should be warm or at least warmer so you aren't putting on freezing cold clothes. Especially good for things like jeans because there's nothing worse than putting on jeans with frigid cold metal buttons if your hands are already trembling a little from the cold winter morning in general.
- HARD DISAGREE! I fucking love camping in the winter, as there's nothing worse than waking up in the middle of the night hot asf.
  The whiney southerners unable to take a simple 40° night was my least favorite part of scouting. Clowns crying whilst I curled up in a snowbank. Losers!
  Half-Jokes aside, I grew up cold and have a monstrous tolerance, but winter camping is often great, build the fire high, and find your Sisu!
  My slightly littler cousin doesn't appreciate the cold so much, so she also wraps herself in tomorrow's clothes, good call
  
  I'm a 3 season camper but that's fall, winter, spring. I love winter camping but I also have a travel trailer. I have gone tent camping in sub-30°F weather. That was the nightly low, and the high was 50's, so plenty comfy during the day, just had to bundle up good for the night. If you have a branded Nalgene bottle, you can fill it with hot (not too hot though) water and put that in your sleeping bag with you. Always have a beanie. I crochet so I'm never without one. Don't wear any cotton (especially don't wear cotton socks). "Cotton kills" as they say. Performance fabrics, wool, and layers layers layers. 2 layers of socks as well. And that will also help keep your feet from blistering if you go hiking.
  
  I had winter camping every year in scouts. We two subzero night in a quinzhee hut one year. It was awesome. We did the old boiling water in a nalgene water bottle in our sleeping bag before bed and slept great in the cold. Great memory
- Just to toss this out there, don't put your clothes actually under the sleeping bag unless the goal is wet clothes. Definitely strip down in your sleeping bag though, this way you don't sweat all night and have warm/dry clothes to put on before climbing out in the morning. There have been mornings I've had to crack the ice off my outer shell and been fine climbing out. Seems like a lifetime ago but that was what we were taught in the Army... now I have a small camper because... well because I don't want to have an extra soreness when I wake up lol.
  Edit: typos
  
  Normally I'd be on solid ground, in a tent, with a sleeping mat beneath my sleeping bag, so it would probably be safe to keep my clothes under it, probably towards the end of the bag near my feet. I've also never had any sort of ice forming on my sleeping bag before since we always had tents for every campout as needed.
  Maybe I'm misremembering the advice or it's bad advice, but in general I am probably never gonna have another chance to test this advice. So I'll take your word for it.

For starting a fire, look for bits of birch bark on the ground, it is extremely flammable and is much better tinder than leaves.

Air mattress so you don't regret

Put on some John Waters movies and load the karaoke machine with lots of Cher and Elton John.

I know some swear by the travel bidet (not for everyone), but for the masses, a pack of biodegradable “flushable” wipes are a great addition to your toiletry kit. Just one or 2 after you’re done with all of your other business leaves you nice and fresh for the day and can bury them if you’re backpacking.
- I'm honestly extremely doubtful that these should be buried. TP already takes a long time to decompose, and these wipes tend to be sturdier than TP. Imo, if you aren't already using a wag bag, then you should be if you are using these wipes.

Bring a battery powered fan.

Be prepared
- Counter argument: be unprepared and ready to improvise. I swear half the fun is just zip-tieing random stuff together late at night in the light of your phone torch.
  
  Which you can't do without zip ties

The most effective way to start a fire, for me, is to use fire-starting candles that Yankee Candle make.
- For my first fire, I gave up caring about whether I can rough it and will use a starter log. It is so hard to get that first fire to really catch and not need constant tending. The rest of my fires I practice doing it the hard way after there's a fresh bed of coals and half burnt wood from the previous day. Much easier to build up hot coals after that.
  
  Gasoline.

If it's really rainy protect your fire by having two people hold a plane up.

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