Tailgate Ready: A Better Drink Setup for Campsites, Game Days, and Long Afternoons

I’ve been camping since I was a kid in Washington, and moving to Perth, Australia, hasn’t changed that. It started with family trips. These days, it’s still one of my favourite ways to get outside, spend time with friends, and step away from screens for a while.

Our trips usually start with stuffing the cars, trucks, and vans with everything we think we’ll need, then heading off together. Once camp is set up, the best parts are simple: being in nature, sharing a meal, and sitting around talking. On evenings when a campfire is permitted, that’s often where we end up.

Then someone puts a can on a patch of ground that looked flat enough. It tips over, gets kicked, or ends up somewhere you really wouldn’t want to leave an open drink.

I love camping. I do not love picking up my can and thinking, “Oh God, I hope something hasn’t gone in here.”

Quick answer: give your drink a proper place at camp

Keep unopened cans cold in the cooler. Once you open one, give it a stable, shaded place within reach, away from feet and food preparation. Make it recognisable, and cover the opening between sips.

A small folding table or a chair with a cup holder can make that much easier. Check that the table sits firmly and that the holder supports your can properly; having a holder doesn’t help much if your drink is barely balanced in it.

The camping problem: nowhere is quite as flat as it looks

Uneven ground is one of the biggest drink annoyances on our trips. A can might sit upright when you put it down, then topple as someone walks past or catches it with a foot. Once it’s down beside a chair, it’s also surprisingly easy to forget it’s there.

The other problem is everything around it. I’ve seen rain, dirt, bugs, and campfire ash get into drinks or come close enough to make me jump up and grab mine. You go camping to enjoy the outdoors, but that doesn’t mean you want the outdoors in your can.

Table space disappears quickly too. Between the food, cooking gear, plates, and everyone’s belongings, a perfectly decent table can suddenly have nowhere left for a drink.

Sort out the table space before everyone settles in

If there’s one thing I regularly wish we had more of, it’s table space—or more camp chairs with decent drink holders. A little side table can be useful even when you already have a larger table for meals.

Set it up near the chairs, but outside the route people take between the tents, cooler, and cooking area. Test it for wobble before trusting it with an open can. Keep drinks away from the edge and leave enough room to put one down without shuffling someone else’s.

A cooler lid is tempting, but someone will need to open it. A cooking table is handy until dinner starts. Giving drinks their own small patch of space saves repeatedly moving them around camp.

Make shared meals easier on the whole group

One thing I love about our camping trips is sharing the cooking. We’ll give different groups responsibility for particular meals, whether that’s lunch or dinner, and then everyone comes together to eat.

That routine works better when whoever is cooking has room to work. Before meal prep starts, move personal drinks and loose belongings off the preparation surface. Keep a clear spot for serving dishes so the cooks aren’t squeezing hot food between half-finished cans.

It’s also worth agreeing on the bulky shared items before packing. If one car brings the main table and another brings a small drinks table, you can create more usable space without everyone independently packing the same gear.

Keep the cooler and open drinks separate

Leave unopened cans in the cooler until someone wants one. Put the cooler somewhere shaded and easy to reach, with enough room to open the lid without shifting chairs or stepping over other people’s drinks.

Once a can is open, return it to its own holder or table spot instead of balancing it among the ice and unopened drinks. An insulated sleeve is useful alongside a shaded place to sit, but neither replaces keeping spare drinks in the cooler.

Make your can easy to recognise as soon as you open it. Initials or a distinctive sleeve can help, especially if the whole group brought the same drink. Remembering “mine was over there” gets less reliable once everyone starts clearing space for dinner.

Around the campfire, keep cans close and covered

Sitting around talking is usually when I want to pay the least attention to my drink. It’s also when ash, a passing insect, or a bumped chair can suddenly demand all of it.

Keep your can within reach on a stable surface, away from the fire and out of footpaths. Cover the opening between sips, and check the outside of the cover before opening it again. Anything sitting on top still needs to be cleared away before it can fall into the drink.

I’ve tried improvised covers before. A napkin might do for a moment, but wind and moisture make it a frustrating solution outdoors. A cover that stays attached is the idea I keep coming back to.

Why camping is part of the reason I’m building Sipivo

These are exactly the moments I have in mind with Sipivo: setting a can down, getting caught up in a conversation, and wanting to return to it without wondering what has landed inside.

Sipivo is a reusable can topper in development, designed to cover the opening between sips, help block debris, and reduce accidental spills. For me, the appeal is spending less of the trip watching over an open drink.

In my prototype sand testing, I observed sand staying out of the drink, although grains could collect in the topper’s crevices and needed clearing before use. That’s an encouraging observation, rather than a guarantee for every knock, can fit, or outdoor condition. Carbonation retention is also a design goal, with testing still to come.

A quick check before you settle into your chair

• Spare drinks are in the cooler, with the lid easy to reach.

• Open cans have a stable table spot or a suitable cup holder.

• The cooking and serving area is clear of personal drinks.

• Cans are out of walkways and away from the fire.

• Everyone can recognise their own drink.

• Covers are clean and closed between sips.

The same approach works for a tailgate or a long afternoon by the lake: somewhere cold for spare drinks, somewhere steady for the one you’re enjoying, and enough room for people to move around.

For me, a good camping trip is about the people, the shared meals, and having very little reason to look at my phone. A better place to put a can is a small detail, but it’s one less thing interrupting that.

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