Top 10 Must-Have Items to Take With You During Fair Season

There is nothing quite like fair season. The smell of fresh mini donuts, the sound of live music, the excitement of carnival rides, and spending quality time with family and friends make it one of the highlights of summer. Whether you’re visiting a small community fair or a larger event, a little planning can make your day much more enjoyable.

Here in the Okanagan, our family has attended Westside Daze for years, and every summer we’ve learned something new about what makes for a fun, stress-free day. After plenty of trial and error (and a few forgotten essentials!), we’ve put together our go-to list of items that help make every fair adventure successful.

If you’re heading out to your local fair this summer, don’t leave home without these ten essentials!

1. A Reusable Water Bottle

Staying hydrated should be your number one priority during fair season.

Summer temperatures can climb quickly, especially if you’re spending hours walking around in the sun. Dehydration can sneak up on you before you realize it, causing headaches, fatigue, dizziness, and making the day far less enjoyable.

Bring a reusable insulated water bottle to keep your drinks cold throughout the day. Many fairs have refill stations, making it easy to top up your water without constantly purchasing bottled drinks.

Pro Tip: Start drinking water before you even arrive at the fair and continue sipping throughout the day rather than waiting until you’re thirsty.

2. Sunscreen

Nothing ruins the fun faster than a painful sunburn.

Even if the forecast isn’t calling for blazing sunshine, UV rays are still strong during the summer months. Apply a broad-spectrum sunscreen before leaving home and reapply every two hours—especially if you’ve been sweating or spending lots of time outdoors.

Don’t forget easy-to-miss areas like:

• Ears
• Back of your neck
• Tops of your feet
• Shoulders
• Hands

Your future self will thank you.

3. A Hat and Sunglasses

Sun protection goes beyond sunscreen.

A wide-brimmed hat or baseball cap provides welcome shade while polarized sunglasses help protect your eyes from harsh UV rays and reduce glare while you’re watching performances or exploring the midway.

Lightweight clothing in breathable fabrics also helps keep your body cooler throughout the day.

4. Healthy Snacks

Sure, fair food is part of the experience—but it can also get expensive.

Packing a few snacks helps keep everyone energized while preventing those “hangry” moments in long ride or food lines.

Some of our favourite options include:

• Granola bars
• Trail mix
• Apple slices
• Grapes
• Cheese strings
• Crackers
• Beef jerky
• Fruit snacks

Having something quick on hand is especially helpful for younger children who suddenly decide they’re starving.

5. Hand Sanitizer and Disinfecting Wipes

Thousands of people touch ride bars, game booths, picnic tables, and payment terminals throughout the day.

Keeping a travel-sized bottle of hand sanitizer in your bag makes it easy to clean your hands before eating or after rides.

Disinfecting wipes are also handy for cleaning tables before sitting down for lunch or wiping sticky little hands.

6. Cash for Easy Transactions

While many vendors now accept debit and credit cards, not every booth does.

Having some cash on hand can save time and frustration, especially for:

• Game booths
• Food vendors
• Local craft markets
• Parking
• Small community vendors

It also makes budgeting easier. Decide on a spending limit before you arrive so you can enjoy the day without overspending.

7. Portable Phone Charger

Between taking photos, recording videos, checking schedules, using maps, and staying connected with family members, your phone battery can disappear surprisingly fast.

A small portable power bank ensures your phone stays charged all day long.

You’ll appreciate having a working phone if someone gets separated from your group or you need to access digital tickets.

8. Comfortable Shoes

You may not realize it, but you’ll likely walk several kilometres during a day at the fair.

Supportive walking shoes can make all the difference.

Leave the brand-new sandals at home and choose footwear that’s already broken in. Your feet—and your back—will thank you by the end of the evening.

9. A Small Backpack or Crossbody Bag

Keeping your hands free while carrying your essentials makes navigating crowded fairgrounds much easier.

Pack only what you truly need:

• Water bottle
• Sunscreen
• Snacks
• Wallet
• Keys
• Phone charger
• Hand sanitizer
• Sunglasses

A lightweight backpack distributes weight evenly, while a crossbody bag keeps valuables close and secure.

10. A Positive Attitude and a Flexible Plan

Not everything will go exactly as expected.

Ride lines might be longer than anticipated, favourite food vendors may sell out, and the weather can change quickly.

Instead of trying to fit everything into one visit, focus on making memories together.

Some of our favourite moments at Westside Daze haven’t been the rides at all—they’ve been sitting together watching live entertainment, laughing over mini donuts, cooling off with an evening stroll, and ending the night with the spectacular drone show or fireworks as the sun sets over the beautiful Okanagan.

Those simple moments often become the memories we treasure most.

Bonus Items Worth Packing

If you have room in your bag, these extras can make your day even more comfortable:

• Lip balm with SPF
• Cooling towel
• Bug spray for evening events
• Small first-aid kit with bandages
• Tissues
• Baby wipes
• Reusable shopping bag for purchases
• Rain poncho (just in case!)
• Refillable electrolyte packets for extra hydration on especially hot days

Final Thoughts

Fair season is all about making memories, supporting local businesses, and enjoying everything your community has to offer. With a little preparation, you can spend less time worrying about forgotten essentials and more time soaking up the experience.

After years of attending Westside Daze here in the Okanagan, we’ve learned that staying hydrated, protecting ourselves from the sun, packing a few practical necessities, and planning ahead makes every visit smoother and far more enjoyable.

Whether you’re riding the Ferris wheel, sampling delicious fair food, enjoying live entertainment, or simply watching the sunset with the people you love, having these essentials on hand helps make the day comfortable, safe, and unforgettable.

What’s one item you never leave home without during fair season? I’d love to hear your must-have essentials in the comments!

Updating Your Home’s Outdoor Space: Dos and Don’ts

A backyard, porch, balcony, or patio can become the happiest little corner of your home without draining your budget. You do not need a full renovation to make it feel fresh, cozy, and useful. Keep reading to understand the basic dos and don’ts of updating your home’s outdoor space.

How To Keep Travel Documents From Getting Lost

Travel already comes with enough little surprises without adding a missing passport to the mix. If you've ever wondered how to keep travel documents from getting lost, the good news is that you do not need a complicated system. A few practical habits can prevent a lot of frustration and help you avoid unnecessary delays. No matter who you're traveling with, staying organized makes the entire experience easier and smoother.

Cloud 9 Window Hammock by Tuft + Paw Review: My Cats Are Officially Obsessed!

This post may contain affiliate or sponsored content. As always, all opinions are my own.

If you’ve been following me on Instagram, you’ve probably already caught a glimpse of my latest feline-approved home addition—the Cloud 9 Window Hammock by Tuft + Paw! I couldn’t wait to share this one because it has quickly become one of my cats’ favorite places to lounge, bird watch, and soak up the sunshine.

The best part? My kitties were right there “helping” me put it together. If you’re a cat parent, you already know that no assembly project is complete without curious paws inspecting every piece and batting around the hardware. It made for a fun afternoon, and I even shared the whole experience on my Instagram so everyone could watch the adorable chaos unfold!

Simple Assembly

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy the Cloud 9 Window Hammock was to assemble. The instructions were clear, the pieces fit together perfectly, and it only took a short amount of time before it was securely mounted and ready for its first official cat test.

No complicated tools, no frustration—just a straightforward setup that anyone can handle.

Beautiful, Modern Design

One thing I absolutely love about Tuft + Paw products is their attention to design, and the Cloud 9 Hammock is no exception. It has a clean, modern look that blends beautifully into my home instead of looking bulky or out of place.

It’s refreshing to find cat furniture that’s just as stylish as it is functional.

Surprisingly Strong

Now for the real test…

My household has two very different-sized cats. One is slim and agile, while my sweet tortie, Beans, tips the scales at an impressive 29 pounds. I was honestly curious to see how the hammock would perform.

I’m happy to report that it handled both cats with ease! Whether one kitty was relaxing alone or they were taking turns claiming the coveted window seat, the hammock stayed secure and sturdy. Knowing it can comfortably support even a larger cat gives me so much confidence in its quality.

Endless Entertainment

Since installing the hammock, my cats spend hours perched by the window watching birds, people walking down the street, and all the little happenings outside. It has become their favorite lookout spot, and I love seeing how much enjoyment they get from something so simple.

As a cat parent, there’s nothing better than finding a product your pets genuinely use every single day.

Final Thoughts

The Cloud 9 Window Hammock by Tuft + Paw has absolutely earned a permanent place in our home. It’s stylish, incredibly sturdy, simple to assemble, and—most importantly—my cats adore it.

Watching them curl up in the sunshine or chatter excitedly at birds outside has made this one of my favorite additions to our home.

If you’re looking for a beautiful window perch that combines modern design with excellent quality, I highly recommend checking out the Cloud 9 Window Hammock from Tuft + Paw. Your cats will thank you!

Have you seen my cats enjoying their new hammock yet? Head over to my Instagram to watch them “help” with the assembly and see just how quickly they claimed their new favorite nap spot!

Pet Hair on Outdoor Furniture: What Actually Works After I Tried Everything Else

 I have two dogs. A golden retriever named Biscuit who sheds enough in a single afternoon to stuff a throw pillow, and a beagle-mix named Olive who doesn't shed as dramatically but somehow manages to leave hair in places that make no physical sense — the underside of outdoor chair arms, the crevice between cushion and frame, the one spot on the loveseat where nobody ever sits. Together, they've turned our back patio into a situation I did not fully anticipate when we adopted them.

If you have pets and outdoor furniture with fabric cushions, you know what I'm talking about. The hair doesn't just sit on the surface the way it does on a hardwood floor where you can sweep it up and be done. It weaves into the fabric. It gets into the weave of the cushion cover and stays there through rain, through sun, through the wind, through every attempt to remove it. I've spent more money than I'd like to admit on products that promised to fix this problem and mostly didn't. So here's what I've actually figured out after several summers of trial and error.

Why Outdoor Fabric Is Harder Than Indoor

The first thing I didn't understand when we got the patio furniture was that outdoor fabrics — the performance weaves like Sunbrella or the polyester blends that most outdoor cushions use — grab pet hair differently than the velvet or microfiber you might have indoors. Indoor upholstery has pile — surface texture that hair sits on top of or just slightly into. Outdoor performance fabric has a tighter weave structure designed to resist moisture and UV, which is exactly what makes it good at its job and also exactly what makes pet hair dig in and refuse to let go.

Rain makes it worse. When our cushions get rained on — which happens constantly because I never remember to bring them in — the water works the hair deeper into the weave. By the time the cushions dry out, the hair that was sitting loosely on the surface is now embedded. A dry cushion with fresh hair on it is a manageable problem. A cushion that's been rained on twice with a retriever sleeping on it in between is a different situation entirely.

Sun doesn't help either. UV exposure over a season slightly stiffens outdoor fabric, and stiffened fibers grip embedded hair more tightly. By late August, the cushions that started the summer looking manageable have had four months of sun-rain-dog-sun cycles, and the hair situation is genuinely entrenched.

What I Tried That Didn't Work (So You Don't Have To)

The lint roller is the first thing everyone reaches for. I went through probably thirty of those adhesive roller refills before accepting that they work fine for surface hair on a blazer before you leave the house and are not remotely up to the task of outdoor cushion fabric. The adhesive doesn't generate enough grip on performance weave to pull embedded hair, and the rollers get saturated immediately on a golden retriever cushion. You end up using six sheets to do one cushion and you've moved maybe forty percent of the hair.

The rubber pet hair remover brushes — the ones that work in a back-and-forth motion and are supposed to create static — work better indoors on carpet than they do on outdoor fabric. The mechanism relies on a certain amount of fabric give, and tight outdoor weave doesn't give. I have three of these brushes in a drawer on the patio. I use them occasionally. They're not useless but they're not the solution.

I tried a leaf blower on a particularly bad day after a weekend when both dogs had been sleeping on the cushions through the rain. This was a mistake. It redistributed the hair, spread it to the table surface and the patio floor, and put a certain amount of it in my face. Do not do this.

Duct tape, masking tape, packing tape — all versions of the same problem as the lint roller, just less convenient to use. The tape itself leaves residue on outdoor fabric if you're not careful, which then attracts new dirt.

What Actually Does Work

The most effective regular-maintenance tool I've found is a damp rubber glove — specifically a dish-washing glove, the kind with slight texture on the palm and fingers. Run your gloved hand across the cushion surface in one direction with moderate pressure, and the rubber creates enough friction to pull embedded hair out in clumps that you can then collect and throw away. The damp part matters: dry rubber generates static and the hair goes everywhere; slightly damp rubber grabs and rolls it.

For cushion covers that are removable and machine-washable — and many outdoor cushion covers are, check the tag — a wash cycle with a half cup of white vinegar in the rinse helps loosen hair from the fabric before it goes in the dryer. Run the dryer on low heat with a couple of dryer balls. The combination of tumble action and the softening effect of the vinegar-rinse loosens embedded hair better than washing alone. Pull the lint trap after five minutes — it will be full.

A vacuum with a rubber pet hair attachment works better than the standard upholstery tool on outdoor fabric, specifically because rubber creates friction against the weave where plastic bristles just slide over it. The Dyson pet groom tools and the similar aftermarket attachments for other brands make a real difference here compared to whatever attachment came in the box. Move against the grain of the fabric weave rather than with it — you're trying to lift the hair out, not push it in further.

The Seasonal Accumulation Problem

Dogs shed in seasons. The spring shed — when the winter coat comes out — is the worst, and if you're in a climate with real winters, your dog is dropping an alarming amount of fur from March through May. That's also the time of year when you're opening up the patio furniture for the season, which means the cushions that have been in storage are getting saturated with spring shed right at the start of outdoor season.

I've started doing a thorough pre-season cleaning every April before the furniture goes back out. Everything gets the rubber glove treatment, then a vacuum pass, then a wipe-down of the fabric with a barely damp microfiber cloth to pick up the fine hair that the vacuum missed. It takes about an hour for our set, and it means we start the outdoor season with clean cushions instead of trying to catch up all summer.

By August, even with regular maintenance, the cushions have accumulated several months of embedded hair, pollen, general outdoor dust, and whatever Biscuit rolled in during the previous weekend. This is when I've learned that DIY maintenance hits its limit, and it's worth understanding what that limit actually is.

When DIY Isn't Enough

The embedded hair you can remove with a rubber glove is the surface-to-mid layer of the fabric. What's down in the base of the weave, particularly in cushions that have been rained on repeatedly, is beyond what friction-based removal reaches. The same is true for pet dander — the microscopic skin particles that cause allergic reactions — which penetrates to the fiber base and stays there regardless of what you do on the surface.

After two full seasons of our patio cushions getting the full Biscuit-and-Olive treatment, I had them professionally cleaned. The technician used truck-mounted hot water extraction — the same equipment used for indoor upholstery — on the outdoor fabric. The extraction water was the color of weak coffee. The cushions, which I thought were in reasonable shape from my regular maintenance, were apparently harboring considerably more than I'd removed on my own. After cleaning, they were visibly brighter, the fabric texture was different in a way I can only describe as "right again," and they dried within three hours in the sun.

If you're looking into what professional services exist for this — searching for how to remove pet hair from outdoor furniture professionally rather than DIY — the key question to ask any service is whether they have experience with outdoor performance fabrics specifically, because the extraction approach and drying time management is different from indoor velvet or microfiber. Not every upholstery cleaning company works on outdoor fabric.

Prevention Is Genuinely Worth It

I'm not going to tell you to keep the dogs off the patio furniture, because that's not happening in our house and probably not in yours either. What I have done is add outdoor furniture covers to the pieces we're not actively using — the loveseat stays covered except when we have people over, so only the main sectional gets the full daily dog exposure. It's not perfect but it reduces the total fabric surface that's accumulating hair.

Throwing a washable outdoor blanket over the dogs' favorite spot and washing it every week or two handles a significant portion of the hair load before it ever reaches the cushion fabric. This sounds obvious but I genuinely didn't think to do it until year three of patio furniture ownership. The blanket collects the majority of what Biscuit deposits during a napping session; the cushion underneath stays relatively clean. Machine washing a $25 throw blanket is considerably easier than deep-cleaning patio cushions.

Grooming frequency matters more for outdoor furniture than indoor, counterintuitively, because outdoor fabrics hang onto hair so much more tenaciously. The two weeks before shedding season peaks — usually mid-March and again in late October if your dog has a fall coat change — are when brushing every other day makes a measurable difference in what ends up on the cushions. It's not glamorous but it's cheaper than cleaning products that don't fully work.

After a few summers of this, my system is: daily brush-off when I notice accumulation, weekly rubber glove pass on high-traffic cushions, pre-season thorough cleaning in April, professional cleaning every second summer or whenever the embedded situation gets genuinely out of hand. It's more maintenance than I expected when we bought the patio set. It's also less frustrating than the alternative of spending money on things that don't work and resenting the dogs, who are objectively worth the trouble.