12 Camping Hygiene Hacks: How to Stay Clean While Camping

Everyone gets dirty when they’re on a camping trip. You’re sweaty, you haven’t showered, you have dirt and soot and all other kinds of debris on your clothing. That’s part of the joy of camping!

But there is a difference between being a bit dirty and practicing poor personal hygiene on a camping trip. Keeping yourself relatively clean will prevent bad bacteria growth, mysterious rashes and a whole host of other ailments.

If you’re interested in learning some expert tips on how to stay clean while camping, I have some camping personal hygiene hacks for you!

Before we dive into my camping hygiene hacks, I thought it’d be helpful to quickly go over what should and should not bring to the outdoors to stay clean.

Unscented, alcohol-based hand sanitizer: An absolute must!

Biodegradable soap: This can be used for cleaning dishes, doing laundry (the camping way), washing hands or ~potentially~ giving yourself a camp shower if really necessary. Ideally, you want one product that is multi-purpose and kind to the skin. I like this one because it doesn’t leave my hands feeling dry afterwards. However, camp suds is a more popular and cheaper choice.

Toothbrush + Toothpaste + Floss: No, just because you’re camping doesn’t mean you can skip out on dental hygiene (though I’m guilty of not brushing before bed if the bugs are super bad). I’ll explain more about the spitting process below, but to prevent fluoride and other chemicals from harming the environment, I use an all natural toothpaste.

Unscented baby wipes: Or face wipes work too. I like to bring a lot (two per day).

Quick-drying Microfiber towel: I like to think of a quick-dry towel as a little piece of luxury on trip. (It also doubles as a mat for me to lay out all my gear on so pine needles / sand don’t get in everything). I use this one.

Toilet Paper / Bandana + Trowel: I don’t actually bring toilet paper myself, and instead use a combination of leaves and a bandana (more on that below). Also, bring a trowel for burying your poop (more on that below as well)! On my last trip, I forgot it and had a miserable time digging a six-inch hole with my hands.

Period products: Further down in this post I explain the different options (and I even have an entire post dedicated to this topic) but I personally use Thinx and absolutely recommend it!

Read more: Camping on Your Period: Everything You Need to Know

Your feet and groin area do not like to be damp for a prolonged amount of time. Start your day off with a (relatively) clean pair of socks and underwear.

The number you bring will largely be dependent on your preferences and the amount of space you have available. I don’t like to skimp out on socks and underwear, so I tend to pack a little more than others.

I use the following formula for counting how many pairs of socks and underwear I need on a camping trip. Generally speaking, I do the number of days I’m out for divided by two. The minimum number of socks/underwear I will bring is three, and the maximum number of socks/underwear is six.

For example, when I went on a 7-day camping trip, I brought four pairs of socks. When I did a 24-day canoe trip, I brought six pairs of socks. Same with underwear.

For underwear, I wear one pair on day one and then wear them inside out on day two. If I’m on a long trip, I’ll wear one pair for two days straight before I flip them inside out.

For socks, I’ll wear one pair for as long as they stay dry and then I’ll move onto the next pair. I also save a pair of socks for at night so I always know I’ll always have warm feet. This means I’d rather put on wet hiking socks in the morning than keep my dry sleeping socks on. It’s uncomfortable to put on wet socks, but totally worth it when I get to the campsite after a long day and I have warm, dry socks to put on.

I’ll also wash my socks and underwear during a long trip. Below I’ve outlined how to do laundry on trip.

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Besides socks and underwear, I typically only bring one or two pairs of clothing – regardless of how long the trip is.

Let’s say you’re on a 10-day camping trip and you have brought two pairs of hiking pants and two hiking shirts. Should you alternate your clothing each day? NO! Wear one pair each day for the first half of your trip. And then at the halfway point, switch to your second pair of clothing.

I can’t tell you how good it feels when you’re halfway through a trip and you get to change into fresh, clean clothing. I keep the clothing in a small stuff sack so it stays extra fresh for me.

I have heard some people say they don’t brush their teeth while they’re camping because toothpaste is bad for the environment. They have clearly never heard of organic or natural toothpaste and the spray method!

There are two components to brushing your teeth in the woods: the toothpaste itself and your spitting technique. You can use one or the other, but for minimum environmental impact and maximum cleanliness I recommend you use both components in tandem.

When my campers first learned that I do a foot scrub before bed almost every night, they thought I was crazy. But after trying it with me, many of them converted too!

Once camp is all packed up for the evening (dinner is done, equipment is secure for the night, etc.) and before I hop into my tent, I give myself a foot scrub in the lake. I sit on the shore and stick both my feet in the water. With my hands (and no soap) I scrub off any chunks of dirt stuck to my feet or an my ankles. For a few minutes I’ll sit with them soaking in the water, ensuring all the sweat is washed off. When I’m done, I either use a camping towel (this is the one I use) to dry them or I let them air dry before putting my Tevas back on.

The only time I don’t do a foot scrub is if it is raining or the bugs are excruciatingly terrible. One thing I love about the foot scrub (besides clean feet) is that it gives me a few minutes of reflection at the end of the day. While I sit there waiting for my feet to dry, I day dream or think about the day I’ve just had.

There are a few options for ‘showering’ while you’re camping. Personally, I just try to swim as much as I possibly can. But if it’s cold, like when I was canoeing the Coulonge in October, I’ll go for the baby wipe method to avoid getting undressed outside my tent.

Baby Wipe ‘Sponge Bath‘

Swimming in the Lake / River

Swimming is a great way to wash off the dirt and grime accumulated throughout the day and keep you clean. Please don’t use soap though – a good rinse in the lake is usually good enough to keep your body fresh, and even biodegradable soap can be harmful to water creatures.

Tip: Unless I’m aiming for an ultralight pack on a trip, I always bring a small microfibre towel. This makes the prospect of swimming (even when it’s a bit chilly) much more attractive.

After you’ve given yourself a baby wipe shower, put your sleep clothing on. To keep your sleep clothing clean, it should never leave the tent (unless you’re going to pee in the middle of the night). Some people will cook over a fire or set up their tent in the same clothing they sleep in. *Shakes heads.* Don’t do it!

Things like pollen and campfire smoke cling to clothing fibres and you don’t want these on your skin when you’re sleeping (or say hello to mysterious rashes). Also, if you are outside your tent and accidentally get your sleep clothing wet, what will you sleep in? Have an extra pair of pants/shorts and an extra t-shirt exclusively reserved for sleeping.

Tip: Avoid sleeping in cotton clothing – if it gets wet (either from rain or your own sweat) it’ll chill you down and never dry. I like to sleep in a set of merino wool base layers – specifically this top and these bottoms.

Read more: 10 Tips for Comfortably Sleeping in a Tent

Yes, even in the woods you should be washing your hands after you go to the bathroom and before you start cooking. There are a few ways to do this.

Hand Sanitizer – The most lightweight option is to bring hand sanitizer and use that periodically.

Hand Washing Station – If you’re in a group and can spare more gear, you can set up a handwashing station. Hang a small water reservoir from a tree and keep a little biodegradable soap nearby.

The last thing you want is to accidentally get some crap on your hands, get that in the food and have a sickness epidemic while you’re on your trip!

This may be the most important tip on this list. Keeping hygienic bathroom habits in the backcountry is important for preventing sickness and rashes, among other things.

For peeing – This mostly applies to ladies. To avoid using toilet paper on trip (and having to pack it out with you), you can either use natural materials (like leaves) or a Kula Cloth or bandana.

The Kula Cloth is an antimicrobial clothe that is super absorbent on one side and waterproof on the other side, so you can use it for multiple wipes without getting your hands wet. I haven’t used it personally but will be testing it out this summer.

Personally, I’m a fan of using a bandana. You wipe and then rinse it in the water the next time you go by a lake or river.

For pooping – Do not use the bandana or Kula Cloth for #2! Instead, you can either use toilet paper and pack it out or burn it (ensure it burns 100%) or you can use natural materials like moss or leaves. I go into further details about how to poop in the woods in the article below.

However you do your business, ensure you are completely wiping after you go to the bathroom. I also recommend using a baby wipe to clean your groin at the end of every day or skinny dipping in the evenings and drying yourself thoroughly before putting on your sleep clothes. This ensures you maintain a clean and dry environment around your groin!

Read more: A Camper’s Guide on How to Poop in the Woods

For those of us with periods, how do you keep yourself clean and hygienic on a camping trip? There are a few strategies.

The first is to use a Diva Cup. This is a silicone cup you insert into your vagina which collects blood. You regularly dump and clean it. I’ve never used one, so check out the website for more info.

If you prefer pads and tampons, that is completely okay. Where you will run into difficulties is what do you do with the products after they have been used? My answer to this is The Party Bag! The Party Bag is a large Ziplock bag covered in Duct Tape (so you cannot see what is inside). When you go into the forest to change your pad/tampon, you put the used one in the Party Bag. You can also put the pad/tampon into a small plastic bag, tie it up and then put it in the Party Bag. This will prevent bad odours emerging when you open the Party Bag.

Finally, instead of using pads/tampons, you can use Thinx period-proof underwear. I’ve been doing this for two years now and it’s my favourite method. A pair of underwear holds up to two tampons worth of blood and eliminates all waste. The used underwear can be kept inside a Party Bag, or you can rinse it in the lake, dry it in the sun and reuse it. The only downside is that you need to bring multiple pairs, which can be a little bulky.

Read More: A Camper’s Guide to Camping on Your Period

Even in the wild, you should be washing your dishes. This is to prevent bacteria growth or mould (especially important on a long camping trip).

Note: If your campsite has a thunderbox, do NOT dump your dishwater in the thunderbox! We don’t want animals smelling the food and hanging around where we go to the bathroom!

And there you have it! An easy way to do dishes on a camping trip.

WHAT? Laundry on a camping trip? How is that possible? Let me tell you.

If you are going on a camping trip longer than 10 days, you may benefit from doing a load of laundry. I only recommend you do this for socks and underwear, as they are small clothing items and the most important to have clean. Tip: Don’t wash all your socks and underwear at the same time. Have at least one or two pairs dry at all times.

The most important things about doing laundry on a camping trip is to 1) use a really small amount of soap, and 2) don’t get all your socks and underwear wet at the same time.

My final tip is dedicated to anyone with long (and sometimes unruly) hair. Since I was a teenager, I have always camped with two tight French braids. (I’ve gone a full two weeks without taking the braids out). I find that if I don’t keep my hair in two manageable braids it gets super tangled any time I swim, and somehow every pine needle in the forest finds it way into my hair. Also during the day, I usually have a headband or buff on.

Do you have any additional tips for staying clean while camping? Let me know in the comments below!