If you dislike outdoors, the weather is bad, or have small children, indoor camping is a great way to spend some quality time by yourself or your loved ones.
But before camping indoors, here is the checklist of necessary items to prepare:
- Tent. You can get a real camping tent, but make sure that it’s big enough. Or you can even make an improvised one – stretch the rope across the room and put a big sheet over it. And your improvised tent is done. Just make sure that the tent is big enough for all who will sleep in it.
- Sleeping bags or other equipment. Part of the camping experience is sleeping in the tent. You can use real sleeping bags, or put a mattress (like transportable ones) on the floor, and put blankets. If it’s too uncomfortable, you can skip sleeping in the tent.
- Eat camping food. You can prepare the camping food beforehand, like hot dogs, s’mores, sandwiches, BBQ, hot tea, hot wine etc. Any kind of hot food is great, especially when it’s cold outside. If you want to cook food in an indoor camping area, avoid gas cookers as they can be dangerous. You can use an electric cooker instead.
- Picnic cloth, camping chairs and camping dishes and utensils. You can eat the food in the camping style by placing the camping chairs, or use a picnic cloth and eat food on the floor. You should also prepare the necessary dishes and utensils.
- Campfire. As you are camping indoors, you will probably skip this. But if you have a fireplace, you can have a real campfire. You can also use fake fire playing on TV.
- Camping decorations and ambiance. Working extra on decorations can make camping special. You can use candles, ambient light, glow-in-the-dark stickers, flashlights and even Christmas lights to enhance the mood. Then turn off the room lamps and enjoy. Check out this guide about choosing best lights for indoor camping to improve ambiance. You can also use ambient music like nature sounds to improve the mood further.
- Games. This is the great opportunity to actually play some games that don’t involve smartphones or other electronics. You can play board or card games, do some art projects, play music or even sing together. If you are by yourself, why not read some books.
