Need Organization/Storage Tips for Pop-Up

[Praise2Him]

We've had our pop-up for several years, but I still don't have a good system for organization, especially clothes and shoes. We usually use suitcases and leave them in the back of the Suburban. There's got to be a better way! We have a Coleman Key West (2 queen beds, no shower) and there are 5 of us - Dad, Mom, DS17, DS14, DD12. We're going to be there for 2 weeks, but taking only 6 outfits each and doing laundry in between. Any and all organization or storage tips will be appreciated!

 

[welovemickey]

We used to have a popup and DH installed collapsible shelves above each queen bed. It's hard to explain - I know the StarCraft popup models all have them. He just went to a showroom, took a look and made them. The "shelf" is actually attached to the support pole, so when the pole is down for travelling, the shelf sits on the bed. (Am I making any sense)?

Anyway, it worked great for us. We have 3 kids. Once we would get to a campground, everyone unpacked their dufflebags onto their "shelf".

Good luck!

 

[tim5055]

That is the hardest part of Pop Up camping, where to keep the clothes.

We generally stick to soft sided bags for clothes and keep the number of outfits to a minimum.

You may want to drop by one of the pop up sites and ask the experts there.

Some to check out include:

Pop Up Explorer

iRV2

PopUpPortal

and, the grand daddy of them all

Pop Up Times

Pop Up Times has converted to a pay site, but you can sign up for a free trial.

Good luck

 

[Camping Disney]

Hi PraisetoHim!!
If you have a Coleman, you have a lot of options available to you!
A couple of years ago, they came out with a camping caddy. This is a large "organizer" bag. There are 2 huge zip pockets at the top, I believe 4 medium pockets on the second level and the third level also has 4-6 pockets, can't exactly remember. The cool thing, is that it attaches by the slide out beds...on the overhang. It uses really neat clips.
Another option, if you don't want to buy this contraption, we have 2 for the 5 of us and they hold it all!!, is to use the large hanging sweater storage bags. they have about 6-10 "shelves" on them and are easily accessed through the zippers on either side. Our dollar store actually sells them, and they work rather well. If you want, you can use one for clothes and one for food!! You can easily attach them to your roof with a little ingenuity. Another great idea is using storage bins and leave them under your table. If you are always using your table as a bed, they will take up no room at all!!

We also have one of the shelf racks someone else talked about, I am not that crazy about it, the kids love it for all of their little toys.

I sure hope these little tips help.

Michele

 

[We4mickey]

We use plastic totes. Keep all our clothes in there. It keeps them dry if it's humid out and you can stack them in the corner of the bed. We have large beds so there is always space in the corners. We have a coleman with front storage so we use totes that will fit through the doors as well.

 

[LostBoyinVA]

Before we moved to the darkside (have a Travel Trailer now) we used plastic totes as well. We stacked them in the space between the benches where the table would go if it was inside. We always moved the table outside, so it was a convenient out of the way place. We also stored all of our food in plastic totes and put it in the back of the car at night or slid it into the door of the pop-up if we where going to be away for a long time during the day.

 

[Memph1s]

We put all underwear, socks, bathing suites, and shorts in the drawers. We hang all our shirts on hangers and hang them on the clothes hanger built in the camper. On longer trips we will hang 3 or 4 shirts per hanger. We have a pop up clothes hamper that we put right outside the door for dirty clothes and will wash once a week. We keep a shallow plastic bin 1/2 under the popup by the door for all our shoes. We live down here in Florida and rarely need anything other than shorts and T-shirts so this works well for us. The stacking drawers really work well. Each person gets one and because they are drawers you are not forever stacking and unstacking to get to the contents. We have one counter that we put all of them on in one tall stack. We also use them for some of the food and one as a catch all for things like keys, wallets, flashlights, cards, books, lighters, and several other things and you can use the very top as a counter for lighter things like kleenex, glasses, clock, weather radio. I would suggest finding a place to keep them when the camper is set up and buy them to fit your storage area. We just got lucky and what I bought was a perfect fit but I would not leave it to chance again.

 

[Lisa P.]

You've gotten some good tips. For short trips, we use soft duffle bags. They are easy to shove out of the way, near our feet when we're sleeping. If we'll be going somewhere humid, we line them with a plastic trash bag before packing. For longer trips, we use soft-sided rolling luggage bags - these are really made for schoolbooks but they're cheap, easily stackable, easy to pack & move.

Here are a few websites that show photos of modifications people have done to their pop-ups. Some of them may give you ideas for storage in yours.

Bart's BuildOuts
GLPUC Mods
Tubby
Lee Thomas
Ozandus

 

[Praise2Him]

Thanks for all the great ideas! I'm going to WalMart today to look for the plastic drawers and totes, also a shallow bin for shoes outside. The shelves also sound great, even though I won't be able to get them before we leave, but probably will in the future. Where do you buy them? Also the camping caddy? I also checked out the websites - thanks, they were very helpful. We're very excited and can't wait to get there!