Today it seems like everyone is interested in living smaller. Small houses are all the rage on social media, and campervans are more popular than ever. When you invest in a campervan -- or just hire one -- you may be embracing the whole wide world outside, but inside your vehicle, you're dealing with very small space. The secret to living your best life in a campervan is to make intelligent use of the limited living space available to you.
Here you'll find some of the best tips around for getting the most out of campervan storage. Hopefully, this advice will be just as useful for full-time nomads as it is for novices who are planning out their first campervan holiday. Read on; you'll surely find some useful information!
Organisation is vital when you're going to be living in a campervan for any length of time. Every item you intend to bring along, big or small, needs to be thought about. You can find storage solutions for anything if you plan properly!
At an absolute minimum, you need to plan out where you're going to store your food and cooking supplies, your clothes, and your toiletries. But most campervan motorists need to store much more:
Sporting gear: This is particularly important for campervan holidaymakers who anticipate more active adventures. You'll need clever campervan storage ideas for bikes, skis, kayaks, climbing gear -- whatever equipment is required to indulge your interests.
Camping gear: A lot of people combine campervan travel with excursions further into the outdoors. If you plan to camp, you'll be storing tents, sleeping bags, backpacks, portable cooking gear, and probably much more to consider in your campervan storage ideas.
Electronics: Planning out your electronics situation is vital if you intend to work remotely from your campervan. But electronics are a part of virtually everyone's life; you should think about how you intend to store, charge, and use your electronics (laptops, cameras, etc.) on the road.
This certainly looks like a big job at first glance. Don't panic! Good campervan storage ideas will easily accommodate everything you consider essential -- and probably much more besides! All it takes is dedication and a touch of creativity.
In many cases, the secret to a relaxing, fun road trip is having your living space organised well. In tight quarters, disarray can be a lot more annoying than it is in a bigger home. One rogue dish, one errant sock can rapidly become annoying.
When we solicited advice on our blog from veteran vanlifers, one thing we heard about over and over again was the great virtue of returning everything to its appointed place after you're done with it.
Of course, to do that, you need to appoint places for all your stuff. Thus: organisation!
Getting the most out of a campervan interior means thinking three-dimensionally. One van life storage ideas is building a custom storage unit behind the passenger seat, just six inches wide. Running floor to ceiling, this handy compartment starts with space for electronics at the top. This section is built out with charging ports inside and a locking door to keep valuable gear safe. You can even add some out door storage space or garage space for a little extra room.
Lower down, the storage shelves are open for easier access, although the builder used bungee straps and nets to keep items secure. The middle shelves are ideal for pantry use while the bottom compartment is great for messy items like shoes and boots. The creator even added a fold-out table to deliver added counter space when necessary!
You may sense that a theme is already developing in our list of campervan storage hacks. Finding ways to make narrow spaces useful is important! Another of our vanlifer friends activated the small, unused spaces between kitchen units by fitting pull-out shelves there. These shelves are ideal for small but frequently-used pantry items, like spices and compact utensils.
If you're fortunate enough to have a campervan with high ceilings, don't neglect the storage opportunities they present! Ceiling mounts can be ideal for bulky adventure gear like surfboards. Even if you don't have sporting equipment, you can hang cargo netting from the ceiling. Ceiling storage is ideal for items that are bulky but not too heavy, like winter coats and other clothes.
The magnetic knife rack looks great, which is probably why it's trendy in all sorts of kitchens right now. But in a campervan, it can be a real space-saver. A magnetic rack will keep your knives secure (no matter how wildly you drive!) and easily accessible while taking up minimal space.
And there's an added bonus: Your knives stay sharper on a magnetic rack than they would in a drawer!
Kitchen space is at a premium in every campervan. Make the most of it by getting your spices off your counters, shelves, and cabinets! Use a short screw to attach the lids of your spice containers to the undersides of shelves, freeing up valuable space below and above in your shelf storage or wall space/
Van life means lots of travel, and you don't always have time to pull over and cook a full meal. Make your snacking supplies more convenient by installing a hanging fruit basket. This will keep your mid-day noshes always close at hand!
(If you're not the fruit-eating type, don't worry -- crisp packets fit in a basket just as well as bananas and oranges!)
Many vanlifers like to cook, but pulling off elaborate meals can be difficult in some stock campervans. Expand your cooking workspace by investing in a butcher's block sink.
A butcher's block sink, in this context, is simply a piece of wood you can lay into your sink, creating additional counter space for meal preparation.
Butcher's block storage solutions can be elegant (and expensive) or minimal (and expedient) according to your tastes and resources. If your campervan has attractive kitchen counters, you may want to invest in a butcher's block that matches them. If you'd rather go the quick-and-dirty route, you can simply find a cutting board sized appropriately to pop on top of your sink.
Bungee cord is the vanlifer's best friend. It's already appeared in a few of our previous hacks, and there's truly no end to the quick campervan storage ideas you can create with it. For example, tacking a cord on the end of a bench seat creates a fast and effective place to hang shoes.
Because your storage needs may change on the road, make a small space for some extra cords. You never know what you'll need to secure, and bungee cords will get the job done!
Because the terrain waiting outside your campervan is always changing, you'll likely have a variety of footwear onboard. Shoes can create clutter quickly in a tight floor space, so creating a fixed campervan storage ideas for them is important.
Install (or build) shoe rocks right in the doorway of your campervan to get those shoes off the floor. (You may even be able to put racks on the door itself!) Door-adjacent shoe racks also come in handy in rough weather. They keep your muddy shoes and boots from dirtying up the rest of your vehicle.
There are many great campervan storage hacks that many models come with something similar built in. It's the beloved slide-out table! Provided your floorplan accommodates it, you can maximise your space by having a temporary workspace stowed beneath your fixed bed. Slide it out when you need the surface, then slide it in when you don't.
A slide-out table makes a fairly easy home-build project. Simply screw sliders to the underside of your bed platform, then slot in an appropriately-sized piece of wood. One benefit of building your own slide-out table is that you can finish the worktop however you like.
Some campervans come with built-in space to hang up clothes. Some models don't -- or you may find yourself in need of more space than the manufacturer provided. The good news is that more hanging space is easy to add! Any tall, unused space can be converted into a closet simply by mounting a clothes rod as high as possible. Just be creative with clothes storage ideas.
Fixed seats in your campervan represent a potential goldmine of extra storage space. If there's space beneath your seats (e.g. not occupied by mechanical equipment or a wheel well), hinge the cushions so that you can store items beneath them. If your van has bench seats, there may be an enormous amount of space available beneath them to use as bed storage or even kitchen storage!
These are other campervan storage ideas that campervan manufacturers are increasingly aware of. If your vehicle doesn't come with under-seat storage space, this is another relatively easy do-it-yourself project. Simply line the inside of the space with appropriate material and install hinges on the upholstered seating sections.
