Sorry to ask such a daft q!
I'm about to go and buy a camping kitchen for next weekends trip, as the kitchen clutter is irritating me!
But, it has a windshield, so it's best outside to cook on, and store food tins etc in the canvas zip up part. So do you keep the whole thing outside ( we don't have a canopy etc) or inside to stop it going walkies, and lug it outside when you cook?
I know it sounds daft, but we can't afford the canopy awning yet, so it'd be out in the open.
Cheers!
------------- First camping trip, Blacklands farm Aug '10
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July '11- Laleham camping Site
July '11- Fishery Creek
Aug '11- IOW
Aug '11- another SE site, haven't decided yet!
We keep ours outside, food in a cool bag inside, cooking equipment in a large plastic box under the cooker. We peg it down for stability and, when we go out, cover the lot with a garden BBQ cover (which can also be pegged down if windy) to protect it from the rain. Never had anything go walkies.
Our cooker has legs so we don't need a kitchen. It goes outside well away from the tent. A 'prep' table goes beside it, dishes, pots, pans and utensils are in a lidded box under the table, cutlery and small items are in a small fishing box on the table. Everything is protected by being boxed, the cooker lid is put down after use. This works well on a pitch abroad with hedges but a windbreak or the like would do too. Our food is kept inside in the fridge or in another lidded box.
I don`t like putting our kitchen inside smells the whole tent out and thats not good if you have a hangover and you smell bacon when your feeling under the weather. Also I am always frightened that something may get spilt on our ground sheet.
Our kitchen stand stays outside, inside the windbreak. We keep pots and pans on the shelves beneath it - upside down so getting wet doesn't hurt them - food in a cool box or sealed crate inside the tent.
Even a cheap tarp with poles to put your kitchen under wouldnt break the bank The Quechua one is about £20 and look at amazon etc for seperate tarp and poles a lot cheaper. I invested in the kampa day tent for cooking and extra room if its raining, if not raining can just take the grill outside on the table to cook.
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Special Needs Mum, Overprotective With Serious attitude!
Ours is in the tent but we only use the suitcase stoves so they get put on the kitchen top then when in use i bought a little folding table i put it on outside.
Don't use a kitchen as such, I just have a table outside under my tarp & a table or box inside, I just stick the stove on top of what ever suits best at the time & wash up in a bowl at the table. I even use the my cool box as a cooking surface sometimes, I just stick a piece of metal sheet under the stove as a heatshield.
Thats ours but the kitchen doesn't come with us very often on short trips nor does the folding table and chairs, we use the little metal table (6 quid from tesco lol)you maybe able to see in the middle and that goes outside with the suitcase stove on top then i put it back on the kitchen top when not in use out the way.
We keep our kitchen stand outside the tent, we have a sun porch and put up a windbreak which gives it some protection. Cooker lid is down when not in use and my washing up bowl/fairy liquid etc sit on the shelf underneath. To the side of the stand is a little fabric cupboard, in this I keep the pots, frying pan, chopping board, tupperwear with utensils, cooking oil and gas lighter. At night or when going out we cover it all with a large BBQ cover.
All our food is in either the coolbox or a lidded plastic storage box inside the tent.
Outside is good, and leave it there. One point is the hanging larders are not waterproof and not strong, tins will bend the shelves. My hanging larders now live at the back of the garage, and plastic lidded boxes sit in the space keeping the food dry.
------------- Yesterday is already a dream and tomorrow is only a vision, but today well lived makes every yesterday a dream of happiness and every tomorrow a vision of hope.
Outside. We put the lid of the cooker down when we go out in case of rain. Most of the food stays outside, the wine inside.
If it rains while I'm cooking I get wet and every-one else stays inside the tent. Lighting the stove can be fun in the rain - I now have a supply of matches that I keep inside just for that and have found lighters hopeless with wet fingers! Failing that we get a take away from the campsite.
The hanging larders are indeed not strong enough - although I have seen some with metal edges to the shelves. We've just bought 2 plastic trays to stick inside instead of the bent cardboard. If that fails we'll get some wood to go inside instead. Then maybe we won't have so many plastic boxes piled up making it hard work to locate food.
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Remember a good wife always helps her husband with the dishes.