Maximising space in your caravan or motorhome

Both our outfits, caravan and MH have good storage, despite being small. We have utilised a lot of the ideas mentioned by others, but use our iPads to replace TV, radio, books, a lot of reference material. We only tour with a weeks worth of clothes, plus a couple of warm tops, multipurpose coats (warm and waterproof), shoes dependent upon season. We carry extra stuff if cycling, but it’s left at home if not. If bikes aren’t on the back, then we have a Fiamma that takes our folding chairs, dog chariot, few other things. 

We’ve always travelled light. Makes set up/pack up so much easier. I take my hobbies with me (knitting, jewellery making) but I have travel packs for these.

We don’t stuff our outfits with food either. Initially enough for two three days, staple items like oil, condiments, herbs and spices, tea and coffee. I like cooking when away, local bought produce, so we are happy buying local. If we were having a month away in van, then OH would put up awning while I did a shop at local supermarket. We stored van in Cornwall, so would just zip down in car.

I think that's the best tip of all, the bigger your unit the more stuff you tend to lug around. Asking oneself, do I really need that? or that much? or that big? is a good ethos. With so many innovative & tempting products on offer to campers it's easy to get carried away with things you don't really need.

Hope you enjoy your new van. Is there possibly an overseas Westfalia forum with a larger content of relevant owners that could assist with your queries ?

See you around 

Be careful where you place suction items. We used a suction hook on the front of the fridge, one of the black shiny doors, for tea towel. It has left a ring on the door that is impossible to remove. It is as though it has burned in. We now use a fancy bulldog clip on the edge of one of the pockets on the sliding door.

Not so much a space saver so much as a weight saver. In our four berth caravan I have removed the top bunk as I know there will only be two of us using the caravan, The bunk weighed 15kg plus the weight of the side boards and the metal access ladder. It was easy to take out and will be easy to refit when I come to sell the caravan.

As we don't take bikes with us anymore, knees and hips won't allow, so we fitted a Fiamma Ultra Box onto the Fiamma Bike Rack. It's certainly not a cheap option but it takes our outdoor chairs and various other bits an pieces which would either be difficult to store in the motorhome or just get in the way. You have to be careful of the weight you load into it which off the top of my head it has a capacity of about 35 kilos. Rowena mentioned vacuum bags, we have used these to compress clothing for longer trips. Unfortunately they are only useful until you open them as we have no means to reseal them!

David

The best way to make space is to carry less. Here are some of the ways we do that :-

1. Folding Water Bucket.

2.Eagle Creek clean/dirty storage cubes for socks,  underwear, small jumpers and the like.

3. Camping towels (ours are 15 years old and like new). and yes we do wash/shower.

4 Rationalise crockery cutlery and glasses to minimum actually needed.

5. Use plastic stacking/nesting boxes for tools and spares, also shoes and the like.

6.Carry additional tools in "toolkit" of SEVEL 

7  Carry First Aid Kit etc etc under drivers seat in SEVEL. 

8. Water and Waste 5Ltr for Drinking Water + 10 litre "rectangular" for water + 19 Ltrs for grey water. We rarely queue at service points or fill up with hose but we have an offcut hose in a small box if we do. 

9.Duvalays for Bedding On cabs seats in site. On floor at rear or in washroom if travelling. 

10. "Baby" pillows (quite big enough). 

11. Dont pack for more than a 14 day trip. Beyond that you can "recycle" what you have. 

Surely if you are having problems fitting things in and have to come up with creative solutions has the time come to realise you have too much. I'd also hazzard a guess you, or at least your van, is overweight.

Colin

Yes, bike racks can be utilised with or without a box. We got two MG fibreglass wings into ours one time, took MH across to Cheshire with box on. We got our Fiamma off Ebay, it was like brand new, but a lot less than a new one.

If you have a MH towball, you can get Thule load carriers, but you would have to be careful what and how you loaded it, depending your weight allowance, much like carrying bikes.

Our last two vans have had proper bike sized garages. All our stuff (that doesn't fit in one of the other decent sized lockers) lives there.... mainly bikes, chairs, table, levellers, tools, spare tyre etc....it was a 'non negotiable' in the layout.

We've had bike racks, rear storage boxes etc in the past on two uk vans but they add length to the van, for parking, for ferries (costs) and are nowhere near as secure.

I started wondering what's the point in having a 6m van and then bolting a metre and half worth of bike rack and bikes or a metre of storage box?

our 6.4M van has the bikes inside rather than being (in effect) an 8m van due to the rear rack and two bikes.

our pals have a 7.70m van with no garage, for their bikes they have a tow ball mounted bike rack making the van about 9.2m with them on🤷🏻‍♂️

..it was a 'non negotiable' in the layout.

It was for us as well. Some where to store the  equipment that would have travelled in the car when towing.