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PLEEEEEEEEAAAAASE help!

I think I need some help and tips on getting sorted please.  I'm struggling with how best to organise packing stuff (into boxes/crates/bags etc.) so that it makes the whole setting up / packing down / storage at home issue easier.  It took us 2 hours to set up this time and the same to pack up again which feels too long.  (We are 2+2 (kids are 5 and 2) in a Vermont L tent.)  It just feels like a battle and I want it to be easier.  I've experimented with packing clothes in bags, a holdall, crates etc. and with kitchen stuff in the same.  When packing the car we have to put the tent and poles in first so everything else has to sit out on the grass - fine if it's dry - until we're ready.  There's only so much we can fit on the front seats if it rains and then there's nowhere for us!  We've toyed with the idea of getting a trailer but that's not in the budget for this year..

Oh, I don't know - just need some inspiration!!!  So, please share your tips and ideas for what to pack, where and how!

THANK YOU!!!

Trace

I find plastic boxes and folding crates the best way to pack. You can leave them out at home to pop things in before you go, they stack well in the car and keep everything together and once all your gear is removed the folding ones fold so take up less storage space whilst on site.

I am amazed when I watch my neighbours taking nearly a week to pack the car & caravan when they go away. Taking small handfulls of clothes, food, plates etc. to back and forth from the house. The box & crate system means fewer trips and everything can be packed in a matter of minutes rather than days.

Cooking and lighting stuff goes in a rectangular plastic lidded box.

SI mats stay rolled in their own bags, sleeping bags are stuffed into cylindrical drybags, same with travel pillows. Clothes are folded and placed into compression bags (no need for vacuum), rolled and put into drybags in a holdall.

Table/s and chairs are of the folding variety that come in their own cylindrical bags too.

Tent goes in last, along with the bag of pegs, hammer, etc.

Practice in your driveway before you go away, it helps to reduce the stress on the morning of your first day of your holiday.

I always make sure that just before we leave home i take the chilled bottle of wine out of home fridge and have that in my door pocket ready to open when set up!!!. and the photo above of the car very closely resembles our car I have to say. We pack stuff everywhere.

Have tried to condense but do use everything that we hav purchased.

Thanks all for your replies.  It would seem that we're not doing too badly after all as we're pretty much doing what you suggest.  Our car looks very similar to that photo too Jessica, including the kettle!  And trugs are just amazing!

As for the tent going elsewhere - it won't fit!  It's a very large bag (Vermont L - takes up 1/5 of boot) and that's not including the poles.  We could try putting the poles in the foot wells but not sure how much that would help. 

I guess it's not so much packing the car as getting it from the house to car to tent all set up then again in reverse.

Do most of you keep your camping boxes permanently packed?  I've been using some kitchen bits from home but I can see it'd be easier to keep a camp bag all together and not touch it when home.  What about soap bags, non-perishable food, kids toys, etc - do you keep all those permanently packed?

And, how long does the setting up/packing away take?  Perhaps I'm just being unrealistic in my expectations?!?!

Thanks again folks, trace

I wouldn't put heavy stuff that could fly in the event on an accident in the foot wells. We only put soft stuff in the saloon area. OK - with the large Vango Columbia with carpet and week stays we use the trailer, but we can get everything in the boot when we take the Kampa Bude 4. Its been a case over the years of getting smaller and collapsable versions of things and finding multi-purpose items and deciding what you really need or want. We are a family of 3.

We now have our kitchen/eating/cooking bits in a Mothercare baby changing box (with reinforced hinges) and a 10 litre tupperware that holds a folding colander, splatter guard and Trangia nested saucepan and kettle set, pegs, etc. We have a folding sink that holds the water container and a collapsable crate with wheels that accommodates all other small items (UFO lights, pump for beds, mini dustpan & brush, backpacker table, BBQ stand, picnic blanket, folding loo cum bin....). These crates/boxes sit one on top of the other in the boot below the parcel shelf with table and chairs trapped behind, leaving the Campingaz stove with integral stand, gas cannister in fire bucket, main tent, overnight tent, groundsheets and tarp to stack in front. The airbeds in a dry bag and bedding compressed in another drybag sit on top along with the clothes holdall(s) or on the backseat where available. The cool box/ food box is wedged solid in the footwell along with the shoes.

Using the wheeled crate and the mothercare box means that we just lift everything simply from the loft hatch to car to the tent with minimum handling. It keeps you focused on space saving. You only unpack as you need stuff and return it after (keeping the tent tidy). Similarly the dry bags (while bulky unless you compress the air out) cut down on handling while keeping things clean. The crate also doubles as a trolley for filling up the water container...

We've worked this out to maximise the amount of rear view mirror available - my OH insists on seeing out the rear window even when everything is in the boot and prefers everything below the parcel shelf. Not possible though when we had to include the buggy ... we still have a Thomas train set with us.

You sound well on the way to getting it right for you...

Helen

We also have a Vermont L and two small children (8 and 5 this year). We have just about got all the stuff together in the front room apart from the clothes. When I look at it I think impossible but we have a big estate car and a roof box. As others have said good packing is key. I don't like anything hard in the cabin with the boys. We have a load retention net that goes from the top of the back seats to the roof enabling us to safely stuff things in up to the roof without fear of things sliding under heavy braking onto the boys.

As th OP says the Vermont L comes in two very large heavy bags which take up extraordinary room. Having said that as a family tent we would not do without it for the longer trips.

Cheers