Camping 101: How to Properly Pack a Cooler for Camping
Soggy sandwiches? Lukewarm beer? No thanks. Avoid these common cooler tragedies by learning how to properly pack your cooler so your drinks stay cold and your food stays dry all trip long.
In this blog post, we provide a step-by-step guide for packing your cooler from start to finish so you can confidently prepare for your next camping trip. We’ll also share our favorite cooler gear and cooler tips that will help you have an enjoyable, stress-free camping trip!
Does How You Pack a Cooler Really Matter?
Improperly packing a cooler can lead to food becoming soggy, spoiled, too warm, or too cold. It can also cause your ice to melt faster, which means spending more time driving back and forth to the store and less time enjoying your camping trip. Taking the time to properly cool and organize a cooler can help you save time, money, and help create a better camping experience.
What You Need to Pack a Cooler Correctly
There are a few things you need to correctly pack a cooler—don’t worry though! Odds are you already have one or two of them lying around your house.
A cooler
Believe it or not, in order to pack a cooler, you will either need to purchase a cooler or dig one out of storage. You don’t have to spend hundreds of dollars on a cooler—but I have found that a high end cooler like Yeti or RTIC keep ice longer than mid or low-grade coolers.
My personal cooler of choice for a weekend camping trip is the Yeti Tundra 45. If you have a family to feed or are camping for over 3 days, consider upgrading to the Yeti Tundra 65 cooler. If your budget isn’t quite that high, opt for a mid-grade cooler, such as the Coleman Classic cooler. I would also recommend purchasing a lightweight soft cooler to use for drinks and/or day trips while camping. My personal favorite is the RTIC 30-can soft cooler. If that is out of your budget, opt for the RTIC 35 liter insulated tote bag.
Ice
No cooler would be complete without ice! Where you live may limit what kind of ice you have access to, but in Maine, most grocery stores and gas stations sell cubed ice and block ice. Block ice melts slower but takes up more room in the cooler, whereas cubed ice melts faster and takes up less room.
Ice packs
Reusable ice packs/blocks (or frozen water bottles if you’re in a pinch) can help extend the life of the ice in your cooler. Yeti sells high quality ice blocks that work great with any cooler, but these ice packs will also work.
Now that you’ve stocked up on everything you need to pack your cooler, it’s time to get packing!
How to Pack Your Cooler
Chill your cooler
Most people laugh at me when I tell them that we pre-chill our cooler before packing it—but the joke’s on them, because my ice always lasts way longer than theirs. Think of your cooler as a cup. If you pour a drink from the fridge into a room temperature cup, it will get warm pretty fast. If you were to pour that same drink into a cup that was chilled in the freezer, it would stay cold a lot longer. The same logic applies to your cooler—placing food and drinks in a pre-chilled cooler will help everything stay colder longer.
To pre-chill a cooler, place either a bag of ice or a few frozen water bottles into the cooler at least three hours before you pack it. Be sure to store your cooler in a cool place during this process. Discard the water bottles and/or melted ice before packing your cooler.
Pack Your Cooler in Layers
To pack your cooler, start by putting either frozen water bottles or ice blocks on the bottom (if space allows). Next, add things that need to stay frozen or very cold directly on top of the ice (such as marinated meats). In the middle, place things that need to stay somewhat cold (such as dairy products and fruit) The top layer of your cooler should be where you put things you want easy access to—snacks, condiments, and drinks. Organize your cooler even further by storing drinks on one side of your cooler and snacks on the other. This will help minimize the amount of time spent searching in the cooler, which will help keep your ice frozen longer. Lastly, use cubed ice or frozen water bottles to fill in any extra space in your cooler. The emptier your cooler is, the faster your ice will melt.
Keep Your Cooler Cool
There are several things you can do to keep your cooler cool. First and foremost—make sure your cooler is always full. When you take something out, replace it with ice so the cooler never becomes empty. Empty space is basically the enemy of ice and will make it melt faster. Second, try and minimize the amount of time your cooler is open for. When you open your cooler, warm air rushes into it and cold air rushes out, which can make ice melt faster. Lastly, try and store your cooler in a cool, shaded spot. Avoid putting it on hot sand or any warm surface, as the warm heat will transfer to the cooler and cause faster ice melt. If there is no shade, put your cooler on a towel or mat.
Tips for Keeping Your Cooler Cool
Pre-chill everything—drinks, food, snacks. This will help keep the ice colder for longer.
If you are using frozen water bottles as ice packs, only fill them three quarters full to leave room for the ice to expand.
Use a separate cooler for drinks and food. This will cut down on how often you open the lid of your food cooler, which will help keep perishables cold.
Freeze marinated meats to act as ice packs.
If you don’t have access to ice—don’t drain the melted ice (cold water) in the bottom of your cooler! It will help the remaining ice last longer.
Leave no Trace
When it comes to enjoying time outdoors, remember the golden rule: Leave No Trace. It’s as simple as picking up after yourself, staying on the trails, and leaving nature just as beautiful as you found it. By practicing Leave No Trace, you help preserve the magic of Maine for future adventurers to enjoy, so everyone can keep enjoying the same beautiful, wild Maine we love.
Interested in more insider Maine camping tips and recommendations? You can find them all here.
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With Love,
My Maine
