Simple Green: Borrow Camping Gear

You may or may not have noticed, but we're on a real sharing kick these days. We don't want to share something like our our car (unfortunately we have to use it everyday), but when it comes to things that we only use occasionally, we're all about sharing. It's summer and camping gear seems like the perfect example ...

The camping essentials — tent, sleeping bag, air mattress (yes, we're those types of campers), ice chest, camping stove — can get quite expensive, especially if you're about to embark on your very first trip. So borrowing all those items the first few times you camp is smart, it's also a good way to test out different brands and see what you like.

That's why we highly recommend borrowing camping equipment, or renting it, instead of buying. The first few times we went camping, we borrowed almost everything from my parents. It worked well because they don't camp much, and we were going twice a year at most. It's easy to share things we don't use often, and it can save a lot of money and resources.

(Image: Flickr member pfly licensed for use under Creative Commons)

Comments (4)

don't forget to practice setting up a tent if that's what you're borrowing. Nothing worse than getting to your campsite late at night and having to figure out how to put it together in the dark!

posted by jumpyfroggy on July 17th 2009 at 2:17pm
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it seems to go without saying, but please take care of the tents you're borrowing. tents are very easy to mistreat . . . tricky to assemble/disassemble if you're inexperienced and tempting to leave a mess if you know you're not the one dealing with it again.

in case you can't tell, i'm a friend with camping equipment. after too many dirty, broken or altogether-never-returned tents, i don't really loan these out anymore . . . or it's accompanied by an angry-librarian-style lecture about taking care of things before i hand it over.

posted by caslab on July 17th 2009 at 3:16pm
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And -- hang out your/borrowed tent to dry as soon as you get home! Even if the weather was great, you probably got condensation on the inside of the tent.

That said, I agree with caslab == I don't lend out stuff a lot, because people screw up and then it's an issue in the friendship.

posted by Arkay on July 18th 2009 at 7:41am
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Oh,Wow!!! It is such a tremendous article. I have read the whole article. it seems to go without saying, but please take care of the tents you're borrowing. tents are very easy to mistreat . . . tricky to assemble/disassemble if you're inexperienced and tempting to leave a mess if you know you're not the one dealing with it again. I like the concept of this site, thanks for share it...
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posted by shellykane on October 12th 2009 at 10:36pm
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