So many climates, so little storage!

Our camper has, thankfully, a generous amount of storage. However, we have opted to take some bulky items due to how long we’ll be on the road and the activities we plan on doing. Both of us packed snow gear for super cold climates plus skis/snowboard which are large, then we also brought snow shoes, Shawn’s golf clubs, and Bryn’s erg. Our snow gear is stowed in a plastic tote in our “basement” (aka the area in the front of our camper, accessible from doors on either side), alongside our snowshoes and ski and snowboard bags. This takes up a majority of this space, unfortunately, and the rest is used for the camping components like power cord, water lines, and towing gear.

Percy's Cabinet

The pantry and kitchen cabinets of the camper are more than enough to fit our needs for this trip. We have everything we need and it comfortably fits without feeling cramped. We have a section for cleaning supplies, first aid, miscellaneous office supplies, and Percy's things like hay and treats. We are very lucky that the built in storage is so ample.

We turned a cabinet over the toilet into our dirty laundry area, as there is minimal floor space and definitely no room for a laundry basket. On the other wall is a cabinet with back up toiletries, toilet paper, linens, and laundry supplies (detergent, stain removers, laundry bag for laundry days, iron/steamer, etc.).

Linen closet/Bathroom storage

 

Dirty Laundry Cabinet

The next space things DO get a little hairy in is the personal storage in the bedroom. We've split this down the middle so we have a small closet for hanging clothes, two shelves above the bed, and half the under-bed storage area. Each side of the bed has a nightstand with a good-sized drawer. We purchased small baskets that we've velcro'd to the corner of the nightstands as a catch-all so that we don't have to struggle to corral knickknacks when it's time to move. We've both opted to use the under-bed storage for casual clothes, workout clothes, and shoes in bins to compartmentalize. We plan on hanging shoe storage near the door for shoes we are actively wearing while keeping the rest under the bed.

A hiccup in our storage arrangement was the discovery that the hanging rods were loose at their attachment to the outer wall of the trailer (worse on Bryn's side, but we remedied both). Shawn cut plywood to size and reattached the rod to the plywood for SO much stability.

For extra storage, we brought along 3 large plastic totes (the same type of tote in our “basement”) which will live in the truck bed for easy access. Currently, two of these totes are empty. One holds our heated blanket, nice winter coats, thick sweaters, and winter shoes. The totes are stackable, so the empty ones don’t take up any room and are good to have, just in case!

The biggest challenge of packing was deciding what and how much to bring. We don't want to run out of clothes before we can get to a laundromat, we want to be comfortable, we want to look nice occasionally, and we need to be prepared for any weather. Our travels will takes us through South Dakota, the Tetons, Yellowstone, and Montana in the fall, PNW, Idaho, Utah, and Nevada as winter sets in, then California in January, Arizona in February, New Mexico in March, finishing with spring skiing in Colorado. We'll be changing climates and weather every few weeks, so we need to be flexible. It's certainly a challenge. Bryn already left a bag of clothes at Shawn's parents' house before our official departure (because she overpacked). We'll have a chance to ween down more when Shawn returns to MA for Thanksgiving, if we need to.