Packing for Winter
This is how we prepare our van for winter trips, ensuring that we are fully equipped to enjoy our adventures regardless of the weather conditions we might encounter!
At the end of the summer season, which typically follows our longer trip, I take the time to empty the entire van and prepare it for the upcoming Autumn and Winter months. This also allows us to give the hidden spaces a thorough cleaning, especially under the back seat, where it tends to accumulate a disgusting amount of crisp and biscuit pieces from the kids!
Once the van is empty, I can carefully pack the van with our winter supplies. We have limited space to work with, and packing for winter proves to be harder than the summer months since everything tends to be bulky and takes up more room. During the winter, we find ourselves spending more time inside the van due to the early onset of darkness. Therefore, space inside is crucial, and we can't have random boxes and bags cluttering up our seating and floor space. Trying to set up camp and manoeuvre around two kids and their car seats inside the van is already enough hard work; we certainly don't need the added challenge of shifting boxes and bags around! I always start packing from the front of the van and work my way to the back. I have finally found a space for everything and it works!
For winter in the cab of the van we keep:
First aid kit and medications in the drivers door.
Maps, guide books, lantern and torches in the passenger door.
Passports, documents, headlight repair kit and stickers, pens, and sick bags in the glove box.
USB chargers for phones, ipads and kindles in the ceiling pocket.
A food bag of snacks tucked under the front of the passenger seat and a handy pack of wipes in the dashboard cubby.
In the main part of the van:
The carseats are places strategically on the driver’s seat or on their sides behind the passenger seat. It depends how long we are staying somewhere and which carseats we have with us!
A small breakdown kit is kept under the driver's chair.
All shoes fit under the driver and passenger chairs.
A small oil heater and outdoor rug fits between the driver's chair and the unit.
Store as much food (and drink) as possible in the fridge to save room in the back!
The lower cupboard near the fridge stores the kids clothes, hats, gloves and helmets. They have one shelf each (we always pack enough and extra) with smalls packed into handy ikea laundry bags so nothing is loose!
The large upper cupboard sits next to the back seat. It has two sides and two shelves. The upper left shelf has a fold out mirror. I keep my clothes, hairdryer etc on this side. Steve takes the upper right shelf. We limit our clothes as they can always be washed. Our toiletry bags sit in the middle.
The lower right shelf of the large upper cupboard is home to 2 small ikea storage boxes containing batteries, chargers, incense, candles etc. We also have room here for the kids outdoor clothes such as waterproof trousers and coats. The lower left has two open boxes, one of games and one of kids toys. A selection of kids books and activities sits in the middle!
Under the back seat, at the right side, we store our bedding including 4 pillows, 2 sherpa throws (which fold small in their own sack) and 2 fleece throws. At the back of the left side we fit the kids sleeping bags.
We have a thin topper folded between the back seat with a bed sheet and fitted sheet. This makes night time so much quicker as the bed is already made! The pop top mattress also has a fitted sheet on ready for the kids to jump up with their sleeping bags and fleece blankets.
Under the back seat, at the left side, in front of the kids sleeping bags, Steve made a great space that hides the chemical toilet. It can slide easily from under the bed using a small door.
We have also fit nets to hold the kids bits and pieces whilst driving (kindles, drawing pad, head torches and teddies) and a few hooks for thier tonies boxes. One net is on the side of the cupboard and two are screwed to the wood panels on the sliding door side of the van.
Finally we have storage compartments in our sliding door. The top is filled with card games for on the go. The middle is home to toilet rolls, hand sanitiser, candles, matches and suncream (for snowboarding trips). The bottom is filled with wipes.
To access the back of the van we need to open the tailgate. Here, we can access the bottom of the large cupboard used for our clothes, kids toys and books etc. We call this cupboard the garage! We store:
Windscreen cover
Electric hookup cables
Chemicals for the toilet
Dustpan and brush
Snowchains
Walking boots
5l Large water bottle
Extra windscreen foils
Groundsheet
We have a built in unit under the back of the seat. This has a large cupboard for food on the left side. The right side pulls out on heavy duty hinges. This is where we do most of our cooking. In winter we take the electric hob and a handy jet boil (also, sometimes a toastie maker) which sits on the top shelf. Under is a cupboard containing:
Plates/bowls
Cutlery box
Mugs and 2 glasses
Stove top kettle
On the back of our large unit, above the door for the garage cupboard, we have hooks to store our towels.
For our longer trips we use a black Thule motion XL roof box. We use it to store:
Snowboards
Snowboard gear
Awning
All four bikes are on the back of the van using a black Thule Wanderway rack.
Any extra gear we decide to take e.g. an extra heater or heated throw will usually just be stored behind the back seat and brought forward as soon as we set up camp.
Happy Camping!