The Peepee Teepee

When you choose to camp at free campgrounds it’s rare to find shower facilities– and sometimes the toilets can be off putting, as well.

The solution?

Carry your own bathroom with you!

We bought this shower shelter at Walmart for about $40. It’s made by Ozark Trail and is VERY well designed.

The poles are all shock corded, making them a snap to put together. Inside, there are places to hang towels and store bath products. The floor includes drains to allow the water to exit the tent, and there’s even a little flap, in front, so that you don’t have to step onto dirt when you first leave the tent.

Here is the $9 Coleman Camp Shower that we use:

Two options are provided for its use with this tent.

Option one is to use the hook that’s provided inside the shower tent. Incredibly, it will support a 5 gallon shower bag (about 42 pounds). Unfortunately, the way most bags are designed you would have to get on your knees in order to wash your hair.

Option two is to hang the shower bag from a tree and run the hose through the Velcro slot conveniently located in the back upper right corner of the shower tent.

The only downside is that you’d have to hang and re-hang the 40 pound shower bag every time you refilled it– not something most women would find easy to do.

So here’s The Chelle Option:

Take your shower bag to the hardware store and have them sell you a 1 to 2 foot piece of tubing that matches what’s already attached to the shower bag.

Also purchase a barbed plastic connector that will join the two together.

Remove the shower head, install the barbed connector and the additional piece of tubing, and then connect the shower head to the end of the now-longer-than-stock hose.

“Alright, Chelle, I did as you said. Now I have a shower with a REALLY long hose– but why did you have me do all that?”

I’m so glad you asked!

Place the shower bag on TOP of your van. It’s easy to do, since you can open the sliding door and use it as a step up to the roof.

Next, place the shower shelter next to the van and run the shower hose through the port. The extra hose length will make it a snap to accomplish.

Now look inside.

Isn’t that cool?

If you choose to add a 3 foot piece of tubing, instead, you can actually face the shower tent toward the sliding door on the van, which would allow you to move between the two with a bit of privacy.

The top of your van is also a great out of the way place to let the water heat up.

Since this post has gotten a bit lengthy I’ll handle the topic of the potty in a separate post– but first I’d like to say a few things about the setup and tear down of this shower tent.

Several reviewers on Walmart.com had written that they had trouble putting it together– or getting it back into the bag when they packed it back up– so I was slightly apprehensive when I started.

Also, it was supposedly a two-person endeavor.

I started by reading the instructions– which are conveniently sewn inside the storage bag– and proceeded to set it up, by myself, in 8 minutes flat.

Subsequent set-ups only require half that time.

The instructions also tell you how to fold it up. By following those instructions I’m able to easily place it back in the bag– with plenty of room to spare.

So don’t listen to the negative reviews. Just read the instructions!

Enjoy your camp shower experience.

It’ll make you feel brand new, again!

-squeakycleanchelle