ORGANIZATION

A guide to how we organize our tiny 60sq ft home on wheels.

The golden rule of van organization:

STORE IT WHERE YOU USE IT

This has been our thought process of the whole build. Where are we using this item? We’ll lets build it a home right there.

Since Scott and I built the van, we made a point to first choose what containers we wanted to use, and then build the storage compartments around those items. Things fit the way they do because the van was designed to fit them perfectly. Another great reason to do your own build.

Our main storage locations are:

7- 36″ Overhead Cabinets
1- 70″ Overhead Shelf
12- 21″ Drawers
1- 4ft Gear Drawer
3- 21″ Cabinets
3- Bins under the Kids Seat
2 large compartments under the bench seat.

FOOD – WATER – COOKING ITEMS

Organizing food a van kitchen is a ongoing process every time I go grocery shopping. The reason is because I don’t buy the same kind of food every time. Food is different widths and heights which when dealing with limited space requires me to move things around every time we go shopping. So if you like puzzles and tetris, you’ll love living in a van. Luckily, I love both of those things. It’s fun for me to put things away, it’s like i’m playin’ a game every time. haha

However, we do have certain places that things go, and I can explain what I use and how I organize our tiny space.

KITCHEN OVERHEAD CABINETS: We try to keep our lighter items up top. We also have a new rule of NO GLASS. We had an accident with Cholula Hot Sauce that fell out because we didn’t completely close the door and it fell out and exploded all over the floor! I thought the carpet was going to be ruined, but thankfully we got it all out.

STORAGE CONTAINERS: I only purchased 4 different storage containers that we use to organize our items in the van. We keep our spices in the ikea variera boxes that have handles and fit them perfectly. We positioned the shelf to fit this bin and the spices so it sits perfect and tight.

The Ikea Kuggis bins for Lillians bed and they fit perfectly underneath the kids van seat. SCORE! We use these for Lillians personal items, maps and homeschooling books.

Lilians Bed storage: 1: 14.5×21 – 2: 7x10x3 1: 10x14x3
Under the Right Seat: 1: 7x10x3 + 1: 10x14x6
Under the Middle Seat: 1: 14.5×21
Under the Left Seat: 1: 14.5×21

Ikea also has these in a pretty mint green and robin blue. They’ve been great!

We use Ikea Drawer Storage Box Bins to organize compartments in our larger drawers for snacks, chips, granola bars, fruit snacks. I try to take food out of the boxes and put it in these bins to save room

My favorite containers in the kitchen are our Oxo Pop Containers. They’re square, fit tightly together, seal out moisture, and are just nice. We purchased our set from Costco, but they offer them at Amazon as well. Again we built our drawers to fit these perfectly.

TOILETRIES: This is where we did something a little different. We made drawers under our sink. Typically people keep this area open so you have plenty of room for your water to drop down in water bins. That just seemed like wasted space for us. We learned in our last van that drawers are key. They give you accessible organization. I wanted to have as many drawers as we could fit. So we made drawers under the sink, but not only normal drawers.. we made a cute little 8″ drawer with a 2″ side. Just perfect enough to cut in front of our sink and down the bottom before it hit the drawer below it. Everything is super tightly built to maximize space. And boy do I love it. Opening this cute little drawer just makes me happy. It gives us the perfect space for all of our toiletries. It was worth the extra time to figure it out and build it.

CUTTING BOARD HIDDEN POCKET: Scott’s favorite special touch he built is the cute drawer that hides under the fridge that stores our cutting boards. We had about 3″ we needed to lift the fridge to be higher so he made a cute drawer that stores those. It’s been working great.

WATER CONTAINERS: Our water containers are stored under our passenger side seat bench. We have 4- 6 gallon water containers that we store our fresh water in. They measure 10x11x16. We then have 1- 2.5 gallon container that sits behind the toilet under the sink. Our original plan was to use the white 5g container you see in this picture. However, we couldn’t get the water to flow all the way back to the back so now we only have 1 2.5g one that drops straight down.

CLOTHING – SHOES:

Our clothing is stored in 3 different locations. We each have our own personal cabinet/drawer.

Mine and Scott’s Clothes are stored in the Dinette’s overhead cabinets. Right over where we sleep. They measure around 43″x15″x15″. We roll our clothes small and stuff them in simple Ikea Drawer Storage Bins. There is also room on the sides for our journals, books and personal items.

The kids clothes are stored in the top drawers in their bunk bed compartments, again right where they sleep. They each have their own drawer that measures 20″x24″. Once again, we roll their clothes and stuff them in Ikea Drawer Storage Bins.

I also require their home schooling items to be stored in their drawer as well.

All of our winter jackets are stored behind the kids seat on a 3 prong hook. We each have our own hook so the 3 prong is great. We each have 5 jackets: rain, light down, full down, wind, & fleece.

Our shoes used to be stored under the kids seats in a 14×5″ Ikea Kuggis bins, however once Covid-19 hit we moved our shoes and filed those bins with more food so we don’t have to go to the store as much and for emergencies. Our main shoes are now stored under mine and Scott’s seats, and our extra shoes (water/snow) are stored under the bench compartment by the water. We actually like these new places and will probably keep it like this because it provides more storage. The bins under the Spinter Bench seats are easy to pull in and out.

GAMES – GEAR – TOOLS

Our games are stored in the small drawer that is located in the bunk bed storage drawers. We also keep all of our markers and homeschooling supplies here as well. It is amazing how many games we are able to fit. Skipbo, Uno, Dos, Yatzee, CampSee, 2 decks of cards, 3 board games: Catan, Sorry, and a history game. We have a tally going for who wins along the trip. The person with the most wins a trophy!

Our gear we have a 4ft gear drawer that pulls out the back of the dinette that is on sliders. Our Snow Peak Table is also tucked into a hidden shelf that sits above the dear drawer. They all lock up tight with out Southco latches.

BACKPACKS: (DAY & BACKPACKING) We store these in our overhead shelf compartment that we built over mine and Scott’s seat.

AWNING ROLLER AND WINDOW COVERING: We created a very small pocket above the sliding drawer that stores our thin long items: awning roller and wiffle bat as well as our window covering for that window. Store it where you use it! store these in our overhead shelf compartment that we built over mine and Scott’s seat.

Electronics & Photography: All of our electronics, usb cables, drone, cameras, lens, tripod are stored in the larger overhead cabinet above the kids seat. We made a special shelf at the top that fits the tripod and Lillians art easel perfectly. It allows us to have those 2 items up top and bins at the bottom to organize. This also has a Southco key lock so we lock it up whenever we leave the van.

ORGANIZATION GALLERY:

There are 2 pages of pictures. Make sure to click the #2 at the bottom to view the complete build.

We listed a few details of what we did at the bottom of each picture. If you have any questions about this build feel free to reach out to us.