Organizing your camper!!!!!!!!!

[growinupdisney]

I"m wondering how everyone keeps the camper/popup/tent organized while at disney especially ther clothes! On our last trip I tried to keep the clothes for each person in these little cubbies (that break down) to help instead of having suitcases or duffles everywhere.With a popup there is not alot of room and with 5 of us it was hard. This coming up trip there will be 6 , and any ideas would be great! I am a neat freak and love organization so I was constantly straightening up. We did have a screen room last time but that was more for extra containers, playpen , chairs etc. The biggest headache was all the stuff we would buy at the parks was ending up on the dining table in the camper Drove me CRAZY!

 

[dfchelbay]

I"m wondering how everyone keeps the camper/popup/tent organized while at disney especially ther clothes! On our last trip I tried to keep the clothes for each person in these little cubbies (that break down) to help instead of having suitcases or duffles everywhere.With a popup there is not alot of room and with 5 of us it was hard. This coming up trip there will be 6 , and any ideas would be great! I am a neat freak and love organization so I was constantly straightening up. We did have a screen room last time but that was more for extra containers, playpen , chairs etc. The biggest headache was all the stuff we would buy at the parks was ending up on the dining table in the camper Drove me CRAZY!

We use those plastic set of drawers for all the extra stuff. Our clothes go in the closets and wardrobes. Maybe a couple of those drawers on wheels would help. You could put them in the screen house, or car in the evening so they are out of the way while everyone is in the camper.

 

[2goofycampers]

One thing we found helps was to keep the full garbage bags of dirty clothes double bagged and in the truck.

 

[growinupdisney]

Yeah, I just bought from the dollar store those mesh dirty clothes bags maybe that will help with the clutter too! Although trash bags would have been cheaper. Even though i only paid a $1 for them. Keep the ideas coming! Thanks

 

[clkelley]

The stuff I purchase, I have delivered to the resort, so it sits in Meadows Trading Post storage till almost time to go home

 

[KristinU]

We have this: http://www.campmor.com/outdoor/gear/Product___90548

It works awesome for us - slides right under our bed in our camper. We're a family of 3 so we each get a "cube" and the 4th one we use for bathing suits and beach towels. A plastic shoebox fits perfectly into the footprint of the cubes, so we each have one that holds socks and undies so they're not flying around on their own.

We use a second one for food stuff. It works great for that too.

That and a big laundry bag where dirties go - we do laundry mid-week on just about any week-long trip we're on, camping or not.

Oh, and the cubes are great if you're camping with others and kids want to go do an overnmight with friends/family. My parents were one loop over from us at Thanksgiving time and we just pulled out DS's cube and sent him on over, kind os a built in overnight bag!

 

[Kagoguen]

We use those plastic set of drawers for all the extra stuff. Our clothes go in the closets and wardrobes. Maybe a couple of those drawers on wheels would help. You could put them in the screen house, or car in the evening so they are out of the way while everyone is in the camper.

We have a couple of those 3 drawer plastic stands, for the kids, they're great, our clothes go in the only closet. We picked them up at Wal-mart.

 

[We4mickey]

Plastic tubs.Everyone has one for their clothes and we have pop up hamper for the dirty stuff. Tubs sit on the end of your bed during the day and get stacked up at night. Nice and tidy.

 

[BradyBz12]

We have a hybrid and are usually there 2-3 weeks in Dec, so storage definitely becomes an issue since we need to pack clothes for variable weather (last year we saw close to freezing up to about 80). We use the plastic drawer sets too (lightweight) and also have a hang bar in the back of our SUV to use for "overflow" closet space. All those weird little "nook" type spots above the tent ends get used for towels (they're not good for much else)

Popup lawn bucket works great for laundry. I usually do laundry once or twice while we're there so we don't have to pack as many clothes.

We have those nifty organizational racks in the cupboards to get as many dishes packed in there as we can.

I also found some wicker baskets that fit nicely on the counters for all that misc "stuff" that seems to collect everywhere. I use small plastic baskets in the bathroom too - the more organized everything is, the more stuff I can usually squeeze in.

We mounted hooks in the bathroom to hang up the broom/swiffer.

And finally - I seriously look at everything that comes in the door and say "do I REALLY need this??" If the answer isn't a snappy, "yes!" it goes back in the house.

Oh, and Christmas decorations go under the dinette!

 

[BigDaddyRog]

Ive been thinking about this for sometime also since I plan to own a pop-up one day...but I think a cheap small tent is what I will use to store the plastic tubs of clothes in....I will also store all of my fishing gear and port-a-potty in there if the popup I end up getting doesnt have a bathroom(since most dont), I will bring it into the pop-up before we go to sleep just in case for the wife and kids.

 

[redcubfan]

One thing I started doing last year was putting a complete outfit for each kid in a gallon ziploc bag. (shirt, shorts, undies, socks) We camp in the summer so this probably wouldn't work for bulkier clothes unless you used bigger bags. I wrote their names with a permanent marker on the outside of each bag, so they knew which was theirs before dragging the clothes out of the bag. You could put the bags just about anywhere you had space. Saved time too because I didn't have to help the kids pick out outfits. (probably not much of an issue with older kids but mine are 4 and 8) Dirty clothes went in a big pop up hamper but we saved the ziplocs, so when I did laundry I just put clean outfits back in the bags and started the process all over again. Kids adapted to it really well and I didn't have loose, wrinkled clothes all over the place. If you have a door, hang a shoe organizer--they are a life saver. They holds tons of stuff (besides shoes!) Hope some of this helps! Good luck!!

 

[disbyrd]

Ive been thinking about this for sometime also since I plan to own a pop-up one day...but I think a cheap small tent is what I will use to store the plastic tubs of clothes in....I will also store all of my fishing gear and port-a-potty in there if the popup I end up getting doesnt have a bathroom(since most dont), I will bring it into the pop-up before we go to sleep just in case for the wife and kids.

This is a great idea. We are wondering how the 6 of us were going to store clothes and get dressed in our pop up this fall when we got to WDW, but I think that the kids would love the idea of having a "dressing room" and it would keep some of the clutter out of the camper. Thanks!

 

[Stitch76]

One thing I started doing last year was putting a complete outfit for each kid in a gallon ziploc bag. (shirt, shorts, undies, socks) We camp in the summer so this probably wouldn't work for bulkier clothes unless you used bigger bags. I wrote their names with a permanent marker on the outside of each bag, so they knew which was theirs before dragging the clothes out of the bag. You could put the bags just about anywhere you had space. Saved time too because I didn't have to help the kids pick out outfits. (probably not much of an issue with older kids but mine are 4 and 8) Dirty clothes went in a big pop up hamper but we saved the ziplocs, so when I did laundry I just put clean outfits back in the bags and started the process all over again. Kids adapted to it really well and I didn't have loose, wrinkled clothes all over the place. If you have a door, hang a shoe organizer--they are a life saver. They holds tons of stuff (besides shoes!) Hope some of this helps! Good luck!!

Thanks for the tip about the baggies, I will definately be using this one (my kids are 9, 7, and 2. So this will come in real handy. And I agree totally with using a shoe organizer on one of the doors. That is the first thing I bought for our 5th wheel. They are super handy. We use ours for shoes (duh!), and hair accessories, and jewelery (my little diva has to have her bling), as well as soaps, shampoos, brushes, toothpaste, hairspray, you get the point. And it keeps so much clutter up and out of the way.

 

[redcubfan]

One more thing I thought of...I bought a shoe organizer (yes, I really like them!!) and cut it into strips horizontally (under each row of pockets). We stapled the strips along the bottom of our camper beds (the wood portion at the base of the beds) using a staple gun. This gives us a place for our shoes (or other items) off the floor and out of the way in an otherwise unused place.

 

[Thumper_ehhhhh]

When we had out popup we made sure when we purchased it that we had the long counter instead of a couch. The counter was 6 ft long. We put 2 of those 3 drawer wide plastic drawers on it with a 3 drawer smaller one on the end. All our cloths went in them and the smaller drawers were toys and firstaid stuff. Then on top of that we could put other stuff. Our HTT we just have bags we throw on the bottom bunks as the kids sleep on the top. We dont have any real storage issues with it. The biggest thing we did is when we looked at trailers we looked at storage. and where we could put storage totes. That way we have found there hasnt been any issues. Oh BDR when you go to get a popup if you can handle the extra expence and weight for your TV go one size bigger. If your looking at 10 ft box get a 12. You will see what I mean when you do and happy you did. Thats what we were told when we got our first trailer and we followed it and yes we were happy we did. We did the same thing with our HTT also. So we got the biggest one we could find. Were happy campers.

 

[Princesspigletsmom]

We are family of 7, staying in sleep 8 pop up so I understand your need for control.
We are taking a closet organizer, it is completely collaspable for travel and then I am attaching it with a bungee cord to hang in the pop up. As for where our suitcases will go we are driving down a minivan and I taking a screen in room. We are "planning" on setting up the screen in room near the van ( if possible ) and then putting suitcases in the back of the van, that way we just have to open the back grab our clothes and change in tent. I also brought callaspable laundry baskets for dirty clothes ( bought those from $1 store).

 

[hopeisb4u]

We have a 'mammoth' sized 2 room tent. This past trip we took all our clothes in one suitcase, and used the handy dandy publix canvas bags to hold our dirty clothes. I'm thinking of having 2 smaller tents, (i love the a-frame roofed tents) one strictly for the bed, tv, fan and the other for everything else. It is just a thought...i'm still thinking it through...

 

[Tigger0624]

We just got back from a week long trip with 8 ppl (4 adults, 4 kids) and all that goes along with it in a pop up. What we did was set up a tent and used it as a dressing room. I set up the plastic drawers that we got at Walmart nd each of the boys had one. When I packed up at home- I just put everyone's clothes in their drawers and loaded the entire thing in the back of the van! We also kept all of the bathroom bags and a rack to dry towels on etc... all of the misc. gear that was lying around- lawn games, chairs etc were also stored in the tent to keep them out of the rain

Even though that will probably be one of the few times that we will have so many ppl with us- being 6 on a day to day basis- I will most likely put up the tent every trip just to keepthe pop up clutter free.

Also- a swiffer vac helps keep the dirt down a to a minimum

 

[mdoc]

I don't think it matters whether you have a tent, a popup or a 45 foot motorhome (we have the latter) - clothes storage is always an issue. We use rubbermaid drawers. Each kid gets one large rubbermaid drawer for clothes, plus one small rubbermaid box for electronics/toys/whatever else they can fit. Fortunately we have a wardrobe with shelves where DH and I stack our stuff and we can hang coats, raincoats, etc. Our kids pack in plastic bags, one complete outfit per day, and the plastic bags go into the drawers. We use popup hampers for dirty clothes. The problems we always have are shoes (our current solution is a large rubbermaid container with shoes for 7 or 8 thrown in it, but I don't like it), and towels. Our camper is always overrun with numerous wet towels and it drives me nuts. Does anyone have any good shoe/towel advice? Right now I'm thinking that reducing the size of the family might be the only good solution.

 

[Momofejlg]

I agree with the shoes/clothes/ towels!! We have a 32 ft TT and 4 kids , the back bunk room is often littered with whatever clothes they decide to change out of for theday !. We have plastic bin under the bunks for clothes and when they do put the clothes back it will stay picked up. We also have a pop up bin for the shoes for everyone and I tend to leave it outside by the door. Helps with the smelly sneakers!!
We did buy a clothes lind that attaches to the back of the TT, that really help keep all the wet towels and bathing suits in control .
I like all the great ideas for orgainizing the camper -I am always looking for way to keep the TT tidy.Love the shoe organizer idea - !