Five Things You Never Thought You Needed in a Teardrop

We try to keep the items in the teardrop trailer down to a minimum. You have a small trailer so that you can keep life simple, right? However, once in a while I find an item stashed in the teardrop that has really come in handy on our camping trips.

1. Cleaning Rags

I throw a couple of clean rags into our storage area with the dish towels. These are useful to have for wiping up spills on the tablecloth and doing some quick cleaning of the galley area after cooking. They are better than using paper towels (which tend to run out quickly) and I just wash them out and and hang them up on a clothesline.

 2. Temperature gauge

I have a small temperature gauge that sticks to the window. It's nice to know the outdoor temperature before getting out of a warm bed in the morning. A smart phone with a weather app is useful, but we usually camp where we can't get cell service.

 3. Wind-up Radio and a Pair of Two-way Radios

We have an emergency wind-up radio that has come in handy a few times for local news, weather and some off-beat music stations. The batteries in this radio are charged with few cranks of a manual handle and they last for about 45 minutes. We've also used two-way radios in a few situations when we've been separated from our friends while hiking.

 4. Notebook

I always keep a notebook in the teardrop for jotting down recipes, notes on camping trips, hiking trail directions, to-do lists and a myriad of other informational tidbits.

5. Extra earplugs

Even though we usually camp in pretty quiet areas, there will be times when other people in a campground want to get up earlier than you. Since we also tend to sleep with the windows open, I always keep extra earplugs in several places around the bed: in the toiletry kit, the first aid kit and at the foot of the bed with my books and notebook.