Hobbies can be quite wide-ranging from one person to the next, ranging from interests like collecting albums on vinyl to visiting art museums to reading a specific subgenre of books. People enjoy different things for different reasons, and that’s one of the greatest parts of humanity. What’s interesting about esoteric hobbies is that there’s certain tools or materials that can’t be substituted for anything else. This happens especially in extremely unique hobbies like painting with palettes and oil paints or even baking requiring specific pans and ingredients.
But for the majority of interests and hobbies, there are a few things that can be substituted, and this usually allows you to have an assortment of supplies that can span across multiple hobbies. When versatility is allowed, it’s best to make the most of it so that you can save money and space while ultimately still getting the job done without missing out on whatever supplies you needed in the first place.
One of my favorite hobbies as of late is visiting outdoor music festivals. I don’t ever shy away from trips with friends or my fiancee that involve packing up the truck and getting on the road to the nearest outdoor camping festival for a weekend of fun.
Sometimes, though, we’re in need of basic supplies that we always end up forgetting. So instead of planning last minute what we need, I like to keep these common packaging supplies in my truck to be accessible whenever we actually need them. These work extremely well for random camping trips with buddies too.
Cardboard boxes.
You can use boxes like this a range of things, from kindling to storage or even as makeshift “pads” underneath your sleeping bags to absorb the cold hard ground you’ll be sleeping on. The best part is that you can break them down to save space when traveling so that they’re not all boxy and in the way while driving. Also, they’re amazing at being biodegradable, so you won’t feel nearly as bad if they’re left out or forgotten.
Packing tape.
While this doesn’t always work so well on anything that’s dirty or wet, it can still be useful for patching any holes you have in your tent, binding together broken stakes, and even sealing together food packages that you don’t want going stale or having bugs infest. Out of all the packaging supplies on this list, tape is probably the most versatile at repairing.
Heavy duty scissors.
Scissors may top tape as the most useful thing to have when you’re out camping, especially since most people don’t realize how useful they really are. From cutting twine to opening foods or trimming meat, you can’t go wrong with having a pair of heavy duty scissors available on your road trips.
Thad Mccurdy 