Car camping/RV people -- composting toilets and other stuff

[Wildcat]

We are wanting to take really long road trips but are undecided on the travel method. RVs require so much maintenance and we would have to pay to store one. Not only that, but the increased fuel and insurance cost, driving a larger vehicle in unfamiliar territory, parking, etc, are drawbacks for us.  So, we are wondering about doing some car camping instead.

@Faith-manor, in a recent thread you mentioned a composting toilet and a solar shower for your minivan. I know nothing about those toilets. Can you just pull over and use it, or does it need to be out of the van and hooked up to something? Do you just pack your Sienna with camping gear & supplies and then unpack at the destination or did you turn the van into a kind of RV?  I have all the questions.

Anyone care to share the good, the bad, and the ugly of this type of travel along with tips and things you wished you had known before starting out? 

The two main requirements/stumbling blocks are some sort of portable toilet and shower. I don't do well with public ones, so campground facilities are out.

[Pawz4me]

We RV'd for 13 (I think) years, going all across the country and Canada. I don't understand how you'd use a solar shower in a campground. Most have rules prohibiting vehicle washing or dumping any kind of water or fluids on the ground (beyond tossing the contents of a mug or something like that). Out west there's BLM land you can stay on where you could certainly probably use a solar shower and no one would care, but east of the Mississippi I think it would be challenging. But I could be wrong, that's definitely more roughing it than we ever wanted so I don't have any actual experience.

[prairiewindmomma]

We car camp, but we use facilities at various campgrounds or gas stations.  We have a hiking shovel, should we ever get desperate, but we've never had to do that. Nearly all of the trails here have some sort of vault toilet or otherwise at the trailhead, and we can time life for that, iykwim.  Camping toilets are essentially....buckets....and if you're squeamish about public toilets, I can't imagine you'll be wild about buckets.  The roadloft link I have below has a photo of a camping toilet in the rv. You need to imagine yourself not only emptying that, but also using that, in your vehicle, while there are people around you.  It's rare to park a vehicle and have complete privacy.

Car camping is WAY cheaper than a RV.  We see a lot of RVs out and about, and have had family that owned them, but for us it's cheaper to rent a cabin or hotel room near where we want to be when we need more support than a tent. A middle ground between the two would be a minivan conversion. I live in the West where housing is crazy expensive and there are a fair number of people who flat out live out of their vehicles. If you haven't gone down the rabbit trail of minivan camper conversions, here's an idea of what some look like: https://www.parkedinparadise.com/minivan-camper/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xa6u0okOboo https://roadloft.com/en/minivan-kit/

I will say that I've seen a huge uptick in break-ins (usually window smash and grabs) in the last few years at various campgrounds and trailheads. I've even seen fights at campgrounds. People have gone nuts in the last few years. https://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2022/09/23/oregon-campsites-tourism-overcrowded-sunnyside-county-park-cascade-foothills/69499305007/

 

[Indigo Blue]

Here’s something I came across in my camping video obsession. This guy does all sorts of camping, and he also does lots of overlanding. I thought his system was interesting. 

[livetoread]

In campgrounds with water dumping restrictions (which is many in the east like Pawz4me says) one way to use a solar shower is buy a popup enclosure and put a tote in it. Stand inside the tote and shower and then carry the leftover water in the tote to the grey water dumping area. The enclosure has to be strong enough to hold the often 5 gal bag of heated water which is heavy, or you could hang it from a tree branch or something and put the enclosure under it, snaking the nozzle through the top.

Composting toilets aren't cheap but they can be used anywhere and are easier on the squeamish than portable toilets or the bucket method. You dump the pee but stir the poo and let it compost, then dump that eventually. They are captured in separate containers. Portable toilets require dumping both pee and poo more frequently without the benefit of any composting first.

[Wildcat]

8 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I don't understand how you'd use a solar shower in a campground. Most have rules prohibiting vehicle washing or dumping any kind of water or fluids on the ground (beyond tossing the contents of a mug or something like that). Out west there's BLM land you can stay on where you could certainly probably use a solar shower and no one would care, but east of the Mississippi I think it would be challenging. But I could be wrong, that's definitely more roughing it than we ever wanted so I don't have any actual experience.

That isn't even something I would have even considered and is very helpful.

3 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Camping toilets are essentially....buckets....and if you're squeamish about public toilets, I can't imagine you'll be wild about buckets. 

It's not so much the, uh, primitive part about campgrounds that bothers me, but the Other People Cooties thing. I dislike hotels for the same reason. LOL  I was a generous sanitizer user & hand washer years before the pandemic made it a thing.

I'll go investigate the link you shared. We had planned for several years on buying a small Class B RV but then the pandemic hit and people lost their ever-loving minds and campgrounds were super packed, so RVing kid of lost the appeal for us and we changed to a Point A to Point B thinking and just need to think about what to do for those trips where campgrounds are more numerous than hotels.  Your post is helpful. Thanks.

[bolt.]

When I travel by mini-van (one or two people only) I put a regular double mattress in the back, which takes up the majority of the whole space. This works nicely for short trips.

For a toilet, I use a standard camping toilet/potty. It has two parts: a seat-and-lid part with a bit of a 'water flush' mechanism (that I don't use) with a trap-door 'flush' into a tank/jug that you manually empty. We use this for urine only, and put our toilet paper into the trash bag, so the tank only contains liquid and is therefore very easy to dump and clean out. When we need to deficate we usually stop at a coffee shop. If it happens that a person would need to deficate in a hurry or in the night, we would line the 'bowl' of the potty with a plastic grocery bag, then tie the bag and dispose of it like pet waste. We sit on this potty inside the open back area of the van, with tinted windows. For extra privacy, I sometimes put a coat across my lap.

None of my trips in this style of camping have been long enough that I needed a shower. (When camping, going up to 5 days doesn't bother me.) If I were planning something longer I'd plan for hotel/motel stops every 4 or 5 days for showering purposes.

[Wildcat]

9 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

Here’s something I came across in my camping video obsession. This guy does all sorts of camping, and he also does lots of overlanding. I thought his system was interesting. 

Ooh. Thanks!

6 minutes ago, livetoread said:

In campgrounds with water dumping restrictions (which is many in the east like Pawz4me says) one way to use a solar shower is buy a popup enclosure and put a tote in it. Stand inside the tote and shower and then carry the leftover water in the tote to the grey water dumping area. The enclosure has to be strong enough to hold the often 5 gal bag of heated water which is heavy, or you could hang it from a tree branch or something and put the enclosure under it, snaking the nozzle through the top.

Composting toilets aren't cheap but they can be used anywhere and are easier on the squeamish than portable toilets or the bucket method. You dump the pee but stir the poo and let it compost, then dump that eventually. They are captured in separate containers. Portable toilets require dumping both pee and poo more frequently without the benefit of any composting first.

OK. I can see how that would work. It's something to think about. 

Yeah, after I saw Faith's post, I looked on Amazon and yikes. However, it's less than 9 nights in a hotel, so I think it would pay for itself in short order.  So, they don't need any electricity? It's like the bucket but has sealed containers and has additives for the solids? The one i glanced at on Amazon had comments/complaints about needing an electrical plug so I definitely need to read up on that more.

 

 

[Wildcat]

3 minutes ago, bolt. said:

When I travel by mini-van (one or two people only) I put a regular double mattress in the back, which takes up the majority of the whole space. This works nicely for short trips.

For a toilet, I use a standard camping toilet/potty. It has two parts: a seat-and-lid part with a bit of a 'water flush' mechanism (that I don't use) with a trap-door 'flush' into a tank/jug that you manually empty. We use this for urine only, and put our toilet paper into the trash bag, so the tank only contains liquid and is therefore very easy to dump and clean out. When we need to deficate we usually stop at a coffee shop. If it happens that a person would need to deficate in a hurry or in the night, we would line the 'bowl' of the potty with a plastic grocery bag, then tie the bag and dispose of it like pet waste. We sit on this potty inside the open back area of the van, with tinted windows. For extra privacy, I sometimes put a coat across my lap.

None of my trips in this style of camping have been long enough that I needed a shower. (When camping, going up to 5 days doesn't bother me.) If I were planning something longer I'd plan for hotel/motel stops every 4 or 5 days for showering purposes.

I can envision this. Thanks. I had considered the camp toilet as an emergency potty for when we hit areas with long stretches with nowhere to stop so it's good to hear from someone who has done this.

[livetoread]

4 minutes ago, Wildcat said:

Yeah, after I saw Faith's post, I looked on Amazon and yikes. However, it's less than 9 nights in a hotel, so I think it would pay for itself in short order.  So, they don't need any electricity? It's like the bucket but has sealed containers and has additives for the solids? The one i glanced at on Amazon had comments/complaints about needing an electrical plug so I definitely need to read up on that more.

 

Some have fans that vent to the outside. That's what the electricity is needed for, I would think. Not all do though.

[Indigo Blue]

10 minutes ago, Wildcat said:

It's not so much the, uh, primitive part about campgrounds that bothers me, but the Other People Cooties thing. I dislike hotels for the same reason. LOL

I feel you, lol. I don’t camp. I would like to, but I think I would prefer wilderness to campsite with bath house. A clean bucket with toilet seat would work better for me. Gee whiz, you could set up a pop up tent that is designed to be a port a potty enclosure, put your bucket with bag and system in there, and maybe a small folding table. You could set up your own little bathroom. Showering is another thing. I’ve seen the outdoor gear review folks demonstrate how to set up a tarp wall and shower with a portable shower system. They use special soap that is made for that purpose and is environmentally safe. I don’t know if there would be restrictions on even the special soap in certain areas. Lol. I just watch the videos. What do I know. 😂

[Pawz4me]

40 minutes ago, livetoread said:

In campgrounds with water dumping restrictions (which is many in the east like Pawz4me says) one way to use a solar shower is buy a popup enclosure and put a tote in it. Stand inside the tote and shower and then carry the leftover water in the tote to the grey water dumping area. The enclosure has to be strong enough to hold the often 5 gal bag of heated water which is heavy, or you could hang it from a tree branch or something and put the enclosure under it, snaking the nozzle through the top.

 

Would you need some sort of wagon for that? I can't imagine carrying a tote filled with several gallons of water any distance, and sometimes the dump stations are a LONG way away. I could see some sort of folding wagon being used?

 

16 minutes ago, Indigo Blue said:

I’ve seen the outdoor gear review folks demonstrate how to set up a tarp wall and shower with a portable shower system. They use special soap that is made for that purpose and is environmentally safe. I don’t know if there would be restrictions on even the special soap in certain areas. Lol. I just watch the videos. What do I know. 😂

Excess water on the ground often makes a muddy mess, and commercial campgrounds really don't like muddy messes. In our experience any sort of government campground (city, state, national, COE) are super strict on their water disposal/dumping anything on the ground rules.

[Beth S]

We keep inexpensive male & female urinals in our van (and we don't car camp).

 

ETA:  The main thing causing the traditional stink is to mix the Urine and the Feces.  Keeping them separate is a challenge, though!

Edited January 13, 2023 by Beth S

[Faith-manor]

You can just pull over and use it. Now that said, I prefer a little privacy, so we often just use rest areas when on the way to where we are going. We use it when dispersed camping (pull off on designated forestry roads, to flat areas set aside for camping rustic with no fees), we set it up inside a pop up tent. We then dig a hole and bury the contents when we leave. There are rules for this. Biodegradable only TP, must be buried deep and at least 100 feet away from any water source. Also, there are restrictions on soap. We have Dr. Bronners for washing dishes and hands, and their shampoo/body wash. I have leave in conditioner for our hair. Everything we use is plant based and environmentally safe. You also have to pack out your trash.

I tend to not like to do this camping for more than a week. Ideally, about three days at a time, and then I am ready for shower facilities and unlimited hot water! 😁

The solar shower is just a simple Coleman shower. It hangs from a tree, and in the sunlight warms up a few gallons of water. We have a shower curtain we hang from the trees to provide some privacy from the road, and since it is a limited amount of hot water, we shower together. 😁 

So far we have nor dispersed camped anywhere that we can't walk away from camp into the woods and dump our dish water because we use the environmentally friendly soap. But, you do have to be careful how much food bits are in the water. We tend to skim that out and put it in our trash bag inside the van because we aren't looking to attract bears. Mark does a good job of marking territory around the perimeter at night in the hopes of warning them that we are around. 😂😂😂

[Pam in CT]

I once was all about car camping; and I really can't imagine long term car camping without using campground facilities.  The compost toilet might (?) work, and you could likely contrive a way to pump it out into the RV dump station if that ever were necessary.  But as Paws outlined above, I really can't see how the shower could possibly work. I'm in the NE and have camped up and down the seaboard, and there are ALWAYS restrictions on dumping even cooking water, let alone dishwashing water. And showers take a TON of water and water is HEAVY to haul away.

My husband was never so much about car camping, LOL, so we now have a small camper.  And the best part by far is the (teeny tiny) bathroom. Well, also when the weather sucks. Tents are great when the weather is great.

 

 

[City Mouse]

It sounds like a lot of work for a road trip- Constantly setting up then packing up a shower and a toilet system of some kind. Primitive camping in one place for several days is much different than a long road trip of primitive facilities. I’ve done a couple of camping style road trips. The longest was 3 weeks, but we stayed in camping cabins (mostly at KOAs) using the provided facilities. On those trips, I used a bunch of plastic Rubbermade tubs with the contents sorted and labeled. Bedding in one. Kitchen supplies in one. Food in another, etc. it was easy enough to pull the tubs in and out of the van. 

Commercial composting toilets are expensive and not small. I’ve only ever seen (in YouTube videos) them permanently mounted in a vehicle or tiny home. That would take up a lot of space in a van. 
if you don’t want to use shared facilities, an RV or travel trailer seems like a more reasonable option. There are some very small trailers that include bathrooms. Depending on your van, it might be able to pull one of those,

[Faith-manor]

Just now, City Mouse said:

It sounds like a lot of work for a road trip- Constantly setting up then packing up a shower and a toilet system of some kind. Primitive camping in one place for several days is much different than a long road trip of primitive facilities. I’ve done a couple of camping style road trips. The longest was 3 weeks, but we stayed in camping cabins (mostly at KOAs) using the provided facilities. On those trips, I used a bunch of plastic Rubbermade tubs with the contents sorted and labeled. Bedding in one. Kitchen supplies in one. Food in another, etc. it was easy enough to pull the tubs in and out of the van. 

Commercial composting toilets are expensive and not small. I’ve only ever seen (in YouTube videos) them permanently mounted in a vehicle or tiny home. That would take up a lot of space in a van. 
if you don’t want to use shared facilities, an RV or travel trailer seems like a more reasonable option. There are some very small trailers that include bathrooms. Depending on your van, it might be able to pull one of those,

This is why we don't road trip. We take this set up when we are staying in one area for a while. We have mini van converted to camping, and often when we are out walking/hiking/kayaking we are in the day use area of a county, state, or national park which means throughout the day, we have access to toilet facilities. We get hotels, cabins, or airbnb when road tripping though we could do it super low key with just the mini van, pull into truck stops to sleep and use the facilities, cook on the camp stove at rest stops. We could definitely do that.

And no, a solar shower is not for luxurious showering that most people are accustomed to. This is get a little wet, stop the water. Lather lightly, rinse. It is a sponge bath that allows you to wash more of your body. It is not meant to be a shower like you take at home or at the state park shower house. So this type of roughing it, off grid vacation is not for everyone. It is not uncommon for us to stay off grid for a week, but then mid week drive to a truck stop and pay for a nice shower. We leave the pop up tent and tail veil with lawn chairs in camp. So far we have never been robbed, knock on wood. A lot of people leave their camera and tents, go into the recreation areas and hang out,  one back at night.

One of our main reasons for doing it is that Mark's job infringes on personal time all the time. Their policy is that I.T. employees are quasi on call 24/7. But if he puts in for vacation time and we go off grid, even if we have enough cell phone signal to use our cell phones - and we usually have at least enough to make an emergency phone call - there is no internet and no way to use his computer so they leave him alone. It is the same kind of isolation that we get when we are in the kayaks and on the sailboat.

It is not for everyone, actually only for a very small percentage of folks who really like the great outdoors.

Our mini van bed is really comfortable. I have throw pillows and cushions so if it is raining, we can be snugged up inside with books, audiobooks, and music. Sometimes I take hand sewing.

[Harriet Vane]

Dear friends of mine lived in a van for a couple years, fully embracing and loving the vanlife ethos. 

They found that their outdoor solar shower was a royal pain and they only used it 2 or 3 times. They told me they would just skip it if they were building a van again. Instead, they ended up buying a membership at Planet Fitness. They could almost always find one somewhere along the way. There were times that they would go a few days doing sponge baths from their water tank, but mostly they enjoyed being able to shower at the gym. 

In their van they had a very small toilet that slid under the bed. The toilet had some sort of official liner that sealed shut. I don't know what type it was. Every two or three days they sealed it shut, slipped it in a normal-looking shoulder bag that was exactly the right size/shape and dedicated solely for this purpose, and they would dump the toilet bag in whatever trash can they could find. The video up above in the thread of the bucket system is the same idea but homemade. 

[prairiewindmomma]

Yes on the Planet Fitness tip. That is a thing. Another tip is just to schedule a hotel night every three days or so. You get a proper shower, can do your laundry, charge all of your devices and back up batteries, and get a good night of sleep. There are times when we go deep into the back country, but usually we are ready to change locales after a few days. 
 

Dh also has to go off grid to truly get away from work. Yay for mountain ranges!!

[Faith-manor]

14 minutes ago, prairiewindmomma said:

Yes on the Planet Fitness tip. That is a thing. Another tip is just to schedule a hotel night every three days or so. You get a proper shower, can do your laundry, charge all of your devices and back up batteries, and get a good night of sleep. There are times when we go deep into the back country, but usually we are ready to change locales after a few days. 
 

Dh also has to go off grid to truly get away from work. Yay for mountain ranges!!

Yup. That is why Mark and I go. Total detox from I.T.

Our favorite is Lake Michigan Recreation Area/Huron Manistee National Forest. The day use area is so nice. We drive up with the van from our dispersed camp, walk the boardwalks, walk some of the trails, and use the bathrooms since we have a day use annual pass. Occasionally we can launch kayaks there, but Lake Michigan can be high waves and choppy, a bit on the scary side sometimes. There are great rivers in the region though, and our tandem kayak rides on top of the van on a carrier. The city park in Manistee is also quite nice.

[MercyA]

Wildcat, I feel you on hotels and public bathrooms. I do much better now that I am on OCD meds, but clean bathrooms are still important to me when we travel. My preference is to stay at one hotel and clean the bathroom myself as needed. 

Have you considered using disposable or reusable urination funnels so you can stand and pee? 

Heavy-duty toilet seat covers (not flushable, but great coverage and fluid proof)? 

Portable toilet paper / wipes can be nice. 

When my DD was little, we had a portable potty that was lined with grocery bags. Easy to just tie up and toss the bag when finished. We own a "Luggable Loo" which is basically the same thing for adults--a bucket with a seat. I have read you can line it with a kitchen garbage bag plus kitty litter. 

Re: the showers: wearing thick flip-flops and using a hanging shower caddy can help.

I hope you find a great solution for you!! ❤️

Edited January 14, 2023 by MercyA

[Lori D.]

When we car-camped with DSs, we used the outhouses at the campground. And for bathing, we would take "washcloth baths" at night -- soak a washcloth in water warmed up on the camp stove, wring it out and scrub yourself, then pour water on the washcloth and wring it out again to rinse it, and hang to dry for the night. NO soap, just a wet washcloth to scrub off the major amount of dirt and stickiness. And then showered when we got home. This works fine for a 2-4 night trip.

If you are camping in the summer at a lake and are allowed to swim in the lake, that works great for a "rinse off" (NO soap -- not environmentally friendly).

When we used our travel trailer, we again used the outhouses at the RV/camp site, and for bathing, we used the for-a-fee shower facility, which avoided having to lug around / pay for dumping grey water. Then you can use soap and shampoo.

[Spryte]

I’ve been hesitant to answer, as my experience is probably dated. I primitive camped (some car camping, lots of remote backpacking) for a good ten years on mostly BLM lands, and a lot of it involved pretty long road trips. On long trips, we sometimes stayed at campgrounds because it was easier to plan ahead and make reservations, but I have always had an inner horror of the bathhouses — some are fine, others are the stuff of nightmares, so my preference was primitive camping.  We used a camp shovel and biodegradable stuff. There’s a learning curve in how to do it best, but it’s not a big deal. That said, depending on where you want to go — there’s not always a place for primitive camping, so you really need to go ahead and make a plan for how to handle the dreaded campgrounds. 

The solar shower was somewhat effective, though I eventually felt it was not worth the effort and usually opted for the sponge bath/washcloth method. Less work, and it was almost as effective. I would opt for that at a campground, if the showers were not appealing. 

With a lot of experience, I learned that my expiration date on primitive camping was somewhere between 5-7 days. At that point, I needed a real shower.  Back then we stopped at youth hostels for a night or two, these days DH and I would use a hotel. I had some incredible experiences at hostels, all good, but I wouldn’t go that route with a family, at our ages now.

On the public restroom issue, though, I’m not sure if you mean you don’t want to use public restrooms at all, while traveling? Like no rest areas or going in the restroom when you stop for coffee or gas? If you’re looking to avoid those stops, you could get a pop up tent that’s the size and shape of an outhouse, and and luggable loo. I know people who did that during summer of 2020, for road trips. The luggable loo has special bags, and you tie and toss them.

 

[Wildcat]

On 1/13/2023 at 1:20 PM, Indigo Blue said:

I feel you, lol. I don’t camp. I would like to, but I think I would prefer wilderness to campsite with bath house. A clean bucket with toilet seat would work better for me. Gee whiz, you could set up a pop up tent that is designed to be a port a potty enclosure, put your bucket with bag and system in there, and maybe a small folding table. You could set up your own little bathroom. Showering is another thing. I’ve seen the outdoor gear review folks demonstrate how to set up a tarp wall and shower with a portable shower system. They use special soap that is made for that purpose and is environmentally safe. I don’t know if there would be restrictions on even the special soap in certain areas. Lol. I just watch the videos. What do I know. 😂

You are me. Or I am you. Whichever.  I'd much prefer to find a spot and set things up than stay in an actual campground, but that isn't how it works.

On 1/13/2023 at 1:59 PM, Faith-manor said:

You can just pull over and use it. Now that said, I prefer a little privacy, so we often just use rest areas when on the way to where we are going. We use it when dispersed camping (pull off on designated forestry roads, to flat areas set aside for camping rustic with no fees), we set it up inside a pop up tent. We then dig a hole and bury the contents when we leave. There are rules for this. Biodegradable only TP, must be buried deep and at least 100 feet away from any water source. Also, there are restrictions on soap. We have Dr. Bronners for washing dishes and hands, and their shampoo/body wash. I have leave in conditioner for our hair. Everything we use is plant based and environmentally safe. You also have to pack out your trash.

I tend to not like to do this camping for more than a week. Ideally, about three days at a time, and then I am ready for shower facilities and unlimited hot water! 😁

The solar shower is just a simple Coleman shower. It hangs from a tree, and in the sunlight warms up a few gallons of water. We have a shower curtain we hang from the trees to provide some privacy from the road, and since it is a limited amount of hot water, we shower together. 😁 

So far we have nor dispersed camped anywhere that we can't walk away from camp into the woods and dump our dish water because we use the environmentally friendly soap. But, you do have to be careful how much food bits are in the water. We tend to skim that out and put it in our trash bag inside the van because we aren't looking to attract bears. Mark does a good job of marking territory around the perimeter at night in the hopes of warning them that we are around. 😂😂😂

Great information, thanks! 

LOL @ Mark.

On 1/13/2023 at 7:43 PM, Pam in CT said:

I once was all about car camping; and I really can't imagine long term car camping without using campground facilities.  The compost toilet might (?) work, and you could likely contrive a way to pump it out into the RV dump station if that ever were necessary.  But as Paws outlined above, I really can't see how the shower could possibly work. I'm in the NE and have camped up and down the seaboard, and there are ALWAYS restrictions on dumping even cooking water, let alone dishwashing water. And showers take a TON of water and water is HEAVY to haul away.

My husband was never so much about car camping, LOL, so we now have a small camper.  And the best part by far is the (teeny tiny) bathroom. Well, also when the weather sucks. Tents are great when the weather is great.

 

 

Yeah. I'm seriously re-thinking the whole thing. Maybe a Class B is what we need, after all. Or not. Sigh.

[Wildcat]

On 1/14/2023 at 9:28 AM, MercyA said:

Wildcat, I feel you on hotels and public bathrooms. I do much better now that I am on OCD meds, but clean bathrooms are still important to me when we travel. My preference is to stay at one hotel and clean the bathroom myself as needed. 

Have you considered using disposable or reusable urination funnels so you can stand and pee? 

Heavy-duty toilet seat covers (not flushable, but great coverage and fluid proof)? 

Portable toilet paper / wipes can be nice. 

When my DD was little, we had a portable potty that was lined with grocery bags. Easy to just tie up and toss the bag when finished. We own a "Luggable Loo" which is basically the same thing for adults--a bucket with a seat. I have read you can line it with a kitchen garbage bag plus kitty litter. 

Re: the showers: wearing thick flip-flops and using a hanging shower caddy can help.

I hope you find a great solution for you!! ❤️

I don't know that I'd be able to manage the funnel thing. The one linked upthread looks like I'd have a steep learning curve to use. 🥴  I'm thinking Ill just have to make my own emergency potty and deal with the public restrooms thing.

I carry the seat covers already, as well as waterless soap and baby wipes. And the Lysol wipes for hotels. And my own pillow. And a white noise machine, and and and. Sigh.

Thanks for commenting!

On 1/14/2023 at 2:16 PM, Spryte said:

I’ve been hesitant to answer, as my experience is probably dated. I primitive camped (some car camping, lots of remote backpacking) for a good ten years on mostly BLM lands, and a lot of it involved pretty long road trips. On long trips, we sometimes stayed at campgrounds because it was easier to plan ahead and make reservations, but I have always had an inner horror of the bathhouses — some are fine, others are the stuff of nightmares, so my preference was primitive camping.  We used a camp shovel and biodegradable stuff. There’s a learning curve in how to do it best, but it’s not a big deal. That said, depending on where you want to go — there’s not always a place for primitive camping, so you really need to go ahead and make a plan for how to handle the dreaded campgrounds. 

The solar shower was somewhat effective, though I eventually felt it was not worth the effort and usually opted for the sponge bath/washcloth method. Less work, and it was almost as effective. I would opt for that at a campground, if the showers were not appealing. 

With a lot of experience, I learned that my expiration date on primitive camping was somewhere between 5-7 days. At that point, I needed a real shower.  Back then we stopped at youth hostels for a night or two, these days DH and I would use a hotel. I had some incredible experiences at hostels, all good, but I wouldn’t go that route with a family, at our ages now.

On the public restroom issue, though, I’m not sure if you mean you don’t want to use public restrooms at all, while traveling? Like no rest areas or going in the restroom when you stop for coffee or gas? If you’re looking to avoid those stops, you could get a pop up tent that’s the size and shape of an outhouse, and and luggable loo. I know people who did that during summer of 2020, for road trips. The luggable loo has special bags, and you tie and toss them.

 

My parents talk fondly about their traveling days where they would just pull over and sleep in their car whenever they felt like it.

I appreciate you posting.

[Wildcat]

Ladies, thank you all for your comments.

I am nearly positive that I'll just have to deal with my public bathrooms/hotel 'thing' and pray that we don't pick up bedbugs along the way. Or, learn to love RVing. One or the other, I guess, as it sounds like car camping is the worst of the options (for me, for us). LOL.

Again, thank you all!

[Lori D.]

1 hour ago, Wildcat said:

... I am nearly positive that I'll just have to deal with my public bathrooms/hotel 'thing' and pray that we don't pick up bedbugs along the way. Or, learn to love RVing. One or the other, I guess, as it sounds like car camping is the worst of the options (for me, for us). LOL...

So sorry. Once you make your decision about how to travel, I sincerely hope you'll be able to mentally "let it go" and focus on having a very enjoyable trip!