5 Tips for a Stress-Free and Relaxing Day at the Beach
We’re all ready to head out and enjoy the beautiful summer weather. Whether you’re headed to a nearby lake or spending time at the shore, our easy tips will take the bothers out of any ‘beach day’, so you can have even more fun in the sand, surf, and sun!
Corral your stuff with a fitted sheet.
Finding the perfect spot to lay your towel by the water is easy enough, but keeping a tidy perimeter around your stuff? Not so much. The fix: an old fitted sheet. “This is a good way to cordon off your area at beaches and pools”, says Immanuel Debeer, travel blogger for FlightHacks.com. “Just place it upside down, so the curved corners face up, then put a heavy item, like a cooler or radio, at each of the four corners to hold it up, creating a border a few inches high that ‘walls in’ your area.” This will corral your personal items and keep them sand-free!
Outsmart sand with baby powder.
After a relaxing day at the beach, sand doesn’t know when to let go and follows you into your car, stuck to your legs and feet. To send it packing fast, simply pour baby powder into an old tube sock, secure it with a rubber band, then use it to brush over sandy skin like a lint roller. The powder seeps through the sock’s weave and absorbs moisture to unstick sand particles, while the gentle pressure knocks them right off.
Stay cool and hydrated with aloe ice cubes.
Aloe is a powerful hydrator, and it can help cool your skin on even the hottest days by the lake or ocean. Just look for aloe juice in your supermarket’s refrigerated juice or health-food section, then pour it into an ice cube tray, freeze overnight, and pack in a baggie in your cooler. Add the aloe-infused cubes to your water for a sweet hydration boost, or simply rub them onto your skin to instantly soothe sunburn.
Keep flies at bay with peppermint spray.
Flies dive-bombing your lakeside picnic or day at the beach? To the rescue: peppermint essential oil, the enemy of mosquitoes, gnats, and horseflies. Just fill a spray bottle with distilled or filtered water, add about 20 drops of peppermint essential oil and spray on yourself, your towel and your beach umbrella. Keep the bottle in your cooler so it can do triple-duty: bug repellent, aromatherapy, and cooling mist!
Anchor your umbrella with your cooler.
You’re not Mary Poppins and you would rather your (beach) umbrella didn’t fly away! To keep it in place, just anchor it in the sand; attach one end of a bungee cord to your cooler and the other end to the stretcher bars on the umbrella’s underside. This will keep it stable and secure on any windy day.
A version of this article originally appeared in our print magazine, Woman’s World.
