There comes a time when packing a caravan for a weekend away becomes a chore, making you wonder why you do it.
Years of visiting shows and filling my van with the latest gadgets and ‘must-have’ caravan upgrades meant that, despite sticking to the payload, it was simply bulging at the seams.
Thinning down my touring kit to the bare necessities proved positively cathartic. Now, only the essential touring items are carried. Many are pre-packed and always remain in the van, making setting off for an impromptu tour a fast and stress-free affair.
Here are my top tips for living in a small space and getting the most from the storage in your caravan.
Unpack and repack
The first task is to take stock of everything you’ve been kitting out your caravan with. Pick a dry, sunny day, then remove all of your kit and place it in bundles on the ground. This is something you want to do every year as part of your general caravan spring clean.
A great rule of thumb is that if you haven’t used an item for more than a year, you should donate it to a charity shop or leave it at home. It really has no business being in your caravan.
Seeing all of your kit laid out in one go also gives you a good sense of volume and allows you to think about which items are those essential caravan accessories and which are merely nice to have. But if something isn’t going to add to your holiday experience, why is it there?
Don’t forget to reach for the best caravan vacuum cleaner, either, to give your tourer a freshen up.
Organised containers
If you’re a fan of spreadsheets and geometry, you’ll love getting your touring kit organised.
A selection of boxes is essential when you’re loading a caravan to keep your stuff together in one place and stop it sliding around while you’re in transit. It also prevents smaller items falling into crevices or jamming up tambour doors.
There are lots of containers on the market and you can find them sized to fit every compartment in your caravan.
You don’t need to buy new though – you could upcycle plastic food storage containers, washing pod boxes, takeaway packaging or any other plastic boxes. Clear containers work best, however, because you can see their contents at a glance.
For frequently accessed items, it’s better to go for trays, or simply leave the lid off the box – it can be a bit annoying to have to remove the whole box and lid to reach into it. It also means you’ll need two hands to get your stuff, which can be a faff.
Things that fold up
If you’re just starting out in a caravan, it’s worth considering the bulk of every item you pack. While there are lots of space-saving devices out there, not all are worth carrying and some are quite irritating to use.
For me, the latter includes compact folding barbecues. Having to spend ages building a device before you can cook on it when you’re hungry is a pain. And then you have to get rid of the coals, clean it and pack it away each time you use it.
A rigid barbecue will be much easier to clean and is well worth the space sacrifice.
However, fold-up kitchen pots and pans are brilliant in caravans. When it comes to choosing the best caravan kettle, I’ve had a folding kettle for years and this has been joined by a similar pan and washing-up bowl. I also prefer them to all-metal pans because you’re less likely to burn yourself.
One of the best tips for space saving is to switch to microfibre towels, rather than the oversized fluffy things you use at home. Massive bath towels steal lots of cupboard space and when damp, take an age to dry out properly.
Doubling up
Certain items, such as towels and toiletry bags, and some clothing, such as hats, gloves and coats, are worth duplicating and keeping permanently in your caravan.
Shampoo, shower gel and toothpaste are not expensive and having two sets saves time when you are packing and unpacking.
Travel-size toiletries work really well in compact caravans. You can adopt the same plan for clothes cleaning, too, with sample and trial sizes of laundry soap and fabric softener taking up minimal space in your lockers.
Some people pack an entire duplicate wardrobe in their van, and this can be a good idea, especially if you work during the week and want to make the most of your precious weekend.
Tools to pack
The same goes for any caravan toolkits. It’s well worth packing either a small set of essential tools (Lidl and Aldi do some cracking compact sets that are ideal), together with a selection of common consumables, such as fuses, electrical tape, self-amalgamating tape, gaffer tape and a range of cable ties.
Things like loose hinges, blown fuses and misbehaving water pumps are the most common things you’ll have to tackle.
For larger tasks, borrow tools from your campsite neighbours – there is always someone on the site with far more tools than you!
Bulk versus luxury
Some of the items that are taken away on tour will definitely be classed as more luxury caravan accessories. For example, the two luxuries in our van are our Duvalay mattress/bedding sets, and the Nespresso coffee machine.
Although a sleeping bag is more space-efficient, we much prefer the Duvalays, because they are more like a domestic bedding set and are really comfortable to sleep on.
So for us, they are an essential luxury despite the room that they take up.
Equally, we’re caffeine addicts and having a proper fresh coffee from the Nespresso machine is a treat. Although the pods and the machine itself only take up minimal space, the NDS 1500W inverter that we use to run it is rather bulky.
But being able to enjoy freshly brewed coffee whenever we like is just brilliant.
Summary
Buying yet more stuff is not the answer to kitting out your caravan. Packing the minimum amount of carefully selected items (all while remaining strictly within your payload, of course) really is the key.
Don’t worry if you don’t have the ‘correct’ kit right now – you can always refine it as you go along – just get out there and start enjoying the world!
If, however, you are on the hunt for some new gadgets for an off-grid getaway, don’t miss Nigel Donnelly’s advice on the eight ways he upgrades his caravan for going off-grid.
Future Publishing Limited, the publisher of Practical Caravan, provides the information in this article in good faith and makes no representation as to its completeness or accuracy. Individuals carrying out the instructions do so at their own risk and must exercise their independent judgement in determining the appropriateness of the advice to their circumstances and skill level. Individuals should take appropriate safety precautions and be aware of the risk of electrocution when dealing with electrical products. To the fullest extent permitted by law, neither Future nor its employees or agents shall have any liability in connection with the use of this information. You should check that any van warranty will not be affected before proceeding with DIY projects.
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