How I reorganized our van after living in it for a year
We haven’t changed too much in our converted RAM Promaster since we moved in full time last January. (How drastically can you really reorganize such a small space, anyway?)
But I do love our van home even more after I made a few tweaks to our storage system earlier this year. Here they are!
Why did I decide to reorganize?
On January 14th we woke up to a broken water pump. Turns out it was actually just frozen — it had gotten well below zero overnight, and we forgot to open our water cabinet to the main living area for ventilation — but I was stressed all the same until it finally thawed.
In an effort to reclaim my space, I decided I’d go through everything we owned and optimize where it was stored. (That sounds like a large undertaking until you remember that “everything we own” fits in less than 70 square feet of space.)
I’d also just finished reading Spark Joy by Marie Kondo. I never got too into her Netflix show or the overall hype of a few years ago, so I surprised myself by how thoroughly I enjoyed this little guide.
I felt so inspired that I tried to refold my clothes while Sean was still driving that first night, resulting in one of my first-ever bouts of motion sickness. Oops. (Do not recommend. Stay seated and buckled up when moving, even if you are only going 15 miles per hour on back forest roads.)
Our van’s layout and storage options
The “main living area” of our van consists of a small fridge, an under-sink cabinet with some space around our gray water tank, two cabinets above the sink, and three drawers beneath our induction stovetop. We also have some shallow storage above the cab itself on one flat shelf.
In the middle of our van there are two floor-to-ceiling cabinets. One of these is divided in half, our pantry with three shelves on the left and our closet with a hanging rod on the right. The other, across the “hall”, is our shower.
At the back of our van we have a fixed bed. Above it, at the foot, are two cabinets. Below it we have our electrical cabinet, water cabinet, and Scout’s travel crate, which leaves us some “garage” space.
How I categorized our belongings
My favorite idea from Spark Joy was putting belongings into categories first as opposed to just focusing on where stuff already lives and then trying to tidy up room by room (or in a van, area by area).
Categorization arguably matters less in our tiny home than if we lived in a bigger space. Everything is pretty much always within reach anyway! But it still makes me feel more put together mentally — and even though I thought our routines were pretty efficient after 12 months on the road, it turns out a few simple adjustments did make a difference.
I ended up loosely conceptualizing things as:
Cleaning supplies (sprays, laundry detergent, etc)
Cooking supplies (things we use to make food)
Dishes and food storage (what we eat or drink out of and with, how we store leftovers)
Food itself
Books
Electronics (laptops, extra cords, etc)
Clothes (regular, daily wear stuff)
Personal cleaning supplies (soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc — things used in conjunction with water)
Skincare and hair/nail supplies (daily sunscreen, hair ties, nail file, etc)
Rarely used items and extras (winter coats, backup blankets, etc)
Tools and “garage” stuff (tool kits, free weights, lawn chairs, etc)
The front of our van: Kitchen, living room, pantry
Underneath the sink
Here we’ve got our gray water tank, our eight-gallon garbage can, and two stacked bins. The bottom one has some miscellaneous extras (backup shampoos, menstrual products, etc) and medicine. The top one has our cleaning supplies and garbage bags for easy access.
Drawers beneath the stovetop
Our top drawer has silverware and cooking utensils. (My milk frother has a place of honor where it’s completely secure from getting knocked around as we drive.)
Our middle drawer stores two nonstick pans and our cast iron skillet, one pot, our kettle, our coffee grinder, our pour over coffee dripper, and our splatter screen.
Our bottom drawer fits our instant pot, three cutting boards, and our electric hand mixer. The one “out of place” object here is our humidifier tucked into the corner — I previously had it under our sink behind the garbage can, but it was a bit of a hassle to get in and out.
Kitchen cabinets above the sink and counter
Our 700 watt microwave takes up most of the space in our left cabinet, though next to it we also have our internet modem (cords run from our Starlink satellite on our van’s roof to our router attached to the ceiling) and a bin of cords. We tried to keep electronic-y things together here.
Our right cabinet has two shelves. The top is filled with a few bowls, four mugs, a small sauce serving dish, and two glass tupperware containers. The bottom has aluminum foil and storage bags, extra dish sponges, my candle (I almost always have one on hand) with lighter for easy reach, and extra paper towels.
My favorite part of our kitchen is our “bookshelf” atop the kitchen cabinets. We mostly read on Kindles nowadays, but a few special hard-copy books made it into our tiny home. They’re secured with grippy rubber lining and have never fallen off!
Floor-to ceiling pantry
The top shelf here houses some extra towels and pillow cases.
The next two shelves store all our non-perishable and keep-at-room-temperature food, including (in rough order of importance ) coffee, chocolate chips, tea, onions, and spices. Sometimes it gets a little crowded immediately after a shopping trip — the below photo was taken about halfway between buying groceries and needing to restock.
The bottom shelf has all of Scout’s supplies.
Above the cab
Our rarely used items and extras (winter coats, backup blankets, that sort of thing) live up above the cab along with our window covers.
The back of our van: Bathroom, closet, bed
Shower cabinet
Our shower has three hooks for towels or swimsuits. In the cabinet itself we installed a permanent caddy holding shampoo and razors (things we only use when actually showering all the way) on the left-side door we have a bamboo holder with toothbrushes, toothpaste, and face wash (things we use daily).
Floor-to-ceiling closet
We store hanging clothes on the rod here. Beneath them, in the way back, is our laundry hamper; in front of that is our shoe rack, which is topped with our sock bin. My bras and underwear sit in a smaller fabric organizer on top of my half of the sock bin.
I’ve also got two mini bamboo holders here for skincare and hair/nail supplies — things that I don’t use with water, like daily sunscreen, hair ties, nail file, earrings, an easy-to-access small stash of menstrual products, etc.
Cabinets above the foot of the bed
The rest of our clothes live in these cabinets at the foot of our bed. We each have our own — shown below is mine, only partially given away by all the yellow
Underneath the bed
Our tools and “garage” stuff — like a tool kit, drill, free weights, lawn chairs, portable fire pit, outdoor blanket, extra toilet paper, two backpacks, etc — fit here around Scout’s crate and our water & electrical cabinets.
My biggest van life storage secret (is this where I ironically put the symbol?)
Okay, here it is, you’re never going to believe it: My best advice for storing things in a small space like a converted van is to simply not have a lot of stuff.
There. That’s it. That’s the post.
In all seriousness, we do fit plenty in our home on wheels. I’m continually shocked by how much we can squeeze in when needed! But we’re all — me, Sean, even Scout — happier when we limit our belongings to what we actually use day in and day out (or perhaps week in and week out, understanding that routines always fluctuate a little).
We embarked on this lifestyle in large part to live more simply and be more present. Letting go of material things is at the core of that for me.