VW mods - Storage philosophy
It was hard to figure out exactly how to pack the van in preparation for our year
on the road, and as the year went on we continued tweaking it. I write this near
the end of the trip, and for the most part we have a solid system.
Overall storage lessons
- Clothes should be well organized and easy to access. If they're not, it's way
too easy to just wear the same clothes you threw over the seat the previous night.
- Make sure you can reach the dog leash when you stand outside the sliding door.
We stored it in a seatback pocket, and needed it nearly every time we let the dog
out. If you don't have a dog, this isn't nearly as important, and you can probably
get away with leaving the leash at home.
- Keep the main floor clear of bags, boxes, shoes, etc. It is impossible to keep
anything on the floor that is not in the way within five minutes.
- Don't put a 50 pound bag of dog food in the RocketBox on the roof. Not only is
it a real bitch to get it in and out, you risk damaging the pop top with that much
weight.
- Be neat and put everything back in its place when you're done with it.
Medicine cabinet
We kept seasonings and toiletries in the medicine cabinet. The green bag you see
in the picture contained all the stuff I needed whenever I went to a shower. Check
out the medicine cabinet page to see what modifications
I made to it.
Bonus drawer
I stored most of my laptop components in the bonus drawer
I built for under the rear seat.
Main cupboard
The main cupboard primarily held cookware, dishes, and utensils. It also contained
a cutting board, a few bits of food that didn't fit elsewhere, and plastic grocery
bags bundled with a rubber band (these were used as garbage bags).
Funny cupboard
This is a difficult cupboard to use, as the door is smaller than the interior. Every
time we went grocery shopping it tended to get packed with canned goods and cereal
boxes. And inevitably we'd have to remove half the contents to find that one can
of baked beans way in the back. But since there isn't much storage space to pick
from, this cupboard continued to store the vast majority of our food for the duration
of our trip.
Cookware
We bought this wicked cool set of cookware straight from T-FAL in the summer of
2003. As I write this in early 2004, it seems it is no longer available. Too bad,
since all the pots stacked very well and the removable handles meant they didn't
take up much space in the cupboard.
The set actually included a giant pot not seen in the photos and a couple smaller
metal lids. We decided to leave those in storage, and that's been a good decision.
Also not seen in the photos are a set of plastic lids that snap onto each pot, allowing
you to put the same pot you cooked your mac-n-cheese in into the fridge. Tomorrow
you remove the lid and throw the pot on the stove. Voila! No need for Tupperware.
Battery compartment
I chose to use the battery compartment to store items that would fall into the "utility"
category. I won't list everything, but I will mention some of the important ones.
- Sewer hose. As seen in the picture, it can be compressed and squished into the
back right area.
- Water hose and electric cord
- Multimeter
- Jumper cables
- One can of Fix a Flat
- A tow rope and several pieces of variously sized other ropes.
- Cordless drill and it's accompanying 115 VAC charger
- Socket set, miscellaneous pliers and wrenches
- One jar of assorted screws, nails, and fasteners I've accumulated over the years
Rear area
The area behind the rear seat has the potential to hold a lot of stuff, but resist
the urge if you plan to fold the rear seat into a bed every night, because you'll
have to move all that crap every day. In our case, we had nothing except the pad,
two sleeping bags zipped together, and a pillow.
In the lower center area, affectionately called the "poop shoot", we stored our
frequently used bulky items: the wheel ramps, dog food
container, folding chair, and folding table. The photo also shows a Camelback in
the lower left corner, but that was temporary and it was mostly stored in the RocketBox.
There are two pockets above the sprayer, and we stored toilet paper in the upper
one and a pair of binoculars, a sweeping brush, the hatch extender,
tape measure, a philips screwdriver, and a flathead screwdriver in the lower one.
