Storage is everything

Even though the camper van feels pretty luxurious, storage space is still at a premium. Here are some of my favorite organization solutions so far:

The upper cabinets are curved in the back, creating a bit of a storage challenge. I wanted to have bins or baskets up there to carry our non-hanging clothes, but the curved shape was wasting too much vertical space. I found the perfect canvas holders that were literally built for the very dimensions of our cabinets, higher on one side and lower on the other. Because they were constructed of floppy canvas, I cut pieces of foam board and covered them with removable wallpaper sample sheets which I fitted into the bottom of each, creating a strong and cute storage solution. We just carry them right into the house to load them up.

We installed a little hanging shelf under the television. It had to be quite short, because we didn’t want it to be bumped by sleeping feet. This little one is perfect and acts as a charging station and a handy “nightstand” for the remote control, glasses, and AirBuds and earplugs.

An old wooden caddy and enamel jug work well to tame countertop items.

The large hinged container on the rear storage rack holds all of the miscellaneous hoses, cords, tools, window covers, and other supplies. It’s actually kind of handy to have them all in one place vs the other camper where they were spread out in various under-camper storage compartments.

There is built-in storage in the little bathroom, but we keep our toiletries in hanging bags, since we are typically using the facilities at an RV park to get ready in the morning. So other than towels, we don’t really have a need to hang or hold things in the bathroom. But during the day we use the little bathroom as a storage closet, holding four IKEA shopping bags filled with pillows, sheets, and quilts, which would otherwise need to be stuffed behind the back seat. Handy little (big) indestructible bags!