Motorhome packing guide: Proven strategies for a stress-free trip
Your payload is precious, keep an eye on what’s going in and you’ll be right as rain.
One of the most common mistakes made by motorhome travellers is to overpack. It can be quite a challenge to condense all of life’s essentials to a point where you won’t exceed your payload limit — the key is to remember that life on the road requires a different set of essentials.
To start with, it’s important to remember that you are camping. While it may not be the roughest form of camping, it is camping nevertheless and that means making do without certain luxuries.
These days it’s all too easy to get caught up in the hysteria of consumer excess without even realising. It’s not until you start questioning these notions that you can pare down your payload to the pure necessities.
Clothing
Worrying about the latest fashion styling is the last thing you need to do when camping. While you might throw in a nice set of clothes or two for a special night out or event, for the most part, nomad clobber simply requires equal parts comfort and utility. Plus, the heavy-duty washing machines found in caravan parks will shred delicate garments faster than a five-year-old with wrapping paper — so keep that in mind when choosing which of your favourite items you’ll bring along.
If you do include your ‘Sunday Best’, it’s worth choosing something that packs well without crushing, as you may not always have access to an iron or steamer.
The clothes you pack should be hard-wearing and versatile. You may need to cover a broad spectrum of conditions; in which case you’ll want to embrace the art of layering. Thermal underwear, an insulated layer and a shell jacket will keep you as warm as a heavy woollen coat, while each item can be used independently to cover a variety of situations. Embrace the kind of fancy performance fabrics used by outdoor equipment manufacturers, as they really do live up to the hype. Alternatively, seeing as high-tech fabrics can be prohibitively expensive, some folk will pack only clothes for the current season, then as seasons change drop into a charity shop where they’ll donate the old stuff and acquire all the gear they need for the coming season.
However, minimising your wardrobe should not be done to the detriment of hygiene. Be sure to pack plenty of underwear, socks and so forth, seeing as you may not always have immediate access to laundering facilities.
Clothing storage pods are a great way to keep your camping wardrobe under control — both in terms of quantity and organisation while on the road.
Some other necessities to ensure you leave room for are good walking shoes and a hat.
Kitchen
The key to a manageable camp kitchen is to call a spade a spade. While at home it’s nice to have the choice between a cereal, soup and dessert bowl, when you’re on the road one kind of bowl will do. And carry only enough dinner and glassware for the number of people who’ll be travelling with you.
Wherever you can, replace any glass and ceramic with plastic options. This will help cut down weight and also remove the worry about the items breaking while you’re travelling. The last thing you want to be doing after arriving at camp is searching your RV for shards of glass.
For those who prefer the feel of ceramic, choose your pieces carefully and ensure you pack them with just as much care. Non-slip mats on the shelves are a handy way to keep things from moving while in transit.
When it comes to cookware, it’s best to go for items that are lightweight and stackable — no matter how good a Le Creuset casserole might look perched on a Caesarstone benchtop, it has no place in an RV. A nesting pot set is ideal, and a chef’s pan (the kind with a little handle on both sides) will take up far less space than a long-handled pan.
And the kids?
Leaving your kids at home and calling it ‘weight reduction’ isn’t something we encourage, so don’t get the wrong idea. But extra travellers, particularly kids, do mean extra gear on board to account for.
The best thing about camping is that the great outdoors will provide a bounty of entertainment to keep you all busy, but it’s best to ensure you’ve got a well-chosen arsenal of toys or activities for when the mantra of ‘this is boring’ starts up.
You won’t be able to pack a whole crate of items, so before you head off, get the kids to pack a small box or bag of the toys they want to bring with them. This may take a little adult supervision, but things like toy cars, army men, favourite dolls and so on can provide hours of entertainment when combined with a little imagination.
And don’t forget the tried-and-true card and travel-friendly board games, particularly if you’ve got older kids. A standard deck of cards has endless opportunities, while Uno is an easy one for all ages.
You can also encourage the kids to keep a journal of the trip. A selection of arts and crafts supplies will contribute to this activity, which can be a good way to wind down at the end of each day.
Technology
The advent of digital music has made carrying your tunes with you easier than ever. Gone are the carefully chosen boxes of cassettes and folders of CDs in favour of smartphones and mp3 players.
Audiobooks are also available digitally and can be a great family-friendly activity while on long trips.
Similarly, many people will opt for an e-reader these days rather than lugging around a stack of hefty books. An e-reader will allow you to store hundreds of books, and even purchase more via the internet as you travel. Many also have clever lighting built in to allow you to read in low light without having to squint under the dim beam of a dying torch.
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