Two questions - clothing storage and security?

[loislane]

Anyone know of a good way to store our clothes in our popup so they are organized, but don't take up a ton of space? We'll need area under the table free for meals since we won't want to eat outside in the heat.

Second question is just a general one about how secure things are there. I've seen posts/photos of people in tents with TVs and such. How do you keep your stuff safe and secure?

We have a hard half door we can close and lock on the popup. Is that enough to keep our stuff safe? We won't have a ton of stuff - but will probably bring a small TV and the kindles. We can obviously stash the small stuff out of sight - the TV is a little harder to hide.

 

[JessB320]

Have you seen/ heard of packing cubes? That may work well for you

 

[~Kristina~]

In our PUP we bought one of those 3 drawer storage "tower" and brought 3 days of clothes for a 7 day trip and washed mid-week. In the PUP we didn't bring anything that needed to be locked up, but if we had, we would have locked our half door. In out HTT, we just lock it up.

 

[loislane]

http://www.officemax.com/office-furniture/storage/general-storage-bins-totes/product-prod3520058

DH and I saw these when out and about this morning and I was thinking these might be good options to stow under the table seats - 1 for each of us. Should be big enough to hold shorts and t-shirts/tank tops. Then they fold flat when not in use.

Right now, one of the seats has some cooking gear under it that can be stored elsewhere for this trip and the other one has extra blankets that we won't need in Florida in August.

Something for me to think on......

 

[bama_ed]

Anyone know of a good way to store our clothes in our popup so they are organized, but don't take up a ton of space? We'll need area under the table free for meals since we won't want to eat outside in the heat.

Second question is just a general one about how secure things are there. I've seen posts/photos of people in tents with TVs and such. How do you keep your stuff safe and secure?

We have a hard half door we can close and lock on the popup. Is that enough to keep our stuff safe? We won't have a ton of stuff - but will probably bring a small TV and the kindles. We can obviously stash the small stuff out of sight - the TV is a little harder to hide.

I have a popup and with 5 people in it and storage is definitely at a premium.

We have one medium sized suitcase per person. Our pup also has shelves that hang on the inside end of each bunk which is space for books, purses, shaving kits, and the like (smaller non-suitcase items). I also tuck a small suitcase/bag in the foot corner of the outermost side of the bunk (the foot end is as wide as the head/shoulder end but feet aren't as wide, right?).

Security at the Fort is generally not an issue. I leave my tv outside on a table under my awning overnight and whenever I leave it's always there when I come back. I swing my cooler that it outside around behind the pup out of sight because it contains adult beverages and kids have been known to "cooler dive" at the Fort to see what they can find.

Anything like a tablet, laptop, computer, or the like gets locked in the tow vechicle when not in use.

This is the way we camp and we've not had any issues.

Bama ED

 

[WDWCP96]

When we had our pop up space was at a premium with 5 of us in it. We had a hanging storage closet that clipped onto u-shaped hooks bolted into our ceiling. It had 4 openings so DH got one, I got one, both my sons shared one and DD got one. It zippered closed if you wanted it to. We also had a smaller one that we used as a pantry that was about 2.5 feet by a foot that we stored all our non-perishables in. With our dirty clothes I always brought a large plastic storage bin to keep under the camper that had a lid. We would just slide it under and never had a problem with people bothering it.

As for valuables, I always hid them if they were small such as our iPad. Never bothered hiding our TV as our pop up was a highwall so we had a full-size locking door.

 

[Lyndria]

We have never had an issue with things going missing at any of the places we've camped. We do lock our half door when we go somewhere and we try to put computers, etc. in the tow vehicle.

As for storage, I pre-pack the PUP before we go. I avoid suitcases and just put things in the drawers. We usually do laundry once.

 

[FortForever]

When we had our PUP, we mostly lived out of suitcases that were stored on the bunks during the day and the table at night.

We also had some fabric "shelves" that we got at Walmart in the section where the irons and stuff are. The top had a velcro loop made to hang from a closet rod. We hung it from the plastic hanger thingy that folds down from the ceiling in most PUPS.

Although we never got to it, we had planned to make fold down shelves for each bunk end. I saw them on a pop up forum and thought it was a great idea. I will try to find a link for you and post it here later.

Shelves for bunk ends link.

 

[Disney Bunny]

I recommend Rubbermaid (or similar) containers and store them under one end of the pop up. You could rig a tarp to keep out any possible moisture. Also, you could keep extra clothes in the same kind of container and just keep stored in your tow vehicle. I used the same type of containers when we tent camped and labeled each one what was in that particular container to make it easy to find/store items.

 

[logella]

We just lived out of one duffel bag per person when we had our pop up. We then had one common laundry bag.

As far as security was concerned we never worried about it, especially at the Fort. We'd have a TV, DVD player, iPods and various handheld gaming devices. Other than the TV and DVD player we'd just put the small stuff under something or in a duffel bag when we left. No big deal. The only thing I would lock up in the car trunk was my work laptop. the personal laptop on the otherhand would stay in the camper.

 

[Main Street Matilda]

We actually pitched a tent behind the RV which was just for changing and clothing storage. (We were in a preferred site that had the sandy pad.) It was tall enough that we could stand in it. Made life much, much easier as there was no issue with storing containers for clothes in the RV or having to step out if someone was changing.

As for security, we only kept the clothes outside and nothing terribly valuable. I don't know what we would have done if someone had stolen our clothes ... but I really didn't think that would be an issue.

 

[blu]

My kids are younger than yours but before you leave I lay out a half sheet of paper, with the day written on it, for each day of the week that we will be gone. They put one change of clothes on each of those days. All that with the half sheet of paper go into a 2gal plastic bag with the day showing. It folds down nice, like a spacebag, they dont wrinkle as bad and they only get one days worth of clothes at a time. My oldest is in charge of getting their clothes out each morning since she can read and DS cannot and they get involved in keeping things tidy that way. THEY LOVE TO PACK now because they get to pick things out. I also usually have a bag that I mark "extra"
I have never run out of underwear this way

 

[JanL]

I put each outfit, down to the underwear, in a large ziplock bag. A bag goes with me when I shower and comes back with the dirty clothes in it that I wore to the bath house. The zip lock keeps it organized in the drawer (one of a large plastic set that stack and is kept in the soft cargo carrier on top of the car). It also keeps the clothes dry while I shower. The bag with dirty clothes goes in a laundry bag, also kept in the soft cargo carrier.

 

[sbnewhampshire1]

When we camped before the motorhome we used a small tent for clothes in storage bins. Never have had a problem . Have had five family members staying at a time and that tent came in handy for storage of clothes!!

 

[loislane]

Ok - getting lots of good ideas! Thanks everyone!

My oldest child does plan on bringing our tent because he thinks he's going to want to sleep out there - and maybe he will. But it's also big enough that we can store stuff in there. I hadn't really thought about that.

I saw another good idea online about using the clothes hanger rod on the ceiling to hang one of those cubby organizer units. I think I'm going to do that as well to give us extra places to stow stuff.

 

[jadedjojo]

We use the little plastic stacking cubes for clothes in our popup as well!

As far as security, we've been many, MANY times, and have never had an issue. On our last trip, we had two laptops and other various electronics, and just put them under our blankets in the locked popup when we weren't there. DH said that when he went camping as a kid at FW some 20 years ago, somebody stole his brother's bike from their site... so we always keep our electric scooters locked up (even at our site) just in case some little delinquent gets any ideas. On our last trip we saw someone in our loop with a 40" tv in a screen room, and his site was right by the road... not something I would personally do, but he didn't seem to have any issues.

 

[Jennifer41]

Oh man, I LOVE the idea of the extra tent/changing room!

 

[Jennifer41]

So now I have a question..

Is there room on a premium site for a tent AND the RV?? And from the photos, it looks like there wouldn't be a way to stake down a tent?

 

[bama_ed]

So now I have a question..

Is there room on a premium site for a tent AND the RV?? And from the photos, it looks like there wouldn't be a way to stake down a tent?

There is no sand/coquina pad for a tent on a Premium site.

But usually you can put a smaller tent off the back with little problem. With the 18' wide concrete pad of a Premium you can't stake it on concrete.

But if you use it to stash suitcases, stuff, etc, it would be sufficiently weighted in all but the most windy conditions.

BTW the pad is usually over 50' long so there is room for a tent on the concrete pad as well as the RV unless it is super long. Or the tent can go to the side of the RV which would be backed all the way in.

The Premiums are plenty big for lots of different arrangements.

Bama ED

 

[Jennifer41]

Thank you!