Many of the campsites I’ve camped out in the woods over the years have lacked outhouses. So I’ve brought my trusty little trowel, dug a little hole, squatted and did my business. I usually would bring a bag and toss the toilet paper in there, put it in with the burnable garbage and bury the shit. It worked, it wasn’t a big deal. I didn’t really like burying toilet paper, as I thought sometimes it would get dug up, especially if I wasn’t digging really deep holes, every time I took a shit.

For years and years, that’s what I did. But I really didn’t like squatting in woods, especially now that I’ve gotten older and like spending more time in the bathroom doing my business. Squatting is kind of a quick business, and even if it’s theoretically better for your health, it kind of isn’t as nice as being able to sit and relax while you get it done. Sometimes I even bring reading materials into the bathroom. I’m one of those guys.

So for a while I’ve seen bucket shitters described online, like this one shown on Wide Open Spaces. Honestly, I thought it was kind of a silly concept. Who wants to have a shitty, smelly bag of garbage to dispose of later. I had a friend who offered to give me his camp toilet, but I really didn’t want to deal with having to clean it.

But sometime last month, my views started to change. I really liked the convenience of outhouses, especially the ones at Moose River Plains that have been recently renovated and replaced. I found out buckets are like $2 a piece at Home Depot, and I could get bright orange buckets that I could find in the woods at night. I only had one 5-gallon bucket at the time, and I figured I could use two more for at camp. One could be dedicated for aluminum cans and recycling, and one for burnable garbage. If the bucket shitter idea didn’t work out, I could always use the other bucket for tying down ropes (filled with rocks or water), or storing water at camp for putting out fires, etc.

So I had my bucket. Next I had to get one of those pool noodles that the video and images on the internet recommend. I figured they’re like $2-3 bucks, so if they didn’t work, the remaining parts could be used in creeks or turned into firewood. They are after all just styrofoam and like 95% air. Not a major investment at any rate. I had garbage bags, that I use for garbage and dirty clothes while camping. I bit the bullet and made my bucket shitter.

The first version of the bucket shitter I built used the pool noodle. Right away I saw problems with the pool noodle not being able to properly bend around the bucket. As soon as I cut the noodle and put it over the bucket, it was difficult to bend and started to crack. After a weekend worth of use, the noodle cracked and was nothing more then some small pieces of styrofoam. Maybe small pool noodles fit better.

Other problems I discovered with this was the need to keep the poop covered to control the smell and flies that were naturally attracted. At first the solution was to stick a bucket lid on the bucket, which worked to control the flies but not the smell when I had the top off. My second idea worked better — tossing leaves on top of the waste. This seemed to control the smell and the flies pretty well, when combined with using a lid (and later a closed toilet seat) when I wasn’t using it.

After the pool noodle idea failed, I came up with a new idea. I would go to Walmart and pick up a $5-10 dollar plastic toilet seat. I think I ended up getting a $7 model. I tied the toilet seat to the bucket handle with a bungee cord, so it wouldn’t fall off. The plastic toilet seat was as comfortable as home, and provided much better place to do one’s business then the pool noodle, which never worked right. One other change I adopted, is I now using a double garbage bag in the bucket to ensure nothing leaks. The top garbage bag is discarded (put in with the burnable trash and burnt), every few days when the bucket has to be emptied.

To empty the bucket, I find a place in woods where I dig a hole and dump the waste, about 200-300 feet away from the campsite. Mixed with the leaves and covered with dirt, the waste can breakdown quickly in the forest. As I can dig a deeper hole, only once, it ensures the toilet paper will remained burred and well away from the campsite, versus what sometimes happens when you have to go out and dig a hole every time you have to do your business.

In the day time, I move the bucket shitter away from the campsite, somewheres in woods where there is heavy leave cover to provide good privacy. At night, I bring it into the campsite, so if I have to go, I don’t have to be wandering in the woods in the dark. It is nice having a comfortable seat to do your business in dark, and not have to worry about digging a hole in the very dark woods.

So that’s why I built a bucket shitter. It’s still a relatively new thing, but so far it seems to be working out just fine.