Packing tips - your ideas please

[The.dunnster]

Hi,

A great forum with some clever folks on it so thought I’d ask if you’d share your tips and tricks.

We are 2 adults and 2 kids and when going on trips of week or more, especially over longer distance, transporting it all can be fun. Also moving stuff around the van when going from sleeping to day use can be fun with the young uns about.

Do you have any good packing tips to make it enjoyable without packing super light as if you are going travelling for a year?

Anyway on my mind at moment is week in France next month so I’m looking at...

Getting bars for the mp for my roof box. Anyone gone this route?

We take a small collapsible tent to dump kids chairs in when we arrive onsite. Also useful for awning bag and pumps etc.

Just realised (doh!!) that our air beam tent pump has deflate option on it so quick check on vacuum bag last night and found out it can compress duvets and pillows in vacuum bag nicely.

Please do share what works for you.

All the best,

Andy

 

[Simon Fletcher]

Interested in people's thoughts here aswell. We are off to France for 3 weeks, 2 adults and 2 kids with a lot of stuff.

Best packing help we have bought so far is packing cubes from amazon:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B014VBIEZQ/?tag=unique09f-21

We have 3 sets of these and 1 set of the medium/large. We put the extra shelf in the wardrobe, all 4 sets of these fit in either the wardrobe or the MP drop down storage above the chairs

 

[Katie]

We use this type of bag too. Different colour for each of us. All shoes go in similar type of shoe bag in drawer under back seats.
Duvet and pillows in compression sacks kept on top part of boot together with porta loo and folding comfortable chairs. Ditched the canvas bag at bottom of boot and replaced with see through storage trays which hold almost everything else. Mp chairs slide in on top of these.
My rule of thumb is do not have to move anything to get at what I use most often. The only thing that is tucked behind at bottom of boot are levellers which I try not to use unless really needed
As there are only two of us we sleep upstairs which is a really comfortable bed and then we do not have to pack away any thing downstairs. We have a 2 second pop up tent from Quechua which we use to store loo and chairs etc if we go out in the van for the day

 

[Ian Chadwick]

I have bought two very comfy folding chairs as there is only my wife and me but to get them in I have removed the bag the original chairs were in and it has created loads more space
I can now get the two chairs the Vango Awning Awning carpet ground sheet bed douvet and 3 pillows under the rear bed area

 

[The.dunnster]

Many thanks for the replies so far. - do keep them coming

Simon - those bags look excellent. Thanks.

Katie - great rule re moving nothing to get at what’s needed the most. Still trying to find an easy workable method here. Plus like to use the van for beach and also trips away so has a couple of modes....

Ian - sounds like you are at expert packing level there! My awning feels like it’s the size of an elephant seal when packed (vango galli) but going to give your method a try tomorrow.

 

[The.dunnster]

Hi all

Just back from the trip and wanted to say thanks again for the feedback and to share what worked for us as family of 4 with 2 child seats and what appeared to be a house move rather than holiday!!!!

1 packing cubes were an excellent way of filling up the sliding door cupboard really efficiently - thank you Simon.

2. went for two 64 litre boxes to replace the chair storage under the rear bed. Put food in one and accessories in the other. Variant on your approach Ian and so much more efficient use of space than the chair bag!

3 roof box worked a treat for the big bulky stuff As didn’t want the kids squashed in for the journey down and back. For info Mercedes confirmed 100kg weight limit with 2 roof bars.

4 Compression sacks for bedding and used the air beam tent pump to suck the air out so minimal space on out and return legs - thanks Katie

Hope you are enjoying the summer in your vans as much as we are.

All the best

Andy

 

[Steven rhodes]

We use this type of bag too. Different colour for each of us. All shoes go in similar type of shoe bag in drawer under back seats.
Duvet and pillows in compression sacks kept on top part of boot together with porta loo and folding comfortable chairs. Ditched the canvas bag at bottom of boot and replaced with see through storage trays which hold almost everything else. Mp chairs slide in on top of these.
My rule of thumb is do not have to move anything to get at what I use most often. The only thing that is tucked behind at bottom of boot are levellers which I try not to use unless really needed
As there are only two of us we sleep upstairs which is a really comfortable bed and then we do not have to pack away any thing downstairs. We have a 2 second pop up tent from Quechua which we use to store loo and chairs etc if we go out in the van for the day

Hi could you possibly send me a link to what storage box's fit under the bed but still allow enough space for the folding chairs to fit on top ? It would really save me the hassle of measuring and such ? Thanks in advance

 

[Katie]

Can’t remember where we got them from as they were just some spares we had in our garage. Seem to remember they were sold in a commmon store to put under household beds - clearish colour and shallow just enough to put in the bottom
Should be easy for you to find as long as you have height, length and widge measurements.