Scott Robertson

Kamp Kitchen – Personal Hygiene

By: Posted On: 2009-08-18

This post is about cleanness for cooking and eating. Most of the campouts the Troop I was with did where into middle of the desert where there were no tables, water, bathrooms – thee was nothing but sand and what we brought along. As a result we had to come up with simple ways to deal with hygiene with out using a lot of water. What we came up with was a two prong approach, use baby wipes to get the dirt and grime off, and then hand sanitizer to kill the germs. Cooks had to do these before starting to cook. The rest of the Scouts before the ate.

Some other methods that would work great if water available is not a major issue.

Fill up a wash basin with warm water with a bar of soap next to it.

Another good option is to take a heavy 1 gallon jug, like milk comes in for example. Using a small nail put a small hole at the top where the water spout is. Also almost at the bottom in the center another small hole, the size of a tooth pick. Put a tooth pick into the bottom hole, and tie a string around it. Tie the other end of the string to handle of the jug. Hang a bar of soap off the handle of the jug in a old panty hoe for example. Fill the jug with water, and hand it from say a tripod or a tree. To wash your hands, just pull out the tooth pick (the string keeps it from getting lost) get your hands wet, use the soap in the nylon, rinse, replace tooth pick. As a Scout we called this a “Pew-a-later”.

For hand towels I recommend cloth baby diapers. They are very absorbent, dry quickly when left hanging in camp, and easy to clean in a washing machine. If they get really nasty, you can even bleach them. They are also light weight, easy to transport and very kid friendly. Although if they were used and have stains, be ready for the on slaughter of bad jokes.

I would like to hear how your Scouts clean up to cook and eat – tell me by posting a comment now.

 

 


 
 

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