The downside of travelling in a small van is the reduced storage space, so packing smartly and lightly is critical or you’ll run the risk of exceeding your weight limits and potentially being unsafe to yourself and others on the road.
Last year my partner and I undertook our first winter escape travelling from Melbourne to Cape York and return over three months in our 18ft 4in single axle 2022 Crusader Musketeer Warrior X Country.
Three months living full-time in your van is a good amount of time to learn what works and what doesn’t, and whether you’ve taken too much gear with you.
Did we take too much stuff? Of course we did. It's a first trip right of passage.. So, when it came to packing for another northern winter excursion along the Gibb River Road and down the WA coast this year, I was ruthless. I turfed out (or recycled/gifted) a lot of things I thought were essential and started again.
These are some of my tips for packing smartly and lightly in a small caravan. A lot of this will come down to personal choice. I’ve read many a social media post about the pros and cons of crockery versus plastic/melamine dinnerware and the fact that laundry sheets are not as good as liquid or capsules. Really, just do what’s right for you, but be very cognisant of the weight of everything you pack.
And it’s important to know your van weights and what your payload is before you start — that way you know what you have to play with. With a tare of 2135kg and ATM of 3000kg, we have a generous payload of about 800kg to play with — but that doesn’t mean we have to use it all, in fact we don’t.
To find out more about weights, check out this feature by Malcolm Street.
But if you’re towing an ultra-compact van, you might be toeing the line when it comes to the payload, and this is when you have to be brutal. If you’re concerned about how much you’re packing, visit a weigh station fully loaded (but with time to spare) to check your setup and make sure you’re within your limits.
Clothes and shoes
Don’t be tempted to pack too many clothes. You won’t wear them. We travelled from Melbourne in May, and it took a week to drive out of the cooler weather so while we packed predominantly for the warmer climes, jeans, trackie dacks, a puffer jacket and a couple of long sleeve tops were still essentials.
Opt for hiking/camping specific gear that is lightweight, easy to wash and dries quickly. It also takes up next-to-no space when packing. I know it’s expensive but there’s a lot of cheaper alternatives to the brand names online. Wash at night, hang them out and they’ll be dry by the morning. Plus, they don’t need ironing. They are also easy to handwash in a collapsible bucket if that’s your only option. Cotton t-shirts, denim shorts and the like will take ages to dry and, if you have a little washing machine in your van, heavier items like this set mine off balance every time.
Hiking pants that have legs that zip off to become shorts are very versatile. A jacket that you can stuff into its own sack is a great space saver — if it’s down it will be light.
I’m a big fan of RipSkirts and have worn my two on high rotation this trip. Available in four lengths they are very versatile — you can literally go from the beach to dinner – lightweight and easy to wash and dry (and the velcro fastening is great if you put on a few holiday kilos!) Other bits and bobs include a couple of hats, a couple of pairs or bathers and some fitness gear.
We have hanging space in our van which I prefer to keep. I know a lot of folks sacrifice the hanging for shelving, so this is a personal choice. The wardrobes are deep so there’s space toward the pointy front of the van to store hats and bulky items. Under the wardrobe we have a drawer for smalls.
We opt to keep the hanging space
We each have one overhead cupboard and everything that is not hung is stored in packing cubes (available everywhere) which keeps things tidy and prevents movement during travel: one for bottoms, one for tops and one for other stuff such as bathers, sleepwear, scarves and beanies. This is also a good solution if you have very limited to no dedicated internal storage.
Packing cubes keep clothes tidy in overhead cupboards
Shoes can take up a lot of the limited space, so I keep them to a minimum. I have outside shoes that never come inside the van — thongs, runners, swim/reef shoes and hiking shoes. Inside is a pair of slippers, white sneakers for ‘good’ (but don’t be tempted bring these if you’re going anywhere where there is red dust — they simply will not recover) and a pair of sandals which, to date, I have not worn.
Storing shoes in a small van can be challenging. I saw this storage solution on a social media site and it’s a game changer. A couple of times a year Aldi stocks 6.2L hanging collapsible rubbish bins with a lip that fits over doors or cabinets. I use two to store shoes out of the way under the bed and another as a rubbish bin the bathroom. Amazon also has them.
Shoes tucked out of the way under the bed
Food and kitchen stuff
Unless you are travelling through very remote areas where you know there are no supermarkets, or even a roadhouse, it’s not necessary to carry too much food on board. Support little independent supermarkets where you can pick up fresh food and produce from farm gates and country markets, catch a fish or two for dinner.
We have a built-in pantry inside our entry door. The shelves are only 10cm deep and will take the Sistema stackable storage containers or the Tupperware-type modular containers to store staples such as flour, sugar, rice, pasta, biscuits and the like. Here I also keep condiments, oils, dressings, spices, breakfast things. The pantry has two sections — the upper section is for food and the lower section is for the other ‘stuff’ that you tend to accumulate when travelling — insect sprays, sunscreen, stubby holders, pegs, fly nets.
Pantry staples and condiments inside the entry door
Above the L-shaped lounge I have three overhead cupboards. I created extra storage space in each by adding a $5 coated wire shelf from Kmart, essentially doubling the small internal shelves. Only lightweight items are stored up high, and I use plastic tubs/baskets to keep things contained while still having easy access.
Wire shelves double the space and plastic baskets keep things contained
To save weight our drinkware is plastic except for a couple of Yeti thermal drinking cups/flasks. Dinnerware is a wheat straw eco-friendly set I bought on Amazon which is BPA free and can be used in the microwave, unlike melamine. When it comes to drinkware, dinnerware and cutlery, you really only need to carry enough for the number of people travelling in your van. If you have having guests over for dinner, they can bring their own.
In an 18ft 4in van there is no real estate on the floor for anything. Our kitchen bin from IKEA is fixed to the inside the cupboard door under the sink.
Bin mounted on cupboard door
My caravan kitchen is tiny. When the lid is lifted to use the gas cooktop I have about 10cm of bench plus the draining board for food prep. I have a generous dining table, so I use that whenever I need to.
Under the sink is a cupboard shelf dedicated to washing up stuff, chopping boards, paper towel, food covers, and an expandable silicone colander. At floor level is an awkward space around the wheel arch. Here I use some tall narrow plastic baskets from Kmart to store heavy things like bottles and drinks.
Tall plastic baskets hold bottles on the floor around the wheel arch
Three kitchen drawers are all a generous size. Under the drawers on the floor is a narrow space leftover from the wheel arch — this is where all my heavy cans are kept in another plastic container.
Heavy cans down lower over the wheels
The Warrior has a full oven, which I love and use often. Under it is a narrow space which I use to store my pots and pans from Camec. They are the space saver range with removable handles for easy storage and be used on the stovetop, in the oven and they also have plastic lids to store leftovers in the fridge.
Above my sink is the microwave, next to it an overhead cupboard which contains the radio, power switches for the microwave and AC. It has a very narrow shelf which I use for my coffee making items. I choose not to carry a coffee machine. I don’t have much real estate in my kitchen or the storage space for when it’s not in use. And let’s face it, if you’re trying to keep the weight down you must be tough when it comes to what is a requirement and what is a luxury.
A narrow overhead shelf holds coffee making things
Instead of a bulky coffee machine, I carry a plunger (press), a good old fashioned stovetop espresso pot which I’ve had for years and a stainless-steel dripper (about $15) from IKEA — all of which provide me with a great cup of coffee depending on how much trouble I want to go to. Otherwise, it’s good old Nescafe Blend 43 and there’s nothing wrong with that when you’re in the middle of nowhere. My last kitchen overhead cupboard space houses the tea, coffee and sugar in tins from IKEA, the kettle and a couple of spare coffee cups.
Kettle, tea, coffee and sugar in an overhead cupboard
I’m a wine drinker and some time ago discovered Bagnums of wine from Dan Murphy. They hold 1.5L of wine, are lightweight and won’t break. And there’s some good wines available from regions such as Margaret River. If you are travelling north from the southern states, be aware that casks of wine of any description are not sold in many parts of the NT and northern WA, so stock up before you leave home if you have the capacity.
Finally, under the bed (which is predominantly batteries/inverters and the like in our pre-December 2023 van) I have just enough space for the Thermomix which travels in its own bag.
Laundry
Most caravan parks, station stays and the like have washing machines and there’s a public laundrette in most towns. Keep a stash of gold coins — a load can vary between $4 and $7.
Our 3.2L Aussie Traveller top loading washing machine gets a regular workout. My laundry supplies are pretty minimal. I use the eco-laundry sheets available from Woolies. The pack doesn’t say how much they weigh but I’m guessing it’s about 200g as opposed to a heavy container or liquid or capsules.
Detergent sheets are lightweight
A stick of Sard stain remover, a collapse silicone basket and a few pegs and that’s it. There are many iterations of permanent and portable clotheslines, expandable racks, retractable lines, airing racks available and this is an individual choice. I carried around a portable rotary clothesline for years but got sick of wrestling with it and untangling the lines to set it up. Now I use a couple of compact and lightweight Slide n Dry pegless clotheslines joined together under the awning. I think I bought them for about $10 each at a caravan show one year but they are readily available online.
Pegless clothesline is a good option for space saving
Bathroom
In Caravan World issue 650 I wrote about installing a composting toilet for our trip across the Kimberley on the Gibb River Road. We saved space and weight by replacing the traditional ceramic cassette toilet with a Cuddy which weighs just 9.5kg. The rest of our bathroom items are kept to the bare essentials. While you might have a few different soaps, shampoos, conditioners and appliances at home, there’s simply not the space in compact van bathrooms.
To find out more about the benefits of different caravan toilets, check out this feature: 'A guide to RV cassette and composting toilets'.
Outside stuff
If your van has a tunnel boot, toolbox and other external storage there is a real temptation to fill these spaces with really weighty stuff.
Plastic tubs keep things tidy in the tunnel boot
The heaviest of these is likely to be a barbecue of some description which a lot of folks will carry with them for the convenience of cooking on the road. A portable induction hotplate is our other outdoor cooking option. Consider where you’re going, for how long and what kind of cooking you might be doing to help limit how much you’re lugging around.
Most vans have storage for a barbecue
Some outdoor chairs can be really heavy. We carry a couple of aluminium framed deck chairs with side tables that are pretty light, and a small plastic table from Bunnings (similar can be found at any hardware store). We also have a couple of Helinox lightweight, portable folding chairs from A247 for visitors or if we go somewhere they are easy to carry with us.
Two lightweight deck chairs and a plastic table outside
Other outdoor items include a fishing rod, pool noodles, a pool pole on which we mount our Starlink dish, a broom, mat, shade/privacy screens, guys ropes, tools and spare including a drill. Again, what you take depends on your travel style and where you’re going (and when). Pull everything out before you hit the road and make the call on what’s essential and what’s not.
Hoses, mats and screen in the front toolbox
As I work on the road other essentials are a camera, laptop and Starlink so I can communicate with the office from the most remote of locations.
The wrap
Packing for a small van requires discipline so you can stay within your payload and legal limits and stay safe on the road. Be brutal with your packing. You don't need a lot of stuff and if you forget something essential, buy it at the next town. If you have packed something and not used it in weeks, then offload it at the next op shop you come across. Eventually you will find your Goldilocks sweet spot that works for you and your rig.
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