There are a lot of new skills to pick up when you begin camping, and one of the most important is how to save water. When your regular mains supply is unavailable and you need to rely on what you’ve got stored, water is suddenly like precious liquid gold!
I’ve seen several budding campers go through a very steep learning curve regarding water usage, especially when camping in more remote locations. Unlike at home, you are only able to carry a certain amount – and if you’re not careful with it, you’ll run out! This is particularly the case for caravans and camper trailers with showers on board. As convenient and luxurious as they are, it’s easy to empty the water tanks by enjoying those long showers.
7 days off-grid with only the water we brought.
Pay Attention
Next time your water bill comes in, have a look at the amount of water you are consuming at home each day. Then, think about the water storage you have when camping. The average consumption in Australia is anywhere from 100-300 litres per person, per day. You just can’t get away with that when camping without a very elaborate setup (which we discuss further down). If anything will encourage awareness around water usage, and help someone appreciate the need to conserve water – spending time off-the-grid will do it.
So – how can you save water when camping?
Bush baths for our two little boys.
Clean Yourself Efficiently
Hands down, showering is the largest consumer of water when camping. For this reason, a vast number of people decide to forego showering altogether, which is the ultimate way to save water. Instead, they regularly use wipes and sponge baths which, although not overly glamorous, are quick, easy, and leave you clean and refreshed.
Our outdoor shower set up with water-efficient showerhead.
However, if you do have a shower, there are many advisable habits you can embrace to conserve water.
The first is to make sure you have a conservative pump and showerhead.
The second is to adopt a new practice: before turning the water on, get organised with undressing and have everything you need ready to go. Turn the water on, wet yourself down, turn the water off, soap up, turn the water back on, quickly rinse yourself, and turn it off once more before hopping out. By using this method, our little family of 4 (including 2 toddlers) can each have a reasonable shower using under 14 litres of water in total. That’s 3.5 litres of water on average, and we repeat this regularly.
Another fantastic tip is to consider using dry shampoo. This is particularly useful for those with longer hair – you will use a tremendous amount of water when wetting and rinsing liquid or bar shampoo.
Electric pumps can make you waste water easily.
Make Water ‘Harder’ to Get
On our previous camper trailer, we had much less water storage, and it also came with a hand pump. This manual device requires you to move a knob up and down, building the pressure for water flow. More effort and time is required, but hand pumps have one very distinct benefit: they will save you water. With each stroke, you are consciously pulling water out of your limited supply.
When you can flick a lever, or turn a tap on, it’s easy to allow water to run down the drain – and when you have a limited amount, this is an issue. For kids especially, a hand pump is a fantastic way to conserve water.
Alternatively, ensure your pump and piping don’t empty your tanks with a high flow rate. Anything around the 4L/minute is going to do you very well.
Lastly, you will use less water from a small tap on a jerry can than an electric pump that just chugs it out with no regard for your water conservation. You want to be comfortable, but anything that has you conscious of your water usage is a good thing – which leads us to the next point…
Our flow metre is showing we have 107 litres of water left.
Meter the Water
A large majority of people rely on rudimentary water gauges, or the ability to either feel the weight or see the water levels through a jerry can. A game-changer for us has been the flow meters we have on our new camper trailer. These reset when the tank is full and calculate every single litre as the water is used, displaying the remaining volume on the digital screen.
Flow meters are a brilliant way to not only know precisely the amount of water you have left (as the level sensors are average at best), but to keep track of consumption while doing individual water-based tasks. This is how we know we are only using 14L of water for our family showers.
Washing hands regularly or using a sanitiser is crucial for maintaining hygiene. Image: Sea to Summit
Keep Your Hands Clean
Hygiene when camping is essential, and frequent handwashing is a crucial part of this. We primarily use hand sanitiser for its convenience, effectiveness, and lack of water requirement. Washing your hands several times per day with soap and water eats into your supplies and, although this method is still necessary from time to time, compensating with sanitiser reduces water consumption.
Camping near freshwater is handy for bucket washing your socks and jocks.
Wash Your Clothes Efficiently
Laundry on the road isn’t the easiest task, especially when your water supply is restricted. Many people take their washing to a laundromat, therefore saving their stored water.
However, this is not always possible – and washing clothes on the road is common. Whether you are using a bucket for your laundry, a small washing machine, or a wash bag – one of the best things you can do is use a wool wash-based detergent, as this doesn’t require rinsing off. As a result, you’ll save a heap of water.
Collecting clean water from a creek.
Use Other Water Available
Of course, you must use this water for the right applications. Plus, always maintain awareness of your environmental impact by using eco-friendly products that will not contaminate waterways. That said, camping near a water source is a valuable asset.
Rivers, Creeks, and Lakes
We regularly take water from creeks, rivers, lakes, and even the beach occasionally. This is never for drinking, but we regularly use all but the seawater for showering and bathing and, if it’s clean, to pre-rinse filthy dishes (like those following a roast dinner!). With just a stainless steel bucket, a fire, and access to clean water – you can have hot water exceptionally quickly. This is magic for a camping shower or bush bath for the kids – and it costs you nothing!
Seawater
Now, you might think that the only good thing about seawater is seafood and boating, but that’s not exactly true. We use it for cleaning the bulk of muck off our dishes regularly, before giving them a rinse in freshwater. It’s also the perfect thing for cleaning seafood and any rust-proof gear. If you have stubborn things to clean that need a bit of muscle, mix a little sand from the beach with some water, and you’ll be scrubbing for half the time – it works like magic!
Catch What You Can
Get creative if the weather turns during your trip – instead of cursing the rainwater, collect it! There are parts of Australia that receive a heap of rain, and a few creative people make use of this. If you have a tarp or awning, you can direct the water into a bucket. Some vans even have a setup to channel rainwater straight into a secondary tank.
Rainwater is brilliant and, providing you are careful with how it’s collected and used, a terrific way to keep your water topped up.
Many camp oven meals are one-pot wonders and use fewer dishes.
Conserve What You Have
One of my favourite ways to conserve water is to use what nature has given us. However, if that is not available, here are some tips to help save each precious drop of what you have stored!
Limit Dishes and use Spray Bottles
Anything you can do to reduce the number of dirty dishes you create will conserve water. One-pot meals are a huge winner for many reasons, but especially in regards to dishes and water consumption. Many people like to use a spray bottle filled with water, and a small squirt of detergent. For most plates and bowls, all that’s required is a small spray and a gentle wipe, followed by a dribble rinse with fresh water.
Baby Wipes
Although you need to dispose of them responsibly, baby wipes are one of the most compact and useful items when camping. Besides their obvious use for children, they are fantastic for cleansing yourself and general cleaning about camp. We always have some with us – not just for the kids, but for us adults too!
Cook on the Fire
We’ve fallen in love with cooking over the hot coals of a campfire! The meals are delicious, and there are often far fewer dishes which makes clean-up quick and easy. We use a small fold-out grill that is perfect for reducing our clean-up. Alternatively, the camp oven is a great option for one-pot meals too.
Put fires out with collected water.
Extinguish Fires with Collected Water
You should never leave your campfire as either hot coals, or still burning. Too many people have stood on old fires, and received terrible burns. Covering them up with loose dirt is not a solution either, as they can continue burning for a long time.
Applying water is the best way to extinguish a campfire. This can come from the ocean, a creek, river, or lake – or even your greywater works. Just don’t use your drinking water, if you can avoid it.
MSR Guardian Water Purifiers are another filtration system. Image: MSR
Make Your Own Water
Last but not least – it is even possible to turn dirty or brackish water into perfectly safe, drinkable H2O!
If it doesn’t contain salt, a filtration or chemical treatment can be used. Surprisingly, freshwater can be created from saltwater using an RO (Reverse Osmosis) unit. This is not for everyone, as having an RO system requires a lot of space and energy – and the initial setup can be costly. However, it is the ultimate way to create significant volumes of freshwater daily. Alternatively, if your requirements are minimal, purification systems like the MSR Guardian Water Purifier or the Grayl UltraPress are compact and portable solutions.
Some people travel full-time with impressive solar and battery systems. enabling them to operate their RO unit and provide endless fresh water on demand. That said, they do need to be camped near a water source – but even beach camping allows them this option.
A hot shower when camping is nothing short of amazing.
It Takes Time
New habits take time and practice to learn, and these methods shouldn’t feel like an enormous sacrifice or a significant inconvenience. Instead, they should simply be a part of camping that you learn to do and appreciate.
A hot shower when you are out bush or camping on the beach is nothing short of amazing – and it’s possible with the right water-saving methods in place!
Ben and Lauren also discuss water storage options for camping on the Snowys Camping Show:
Do you have any tips for saving water when camping? Let us know in the comments!
If it involves four-wheel driving, Aaron loves it. When he isn’t writing for his blog, 4WDing Australia or the Snowys Blog, you’ll find him camping and driving around Western Australia.
When waiting for hot water to come through in shower, collect in a bucket and boil that water in a kettle for when you want to wash dishes.
Great tip Katrina, thanks! We’ve got another blog coming up late next month that’ll dive into all the tips and tricks for showering on the road and this one is on the list.
Another solution for dishes is to use paper (Eco) plates on top of a normal plate for stability that way you do not need to do the dishes just put the paper plate in the fire when finished.