The beach is the best!! It’s why (or at least partly why) you’re on the Outer Banks! But it can also be a lot of work to get packed up, get loaded, get there, get to the sand, get set up, etc etc… especially if you have a kid or few in tow. Living here, we do a LOT of beach days, and since my husband isn’t a huge fan of the beach (unless there’s surf), I do a LOT of beach days with just me and 2 kids. In the past few summers I’ve gotten pretty good at getting us and our gear to and from the beach with minimal effort, and keeping the kids entertained long enough for it be be worth our while! Here are 5 of my favorite beach hacks for making the most of our day.
1. protect kids’s feet
Sand is tricky. It’s hard to walk in, gets VERY hot, and my kids absolutely hate wearing sandy flip flops. Our solution: rain boots! They’re easy to slip on and off, easy to walk in, and keep kids’ feet from burning in the sand or on hot boardwalks. It’s never an option for me to carry a kid along with all our stuff, so they know they’re responsible for getting themselves from the car to the beach. Rain boots have been our solution for making this happen without complaints (mostly) or meltdowns.
2. Tote the Toys
We try our best to keep our beach gear minimal, but you always need some toys! Buckets, shovels, nets, dump trucks- it’s usually a jumble of different sized stuff, all full of salt and sand. After trying a lot of different things for carrying beach toys, I landed on a mesh laundry bag with a carry strap. It’s easy to sling on my back, can hold a lot of stuff (even long-handled shovels), cinches closed, and you can rinse it with the hose to get everything cleaned up! It’s been a game changer, and honestly the whole thing lives in my car about 9 months out of the year.
3. Don’t Forget the Bucket
Friends of ours always bring a five gallon bucket to the beach, and it gets used more than nearly anything else! You can use it to tote gear to the beach, then once you’re there, fill it with water for a small makeshift pool, to rinse hands, fill smaller buckets, house jellyfish or crabs, fill water balloons… it honestly serves so many purposes and has been a total game changer! It saves you making a million trips to the water to fill up the small buckets over and over, and is hard to tip over. A weird hack, but super handy!
4. Get Crafty
I never in a million years would have come up with this, but my clever teacher friend gave me this idea and my kids absolutely love it. We keep a cheap set of watercolor paints (ours are from Ikea) and some brushes that in my beach bag. When we need something to do besides swimming or digging in the sand, we collect shells and driftwood and paint away with ocean water! Kids can be as messy as they want, and everything just washes away. It’s also fun to leave little pained surprises for someone else to find later!
5. handle your Trash
This one seems like a no-brainer, but for some reason it took me years to figure this out AND remember to do it! Yes, every beach access has a garbage can, but it’s up near the stairs, where the sand is usually fire. With kids at the beach, you know you have snacks on snacks on snacks, which generally leads to a lot of trash. The easiest solution for me is to bring a plastic bag to collect all our trash in, then dump it in the big garbage can on our way out. This helps prevent trash from blowing around and getting left behind as well- you can’t imagine how many applesauce pouches you find on the beach. Pro tip: pack your snacks or lunch in the plastic bag, then use it for your trash throughout the day!
Hopefully these simple ideas give you a few options for getting to and from the beach easily, and having more fun with your kids while you’re there!
