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Moving is a daunting, exhausting, and sometimes expensive proposition. To save money and aggravation, you should be ruthless in getting rid of unneeded items. Here are some things you can do to power through the clutter and get it out of your home before a move.

1. Eliminate books. Books are backbreakers. They are heavy and take up space. Plus, once you’ve read a book once, you are unlikely to re-read it for years. Paper books can easily be replaced by electronic books. E-books are much lighter and don’t attract silverfish.
2. Shred paper. Personal papers are heavy and could be valuable to identity thieves. Shred as much old and out-dated paper as possible. If you don’t need it for legal or tax purposes, or to prove an academic achievement, get rid of it. Scan and save documents to your computer and a backup storage device.
3. Be ruthless with knick-knacks. A move is a good time to scrutinize all the little dust collectors in your home. Keep the meaningful ones and the ones that work well with your home decor. Pitch the rest. Little vases and glass knick-knacks are only a dollar or two at Goodwill.
4. Eliminate duplicate items. Some things tend to accumulate in a home. When you have twelve tape measures, two dozen screwdrivers, five lint brushes, three shoe shine kits, and seven portable radios, you need to send some of them to Goodwill or Salvation Army.
5. Eliminate seldom-used items. At some point, you need to get rid of things that you don’t use, display or enjoy. It’s tough because you might want to use something or preserve something like a “classic,” but sometimes you just need to let someone else preserve it. eBay is a good way to get rid of valuable stuff and get cash to soothe your aching soul. eBay also lets you see that the classic thing you are keeping is only worth $20 or so.
6. Eliminate items unlikely to survive a move if something is fragile and likely to break catastrophically during a move. You should ditch it. Broken furniture and particleboard furniture generally falls into this category. If it is wobbly and rickety, pitch it.
7. Eliminate items that you intend to and can afford to replace. The $10 office chair from Goodwill can be replaced by another $10 office chair from Goodwill. There is no need to take up valuable moving truck space.
8. Eliminate items you don’t have room for in your new space. If the old couch doesn’t fit, you must get rid of it. There is no sense living in a space that stuffed floor to ceiling like a warehouse.
9. Transport high-value items yourself. Once you’ve gotten rid of the extra stuff, your focus will shift to moving items that you don’t want the movers to handle. You may want to move small valuable, portable items on your own. For example, you may want to move any firearms, jewelry, and personal electronics in your own vehicle.
10. Transport lightweight stuff ahead of moving day. If you are just making a local move in the same town, you may want to transport as much lightweight stuff as you can. This will minimize the amount of time your move takes the professional movers.

When we move, we generally rent a 26-foot Penske truck. It is the biggest truck on the lot, but it can only hold so much. It helps to keep in mind that we only want to keep what we can fit in one truck.

If your young children are dreading the moving day, it probably only adds to your stress. Not only do you have to worry about packing, cleaning, and organizing, but you’re faced with children who can’t stop crying about all they’re going to miss. Teenagers are more likely to adjust quickly despite leaving their friends behind, so here are a few tips for making the moving day fun for your young children.

Go Shopping

In preparation for moving day, take your young children shopping for their new rooms. Pick out a brand new comforter or perhaps a border for the walls of their rooms. This shouldn’t be approached as a bribe—I’ll buy you things to keep you quiet!—but a way to build excitement about moving.

You don’t have to spend a small fortune for young children to get excited about moving day. One or two things for their new rooms will be sufficient to create anticipation. And don’t let your children use the new items until the moving day has come.

Hold a Housewarming Party

If your young children are worried about missing their friends, you can throw a housewarming party after moving day is over to celebrate your new digs. Invite your children’s friends (and a few guests of your own, if you’d like) and have a cook-out, or just serve snack dishes while your house sits in disarray.

If you want to make the moving day fun for your young children but don’t want to have people over until your house is finished, schedule the party for a week after you move. This way, your children have something to look forward to as they prepare their rooms and help you unpack.

Create a Fun Address Book

If moving day is especially hard on your young children, an arts-and-crafts project might do the trick. Buy construction paper and glue and colorful markers, plus blank address books (one for each child), and help them decorate their books however they’d like. Then spend time adding all of their friends’ information so they know they can keep in touch.

Emphasize Community Features

If the neighborhood into which you are moving sports neat features like a swimming pool or park, emphasize these benefits for your young children. Before moving day, take them on a tour of the community so they can see what they will be gaining—and so they won’t be focusing on what they’ll be using. Talk about these benefits often.

Keep Them Busy

Young children who have their hand’s full cleaning closets or organizing boxes won’t have much time to fret. Don’t tell your children they can’t help because they’ll get frustrated; instead, assign age-appropriate tasks that can keep their minds off the negative aspects of moving day. Kids love to help, so grant their wish.

Moving day is often hardest on young children, so do whatever you can to make the process less painful. The farther away you are moving, the more tears you’re likely to see, so try to keep them occupied. If that doesn’t work, keep mentioning the great things that await them in your new house, and don’t forget to spend time with them to let them know they are loved.

Moving doesn’t have to be stressful if you plan ahead. A move can be a good thing. It can be a new beginning or a fresh start. Just keep a positive attitude.

Make a list of things you need to do. For example, check out your new neighborhood in the day as well as the night. See what schools are in the area, check out the community. Are the people friendly? Is there transportation? Are there events going on in your community? This will tell you if it is a close community.

Is your new residence affordable, and do they allow pets? Are the schools close by and if not, do they have transportation? Check prices for Internet, satellite, or cable. Once you know these facts, you won’t be surprised later. Think about how much you need to move. Do you need a truck or a moving van? Call different places for prices and ask questions about mileage and weight capacity. If you don’t need a truck, use a friend’s van or pick it up to save money.

Once you have given your notice to the management of your rental community or know your house is sold, it is time to notify all utility companies. You can call the gas, electric, satellite, Internet and your telephone provider with your new address. Be sure to give them the date you are moving in and confirm the date you are moving out of your old residence. Notify creditors, cellular providers, banks, friends, and schools.

Notify your local post office or go online to change your address. If you go online, it will cost you a dollar to change your address, and you can do this two weeks before you move. It will take a couple of weeks to arrive at the new location, so don’t be surprised if you’re not getting mail right away. Certain mail will not be forwarded, so it is important to notify everyone of your new address.

To make your move easier, you will need to get plenty of boxes, markers, newspapers, containers with lids, masking tape, and twine. Always wrap dishes and fragile items in newspapers to protect them. You can also wear rags, old socks or old clothes. Containers with lids are great for small stuff like Christmas ornaments, seasonings, medicines, and items you want to keep dry. After your boxes or containers are filled, you should mark each one with a black marker. Write the contents on the box and the room it should go into. Don’t forget to tape the bottom of each cardboard box to keep it from collapsing.

For books, I have found that stacking them by ten and wrapping them with heavy twine will keep them together, and it is easier to carry. Books are just too heavy to put into boxes, and they will collapse.

Before you move and pack unnecessary items you don’t want, have your family go through the house and get rid of unwanted items. Have children find the toys and clothes they don’t play with anymore. Take all these unwanted items and have a garage sale or moving sale. You can also put them on paper. Some newspapers offer free advertisement for classifieds. Now you have a little less to move and some extra money.

Before your children get out of school, it is a good idea to transfer their school records and transcripts. This will save time later when enrollment starts. Be sure there is transportation to and from school unless they are close enough to walk or ride their bike.

 When moving cross country, be prepared for fuel and lodging expenses. Another suggestion is renting a U haul. They offer many sizes, and they have dropped off sites in almost every area. Their prices are quite reasonable too. If you don’t care about price, then hire movers. Movers can make moving much easier.

If you have pets, it is a good idea to keep them in a large cage and make frequent stops so they can relieve themselves. If you are worried about your pets, then take them to the vet, and he or she may suggest a sedative. Sometimes animals need to be tranquilized if the trip is very long. Be safe and ask your vet.

Buying cardboard shipping boxes can really cut into the moving budget. Although buying small shipping boxes for packing is easy to do at a local moving company location, the expense can really add up, especially when dealing with a large household that needs to be packed. Even discount movers usually charge for cartons. There are several ways to get enough packing boxes to move a whole house full of items without any extra expense.

Dumpster Diving

Dumpster diving is a common way that many people get boxes for moving purposes. However, dumpster diving is illegal in many areas and unsafe in many others. The best way to get boxes for free from a store or business is to simply ask. Most managers will be happy to supply the day’s worth of boxes to a friendly person who politely asks. Offer to break down the boxes or come back on a day inventory is shipped in for the best results.

Internet Classified Ads

Online classified ads on popular sites like Craigslist are a great way to find free moving supplies. Craigslist and other sites like it offer free sections localized to a specific area. Moving boxes are frequently listed here as people empty them out from their own moves. These boxes are sometimes fairly new and often in great condition still. Sometimes ad placers will even throw in leftover packing material and other supplies like tape or plastic furniture covers.

Friends and Family

Put out the word on a friend and family website or call around a few weeks before moving to let everyone know that boxes will be needed. Many people have a stash of boxes in the attic or garage that they would love to get rid of. This is also a good way to get free moving help; when people ask if manpower is needed, don’t be shy; say yes!

Ask at Work

Most companies, especially companies that offer or create a product, acquire numerous shipping boxes. These are normally not re-used by the company. A mail room or shipping department usually breaks them down and puts them out with the recycling. It’s easy to send shoot out an email to the mailroom employees asking for any extra boxes. Often they will be happy to offer many more than are needed.

Purchase Moving Boxes

As a last-ditch effort, packing boxes can be purchased. In order to purchase them at the best discount, buy in bulk and try to purchase ahead of time online. Try eBay and other auction sites first. Purchase far enough in advance to pay the least amount of shipping. Also, try calling customer service instead of purchasing the right online. Often a customer service employee will have the ability to throw in an extra bonus like tape or packing material.

With careful research, organization, and time spent planning ahead, it’s very easy to acquire moving and packing supplies at no cost at all. Remember to network both online and in-person and spread the word about a future move. People will often generously offer items before they’re even requested.

Smaller homes are popular. Retirees, new families, single buyers, post-divorce folks all consider downscaling their living space. Tips and tricks for beautiful homes.

You’ve taken the giant step and purchased a smaller home. Downsizing it’s called, and lots of people do it. How do you make the new place yours, express yourself and settle in? Should your decor be cozy or dramatic? Do you fill a smaller space with small scale pieces? How do you know your furniture will fit?

Be open-minded and embrace your new way of life. You’ve finished raising and educating your children. You’re retiring from a long, successful career. You want space that’s low maintenance, comfortable and personal. It’s important to fix your thoughts on moving forward to a better home. Understand you aren’t giving up anything – you’re gaining a lot.

A simpler life. Full of traveling, creating, socializing. Start with a plan, says the expert. Make your home exactly what suits you. Discard what you never liked, things you’ve carried on your back for years you haven’t used for six months or more. Purchase a few important pieces on a grand scale for a generous, luxurious, and comfortable feel.

Decorators say fill small spaces with small pieces is old-time thinking. Large pieces are inviting. A small space filled with little things looks cluttered and confused. The trick is – fewer pieces, dramatic scale.

A bed heaped with fluffy pillows and buried in a deep, soft comforter makes you want to jump in. Experience luxury, pleasure. Get that aura with carefully selected larger pieces like a down-filled sofa in a neutral color or an overstuffed chair for a quiet corner.

Pretty and restful shades like saturated greens or greys, earthy cream of mushroom for things more costly and difficult to change. Then splurge on dramatic deep colors or patterns for accents and accessories or slipcovers. Wines, blues, citrus hues, or even orange put life in today’s pallet. If you follow that advice, you can make changes when you want to, without overwhelming expense.

It’s also a good idea to create unity in a smaller home. You may want to keep similar colors running thematically through your home, varying shade, and intensity. Consider that many rooms in popular open floor plans are visible from the public areas, so keeping a color theme seems to create larger spaces.

Don’t be afraid to use patterns and prints, but if you put a patterned wall covering in the bathroom, for example, repeat it in a living room toss pillow or a bedroom drapery.

A Few Tips from Decorating Pros:

• Draperies are more popular than ever, adding warmth and softness. Decorators use quality fabrics in important colors.
• Buy at least one dramatic item that expresses your personality. Try buying four good pieces. A pair of chairs, accent chair, and sofa. Buy them together for a cohesive look.
• Use neutral colors as a canvas for your complete look. Don’t be afraid of color or drama. But use them wisely in ways that can be altered at will.
• Use large-scale pieces wherever you can. To fit them in, eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. Large scale, less clutter, a sumptuous atmosphere filled with natural fabrics is so inviting.
• Treat yourself to window treatments. Experts encourage buying the best you can afford to transform each window into a work of art.
• Put a surprise color in the powder room – a very public room. Let loose and have fun.

Have a good time as your downsizing process unfolds. Think forward. Reward yourself for all your hard work. What an adventure this is going to be; settling into your very own hard-earned space.

One of the major issues in keeping your pet safe in moving vehicles is that the majority of people do not restrain their dogs properly with seatbelt harnesses. Now, that may seem rather cruel to your dog, who might rather sleep on the back of the rear seat, or clamor from occupant to the occupant for affection and, maybe, a more acceptable lap to sleep on.

However, with so many CKC (Canadian Kennel Club) and AKC (American Kennel Club) approved dog seat belt harnesses on the market, many for about $20, there really is no reason for not harnessing your beloved pet as safe as any other family member.

Always remember that a dog relies upon you for all of its safety requirements, as would a young child. The best advice given for dog owners is to treat your dog like a four to a seven-year-old child, meaning that you have to take care of their every need, including safety precautions.

And if your dog is too big for your vehicle, like trying to fit a Mastiff into a Smart 4 Two, then any and all injuries that happen to your dog, no matter how the injuries were incurred, even if you were innocent in the accident, you are guilty of animal cruelty and failure to provide the necessities of life and safety to your dog.

Another, less favorable but still better than nothing way of restraining your dog inside your moving vehicle is to attach their leash to a seatbelt’s buckle, restricting their ability to put their head out of the window.

Although dogs and pick up trucks pretty much go hand in hand, allowing a dog to ride in the back of a moving pick up truck is not only dangerous but illegal in many areas. This is even so if the dog is tethered securely to a ring attached to the front or bed of the truck.

It is the all-time favorite of many a dog to have their head outside of a window, the wind blowing their ears and eyes in funny shapes, and their mouths blew wide open by the blistering wind. However, this is a very dangerous thing to allow your dog to do, like many bugs, some dangerous to your dog, especially if it strikes an open eye, will undoubtedly strike your pet’s head, and at very fast speeds.

Another factor to consider when allowing this dangerous situation is that another vehicle may drive by a little too close, with extremely unfortunate circumstances resulting.

For the smaller dogs out there, there are many different dog safety seats in the vehicle, which pretty much acts like booster seats for children and keep the dog secure within their confines. One of the worst things that a dog owner can do is to allow their dog(s) to roam free within a car, with the windows rolled down, and driving at rather fast speeds (over 25 miles per hour or more).

Remember, your dog relies upon you to keep it safe, and you must do all that you can to ensure their safety while in a moving vehicle.

Before moving to another town, assessing our own community’s culture may provide insight into what meaningful community attributes link us to our communities.

Moving to another state and unknown community is one of the most life-altering decisions that you will make, especially if you have a family. Moving to a small town can be very difficult for a number of reasons, and be prepared to hear that tiresome expression, “You’re not from around here, are you?”

Small towns can be very territorial, as everyone knows everyone else or at least something about everyone else. Small towns have an allure, an enticing storybook fantasy of living in a house on a tree-lined street with a white picket fence. If you are moving to a small southern town, for instance, do your homework. There are several important questions that you must research and answer before making a life-altering decision to move to that perfect community.

Assess Your Current Community’s Culture

This is something that few of us think of because, after all, it is the place that we are planning to move away from. However, it can provide clues to what our needs really are and perhaps keep us from making a big mistake of moving to that perfect community hundreds if not thousands of miles away from our current home.

First, how would you describe the people that live within your community? Are they friendly, liberal, conservative, open-minded, accepting, positive, negative, or welcoming? What is the size of your current community? Are members of the community diverse and representative of every state, or are they local and representative of the immediate community?

Assess Your New Community’s Culture

This is not always an easy assessment to accomplish. First, take your current community’s culture assessment and highlight the areas of the assessment that are most important to you. There are several ways that you can assess the community. Contact the chamber of commerce and ask for statistical information for the community. You can compare a number of statistical areas with your current community to get an idea of how closely they mirror one another. You can also research online forums for the city or town that you plan to move to for comments by participants.

Assess Your Own Reasons for Wanting to Move

Perhaps there is no more difficult assessment than to ask the question of, why do I want to move to that town or city? Your reasons for moving to a specific location may not match your research of the area or match the assessment of the new town or city’s community. For example, you may want to move to a specific town because it is small, quaint, and has a low crime rate and great schools or beautiful scenery. However, your research and assessments may determine the town is small and quaint, but the schools are of poor quality, and the crime rate is high relative to the population of the town. For this reason, your assessment of the community’s culture is critical.

If you take the time to first assess your own community and answer those questions about your own community and then follow up with an assessment of your new community, you will feel more confident with your final decision to move. Remember to assess your own reasons for choosing a specific location and then compare those reasons with the findings of your research. Often times, what we perceive about a certain community within a small town or city may not be, in reality, a factual representation. Often these perceptions, which turn out later to be misperceptions, occur while vacationing in our newly found perfect small town or city.

A move or relocation need not be fraught with stress. A move represents a significant change, especially if it’s to a new city or state. Don’t get overwhelmed; get ready – create a checklist, and follow it carefully. Some items will be obvious, but it’s good to write them down nonetheless – this way, you are not likely to overlook anything.

If you observe the following planning tips, you’re likely to have a safe and sane move:

1. Jettison Unnecessary Stuff: If you are a packrat, time to reform your ways. Normally, there is a lot of stuff you don’t really need to move, so now’s the time to get rid of it. Packing and moving unnecessary clothing and bric-a-brac wastes time and money, and your new house will be cluttered. Instead, donate your stuff and/or have a garage sale. You can pick up a tax deduction or some extra cash.
2. Gather Important Papers: There are a number of papers and documents you need to keep. Gather them up early on and place them in secure storage. Here is a partial list of these types of items:
   • Tax Returns
   • Military Records
   • Health Records
   • Passports
   • Photographs
   • Bank Statements
   • Birth and Marriage Certificates
   • School Records
   • Insurance Policies
   • Financial Statements
   • Wills
   • Stock and Bond Certificates
3. Get Ready for Moving Day Keep records. Make sure you know the address and phone number of your mover and your shipment registration number with the mover. Prepare for your first night. Put everything you need for your first night in your new location into a designated dresser. Items include sheets, towels, medicine, toiletries, pajamas, and a change of underwear. Empty the refrigerator. It is not nice to leave food behind for others to clean up. Either consume everything you have in the refrigerator or give the remaining items to your next-door neighbor. Then, wipe out the fridge with some cleaning spray. Pack smartly. Heavy items in small boxes, light items in big ones. Give the moving man your cellphone number. He may get lost or confused, so make sure he can contact you anytime along the way. Pack valuables carefully. If you have old photo albums or historical China, make sure it is well packed and marked “Fragile.” Unscrew light bulbs. Before you leave your old house, remove the light bulbs, and take them with you. You paid for them; why give them to the next occupant? Don’t advertise collections. If you have a valuable stamp or coin collection, don’t mark the box with that information. Many movers will find the temptation too hard to resist. Handle medications. If you are on a daily regimen of one or more medications, make sure to hand-carry these when you move. Don’t risk them being lost in the chaos. Have a garage sale. Get rid of all unnecessary items before you pack. Don’t worry about making a lot of money, just see to it that all your stuff goes to a good new home. Pets. Make sure you’ve arranged the transport of your pets, either with you or separately.
4. Make New Living Arrangements: Set up your new banking accounts before you move. You can get a safe deposit box at the same time if you like. Make arrangements with local utilities – power, communications, water, cable, etc. Line up new physicians, pharmacies, and dentists, and forward them your old medical records. Alert everyone of your new address, including credit card companies, magazines you subscribe to, insurers, the post office, current utilities, and the in-laws. Remember to discontinue all utilities as of the day following moving day.
5. Service the Car

Staying on a diet while camping may sound like a daunting task, but a few precautions can actually make healthy eating very simple. The idea is to get away from the trials and tribulations of civilization, so ‘roughing it’ often affords very few opportunities to cheat. To make sure that temptation is completely minimized, the following things are advised:

1. Truly ‘Get away from It All’- Choosing a remote campground as opposed to one in a more popular location places the camper further from restaurants, gift shops, and other places where even the most diligent dieter may be tempted to stray. National Parks, like the Grand Canyon, offers many accommodations for tourists, which also translates into many opportunities to cheat. Instead of camping near the hotels or larger campgrounds, it may be much more intelligent (and interesting!) to pursue a more remote location.
2. Nature-Proof the Food- This is critically important. If local critters like birds, bears, or raccoons get into the provisions, campers may be left with nothing to eat.  All food and beverages should be stored in lockable, waterproof coolers. If possible, it is also advisable to secure all unused provisions in a vehicle. This will also help to keep bugs away from the campground, meaning a lower chance of being bitten by insects.
3. Stay Active – Enjoying a swim in a lake or a hike on a nature trail not only burns calories, but it also occupies the mind and boosts the metabolism. Exercise also seems to assist in the dietary process by reducing one’s appetite. 
4. Camp with Friends Who Are Dieting, or Even on the Same Diet- A supportive environment is a key to getting or staying in shape. Sometimes friends from different dietary support groups even plan excursions together. 
5. Have an Ongoing Project while Camping- Having a specific project in mind, like photographing any interesting plants or animals encountered, can help to keep one’s mind off food.
6. Do Not Leave Home Hungry- Enjoying a healthy, filling breakfast before leaving home is common practice to serious campers and hikers. Apart from setting the pace for the rest of the day, it decreases the chance that a person will pull off the road and into some greasy spoon restaurant.
7. Know-How to Get There, and How to Get Back- If possible, do or have someone else do a test-drive to and from the location to make sure that someone knows how to get there. Getting lost in transit to or from a location is another common cause of people eating things they didn’t plan to eat.  
8. Carry Extra, Non-Tempting Provisions- For the same reason as Tip #7, it is also wise for a camper to carry a bit more food than it is expected he or she will need during the camping session. If there’s no good reason to eat it during the camp, it can always be saved for the trip home or later.

These ’emergency rations’ should be something that is on the person’s diet but not found particularly tempting. As a matter of fact, that is a good general rule when packing for the trip as a whole. Sometimes little treats are fine, but the key is to know what the dieting camper will or will not be able to resist.

Camping for some is the great escape, a venture into paradise when done properly and in the right places. However, to others, camping is extremely boring and insufferable, and for these people, it’s always best to find out before purchasing the whole package. Finding out if camping is going to be a lifelong obsession or a pain in the neck would be one of the top tips for novice campers.

For the avid tent camper, it’s very easy to spend thousands of dollars on fancy, high-tech gear, but a young family just trying camping out for the first time can get away with buying a full package of camping gear, with everything needed for a comfortable long weekend at a private or government-run campground, for about $100 USD.

If it’s your first foray into camping, spending more than a couple of hundred dollars is more than enough to cover a tent, four small air mattresses, and all the cooking utensils, pots and pans, a lantern and a couple of folding camp chairs. Stores like Walmart, Target, or any other department stores all have camping packages that run from $99.99 to over $1,000 for a young family of two parents and two children.

A couple or a few friends can even get away with spending much less for their first camping trip, as all they really need is a 4-man tent: the rest of the stuff you need to bring can be bought at a dollar store and brought from home.

So, why be so cheap? The problem is that you may not like camping: it’s not for everyone. But, if you happen to end up being obsessed with it, as an avid camper, you will never regret spending that first weekend in the woods, on the mountain, by the river or ocean, or in a friendly campground.

When starting out, first-time campers should start off at a public campground. You can get a water tap and electrical outlets in your camping site, with public washrooms, a canteen, pre-split hardwood for campfires and cooking fires, showers, and a guarded beach. Games rooms, Wi-Fi access, and even concerts and outdoor movie nights are popular events at privately-owned campgrounds. Once you get the feeling that this is something you can really get into, it’s time to start spreading your wings.

After the privately owned campground, provincial (Canada) or state (United States) campgrounds offer a lot more privacy, as publically owned campgrounds usually have tents plopped down almost on top of each other, and many times on slabs of concrete or hard-packed dirt. The further you get from a city, the more likely you are to find a nicer campground with more privacy, fewer rules, and better amenities.

Once you’ve established that camping’s in your blood, and there’s a much better chance of that happening than not, if your first camping experience is at a nice, waterfront campsite, you should start upgrading your gear, buying a couple to a few items each year.

Start with a better tent, going with a modular design or a quick setup tent, depending upon your circumstances and where you plan on spending most of your camping time: If you’re going to camp more in the wilds than at campgrounds, then weatherproof tents with separate modules make more sense.

After you’ve accumulated a good tent, it’s time to start buying better camping gear: A portable fuel camp stove, lantern, stackable pots, pans and utensils, portable chemical toilets, rain, and bug-repellent tent-cabins. The list is nearly endless, and you can buy a few items every year, or every time you go camping and still feel you don’t have enough, or the best.

And, once you’ve established that you’re obsessed with camping, the final tip for novice campers is to explore the wilderness for more secluded and unknown camping sites. Do most states and provinces have considerable tracts of land that?s deemed as public access, which means that you can simply go looking for the best possible campsite and setup camp, no charge (unless it’s in a provincial or state park, where entrance fees, daily rates, and no-alcohol, no noise after 8 pm, no campfires and many other strict rules usually apply).

Look for public access land outside of the park’s systems, as it’s free, wild, and wonderful. You can camp beside a trout-filled stream, a hot spring or beside a mountain vista, and have wild animals trouncing through your site. Once you’ve found the perfect campsite for your personal desires, a bad day’s camping will always be so much better than a great day at work.