No camping last weekend, sad face. So thought it might be a good time to share ideas on storage and how to deal with the space limitations of teardrop camping. Weekend before last we saw Mark and Cheryl, the lovely people who build Travelbug pods, and while chatting G mentioned that shoes at night time are a problem if you just stop for a quick stop and don’t want to pull out the awning or tent. Leaving them on the wheel hub runs the risk of them getting wet, if it rains and shoving them under the pod leaves them available to creepy crawlies to shelter in. Mark gave us the answer and it is such an obvious one, we should have thought of it; a couple of plastic craft boxes, put shoes in those, with lids on, no danger of rain or creepy crawlies and when we are not in pod, shoes can stay in box on the bed. The crazy thing is we both take two pairs of shoes, one quick slip on pair for late night runs to the bathroom and something more sturdy for everyday use, like bush walking. I am not keen on having to pull on socks then my big boots every time I wake up in the middle of the night to do the loo dash.
The escape pod is pretty well equipped with storage given the size, we have two fairly generous cupboards at the end of the bed. We permanently keep wet weather gear, togs and some clothing basics, in the cupboards, additionally basic toiletries also live permanently in the cupboards . The pod also came with a small cargo net under the window on one side and a small pocket on the other side, we added some extra small cargo nets, one on the opposite side and two in the ceiling, that gave us a bit of extra storage. We added a small slide out shelf under the cupboard, so we can put a laptop there if we are watching a movie. Our power access points, both for phone charging and the mains for laptops are inside the cupboards so G put in some small holes in the cupboard doors, to run the cables through and in the case of phone chargers used Velcro hook and loop to secure the cables to the top of the wall, keeping everything tidy.
Velcro loops are also secured to the top of the wall to secure our phones, easy to reach, easy to see. Velcro hook and loop seems to be the teardrop equivalent of duct tape, you can use it for everything. We also use it to help secure the tent wall to the outside of the pod, we discovered the windy weather caused some issues with the tent but Velcro fixed everything. It also helps secure our improvised cover for the kitchen. Duct tape is no longer the only stand by for camping emergencies, Velcro is just as useful and is now a permanent part of our kit.
Our little pod is the smallest in the Travelbug range,but the kitchen is still very generous, the bulk is taken up with a fridge and and the under bench storage for pans, extra water and at the moment, the gas bottle, that we will eventually move to an external bracket. Our gas stove fits comfortably in front of the fridge and we have also added wooden boxes to contain bottles of wine and the fire extinguisher. Our sliding shelves hide crockery and the main pantry, between the fridge and pantry it is amazing how much food we can actually carry. When we did the three week trip, earlier this year, we put another ‘pantry’ box in the car just in case.
I would love to hear how people deal with space constraints either camping or in teardrops. I am sure there are lots of ideas out there, anyone have any great tips, please leave a comment if you have a space saving idea.
Gum trees and Galaxies 