A pop-up camper can suit the needs of anyone. However, with convenience, you can lose out on some things, and one of the most notable is space in your pop-up camper.
Since these camper trailers fold down for transport, they don’t offer the same built-in storage options as an RV or a solid-sided camper trailer.
Luckily, there are more than enough pop-up camper hacks to increase space once you are on site. In our guide, we have some of the best ideas and pop-up camper storage ideas, so your camping trip will be like any other.
By the end, you’ll see how to pack all your gear and how to organize yourself, so you have the most floor space inside your camping trailer. (Learn How to Prepare For Full Time RV Living)
How Do You Store Pots and Pans in a Pop-Up Camper?
The roof and sides of a pop-up camper fold down, unlike other travel trailers, motor homes, or other types of camping vehicles. You’ll find limited storage space when you tow your trailer one of the major downsides. The second is pop-up camper organization after you erect your camper.
Towing using a truck with a camper shell or using a van that offers storage space can make things far easier, yet you have storage options when you tow using a regular vehicle.
Here are some helpful tips on how to increase space in a pop-up camper to make it more comfortable for the entire family.
Your Towing Vehicle
You’ll need to move your gear before you can even set up your pop-up camper. The options you have here are your towing vehicle and the top of your trailer. To start, you have your roof and trunk and any spare space inside.
You can use a roof rack on your tow vehicle and also get roof racks for your camper. Using these offers an extensive amount of storage space for bikes or kayaks.
In your vehicle, you can use storage boxes and a trunk organizer to stay organized. You’ll need to grab things in the right order once you reach the campground and start to fill the space inside your camper.
Backseat organizers don’t waste passenger space, so use these to store items you need in your living space in your camper.
Using Storage Containers
Small storage containers are great for expanding space in your camper. They’re far superior to piling or cramming items onto your shelves or leaving them on your countertop.
After using, place things in their allocated container and make space available as you tidy in one action. Pots and pans are a good example after you have washed them. Another benefit of storage containers is they keep germs and insects away from your things.
Storage containers can easily increase space in your pop-up camper, even if they appear to use more space. (Learn How to Clean Underside of Camper Awning)
Make Use of Walls and Suction Cup Hooks
You will only have a few feet of stage space in your pop-up, so you need to maximize this storage area. Once you erect your camper, you have walls that will be bare and can be on the inside, and you can utilize outside if you have an awning.
Suction cup hooks are fantastic for hanging anything small, from your keys to your towel. It’s even possible to use some heavy-duty ones to hold net bags where you can cram even more stuff like dirty towels or kids’ toys.
Suction cup hooks are among the best tips for sticking to any smooth surface without tape or drilling holes.
Collapsible Items
If you learn anything with a pop-up, it is that it is collapsible. Take a hint and use these tips to follow with collapsible items. You will find bins, collapsible buckets, and you can even get a collapsible electric kettle and fold-away dish drying racks.
When you need to store items compactly when not in use, you can get quite inventive with your collapsible containers.
Foldable Pop-up Camper Shelving
Shelves are a fast way to get stuff away from your valuable floor space. When you can’t go wide, you go vertical. You can fit shelves to your walls or find fabric shelves you can hang from solid support and a hook to increase the space in pop-up campers.
You can hang these anywhere, and these don’t have to eat into your wall space as conventional shelves do to gain extra storage. You can fit clothes or store anything that is bulky and can’t fit in cupboard space.
Shoe Racks
Shoe racks are handy and inexpensive. You can find these you fasten to walls or over a door. Some are hook style, while others use pockets.
Even if you don’t take many pairs of shoes, you can use these pocket types to store anything else that takes up less space, and you need to keep close. Hang these anywhere, and you can pack quite a lot of stuff in them to help organize, and it saves wasting shelving for small items you need to keep out of the way.
Hammocks and Baskets
When you have fruits and veggies, rather than use a plastic container, you can hang a hammock under cupboards or shelves to save counter space. Mesh baskets are another option; they’re quick and easy to free up shelf and floor space without tools. (Read How To Hang A Kayak On A Wall)
As hammocks swing when your vehicle is in motion, you can use these to keep any breakable items from falling while driving to the campsite. Mesh baskets are great to roll up a sleeping bag or stuff pillows in during the day. You can even use them to hang outside if you have dirty clothes.
Tension Rods
Tension rods are fantastic bits of equipment when you use them in various ways. You can utilize them vertically or horizontally based on the space inside your camper. It is surprising how much extra storage space or hanging rack space you can create in your camper to save space on the floor and wall space for more important items. (Learn How Does An RV Refrigerator Work)
You can find some of these tension rods come with baskets and bins and are ideal for clearing clutter or keeping light supplies handy instead of wasting shelving. You can find this sort of thing used mainly in a bathroom to hold soap, shampoo, toothpaste, etc.
Horizontal rods that typically hold your shower curtain you can use to hold hooks, hanging baskets, and collapsible shelves. You can even use them to hang wet towels or create a rack or closet with hangers for hanging light clothing items.
Caddies
You can find spaces around your bed for caddies that can help to increase your storage space. Using these, you have a home for all your gadgets and things you need at night. You can also more robust caddies close to your kitchen area to store cleaning supplies, and stuff that isn’t suitable to be placed on hooks or that can fit on your wall.
Foldable Trash Cans and Bags
While out camping, you need plenty of garbage bags or plastic liners while on your camping trip. These can tackle up space when in packs, but you can get them in rolls and make a DIY bag holder.
Now, when you have dirty clothing or you need to clear some clutter, you can rip off a trash bag to put your items in to keep clutter under control. (Find the Best Pop Up Canopy)
It is easy to utilize a paper towel holder as a garbage bag dispenser to fit a roll of bags. Now, you have your bags and paper towels together to make use of the wall by your kitchen.
Can You Install a Bathroom In a Pop-Up Camper?
If you’re thinking of installing a toilet in your camper, consider that it’ll be expensive and time-consuming.
Therefore, rather than adding a bathroom, it is highly recommended that you acquire a pop-up camper that already has one. If you currently possess a pop-up camper and want to add a bathroom to it, you should start by gathering the necessary supplies. (Find the Best RV Portable Waste Tank)
Some pop-up campers come with a bathroom and a shower. Sometimes the toilet is a cassette toilet or a toilet visible in the main living space but hidden underneath a bedside table.
They work by opening a valve blade inside the bowl, which empties the contents of the bowl into the holding tank below.
Turn the flush knob several times to fill the bowl with water or open the valve blade, whichever you choose, to use the pop-up camper toilet. Your toilet should now be ready to use.