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I thought this might help or at least be of interest to people starting up for the first time with a motorhome.  I know I would be very interested to hear ideas of where people store their bits and pieces when they go away.  Initially I thought we would have bags of room with all those lockers and a fair size wardrobe.  However, I have to carry a mobility scooter as well, and then there are things like the awning, clothes, food, and other odds and ends.  Obviously you try to put the heavy stuff low down, but exactly where do you store all your paraphanalia when you load up?

Here is how we do ours in our Lunar Newstar 58E, which is a traditional 5 berth layout with over cab, double dinette and long side bench seat, plus wardrobe, kitchen and all in one shower/toilet:

Over cab area - Bedding, sleeping bags, pillows, bags & personal posessions

Under long bench seat - Intended to use this for storing my mobility scooter, but soon found out that it didn't fit, so it has to be split up around the van.  Can get the seat, batteries & basket in there, but this will now be used for the awning/poles/sides.

Under dinette seats - Bucket, window squeegee, wheel level blocks, mud grips

Over head lockers - Food, games, DVD's, TV, fan, first aid kit, adaptors & other gadgets

Shower room - Toiletries, loo chemicals, toilet paper, parts of mobility scooter (when travelling)

Over head kitchen lockers - Condiments, plates, cups, glasses, roll up place mats (used to stop rattles)

Base cupboards in kitchen - Cutlery, kitchen utensils, bowls, storage containers, trays, cleaning materials, foil, sandwich bags, carriers, bin liners, dustpan & brush etc

Wardrobe - Infill cushion for dinette bed, Waterproof coats, clothes drying rack

Space behind drivers seat - Fold up table & chairs for outside use

Space behind passenger seat - Hook up cable

Door pockets - maps, guides, magazines

Space under passenger seat - Free at the moment (I only discovered this quite large space recently, and am sure that I can use it to store something useful in future).

We are going away at the end of the month to the Isle of Wight, and having now spent a couple of nights away in our motorhome, I've realised that some items would be better off stored elsewhere in the van, according to how often they are used.

Would love to hear how everyone else manages, and how they store things.  Maybe we could share ideas, which would be useful to any newbies

Sara

I'm a relative newbie, as i've only been out twice so far!!!

As you can see from our gallery, we have a small 'home but we just about manage with everything we need.

OK, so it is a Romahome, but its got more space than your standard Roma body, as this one is through cab, and has extra cupboards.

Overcab stores the tent/awning, seats, bedding and clothing.

Passenger side seat stores the additional bed cushions and cab curtains, electric fan heater, levelling chocks and hook-up cable.

Drivers side seating houses picnic blankets and additional stuff like my Kites and girlfriends shoes!!etc!! 

Cupboard above heater has water and waste bottles, whale pump and leg winder.

opposite that is a space that used to house a PortaPotti but we use this for tools and stuff.

Then comes the normal kitchen area with the food and cutlery etc, with over cupboard housing plates pans and the diddy wok!!!

The main and spare gas bottles are housed under the main floor in a purpose made rack.

I will be making some small external side lockers for the levellers and Hook-up cable will be housed too.

Hope this may be of use to those with smaller 'homes.

We found that putting the awning over the cab takes some of the weight over the front wheels as opposed to being all over the rear axle.

Cheers

glenn

It is difficult to 'spread the load' sometimes isn't it?  I worried that virtually all our weight was low down between the axles.  However, I'm no string bean, so hubby and I compensate for some weight further forward.  I also felt that it was better to have light stuff up in the over cab area, so that in an emergency, if anything was going to fall down on people in the back, it would be pillows, sleeping bags and clothes, rather than the motor or battery packs of my mobility scooter which could kill them.

I think we are still learning in many ways, as we had our first stay at a campsite last weekend, and needed to fill up the water tank.  We only had our bucket (which has only ever been used for fresh water) with us, rather than the gerry can which would have been more help, but seemed like a bind to take with us. The only place to store it would have been in the loo and we would have been tripping over it, but now realise that at night it could have gone under the seat where the awning would usually be during the day time. 

Seems there is so much to learn about juggling the available storage space.

I was reading on the site about clever packing yesterday, and it said about putting things like tea towels on a shelf in the wardrobe.  My wardrobe has no shelves, and I personally prefer to use the tea towels between rattly things like baking trays, and to cushion the top of the cooker.  One tea towel over the rings before the side draught excluders are put down, and then another over those to stop the lid rattling.  We use the rubbery grippy stuff as place mats and coasters, and roll the place mats up to put between stacks of cups and the coasters go between the plates to stop them rattling.  All our condiments I have put in a tiny stack and store box, which keeps them from falling over and dropping out of the cupboard when you open it after a journey.  Baking trays and grill pan are separated by another tea towel and the grill rack rests on top of the oven gloves.  We are virtually rattle free in our motorhome.

Does anyone else have any storage tips ?

Sara

Our silver screens, waste water holder (a boon on some sites) and 5ltr empty bottle travel in the washroom.  The 5litre bottle is used in conjunction with a clever device - a large funnel attached to a piece of hose which we use to fill the water tank if we dont want to physically move the van.

Like you bedding etc above the cab.  Under single seat all the necessary things ie hook up, tv lead, wash up bowl with hose in, water funnel thing.

Under bench seat, clothes, books, travel games.

Only have 1 pan, 3 baking trays, grill pan, 2 kettles (1 gas 1 small electric) and thats about it.  If the deck chairs are going they live in wardrobe.

I store about the same way, only I use bubble wrap in between the plates and Saucepans etc. brilliant and silent.

Cheers

Quote: Originally posted by dot on 15/07/2005

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I store about the same way, only I use bubble wrap in between the plates and Saucepans etc. brilliant and silent.

Cheers

 

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I was going to do that, until someone told me that you should try and use things that have more than one use, so we use tea-towels, or the rubber grippy mats that we use as place mats.  I just roll them up and shove them between stacks of cups etc.

Sara

Overcab bed - bedding, silver screens, astronomical reflector telescope.

Under dinette seat - toilet chemicals, jack/wheelbrace, plenty of spare space.

Under bench seat - reserved pitch sign, folding chairs, extention for rear ladder, telescopic walking sticks, other bits and bobs that get dirty, still plenty of space.

Overhead lockers - board games, puzzle books, Henry the Hymer travelogue, small stereo player, CD's, towels, various manuals for Henry (all in German), rechargeable batteries, emergency battery lamp, emergency camp stove, first aid kit, plenty of room left...yawn.

Cupboard between dinette and kitchen - walking boots (I know these get dirty, but it's right next to the habitation door), slippers, fire extinguisher.

Wardrobe - clothes, coats, zip-up plastic bag for dirty clothes.

Kitchen overhead lockers - plates, cups, pans, food (cereal,bread,biscuits, crisps, etc)

Cupboard next to fridge - tinned food, kettle, drinking water jerry-can.

Fridge - everything that needs to be kept cold...duh!

Washroom - toiletries of every kind.

No space behind cab seats, but still some space left under them despite them housing two leisure batteries and a warning triangle...oh, and another first aid kit.

I think that's about it.....no, sorry, there's the top-box too, that has the inflatable two person kayak, oars, pump, wetsuits, drying rack and bouyancy aids in it.... and yes there's still plenty of spare room in that too....lol

Wonder if we've reached our weight limit yet...hmmmm

All the best

Phil