The Craftiest Workshop

When we lived in Ontario, we spent a lot of time at the beach on the shores of Lake Simcoe and Lake Ontario. Each trip we made, I became a little bit wiser about what to bring, how to pack and just things that made our life easier.

1. Use a mesh bag to carry beach toys

We have many mesh military laundry bags.

These are great for storing all the beach toys and balls that you might want to bring to the beach.

You can even dunk the whole bag in the lake to rinse the sand but I would suggest you clean items THEN put them in the bag.

They can drip dry on your way to the car.

2. Carry your towels, beach blanket and other items in a laundry basket.

At the end of the day, you can toss all the wet sandy towels, bathing suits and anything else that got wet into the laundry basket.

It keeps your vehicle dry and mostly sand free.

Vacuuming sand off car upholstery is painful.

3. Don’t spend a lot of money on sand toys

Look around your kitchen and through your recyclables for things that you can use for sand castles and digging.

Ice cream pails, margarine or yogurt containers and colanders are great.

Well used kitchen utensils and wooden spoons work for digging.

Old cars and action figures can be kept with the sand toys to always be used at the beach.

We always found pails to be most important for collecting treasures along the shore like special rocks and twigs.

4. Use spray bottles instead of water guns

One summer when visiting my parents, my mom had bought a bunch of small spray bottles.

The kids had a lot of fun using them to spray each other.

They were able to fill them up on their own using the rain buckets around my parent’s yard.

At the beach they can easily fill them up at the shore.

Using the mist setting, it is also great for spraying your face to keep cool.

5. Use a fitted sheet for a beach blanket

Anchor the corners with shoes, cooler, towels or camping chairs. This will keep your stuff from getting sand on it as people walk by.

6. Bring a couple camping chairs

Lying on the beach is fun if you want a sun tan or a nap.

If you would like to relax and read a book, it is much more comfortable in a chair.

Family members can take turns sitting in a chair as it helps anchor down the fitted sheet.

7. Pack a lunch in a collapsible cooler

A soft sided cooler is great as it usually has a carrying sling.

At the end of the day, if all the food has been consumed, you can collapse it and toss it in your laundry basket making it easy to pack up to bring back to the vehicle.

8. Freeze your drinks and refrigerate your sandwiches

If you decide to bring bottled water freeze it overnight.

Make your sandwiches and refrigerate them overnight.

This way the water slowly thaws and the sandwiches will be still cold when you go to eat them.

Frozen yogurt tubes are great also as you can eat them frozen or thawed.

9. Use a screw top water pitcher and plastic cups

We bought a 2 pack of clear water jugs at Costco one year.

You can make juice or lemonade in them or just have water.

The lid screws on tight and then you loosen it a half turn to be able to pour like you would a coffee carafe.

These jugs do not leak when laid down and they have a handle on top for carrying.

So much less wastage and mess than when using a conventional water jug.

We just brought along plastic cups (everyone with their own colour) to use for the day.

10. Bring a yoga mat instead of a beach towel to lie on

If you like spreading out a towel and feeling the sand underneath you, why not use a rubber yoga mat instead of a towel.

The water will not absorb into the mat and will dry fairly quickly.

11. Invest in a good beach or golf umbrella

We were never able to dig our cheap umbrella into the sand and have it stay in place.

Most days the wind was fairly strong and would blow the umbrella down the beach.

I usually sat in the camping chair keeping an eye on the kids anchoring the umbrella using the chair then angling it to shade whomever was lying on the blanket.

12. Keep your valuables in a safe place

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Quite often everyone wants to be in the water or the person left watching the stuff is asleep on their beach towel or mat.

Some suggestions for keeping your valuables safe is to put them in an empty sunscreen bottle, pringles can or a diaper rolled up to look like a dirty one.

I think the diaper idea is ingenious and your stuff would never get stolen.

I purchased plastic waterproof cases at CAA that could be worn around your neck.

They worked well but only worth investing in if you are going to the beach as much as we did.

Hopefully one or more of these beach ideas stuck out for you and gave you something to try the next time you go.

I really enjoyed our days spent at the beach and wish we had one closer to go to.