How to Fold Up a Pop Up Tent: 9 Steps (With REAL Pictures!)

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I’ve been using pop up tents for many years, and the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent is one of my favorite pop up tents (it also has the most common pop up tent mechanism). In this article, I’ll be showing you how to fold up this pop up tent.

*This is a picture of me picking up my Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent to fold the poles together.*

Table Of Contents

Step 1: Remove All Stakes and Guylines
Step 2: Unzip Window and Door
Step 3: Clean the Tent Before Folding
Step 4: Fold the Pop Up Tent Poles Together
Step 5: Stand the Tent Up
Step 6: Fold Pop Up Tent Towards the Ground
Step 7: Slide the Pop Up Tent Together
Step 8: Replace Strap Across the Tent
Step 9: Put Pop Up Tent Back in Carry Bag
Bonus Read

Step 1: Remove All Stakes and Guylines

The Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent comes with 6 stake loops and 2 guy-out points. On each side of the Coleman Pop Up Tent, there are 3 stake loops and 1 guyline, which looks like this:

*Each side of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent has 3 stake loops for staking down the tent body, and 1 guyline for guying out the tent.*

If you’ve staked down and guyed out the pop up tent, first remove all of these stakes and guylines. If you didn’t, skip this step and head to the next one.

Step 2: Unzip Window and Door

Now, head to the front of your tent, and unzip the window and door. For the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent, it has this inner window (lighter green and mesh) and outer door (slightly darker green). Let me show you what the window and door look like:

This is a picture of me unzipping the outer green door of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent. — *This is a picture of me unzipping the outer green **door** of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent.*

This is a picture of me unzipping the inner green window of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent. Notice that the door is laid out on top of the tent. — *This is a picture of me unzipping the inner green **window** of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent. Notice that the door is laid out on top of the tent.*

And this is what the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up tent looks like with both the window and door open:

*This is a picture of me checking the inside of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent. I’m making sure that there’s nothing inside before I fold it up.*

Why do you need to do so? There are 2 reasons:

First, it makes cleaning the pop up tent a lot easier (next step).
Also, when folding up the pop up tent, air can be pushed out of the tent more easily through the door opening.

If your pop up tent doesn’t have an inner window, simply unzip the door.

Step 3: Clean the Tent Before Folding

Since all pop up tents are freestanding tents, simply pick the entire tent up.

With the door opening facing the ground, gently shake the entire tent so that any dirt and debris can be shaken out through the door and onto the ground. Get someone to help you, especially if your pop up tent is bigger.

*This is a picture of me picking up the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent.*

It’s best to not fold the pop up tent when there’s a lot of debris and dirt inside the tent. Even tiny rocks may pierce the fabric of your tent (if they are sharp), or get trapped in the folds of the pop up tent, making folding it up that much harder.

I also usually use a wet wipe to gently clean the outer base of the tent, because that’s where all the mud and dirt will get caked. I try not to leave this till much later, because old dirt is much harder to clean than newly-caked dirt.

If you do this, please do remember to let the tent dry before keeping it up.

*This is a picture of me washing the base of my Columbia Mammoth Creek 10-Person Tent.*

Alternatively, like my picture above you can use a hose to hose the entire tent down, but remember that it’ll take longer to dry.

Step 4: Fold the Pop Up Tent Poles Together

Now, go to the back of the tent, and pick the pop up tent up from one side. You can start with the pole right at the left or right of the tent.

While the poles are fully enclosed in long pole sleeves, you’d be able to feel the poles using your hands. For the Coleman Pop Up Tents, their poles are enclosed in these gray pole sleeves:

*This is a picture of me gripping one of the poles of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent.*

Then, fold all the poles together until the tent looks like a taco. Here are a few pictures to demonstrate that:

*This is a picture of me just starting to pick one side of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent up.*

*This is a picture of me folding in one of the poles to the left of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent.*

*This is a picture of me folding up the entire left side of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent.*

*This is a picture of me folding one of the poles to the right of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent.*

*This is what the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent will look like when all the poles have been folded together. This is the taco shape.*

Also, notice how the air gets pushed out of the tent easily through the door, because I left it open. This makes folding it up easier.

Step 5: Stand the Tent Up

Once your tent looks like a taco, stand it up on one end, like this.

*This is a picture of me standing the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent on one end.*

If there’s a lot of tension from all the poles being folded up, use both hands to grab the middle of the taco first. Take your time to stabilize the taco before moving on to the next step.

This is exactly what I’m doing in the picture above – using both hands to grip the poles of the pop up tent.

Step 6: Fold Pop Up Tent Towards the Ground

Once you’re ready, release one of your hands from the taco. This means that you’ve only got one hand gripping all the poles together. Again, take your time to get a good grip on it.

Then, with your other hand, reach out as far as possible to the other end. Ideally, you should be able to reach out to the other tip of the taco, like I was able to do with the 2-person version of my Coleman Pop Up Tent:

*This is a picture of me using one hand to grab the tip of the taco of the Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent.*

However, if you don’t have super long arms (like me), just do your best to reach out as much as possible. It will still be able to fold down, don’t worry about that.

Check out this picture (below) of me reaching out as far as possible with my Coleman 4-Person Pop Up tent. I’m not even close to reaching the opposite tip of the taco:

*This is a picture of me reaching out to one end of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent to prepare to fold it down.*

Once you’ve reached out as far as possible, pull that end of the pop up tent taco towards you, like this:

*This is a picture of me folding one end of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent down.*

*This is another picture of me folding one end of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent down.*

At the same time, quickly kneel on the ground, using one of your knees to press down on that end that you’ve just folded in. This is to prevent the poles from popping up again.

*This is a picture of me using my knee to hold the Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent down while folding it away.*

Step 7: Slide the Pop Up Tent Together

The rest of the poles will now form smaller circles:

*This is a picture of me kneeling down and using my right knee to hold the poles of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent down. Notice that the tent is now made of smaller circles.*

Now, use both hands to push these smaller circles down and together. You know you’ve folded the pop up tent correctly when it folds back to just one single smaller circle.

*After you push the smaller circles of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent together, it should form just 1 single smaller circle.*

Step 8: Replace Strap Across the Tent

After that, I usually hold the tent together using my legs, and place the black strap across the tent.

*This is a picture of me gripping the folded Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent between my legs and replacing the black strap across the tent.*

Tip: When the pop up tent is folded into this smaller circle, there’s a lot of tension on the poles (which is what gives the tent the classic “pop up” motion. At all times, always maintain a good grip on the poles.

This is why I choose to fit the tent between my legs, so I can free up my hands to replace the black strap over the tent.

*This is what the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent looks like with the black strap over the tent.*

Step 9: Put Pop Up Tent Back in Carry Bag

Finally, put the tent back into the carry bag, it should go back in no problem at all.

*This is a picture of me putting the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent back into the carry bag. Notice how it fits perfectly.*

But before zipping the carry bag up, do remember to clean your stakes, and then keep them up into the pocket inside the carry bag.

*This is the stake pocket on the inside of the carry bag of the Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent.*

*This is a picture of me taking out the 8 stakes from the pocket of the carry bag of the Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent.*

Bonus Read

If you’ve found the Coleman Pop Up Tents too difficult to fold down, and would prefer a more guided set up and take down, I’ve bought, tested and reviewed other pop up tents that might be more your speed, in this blog post right here.

This is a picture of me with my 7 pop-up tents. From bottom to top: Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent, Fresh & Black 3-Person Tent, Quechua 2 Seconds 2-Person Tent, Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent, Fresh & Black 2-Person Tent, Teton Sports Vista 2-Person Tent, and the Teton Sports Vista 1-Person Tent.

Or, check out the Coleman Pop Up Tents:

Check price on Amazon (2P)

Check price on Amazon (4P)

Read my full review (2P)

Read my full review (4P)

Pop Up Tent	Full Review	Check Price
Teton Sports 2-Person Vista Quick Tent	Read Review	Amazon, Moosejaw
Teton Sports 1-Person Vista Quick Tent	Read Review	Amazon, Moosejaw
Coleman 4-Person Pop Up Tent	Read Review	Amazon, Moosejaw
Coleman 2-Person Pop Up Tent	Read Review	Amazon, Moosejaw
Quechua 2 Seconds 2-Person Tent	Read Review	Decathlon
Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black 2-Person Tent	Read Review	Decathlon
Quechua 2 Seconds Fresh and Black 3-Person Tent	Read Review	Decathlon