When you are camping, going to the bathroom can be a tricky activity. So tricky it’s crippling. From my experience, it’s been one of the biggest reasons many people stray from camping. The thought of digging a hole or using a drop toilet as a means to get by is simply not appealing. But believe me when I say after a few tries and learning how to go to the bathroom when camping through innovative ways, it gets easier.
Most frequent campers will have a portable camping toilet that they use to make this easier. But with this method, do remember that someone has to clean the toilet eventually. Are you keen on that?.
However, this is something that many people forget about or do not know about. If you are one of these people, you should consider some information about how to go to the bathroom while camping without a portable toilet. It may seem a little primitive, but hey. That’s camping!
Urinating In The Woods Outdoors
If you are a man, it is easy to go to the bathroom outdoors as you are able to stand and urinate. This is something that is much harder for women as they will need to find a covered bush to hide behind. However, this is changing because of the FUD .Which is a tool that can help women who need to urinate outdoors in times like camping, bush walking, hiking etc.
The FUD is a funnel-shaped device that allows a woman to urinate like a man, standing up. This device is also ideal if you are able to find a bathroom while camping, but do not have any sanitizer for after you have used the bathroom. With the FUD, you will not have to worry about touching the dirty surfaces of the bathroom.
Doing The Dirty Outdoors
If you need the bathroom for more than urination, everything will be a bit different. You will need to have some plastic bags with airtight ones being the best, tissue paper and a digging tool such as a camping shovel. You will also need to find a concealed spot before you do anything else. Avoid digging holes close to waterways, or on the sand if you are beach camping. Nobody wants to put there foot in a soft spot on the beach… Find a secluded spot away from the campsite which isn’t interfering with the habitat.
Once you have your concealed spot, you will need to take out the bag and do your business into it. You will then need to seal the bag. Plastic bags are harmful for the Earth, so please don’t dispose of them incorrectly.
The alternative is to dig a hole with a shovel. About 5-6 inches deep should cater for most peoples business. Once done, cover up with the dirt, you might also want to conceal it more with leaves and clumps of dirt after stomping on it well and good.
Making Your Own Portable Toilet While Camping
If you do not want to go to the bathroom in the great outdoors and do not want to buy a portable toilet, you can make your own. There are a number of ways that you can do this from using a bucket to using a milk crate. When you make your own portable toilet, you will need to have plastic packets to catch the waste and something to remove the odor of the waste.
To increase the comfort of your home-made portable toilet, you can add a toilet seat. If you do not want to buy a toilet seat for this, there are many people who re-purpose a pool noodle instead. The benefit of using a pool noodle is that it can also work as a holder for the plastic bag.
There are many different items that you can use to remove the odor of the waste from your portable toilet. This is something that you need to do for a range of different reasons. The easiest odor remover to use is baking soda which is something that you might have in your kitchen at home. Baking soda is known to remove odors and all you have to do is sprinkle some over the waste to remove the odor.
There are some people who use bleaching soap or chlorine, but you need to be careful with this. When you are camping, you need to consider that there will be animals in the area. You do not want to use any harmful chemicals which could cause problems to the ecosystem of the area and affect the campsite for years to come.
Don’t Let Going To The Bathroom While Camping Deter You
The above methods are just a couple of ways to be one with nature so to speak. These days you can buy all sorts of camping bathroom equipment. From the privacy of a camping toilet to squatting on a toilet seat over a port-a-loo. Grab a bucket of water and some soap and business is done. Camping is too much fun to miss over a simple bathroom failure.