Simple Outdoor Shower for Camping, Campervan, Vanlife

I needed an outdoor shower for camping and wanted to go the DIY route to save money and have fun. While there are many options and ideas out there, most of them are not as simple to build and as cheap as this. This DIY outdoor shower can be hung on a tree branch (or similar) and can be easily turned "on" and "off".

Here is a link to a short video of this in action. https://youtu.be/YHILV8gZaEA

Materials

• Empty water container. Laundry detergent bottle in my case
• Rope
• Carabiner

Tools

• Drill
• Drill bit for drilling small holes
• Knife or scissors for cutting rope
• Lighter to melt cut rope ends

1. Drill a few small holes into the top of the container. In my case, holes were drilled into the detergent bottle lid.
2. Fill the container with water and test the water flowing out of the hole. If there is not enough flow, drill more holes and test again until satisfied.

1. Cut a length of rope long enough to wrap around a tree branch.
2. Knot a small loop at each end of the rope. The loop should be big enough to slide into the carabiner.

1. Slide the hanging rope through the water container's handle
2. Attach the hanging rope loops together with a carabiner.

1. Fill the container with water.
2. Leave it out in the sun for a while to warm up the water.
3. Locate something sturdy to hang the water container on, like a thick tree branch.
4. Unhook the carabiner from one end of the hanging rope, and wrap the rope around the tree branch.
5. Re-attach the hanging rope loops together with the carabiner.
6. Make sure the water container is securely hung.
7. Tip the water container over to pour water out of the shower head.
8. Tip the water container back to stop water from pouring out of the shower head.

This is what the finished product looks like in my case. Yours might be different depending on whether different materials or dimensions are used. You may need extra water containers for refills during usage.