1 pair of socks – 18 crates

[Conundrum]

I bought beautiful stackable crates at Walmart and packed my stuff according to the: 1 item = 1 crate system.

Then I left on a trip and discovered that whatever I wanted – whether it was a pair of socks, a pair of boxers, a belt, or a baseball hat, I always had to look in 12 or 15 crates before I would hit the right one.

The process of accessing and lifting a stacked crate, opening it, closing it, moving it somewhere out of the way, to be able to look into crate #2 and then 3 and …7 and… 11 is not easy in the confines of the back storage area of my van.

In fact, I would say that it is so annoying and frustrating as to ruin your good morning mood.

After a half hour of crate lifting, I am in a sour mood and start making a list in my head of all the reasons why van camping is a horrible idea and despicable endeavor.

So I want to ask, how do you pack your socks?

How do you know where each type of item is?

How do you organize so that you have quick easy access to anything?

 

[Erykka]

I'm writing on tape til I get my system memorized, but I ranger roll my day's outfit all together and just pick a roll. But I'm using milk crates with cloth totes, so it's like drawers. With Velcro.

 

[Conundrum]

I'm writing on tape til I get my system memorized, but I ranger roll my day's outfit all together and just pick a roll. But I'm using milk crates with cloth totes, so it's like drawers. With Velcro.

Please post some pics I will understand better. I am not familiar with "ranger roll" or "clothes totes".

 

[Erykka]

Just milk crates/totes and I am trying out a bar between two stacks for work clothes. Roll is just laying out the outfit in one neat pile and rolling it, my kid calls it ranger roll..active army. Very rough, still working it out

 

[wayne49]

Ranger roll:

https://www.travelwanderlust.co/articles/ranger-roll-clothes-for-packing/

 

[RV411]

This guy's use of Milk Crates in his *final build is inspiring.

*Note that he had done several builds before this arrangement.

 

[Erykka]

Ranger roll:

https://www.travelwanderlust.co/articles/ranger-roll-clothes-for-packing/

Awesome, I'm not good at explaining. Perfect!

 

[Conundrum]

Just milk crates/totes and I am trying out a bar between two stacks for work clothes. Roll is just laying out the outfit in one neat pile and rolling it, my kid calls it ranger roll..active army. Very rough, still working it out
View attachment 32993

Thank you. I will look into it. Might be more practical than the crates with a lid.

 

[Conundrum]

Ranger roll:

https://www.travelwanderlust.co/articles/ranger-roll-clothes-for-packing/

Thank you. I will adopt this.

 

[Erykka]

Thank you. I will look into it. Might be more practical than the crates with a lid.

Well I am going to have to cover the whole thing, protect from moths and critters. I think we just tweak it as we go, and find a lot of what doesn't suit us first! But have fun in the attempts!

 

[jacqueg]

Packing cubes might also help. Different colors for different kinds of clothing...

Also it helps GREATLY if you choose one main color to build your wardrobe around. No matter what you pull out, everything goes with everything else.

AND - judging by the size of the crates I own - if you really are filling up 15 crates with your clothes, you are carrying too many clothes! That's kind of inevitable at first, as you learn what you need, which may or may not have anything to do with what I need. Try to get it down to 5 or 6 crates.

 

[jacqueg]

This guy's use of Milk Crates in his *final build is inspiring.

*Note that he had done several builds before this arrangement.

I love his ideas!

I have a small version of his milk crate storage cabinet (thanks abnorm!), and I agree that it has a lot of advantages over drawers, although I also have drawers.

 

[maki2]

I bought beautiful stackable crates at Walmart and packed my stuff according to the: 1 item = 1 crate system.

Then I left on a trip and discovered that whatever I wanted – whether it was a pair of socks, a pair of boxers, a belt, or a baseball hat, I always had to look in 12 or 15 crates before I would hit the right one.

The process of accessing and lifting a stacked crate, opening it, closing it, moving it somewhere out of the way, to be able to look into crate #2 and then 3 and …7 and… 11 is not easy in the confines of the back storage area of my van.

In fact, I would say that it is so annoying and frustrating as to ruin your good morning mood.

After a half hour of crate lifting, I am in a sour mood and start making a list in my head of all the reasons why van camping is a horrible idea and despicable endeavor.

So I want to ask, how do you pack your socks?

How do you know where each type of item is?

How do you organize so that you have quick easy access to anything?

My socks are in a pouch I hang up on a hook for quick access. I put enough pairs in to last 7 to 10 days. Clean socks are something I need every morning when I get up so no point to storing them with other clothing. My jeans and shirts, undies are stored in a laundry basket under my bed. I took the dimensions of the height and width of the area and the tape measure and went to Walmart and found something that fit just right. By sheer coincidence it turned out to be a laundry basket.

Only out of season clothes get stored in harder to access spots.

 

[bullfrog]

One of the advantages of milk crates is you can see what is in them somewhat through the openings. Another is a wooden 2”x 2” mounted to the wall to form a ledge and allow wooden dowels to engage the holes in the bottom of the crate along with another wooden 2”x 2” along the top to secure the top of the milk crate with a pivoting latch allows them to be easily mounted and removed from the wall with no shelves or supports creating super light weight secured storage.

 

[D'L]

I like things very organized, so I use color coding for containers. (this is what I did when living on the road and camping previously).
So - Kitchen stuff was in red container. Clothing in blue. Stuff needed if it got cold (extra blanket, jacket etc) in brown. And so on.

The most important thing is to always keep like things together. So, within my clothing container (whether bin or milk crate or whatever) I would have a separate clear plastic zippered bag for socks and for other small things that might get lost in the shuffle of jeans and shirts. then a container for the shirts so they stay together and I don't have to dig for the one I want. Jeans are large enough they don't need a container, but they would all be on one side of the box or the other.

Doing this means I could grab exactly the yellow flannel shirt in no time without looking for it because I knew exactly where it was.

The clear plastic zipper bags are what sheet sets or comforters come in when they are new. Many thrift stores, especially Goodwill outlet stores, will have these for sale for almost nothing and you can see what's inside them, while they keep out dirt and dog hair. They do need to be in another container like the bin so the bags don't get ripped. they are sturdy, but can be torn on something sharp.

Main thing is training yourself to put things always away where they go. that is the big thing about being organized.

 

[Geneeus]

I bought beautiful stackable crates at Walmart and packed my stuff according to the: 1 item = 1 crate system.

Then I left on a trip and discovered that whatever I wanted – whether it was a pair of socks, a pair of boxers, a belt, or a baseball hat, I always had to look in 12 or 15 crates before I would hit the right one.

The process of accessing and lifting a stacked crate, opening it, closing it, moving it somewhere out of the way, to be able to look into crate #2 and then 3 and …7 and… 11 is not easy in the confines of the back storage area of my van.

In fact, I would say that it is so annoying and frustrating as to ruin your good morning mood.

After a half hour of crate lifting, I am in a sour mood and start making a list in my head of all the reasons why van camping is a horrible idea and despicable endeavor.

So I want to ask, how do you pack your socks?

How do you know where each type of item is?

How do you organize so that you have quick easy access to anything?

For what it's worth, I have tried lots of systems, but most of them take up too much floor space in my van.

My current van came with a clothes rod in the rear that goes from passenger side all the way to the drivers side. So I went on amanzon and bought a bunch of cloth grocery bags, put underwear in one, socks in another hand towels, face towels, etc., in each one, and put a label on one handle. The other handle fits through the clothes rod. I can put about 14 bags on the rod, because some of the bags aren't completely full.

 

[Spaceman Spiff]

How much stuff do you carry?

I can fit a month's worth of underclothes in one milk crate with room to spare and the rest of my in-season outer clothes in another (excluding jacket, hats, rain gear). Out of season stuff gets packed in a tote buried under the bed.

As for what holds what: colors and labels are easy identifiers. One can buy a sleeve of colored electrical tape: red = socks, white = undies, green = t-shirts, blue = jeans, etc. You can even write the contents in magic marker on the tape.

 

[LargeMarge]

How much stuff do you carry?

I can fit a month's worth of underclothes...

.
In accordance with my 'eliminate the unnecessary' system:
* I can fit a lifetime of bloomers someplace decades ago.
.
By eliminating that particular unnecessary, I eliminated the:
* management of them
* counting of them
* worshing of them
* wearing of them.
And, prior to certain rambunctious 'activities', the wanton flinging of them.

 

[GotSmart]

Laposa South has a camp for you. The Magic Circle.