Storage and kitchen stuff

Don't go mad buying too much at this stage until you've 'lived' with your van for a few trips and then you'll see better what you need.

Except for food, which I put in a large crate on the floor over the axle, everything stays in situ whilst travelling.  (My food cupboard is a top locker so I find it safer to keep it low for travelling.)

We use Melamine crockery - because it's too good to dump and we honestly don't mind it - and a small selection of ovenproof dishes/pans/trays.  All crockery lives in a top locker but in a fixed rack.  Pots and pans live in the cupboard underneath the cooker.  Cutlery lives in a drawer under the sink.

We keep decent quality acrylic drinking 'glasses' rather than carry anything which is real glass.  If we were starting out, we'd probably buy Corelle.

Don't carry large containers of shampool/washing up liquid/Aquakem liquids, etc., if you're only doing short trips. Use 'travel sizes' and refill them each outing.

Hope your wife enjoys doing her bit to ready the van for outings.  The 'inside' preparation is my job whilst OH does 'outside'.  

Like other people, heavy things like tins go under the bed, it's not uncommon for tins to fall out of high cupboards and damage work surfaces. Our pans are light weight ones from B&M, not expensive to buy or replace. We have gradually collected plastic jars which we use for storage instead of glass, we even dispense jams / marmalade etc into plastic tubs, that way most things are already in place when you arrive with less setting up to do. 

" I store lots of bits and bobs in those very cheap lightweight baskets both plastic and the nicer woven variety.  Open cupboards carefully when you arrive on site I know one family who did some damage to their small daughter's head when a tin of baked beans fell on her!  I have marked a work surface that way!  "

This is THE most important thing.

Never put tins or heavy things in a cupboard over the cooker, sink or worktop.

These  are very easily damaged if something leaps out of a cupboard when you open it.

Also, open the fridge very gingerly after arrival  on site.  I speak from experience!!

If you need to buy pots and pans, IKEA is a good source if you are within easy reach of a store.  Their mid range pans have a decent weight of base and you are less likely to burn food if the pan has a decent base.

Very cheap, lightweight pans are a false economy in our experience.

For frying pans, we have mid range Tefal ones.

We carry 2 smallish pans, 1 larger one that we rarely use, and 2 sizes of frying pan.

One idea could be to relegate your  older household ones to the caravan, if they are suitable,  and get new ones for use at home.

For convenience, try to give everything a logical ‘home’ and travel with it there. It will make things much easier as you don’t want to be moving things around each time you arrive or before setting out. Try to stack things so that they cannot move (forward) and are unlikely to fall out when a cupboard is opened. Pay respect to speed bumps.

You may have more difficulty if your layout has a rear end kitchen, in which case try to keep only light stuff in the top lockers. Those lockers are the wrong place for heavy items, which should be low and nearer the axle. Breakables could also get damaged in those lockers as they are subject to the most movement when travelling. Remember to load so as to maintain the correct noseweight. For that reason, I’d keep the contents of end kitchen cupboards constant and place the variables (items that change) nearer the centre if possible.

I wouldn’t mess with bubble wrap; towels are good for padding and have a double purpose. Camping gear is fine equipment to take. I used some for years before changing to stuff that was less practical but nicer to look at. Try to avoid cluttering yourself up with old things from the household that are “too good to chuck and might be useful”; only take what you need. I always have a small amount of emergency food, just in case. It seems to work well, as we’ve rarely needed it(!) but it’s comforting to know it’d be there if we did. A couple of tins of something, or dried food, plus a little long-life milk.

Being eager is natural but try to take your time, and allow your OH to keep up; this pastime is about relaxing. Good luck with your new toy; I hope you both get to enjoy it often.

Our caravan is in storage, too, so we have a 'caravan shelf' in the shed at home. Anything we buy for the caravan goes straight on there, as well as towels we have taken home to wash, replacement basics like oil, washing up liquid, coffee, etc. Then we just put the contents of the shelf in the car before we set off to pick up the van and that way we don't forget anything.

We too have to store our motorhome and anything that comes home after a trip such as towels, bedding,any containers for top ups etc get sorted and then put into a cupboard along with the collapsable containers in which we put our clothes/shoes in for transportation, they are collapsed once we've stored our bits and thus take up very little weight or space.  We use a cupboard for dirty linen and a large laundry bag which we transfer it into for bringing home.  Again stored in the motorhome cupboard.  I also leave our motorhome with a list of requisites and as they are gathered I add them to the cupboard - that way apart from fridge contents and clothing everything is in one place ready.  Avoids stress We like to be able to take off any enjoy as often and quickly as we can.

rule one: the heavier the item the lower down it is stored/ travels ( use a storage box for the tins etc which travels on floor and takes about five minutes to empty into a cupboard on site)

rule two: items which travel in situ are pinned down with rubber matting or soft items, also have racks for plates and cups (melamine), and keep glasses in a plastic box with lid

We are fortunate that the food cupboard next to the fridge is huge so that's where it all goes, except light things like crisps, biscuits and cereals, they go in a big top locker over the cab.

The pans (1 Medium, 2 small) live under the cooker, I made cloth bags for them out of old sheets, so they don't rub each other which means I can stack them inside each other. The electric kettle and chrome teapot also live under the cooker but they go into teacosies that I got cheap from a market. Crockery is Corelle and sits in a rack in top cupboard, mugs in cloth bags sit in mug rack. I made the bags as being a M/H we can hear them rattling. Fry pans small and med + electric one  and cooking trays live in oven again in cloth bags. 

The heaviest food and drink we take is drink (wines, spirits, mixers etc). It goes in a large picnic basket (with handles) that sits over the axles in the shower. Then unpacked into a cupboard on site, and the empty basket under the bed.

Glasses for the aforementioned go in a large Jacobs cracker box in a low cupboard with a few bits of kitchen roll. I break more glasses at home than away.

You lot seem to pay far more attention to food and crockery stowage than I do. Although some items tend to have a 'permanent slot' mostly stuff goes wherever there is a space.