Camp kitchen and dishes

Where to cook, how to keep it clean, and what to do with the washing water so nothing gets sick and nothing comes visiting.

What you need

Set the kitchen downwind of the tents, about a hundred metres away in bear country.
Keep all food, garbage and anything with a smell in the kitchen, never in the tent.
Scrape pots clean while the food is warm. Eat the scrapings or bag them.
Heat water and wash with a few drops of soap, cleanest dishes first.
Rinse in a second pot of hot water. Boiling water sanitizes as well as any soap.
Strain the wash water and put the bits in the garbage bag.
Scatter the water widely at least sixty metres from any stream, pond or well.
Pack up the kitchen and hang or lock the food before dark.

Wash your hands before you cook and after the toilet. Most camp stomach bugs come from hands.
Let dishes air dry in the sun if you can.
Pack out every scrap. Burning food scraps rarely burns them all.

Don't

Do not wash dishes or pour wash water straight into a lake or brook, even with soap that says it breaks down.
Do not leave a dirty pot out overnight.
Do not cook in or right beside the tent.

Danger

Food smells on clothes you sleep in draw animals. Keep cooking clothes out of the tent.
A stove in a closed tent can kill you with carbon monoxide. See Camp stoves and fuel.
Warm leftovers kept for tomorrow can grow enough bacteria to make you sick. Cook what you will eat.

A tidy kitchen is the best animal protection you have. See Keeping animals out of camp.

At a cabin the same rules hold: a grease trap, a proper grey water pit, and garbage locked away.

kitchendishescleanupgrey water

Updated 2026-09-22