With Easter just around the corner, we know many of you are going to be hitting the road to get away for the holidays. And when it comes to packing your vehicle for long road trips, weekend adventures or just a simple night away from home, one of the most important things you can do is to pack correctly and maximise the room you have.
Not only does packing correctly maximise the free space in your vehicle, it’ll also help when it comes to unpacking or searching for a specific item.
Below are some simple yet effective tips that Summit 2 Sea Adventures incorporate into their packing routine.
Same size containers
If you are not using containers in some form or another when packing, we take our hat off to you as we have no idea how you keep all your gear together without the rear of your vehicle becoming a spaghetti of camping items.
We generally use 3 medium-large containers of the exact same size so that they can be stacked nicely on top of one another. Note; When buying storage containers, look for something that is strong and sturdy with a quality lid.
We pack our containers into categorised boxes, for example: 1 for kitchen items, 1 for all of our lighting, and a miscellaneous box.
It’s also a great idea to label the boxes somewhere that’s clearly visible so you can easily identify each container without having to sort through all of them.
Unpack meats into a zip lock bag, then vacuum seal
Fridges in vehicles are becoming increasingly popular and for all the right reasons. Although when it comes to packing them for a trip away there are some mistakes that can be made. One of the simplest tricks is to break all your food down from their original containers and place them into more suitable packaging. For example:
Meats - Remove from their large bulky packaging and place into zip lock bags or even better into vacuum sealed bags. Label the packets with the use by date and then store in your fridge or freezer.
Veg – We find that some vegetables are best to be prepared and chopped at home then placed into small containers, this can make life easy on the road when you have just pulled up for the night and need to prepare a quick and easy meal.
Collapsible kettle
One of the things we found was taking up the most amount of space was our kettle or water boiling pot. This eventually made its way to the bin after many trips and we decided we could make do without. We then discovered the companion pop up kettle, this pops down to a flat durable item, saving plenty of space and still giving us our daily dosage of caffeine.
Get organised
Before you start throwing everything into the car without order, lay everything you need to get packed outside of the car and take a look at all of your items. This shows you what you are taking and what space in the car you have to work with. Visualise what can go where, think heavier items on the bottom, fragile items on top, etc.
Think what items you will need to gain access to with ease, such as recovery gear, which you may choose to keep closer to the side window or tail gate if you’re planning on exploring off-road.
Imagine being bogged in the sand or mud and then having to pull out every single item just to reach your snatch straps underneath all you gear. Pack smart and your trip will begin with ease!
