Packing for any trip can be tricky, but to pack a small(ish) motorhome for a years worth of travel proved particularly troublesome. We dedicated a room in our house to what we were taking then sectioned if off into areas – bedding, kitchen stuff, bathroom stuff, outside, maintenance, clothes etc. Then we realised we had far too much stuff and so had to filter it down!

Once it was all down to a reasonable amount a day was spent fitting it all in Dave – like a game of Tetris items were stowed and wedged to minimise fall out when a cupboard is open. Below are some of my top tips for packing your stuff into your motorhome:

• Consider melamine plates and bowls (summer picnic stuff) as it reduces weight, doesn’t rattle so much and won’t break if dropped or falls from a cupboard.
• Non-slip/rubberised matting is your best friend. You can pick it up cheaply from a pound shop and it’s worth lining all cupboards and shelves with it.
• If you don’t have a crockery holder, consider buying one (Amazonsell something that looks OK), or make one – we’ve seen various ingenious glasses holders made from polystyrene or balsa wood. If neither of those options suit (and they didn’t for Dave’s cupboards) then stack your plates and bowls and stand up your mugs widest end down on the non-slip matting. Lie down tall glasses on the matting with a piece of cardboard between them to stop them touching.
• If your cutlery draw isn’t compartmentalised then a holder here is invaluable, we have a normal cheap kitchen one cut down to fit. But as it only has four compartments we put the spoons and forks in together, spoons one way up and forks the other – we got sick of pulling out the wrong utensil when they all faced the same way!
• If stacking pans on top of each other, put a piece of cardboard or paper plate in the bottom of each pan, it stops the teflon being rubbed off by the base of the pan sitting in it.
• Plastic boxes are great for keeping stuff in place, so start saving ice cream tubs etc. You can put small items in these so they don’t roll about, spices, jars, vegetables, fruit, chocolate bars etc.
• In Dave we have a pull out wire drawer under the sink. I put all of our cans in here and before we left I stapled a long tubagrip bandaged to one corner of it, then weaved it through the basket to make up width-ways compartments – this reduces can sliding.
• Think about your wardrobe, how many clothes items really need to be hung up? We took out our clothes rail and fitted three shelves into our wardrobe which greatly increased it’s capacity. Clothes are folded up at the front with nylon bags behind them containing more seasonal things like swim wear, winter scarves, gloves etc.
• We had a set of Ikea drawer organiserswhich unzip and fold flat. We use these in the overhead cupboards to keep all our charging cables in one place, and I have the two small ones in my cupboard for toiletries.

The main rule for Dave is – a place for everything, and everything in it’s place. He may not be huge, but it’s amazing how easily you can lose stuff in him!  As I think of any more tips, I’ll be sure to add them!