I guess I am like most campers who get their tent, trailer tent, folding camper or caravan, you are always trying to get the most space saving, quickess way of camping and each time I have swapped models I find myself tweaking my current stock of camping gear. However there is one problem that I can't as yet get quite right.....taking your clothes and storing them!!!
We currently have a Pennine Pathfinder that is fantastic and have just come back from Le Ty Nadan in France that was fantastic fun (apart from some pitches getting flooded with heavy rain). We have tried taking the bags with clothes in but did not like that, either your clothes get pulled everywhere for weekend or its a pain having to unpack and put into our double wardobe for longer stays. This year we have tried using plastic underbed storage boxes. My wide found them initially good as she could take each one into the kids bedrooms anf fill them individually and that worked quite well apart from having to keep stacking them up and unstacking them in the awning once you need to get at some clothes to wear clothes.
We are a family of 5 with kids ages at 14,12 and 10 so we need to take a reasonable amouth of clothes each time. I do find that like most people that the wardrobe in the pathfinder does not get its full use and ends up having junk chucked in it so I am thinking of shelving it out. I have tried the hanging shelves that are ok but not strong enough if I was to use it as a larder.
What would be ideal is simular to the plastic underbed boxes we currently use but ones that had there own runners like proper draws and that would collaspe down easy when you need to.
We semi shelved the wardrobe out to take our clothes - leaving a small area at the end for hanging shirts and trousers in (about 6 inches). We allocated a shelf per person for undies and whatever it would take - usually enough space for a weekend's wear. Hung coats out in the awning (or suncanopy if it was just for the weekend). For the longer jollies - it surely has to depend on where and what your kids are sleeping on. If camp beds out in the awning bedroom extension then there should be plenty of space under each bed for the individual box. If Air beds then it would have to be the freestanding wardrobe. As for the larder - we used a folding crate in the bottom of the small cupboard under the TV. I put larger containers - cereals and rice etc in the under bench storage area. We each find/found our own ways to utilise the space available - and goodness me there is plenty of space.
We use solid boxes like hard plastic suitcases. They are the same size as underbed bags but better plastic. In the day we put them at the bottom of the relevant bed and at night they stack where the "coffee" table goes. If a child can't fit there stuff in they can't take it! I've got a jumper stacker in the wardrobe. We also have a tripod type airer in the awning for coats and jackets.
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We are a family of 4 and when going away for a week or more we pack our clothes in a plactic set of draw's from Wilkinsons ( our local el cheapo shop). We load them in the back of the motor ( a vauxall zafira) and then just lift them into the under bed tent. Easy packing, No bags, No unpacking, EXCELLENT
Jan P, thats what we have tried this year, the plastic underbed boxes with lids but I am still not 100% happy with the idea. Like I said beofre theres still to much stacking and moving with them once on site and with 3 kids I dont think i could keep moving them onto and off of the beds each night.
John & Lynn, We have a double wardrobe which is excellent but again you still have to unpack all your clothes into wardrobe and then repack them again when you leave.
4happycampers, What you use is the sort of thing I am looking for but on a larger scale. Correct me if Im worng but the set of pastic draws you refer to are like the ones they sale in Argos to among other places and they are to small for the 5 of us. However thats for I keep serching for on the internet in the hope I can find something simular.
This is the sort of thing I am looking for but I cant find them for sale in this country
These are a good size and each one is a sliding draw on its own, by stacking them you can create your own chest of draws.
What I am trying to achieve is less hassle, like caravan owners just load their clothes into caravan and they are done, I am trying to achieve a quick and simple alternative so if anyone has any more ideas I would like to hear them.
After spending a week trawling through cases to find clothes this summer, I am determined to get the wardrobe sorted for next year! The plan is to evict the kitchen from our TT to a porch area, and use the sunk in kitchen area as a storage area [with curtains]. I have purchased two hanging rails, and will use a hanging wardrobe tidy for t shirts, and two ikea hanging units with pockets to hold the childrens socks and undies. I've bought underbed storage bags from argos to use instead of cases to keep the weight down in the roofbox. The plan is to put stuff [ packed on hangers] into them so that I can just lift them out and hang them up. We'll see if it works!
Mind you, if I can't get organised at home, what hope is there for me on a weeks holiday!
We also have a Pathfinder and use 2 collapsible baskets (£1.00 each in Wilkinsons).They stand just inside the door for travelling and you can shove them in last minute without putting the camper up. Once on site they go on the spare bed if we are not using it, or out in the awning. We also put hanging clothes on one of those trouser hangers that have about 5 bars and lay them either across back seat in car, or across all the gubbins in the boot, or failing that we put them in the gap at the back of the folded down camper between the mattress and canvas. Once on site we hang them in the wardrobe where they keep a bit warm above the fridge.We are off on Tues for 6 weeks and have no problem with storage.
hi, weve just come home today from a week in cheddar, we too are a family of 5 with boys aged 14,12 and 9, we bought a folding wardrobe and a folding shelving unit from camping international, and they were great they had ample storage space and we didnt even notice the space they took up in the awning, the wardrobe also disguised the dirty clothes bag, shoved in the bottom of it !!!
Hi, we've just come back from 2 weeks in France. We also are a family of 5 with children aged 8, 10 and 12. Each child has a smallish sports-type bag. The underwear always goes in the end or side pockets, coats go in the awning on hooks and everybody's fleeces/cardigans/jumpers go in the wardrobe on coathangers. This year everyone's shoes got packed in a collapsible crate. You were allowed one pair of shoes out at a time. The clothes bags for the 2 boys (8 and 12) got put in their bedroom (they have the bigger one), our daughter's and our (one) bag were kept in the awning inner tent where she slept. The inner tent was also used as a changing room if needed. I have a soft collapsible basket from a pound shop that the dirty washing goes in. This worked very well for us this year, I was very pleased, having tried various ways of sorting out clothes in the past. I'm always looking at better ways of sorting out and using the storage space we do have.
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Topic: Pathfinder - Storing clothes when camping
