7 *MUST-KNOW* Cooler Hacks to Keep it COLDER for LONGER

today we're talking all about coolers for camping and specifically I'm going to share some of my tips and tricks for keeping your cooler nice and organized and also keeping it cold for as long as possible my first tip is to buy a good quality cooler we use the Yeti Tundra but it doesn't have to be a Yeti some of the qualities that you want to look for in your cooler are a nice hard sided cooler with a thick insulation which Yeti's kind of known for that and then a nice seal so again this lid is so securely on here there is no cool escaping at all from this lid so those are some of the things that I really would prioritize when you're picking a camping cooler I don't think the cooler is an area that you want to skimp I think out of all of the camping gear especially if you love to cook like I do when you're at Camp investing in a good cooler that's going to last you a really long time is I think really worth it we have a 50 liter cooler this is a nice size for us for a few day trip for a few people if you're cooler is too big then you're going to have too much air which we'll talk about later in the video so that's no good and if your cooler is too small then you might not be able to fit enough ice in there right so it's kind of this fine balance of being able to fit your food and also all the ice that's needed they actually don't make this size anymore this closest size is a 45 but this has been a really good size for us my next tip is to pre-chill your cooler so now we're at home packing getting ready for a camping trip and if you have some extra ice it's going to be kind of a wasted ice but you can pre-chill your cooler before you actually put all of your stuff in there and this actually goes a long way to keeping your eyes colder for longer when you're actually outside alternatively you can just consider storing it in a place that's a little bit cooler so if you have a basement for example where it's probably a little bit cooler in the summer then you can just store your cooler down there versus upstairs where it might be hotter my next tip is to prep and organize at home and I'm going to show you some of the things that I've done to make make things a lot easier for me when I'm at camp and to of course minimize the amount of time I'm going in to the cooler opening and closing things and trying to find stuff so the more organized that you can be the better off you'll be at Camp one of the things I have to help you do that is my camp cooking starter kit so this is free to download I will put the link in the description below if you don't have it yet but in this kit there's some recipes to get you started there's a meal planning guide and this little sheet here which I use when I am planning and packing my meals I love to cook at camp cooking and baking it's one of my greatest Joys and so I have kind of a lot of stuff here for a few days but I am testing some new recipes and photographing some things and this is just one of the ways that I like to stay organized and I have different days here and I write down what I'm going to eat for breakfast lunch and dinner and then I have a shopping and packing list here so I write all this out and then I have this by my side as I'm organizing and packing my food into the cooler so first and foremost you want to try to make sure everything that can be cold or frozen is cold or frozen because of course if you put a bunch of room temperature stuff in there then you're gonna waste some of that energy cooling all that stuff down so I'm bringing some coconut water for example and I've had these in the fridge so that they're nice and cold just going into the cooler some of the other stuff that I've done to prep at home if you can see I have some veggies here this is broccoli I'm making a couple meals that use broccoli so I have a lot that I've just rinsed and chopped it's ready to go in these little stasher bags stasher bags are another thing I love you can see I used them a lot here because they're just really durable they have a pretty good seal and they take up a lot less space than Tupperware so a bigger bulkier Tupperware I try to avoid using that and instead I love using these stasher bags just to keep things organized but not take up a lot of space some of the other stuff that I've done here is some cheese snacks again these are just in a little bag so that they're not scattered all over my cooler and I'm wasting time with the cooler open trying to find a little cheese snack same with these protein bars they're just in a bag really easy to find some of the other stuff I did was this gelato container this is not gelato this is actually sour cream and I've transferred some sour cream into this smaller container because I don't need to take the whole big thing in fact I will show you thank you so this right here is the thing of sour cream and I don't need to take all of this camping so I've just put some in here for the meals Nick loves sour cream so I have to pack it for whatever I'm making so that's some of the simple things that I've done to prep at home and set myself up for just a relaxing time cooking at camp but also minimizing the times that I have to open and close the cooler and then when you actually go to pack all this stuff think about okay what stuff am I not going to need for a few days so for example I have some protein that's going to go in a meal from like two nights from now so I can put that sort of closer to the bottom because I just don't need it and then keep some of the snacks and things that I'm going to want throughout the day tomorrow up top so now when I am packing like I said I have my little check sheet here and I'm going to put all this and check things off as I go so I don't forget anything and I stay nice and organized so again if you want a copy of my camp cooking starter kit that link will be in the description below so now we gotta talk about the different ways that you can cool your cooler I have some of my favorite things here these are just these ice packs cooler shock not sponsored although it kind of looks like it because there's a lot of them but I do really love these These are colder than ice I think they're negative 18 when they're frozen like this and you buy them and then you fill them with water once and then they're good to go and they're obviously reusable come in different sizes and so I love these for the cooler I also have some of these molds that I'll show you these are just silicone loaf molds and I put ice in here and then I can pull this out and I have a nice big ice block to put in my cooler so that's another thing that I've made I also have a really big ice block just in an old container in here as well show you this this one this takes up a lot of room in the cooler so there are a lot of options here then of course you have just regular old ice cubes they're sort of pros and cons and the general rule of thumb is you want twice as much ice to food so for example if you have a third of your cooler full of food then you want two thirds of it full of ice and the best method to really cool the cooler is probably a combination of these things because you want to try to minimize air and so those little ice cubes have more surface area and they're going to melt faster but they also get into those nooks and crannies of the cooler keeping things cold and minimizing air I personally do not like using ice in my cooler because I just hate when everything gets soaking wet and it also could be a problem if you have meat in your cooler for example you don't want meat sitting in a puddle of water in the bottom of your cooler so I just don't really love using ice but I will use it depending on how long the trip is and you know how much food I'm bringing in that type of stuff but for the most part I love trying to use these cooler shock packs as much as I can and then if I am going to use ice I like these bigger blocks of ice because they have less surface area so they don't melt quite as fast so these are some of the different ways that you can cool the cooler but again the general rule of thumb is twice as much ice to food and you want to minimize the air so even if you do two to one and it's not full just fill the rest of it up with ice so you'd rather have more ice and no air my next tip is to minimize the amount of time that you're opening and closing the cooler again this is fairly obvious but when you open the cooler you're letting all that cold air out warm air in and then that warm air needs to be cooled so your ice is just not going to last as long so there's a few ways that you can minimize how much you have to open and close this one is to be organized like we already talked about if you're organized you're gonna have a pretty good idea where things are in the cooler and so that will eliminate time rummaging through here trying to find everything if you're kind of organized and just have an idea of where things are the second thing that you could do and this is a especially helpful if you have a bigger group of people is to consider two coolers one for food and then one for drinks because if you're hanging out around Camp likely the cooler is going to be opened and closed so many times because people are going in and out to get drinks whether that's soda or coconut water or beer or whatever it is if you keep all of those drinks separate then you can keep your ice lasting a lot longer with the food and then you really only have to replenish ice in the drink cooler if needed so that's a big tip especially helpful again if you have a big group of campers contestant number one is off and she is immediately having a hard time locating her items oh man she is rummaging she is frantic cold air is rapidly escaping and unfortunately time is now up for this contestant better luck next time contestant number two is off and wow just like that she is done that might be a record folks got my coconut water a good cooler too can double as a seat we use this thing all the time as a seat or even I've used this as almost like a kitchen table where we sit and we eat meals around here another Pro of a hard sided cooler my last tip is fairly obvious but it is to keep your precious cooler out of the sun this has been in the Sun for just a few minutes and the top is already warm so this will make a huge difference in how long your cooler stays cold keep in mind that the sun is going to move throughout the day so you're likely going to have to move your cooler a few times throughout the day to keep in the shade which is what we are about to do right now there you have it those are my top tips for keeping your cooler organized and keeping it cold when you're out camping if you like this video check out this video next I have so many more camping tips and food ideas on this channel and I will see you in that one foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: Amanda Outside

Views: 93,776

Keywords: cooler hacks, camping tips, camping, cooler tips, Amanda Outside

Id: QKDASx3uIeU

Length: 10min 48sec (648 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 26 2023