Best way to store clothes?

[Anon]

How do most of you store your clothes when living out of your vehicle? I think mine is big enough to where I can fit a military style duffel back on the side, but I'm not sure if that's efficient.

And what about separating the dirty clothes from the cleans?

 

[Ravella and X]

Soft containers (like your duffel bag) are good because they’re flexible and can tuck in here or there. You could could use one bag for clean and one for dirty. Or one for dirty and three smaller bags for clean (1 for shirts/1 for pants/one for socks and underwear) The smaller ones will give you more options for tucking away in small voids.

I have space under my bed and have a pullout that I have arranged plastic containers on. It locks, so stays put while rolling.

What is efficient is to not carry too many clothes. It’s also efficient to get athletic wear clothes where possible. They wash easier and dry faster than cotton things. They’re actually more comfortable in hot weather than cotton, too. The wicking stuff, I mean.

I think by now the majority of folks here will say don’t carry big ol’ cotton towels. There are loads of better options for drying you while living in tight quarters on the road.

 

[Anon]

Soft containers (like your duffel bag) are good because they’re flexible and can tuck in here or there. You could could use one bag for clean and one for dirty. Or one for dirty and three smaller bags for clean (1 for shirts/1 for pants/one for socks and underwear) The smaller ones will give you more options for tucking away in small voids.

I have space under my bed and have a pullout that I have arranged plastic containers on. It locks, so stays put while rolling.

What is efficient is to not carry too many clothes. It’s also efficient to get athletic wear clothes where possible. They wash easier and dry faster than cotton things. They’re actually more comfortable in hot weather than cotton, too. The wicking stuff, I mean.

I think by now the majority of folks here will say don’t carry big ol’ cotton towels. There are loads of better options for drying you while living in tight quarters on the road.

In my line of work denim pants are a must, but I could just reuse the same 2 or 3 pairs. The rest I can just use polyester or something.

 

[mpruet]

Funny, I recently had a post about this in a Facebook group I monitor.

I use compression cubes that I purchased on Amazon. I label each cube with what type of clothes it contains. Dirty clothes go into the mesh bag…

 

[Anon]

Funny, I recently had a post about this in a Facebook group I monitor.

I use compression cubes that I purchased on Amazon. I label each cube with what type of clothes it contains. Dirty clothes go into the mesh bag…

Me I'm more partial to the Ranger Roll style of folding and storing clothes.

 

[RVTravel]

Even the backpackers have been talking about using these lately in their backpacks.
https://www.ikea.com/us/en/p/rensare-clothes-bag-set-of-3-check-pattern-gray-black-10461208/

 

[eDJ_]

An Uncle of mine was in the SeaBee's (construction dept of the Navy) and he was taught to roll his clothes as a way of folding them. He said it took less space than folding them flat. The website below shows some of this method. I've also noticed men's boxer brief's are often rolled in this manner and packaged in a clear thin plastic display box in stores. You can see what you are buying and they take up very little space on the shelves.

Roll folding laundry for storage

 

[mpruet]

I roll my clothes in my compression cubes. I find that they tend to get fewer wrinkles that way, take less space, and I can take out one piece of clothing without messing up other clothes in the same cube.

 

[hugemoth]

I put all my clean cloths in a tote and all my dirty cloths in a stuff sack. When the stuff sack is full I go to the laundromat.

 

[scaredycat72]

My clothes are in a tote under my bed. Dirty clothes will be in a sack in the same tote.

 

[Ripper238]

Plastic air tight bag, like a big zip lock (vacuum storage bags). Allows me to remove all the waisted air space and I can fit way more in a bag, also keeps them dry. I usually use them for clean cloths that may be stored for summer/winter or just to save space with something that can be compressed.
Also nice to organize cloths by color/category.

 

[[email protected]]

I keep a shirt and pants together and roll them up. That way I just need to reach into my bag and grab something and I have a t-shirt and my shorts. I don't have to dig through looking for stuff. I also keep my clothes in blue looking bags that look like body bags lol. I have a mesh bag with my laundry soap that are in a ziplock baggie little pod things. And some dryer sheets. I also stick a couple dryer sheets around in my van to make it smell good keep away bugs. I have two towels and I keep them rolled up in my shower bag that's ready to go when I go take a shower.

 

[vanbrat]

We have overhead soft 'closet' bag/shelves for our clothes. Our BIG doggy takes up most of our floor space. Once we had a drawer type plastic thingy, but it held less stuff and got in the dog's way. As well as our clothes don't smell so much like dog now that they are not where he can lean on them. We now put the Jackery under the bed and the power fridge thing under the edge of the bed when driving so it can plug into the van. We put more of the toy stuff under the edge of the bed too. Watercolor painting kit, crochet yarn and stuff, sewing kit (Mine is huge), sand toys, and whatever else we are into currently, (I want to think more about metal detecting), lawn games and etc. We also put dirty clothes under there in the mesh bag when driving, because mesh bags are less stinky when time to empty and wash stuff. We wash more often and carry less. We found, so far, we like to wash every 2-3 days when driving and once a week when in one place and not so close to laundromat. We could go longer if we were out farther, but we don't do that so much anymore. Towels can be hung outside most days

 

[user 16179]

How do most of you store your clothes when living out of your vehicle? I think mine is big enough to where I can fit a military style duffel back on the side, but I'm not sure if that's efficient.

And what about separating the dirty clothes from the cleans?

I use four net bags. One extra large, two medium and a small. The extra large is for dirty clothes. It goes to the laundromat. Everything, including dirty clothes bag, goes into a triple load washer. Then it goes into two dryers, and all goes back into the XL bag. Back at the van shirts go into one medium bag and pants in the other. Socks, underwear and misc stuff goes into the small bag. Done!!

 

[Tony's Dream]

Rolling the clothes is my method too. I can easily store a weeks' worth in my pull-out drawer and i can do a quick count of items I have left before I have to do a load of wash. My dirty clothes go in a mesh bag to allow the dirty clothes to breath and avoid the gym back results. The mesh bag is flexible and easily stored in front seat area, out of the way.

 

[keyhole-computer-guru]

I hang my clothes on the rod inside my astro van. Folded clothes leaves winkles in them. You can also use a towel rack or shower curtain rod mounted on the ceiling pillar. Also use adjustable garment rack too. Endless possibilities and ideas.

 

[Morgana]

the rod inside my astro van.

There are also these rods with hooks/handles at the ends, which you might be able to hang somehow without a special mount/install. (No special recommendation about the brand linked to; I just grabbed the first illustration I found. I haven't tried these myself.)

I've seen them recommended to hang a privacy curtain that would close off the back part of a car (in that case you would hang one left-to-right from the grab handles), but they're made for hanging clothes (so obviously, for a full-time option you'd have to hang it in a way that didn't obstruct your view while driving).

 

[Dwellerose]

I keep a shirt and pants together and roll them up. That way I just need to reach into my bag and grab something and I have a t-shirt and my shorts. I don't have to dig through looking for stuff. I also keep my clothes in blue looking bags that look like body bags lol. I have a mesh bag with my laundry soap that are in a ziplock baggie little pod things. And some dryer sheets. I also stick a couple dryer sheets around in my van to make it smell good keep away bugs. I have two towels and I keep them rolled up in my shower bag that's ready to go when I go take a shower.

you care to elaborate on keeping the bugs away with dryer sheets? any particular scent bugs don't like? I heard spiders don't like mint; peppermint to be exact. but some other van blog says that's a myth. and what about scorpions? i suppose those are somethin' to beware of in AZ. any smells that will keep them away?
Rose

 

[Janncwebb]

How do most of you store your clothes when living out of your vehicle? I think mine is big enough to where I can fit a military style duffel back on the side, but I'm not sure if that's efficient.

And what about separating the dirty clothes from the cleans?

I bought a fabric dirty clothes bag at Walmart. If you're not going to do laundry for extended times, then a mesh one would be better. When it's full that signals to me that it's time to find a laundromat!

I have: folded, rolled, and hung up. Folded or rolled doesn't make much difference to wrinkling. In my lowtop cargo van, I put up a clothes rod. Since you don't have room for clothes to hang down, I spent the extra for "HigherHangers" www.higherhanger.com -- the neck of the hanger is short. Now see if you can follow this: put shirt on hanger, fold sleeves in and sides if wider than hanger, starting at the bottom fold up about 5-6 inches at a time until your fold reaches the top of the hanger. Now once at the top, you must clip on both sides. Regular clothes pins are too tall. What I found that worked best were the small clips that you can find at Tractor Supply usually at the display at the register.

But, now my favorite way is to have drawers at the back of the van. I put plastic drawers across the back. They have to be short because I have a fantastic fan and an a/c in the backdoors where the windows used to be. I like this best, because it's like going to a closet and getting out your clothes. I especially like it because at a laundromat I take out as many armfuls as it takes and put them into their respective drawers. Like putting away laundry when you used to have a sticks and bricks!

I keep a spray bottle of wrinkle spray for when I take something out of the "closet" to use.
My only problem now is that my t-shirts are getting old by pilling. Know what I mean? In my sticks and bricks home, I never washed them with jeans and I never dried them. Now I do both and clothes are getting shabby. It's not in my budget to buy new clothing, not even at a thrift store. *And* I might also mention that when I first started I was buying a souvenir t-shirt from each location. I don't do that any more because they don't last. A sticker or magnet is a better souvenir, or better yet, photos!

 

[Janncwebb]

you care to elaborate on keeping the bugs away with dryer sheets? any particular scent bugs don't like? I heard spiders don't like mint; peppermint to be exact. but some other van blog says that's a myth. and what about scorpions? i suppose those are somethin' to beware of in AZ. any smells that will keep them away?
Rose

Have had zero problem with bugs. The only thing I ever see are small spiders.