How to do Clothes Storage Camping

Clothes storage camping - post describes how to store clothing when on a family camping trip

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How to do clothes storage camping?  That is a question that actually did keep me up the other night.  This may seem slightly bonkers, but if you have ever gone on a family camping trip for more than a few days with a plan for camping clothes storage then I know you know that it just ends up with clothes all over the place and no one knowing what is clean, dirty or otherwise…

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If you have been family camping and felt like you spent much of the trip picking up after everyone or searching for your kids clothes in bag after bag then this is the post you need!  Or maybe you haven’t been camping before and you are just wondering where can I store my clothes when camping?  Well either way read on – oh and if you are new to camping you also need to check out our Ultimate Family Camping Checklist

Clothes storage camping

Maybe having everything just shoved in one bag as your clothes storage camping solution is fine for a couple of days, but this summer we are heading off for 3 weeks in our tent and thought of spending much of my holiday sorting and resorting clothes is not a fun one so I have been doing the research, I have been trying the products out and am bringing you the ultimate list of how to do clothes storage camping after all we are all about making family camping easy and it isn’t easy if all you do is tidy up clothes!

Camping Clothes Storage Ideas 

 Clothes storage Boxes

The first item on my camping clothes storage ideas list is the wardrobe storage box.  These are not designed for camping, but they are just perfect for it.  Many are designed for long term clothes storage so they are waterproof or at least water resistant and sturdy.  This style of clothes storage for camping is easy to assemble with a wired frame inside the box that you can just pull up and engage to lock in place when you need to use them.  I like these as each child can have their own and with the one I have shown below you also get an internal adjustable divider that means you can sort the clothes more easily and help your children to stay organised on family camping trips.

My advice on using this type of box for your camping clothes storage solution is to check that the one you choose can be stacked and has a front opening like the one below as otherwise they are not very practical for multiple children to use and there will be rows over whose stuff has to go in the bottom one.  

The downside of these boxes is that you have to take your clothes in a separate bag and unpack and that the internal spaces are large so there is a potential for everything to just be thrown in and still be chaos – but at least it isn’t all over the tent!!

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Car boot storage boxes

This is what we always use for our clothing storage camping if we can’t fit in our camping cupboards and I think they are just perfect for the job especially if you don’t have a lot of space as they fold up really small and set up is a simple as undoing velcro and folding down the support inserts.  It is a less than 30 second job. 

Potentially, if you had space in the car, you could pack all of your clothes into one of these boxes and then just carry it in to your tent ready to use with all the clothes already sorted.  Sadly we don’t have space for this so I have to pack in the roof  box bags and transfer once we have set up the tent.

I recommend getting the slightly more expensive car boot boxes as they are sturdier so won’t collapse as clothes are taken out.  I also recommend getting ones with lids on. Again these are more expensive, but you can put the lids down and even if your kids have just thrown all their clothes around the box the lid can be shut and you don’t have to look at the chaos!!  

The other reason I like these boxes for clothes storage camping is that they have dividers included so that you can organise your clothes more like you would at home perhaps with T shirts in one section, underwear in another and so on.   This will help to keep things organised especially if the division of items is clear to your kids as it is a pattern they can follow.

Storage tents

You may prefer to have your camping clothes storage be a product designed specifically for camping. We have two of these storage tents;  one for clothes inside and one for shoes under the awning outside.

These storage tents are super practical if you don’t have a lot of space and are going family car camping as they use poles so they are very small once collapsed.  The downside of that is that you have to connect the poles so they aren’t as quick to assemble as the boxes above, but I like them as a solution for the adults especially as it keeps your clothes in something more akin to shelves at home.  We have a large tent as we are a family of 6 and our bedroom has space to have one of these in it, but it wouldn’t work for the kids bedroom areas so we are sticking with the car boot boxes for their camping clothing storage solution.

We 100% recommend getting one of these storage tents for your outside area as having shoes coming inside the tent is a mess waiting to happen.  Setting up a storage tent like this means your shoes are off the floor away from bugs crawling in them at night, but also you always know where they are.  We put this right at the entrance to the tent so that it is easy to get your shoes as you step out.

TOP TIP:  Put a sand free mat right next to your shoe storage so that no one tracks stuff into the tent once they have removed their shoes.

We also put the kids games and colouring stuff into the outdoor storage tent to keep the clutter under control and out of the main part of the tent.   Just make sure the one you get is waterproof before doing this if it is not going to be undercover. Having a place for everything makes such a difference to everyone’s experience as that is one of the tricky things about camping – where do you put everything?  No one wants to spend their whole trip falling over one another’s stuff or searching for things constantly so even though it may seem like overkill having set places for everything on a relaxed family camping trip; believe me it will make it the relaxed trip you want.

Camping Cupboards and Wardrobes – clothes storage for camping

If you have the space then investing in a camping cupboard or wardrobe is totally worth it.  Having things in a cupboard is the best solution for camping clothes storage, but because these products have metal collapsible frames whilst they do fold down they are still quite big and so hard to take if you don’t have a huge car or a van.

This is the one we have and I love it! 

The table top is great for putting all the toiletries on and then I put all of the grown ups clothes inside it along with additional items like battery packs, sunglasses etc…  It is perfect and having it raised from the floor means that it is the right height and all in all feels way more glamping than camping, but it is big and I know, for example, we won’t be able to take it when we go for 3 weeks as that would mean leaving the paddleboards behind.

I am considering trying this inflatable wardrobe from Decathlon though…

Inflatable Camping Wardrobe

Hangable Clothes Storage Camping

This option is great if you have a framed tent that you can hang things from the poles.  We have an air tent and whilst we do use some hanging storage so that the overhead space isn’t completely wasted it is difficult to do as you can’t hang too much weight on the air beams without causing sagging and who wants to risk an airbeam deflating?

However, if you are able to hang one of these packing and clothes storage solutions they are awesome as you simply pack at home and then unfold the bag and hang it when you arrive and your already sorted and ready to hit the pool!

Speaking of hitting the pool a top tip for clothes storage camping is to keep the stuff you are going to use everyday like swimmers on a summer holiday accessible and not in with the other clothes as if your kids are like mine then they will throw out all their other clothes in order to get to a swimsuit or leave the wet suit on top of their dry clothes…

Bring a laundry basket

My last tip for helping to make your clothes storage easy when camping is to bring a laundry basket.  We all use them at home so it isn’t a stretch for anyone to put dirty clothes into one and having one place to put dirty clothes removes the temptation for the kids to just drop them where they stand.

If you need to do a wash whilst you are away on a longer camping trip I recommend something like this:

It can just sit in the corner of the tent and be closed up with the draw string and then carried to the washing area when the time comes.  If we are just doing a short trip I tend to just use one of the holdalls that we bring the clothes in so that I can just pack it straight up and carry it to the washing machine when we get home.

I quite often also take a second one of these baskets and I put it in the kids room in the tent with the toys they have brought with them in it.  

So there you have it my favourite and (in my opinion) the best solutions for clothes storage camping.  These storage solutions will help you feel like your family camping trip is a holiday and not just a chore.  You will know where your clothes are and more importantly, perhaps, so will your kids so you can spend less time helping them find their pants in a jumbled bag and more time relaxing, enjoy being outdoors and making memories.