31 Useful Packing Hacks for Camping 'The Easy Way' To Organize a Small Camper

Our top camping tips on how to pack for camping in a trailer and stay organized. These camping hacks for beginners and seasoned campers will help you get on the road faster, reduce your stress, and make packing and unpacking effortless. Camp organization does not have to be a chore!

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro
0:49 Dedicated camping gear
1:45 Camping checklist
2:05 Over the sink multipurpose roll-up dish drying rack
2:39 Labeled camping gear
2:58 Dedicated locations for camping gear
3:46 See-through plastic bins
4:37 Compression packing cubes
5:39 Small camper community shirts
6:23 Washing camp clothes
7:40 Tailgater tire table
9:58 How to pack a trailer
11:11 Camp shoe storage
11:37 Cabinet Organization
12:19 Nesting items
12:36 Camper drawers
12:49 Rubber bands
13:10 Camp plates with high rims
13:38 Drawer dividers
14:28 Field guides
15:03 Compact toilet for vintage trailer owners
15:16 Multiple trips before buying philosophy
15:22 Storing fishing gear
15:37 Vertical slide out storage
15:50 Shallow bins
16:11 X-Large zip-lock bags
16:34 Shop rags
16:47 Low water dish washing solution
17:05 Stacking bins
17:22 Floor tie-downs
17:52 Shoe organizers
18:21 LED puck lights
18:32 Items with multiple duties
19:17 Shower caddy
19:27 Plano trunk bins

ITEMS MENTIONED in videos and SHIRTS below. We do get a small kickback from amazon for any purchases you make using these affiliate links. By purchasing items through them there is no additional cost to you. Our family does receive a small percentage from items you purchase.

Tie-Down Tracks (E-tracks wider, but lower profile, L-track thinner, but taller)

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[metaxaanabeer]

One packing or unpacking tip I read about and used in our Teardrop was to place a small strip of green painter's tape on everything. Well except maybe your cutlery! Then, over a camping season each time you used something you removed the tape. At end of season you remove anything that still has tape on it. We often pack stuff we don't need, just in case. Don't remove your recovery gear even if it still has tape on it!

[BloomByCC]

Was just looking at melamine plates from target for $50+, went to thrift and got very similar plates in the colors I wanted for about $5... WITH matching tumblers 👍

[truneilson]

I love that you said to get thrift store gear for your camper...I have done this a few times or myself and friends. Its the best adn for $50 bucks you can be set.

[Raymasseyus]

I am loving your videos. I spent a few years living and traveling around in a 15 foot 1977 sunline trailer. It was a 6 and 1/2 by 12 foot box. The whole trailer without battery or propane weighed 1645 lb. It listed at 2500 lb capacity so I could carry 900 pounds worth of junk. I didn't carry that much but the extra capacity came in handy when I wanted to carry additional freshwater propane or anything else. I kept reading about people full timing and saying you had to have a minimum 25 or 30 foot RV. You do not. I bought it for $500 including a refrigerator, a furnace with no fan so there was no battery necessary. The fridge run on propane as well. It was easy to charge the laptop and my phone and that was all I had to do. I used a lot of the tricks that I see in your videos but I see you have some more. It makes me happy to see that Shasta. If you ever get a chance for a sunline take a look. It might not handle the rough roads with the 13 in tires and a very low clearance underneath. I also cracked the floor on one giant pothole in Philadelphia. But it was fantastic for on-road use and of course I took it off road anyway. Just on dirt roads. I currently have a 5 by 8 cargo trailer that I have been thinking about either converting or using for camping. I like it better than the bed of the truck because I can have a permanent set up that I can just hitch up and drive away with also a 6-foot bed is pretty small but still useful for some trips. I am enjoying your videos immensely please keep them coming. I'm adapting the ideas for small trailer camping with the cargo trailer. Though it doesn't have the same classic design it's effectively a small camping trailer. I found that the 6 and 1/2 by 12 was almost too big. And I didn't really need that much space although it was nice to have. I just slept on the foam seats that made up mattresses that were there for the trailer. I had to switch from the couch to the bed table every other night but it worked. Sorry for the long post. He brought back a lot of memories. Incidentally when I was camping it was only 10 years ago so that 1977 was still pretty old. But what a great camper it had a 12 volt and 110 volt system. Which I thought was better than any inverter. And it had none of the modern systems that keep going wrong in the new RVs. Thanks for reading and thanks for the great videos.

[carlpretorius]

I am from South Africa and it is quite obvious that we camp in different environments, nevertheless I enjoy your videos tremendously!
Your vids are to the point, concise and much may be learnt from it. We do not have bears here but predators like lion and hyena may be encountered. None of the mentioned animals are more or less dangerous than the other but nature is to be respected. It is very educational to see how you guys camp in Alaska. Warm regards and happy camping!

[Dan_TheMedievalGuild]

May I offer a couple of suggestions for the toilet situation? One is get one of those one man pop up tents and use a collapsible toilet in it. It's the same principle of the bucket you are using but offers privacy and the ability to collapse the entire toilet system, including the bucket. Also, for an emergency pee system at night, you can use some of those bedside hospital urinals. They are small and even have lids to prevent smells from overpowering the bucket. You can even keep one or two of those in the pop up toilet tent for disposal at your convenience instead of finding that private little place right away. The only thing is, the pop up tent would have to be put up outside because they can take up some room when popped up. But they are compact when folded down. I camp out the old fashioned way when I get a chance but your tips and ideas can still be used by someone like myself. Great video!

[saltlifemom]

The majority of my Dedicated camper gear, especially kitchen items actually came from decluttering my own home. It was incredible how many duplicate or even triplicate items I had and really didn't need in one space. I was able to stock my camper with a ton of basics prior to heading to the thrift store to fill in the gaps. It saved so much money but also as you stated, having dedicated gear is essential to easing the burden when prepping a trip. When you are already set up to go life is good. Now I don't have dedicated clothing etcetera but essentially everything else is. I only pack clothes, additional toiletries and electronics. At some point either just after or just before a trip will do a quick inventory on shelf stable foods, toiletries & cleaning products to see if they need rotated or topped off. I also end my trips with a good clean up and laundry for all bedding/towels so the camper is good as new and our next trip is no longer a huge stressful ordeal.

[ERICSHELLY]

So happy to just find your channel. May Jesus continue to bless you and your family

[krisg]

Just went camping (tent) and this topic is so true. Not much fun “working” so much just to run out of time, then pack it up again. I learned this on my trip and currently working this out.. not in a mini camper. . Don’t have a garage or yard

[mikemead]

I need to look at shop towels. I use the Walmart big economy packs of washcloths. Stacks of them. Slightly color coded (white for dishes). I use them as dish washing/drying towels, hand towels, washcloths, and the marginal ones are used as rags, vibration dampeners, and dust covers. The big benefits are storage space clean and dirty, always tons of clean dry towels available, and ease of washing.
I need to look at shop towels for their tight weave, larger area, and maybe better longevity.
Or have both😃

[dorvinion]

Dedicated items helped us out a lot.

One thing we've started to do to make packing easier is establish a standard camp menu with quantity of each necessary ingredient to make each item once for all of us.

The camp menu is limited to a handful of items that are easy to prepare in camp.
Our current menu has 3 breakfast options, 2 lunch options, and 4 dinner options.
The limited menu means we can keep our cooking utensils and cooking vessels limited to just those necessary to make the things on our menu.

Once you've figured out your standard camp menu its easy to stock up the night before.
Decide from the menu how many of each meal you want, and do simple math to figure out how much of each ingredient to get so you don't have too much, or too little of an ingredient.

Fancier version could probably be made on a spreadsheet to spit out a shopping and packing list.

[Hogprint]

Lowe’s hardware took over the Craftsman series after Sears went under. They sell the black foam rubber mats for their tool boxes. A roll is around $15-20 but you could cut it to size and use that for your drawers. A roll would go a long way in a small teardrop or even something bigger.

[SharonRepici]

Old video but still very helpful. We are currently moving from a 34’ Class C to a 5x13 teardrop. We had dedicated gear in the class C, but some things are just too big for our little Willie (named for our late pup who hated but loved camping.) Organization is key and we’re going so far as to weigh everything going in or on, like the awning with a luggage scale and maintaining a list.

[guyh.]

With you living in Alaska, nearly everything you talked about applies to us in the Pacific Northwest! Labeling: Great idea! Aesthetics: People, YOU'RE CAMPING! It's not a glamor trip! Ha ha ha ha! Love the compression sack idea! Love the Tail-Gater table! Thinking about building one. Love having the guide's in the camper. Tie downs! Amazing, great idea! Good video!

[justinfowler]

I use those LED headlamps all the time. A word of advice find a way to keep the batteries out of the lamp. LED lights will drain your batteries. It would suck to get to camp in the middle of the night and your light is dead. Just rubberband them to the lamp.

[cheryllapham]

Great video. I just bought some flat clear bins for in the under-floor storage in my teardrop. My tip is to annotate your master gear list with where you stored things. Some of my storage is hard to access, so it’s good to know the extra blankets are deep behind the headboard before I start digging everywhere.

[teresameyers]

Mr. Charles Moman was my music teacher in elementary school. He is an amazingly talented individual as well.

[kimberlyc]

Dollar tree sells rolls of rubber backing. I think it's about 15 ft but I cut mine in strips I don't have to use a whole 10 by 12 piece and it works.
I also purchased two metal 6 or 10 inch cake pans from Dollar tree to use as our full plates.
We also have the plastic ones from walmart. But I like the metal ones because they wiped clean
Great video. I'm loving learning from you

[jennifercrull]

I'm calling dollar store options for quite a few things... Love the Ziploc bags and suction cup caddies

[yeseniamyunfilteredlife]

My bf and I have been camping in a tear drop trailer for the past 7 yrs and it was great but we need an indoor bathroom now. We get our new micro lite trailer in 3 weeks and I can’t wait to use so many of your great tips. Thanks 😃