We have a caravan and like to keep everything lightweight and tidy so definitely another vote for packing cubes. Especially one each for underwear and socks.
We have already pinched an idea from someone else's comments to use the gauze veg bags for socks and underwear as they are sheer and you can see in them and can squeeze the bags easily into the space we have - I love sharing ideas with the community - we learn so much too! We are ordering some packing cubes for our trip backpacking in Thailand particularly - thanks 😊
Definitely on our list - I will have to colour code them though so I know what I am grabbing! We love the golden hour and we had a pretty fab view too!
Emergency Food - we carry some Parsley Box meals which can be heated up on the stove or if at a site microwaved in a wee kitchen. Tastier than Wiltshire and do not need to be frozen so just in a cupboard. They usually have at least a 6 month shelf life. Favourite is Chicken Tikka.
Packing cubes shout out, again 😀 We have two sets, different colours. Game changer. Try Tesco vegetarian Bolognese in a tin, brilliant for camping. There is also a wider range including meat products. Great quality and reasonable, we needed an emergency meal on our way south two weeks ago, tin of Tesco VB, a packet of Bachelor's golden vegetable dried rice, frozen peas, left over lentils, greated cheese, yummy ❤️🚐😀 Great video as ever. xxx
Thanks Janet- we have had our eyes opened to the tinned food emergency options. Great shout out for Tesco and their range. Packing cubes are seemingly becoming inevitable- thinking of investing for our Thailand backpacking trip👍 Thanks as ever for your kind words.
Don’t buy the cheapest packing cubes as the zips break but we love them too. That’s a posh kettle you have there 😂. We got a collapsible kettle this year. I was a bit dubious about it but actually so far is been great ( and folds down small)
Thanks for this...there are so many options out there that look the same...it's a minefield- but we feared what you have confirmed👍 Jackie is very proud of her van kettle...we imported it personally from our last US trip😂 Imagine the security X-ray of that particular bag😂 Thanks for the comment.👍
Thanks for this Gillian- so many people have recommended them, we just need to get organised and actually order them. They are so popular, how have we gone 6 years of van ownership and never thought of them as a solution?😂 Thanks for the comment. 👍
5:58 😮 we have watched most of your vlogs and never knew this 😂 for me the insects are the worst thing about van life. I would watch you two sitting outside and think that’s what real outdoorsy people are like, not like me being a big baby over a few mozzies 😂 I also don’t want to use strong chemicals to repel them, so if you can recommend anything I would be very grateful!! ❤
No I am not a van of insects especially after the ticks on Arran 😂 Luckily we have only had one night of midges on Orkney - but wow did they descend! And they got in the van. I hate to think what I will be like if I encounter and tiger creatures when we are in Thailand 😬 We use the Avon skin so soft and the boots aftersun with anti bug juice in it
I don’t have a camper van or go camping with friends that often but I loved this video! I’d recommend having a digital packing list to use each time so you don’t forget anything.
Thanks for this Ros- you will be glad to know there is a spreadsheet list lurking in the background that we started using 6 years ago. To be fair, we have become a little blasé about it, but I feel a time for its return!😂 We had to make it as we have previously forgotten winter coats, kettle, washing up kit and the front cover...not all on the same trip thankfully! Thanks for the comment👍R
Loved this video, we tow a small camper trailer and have found that a tub of clothes works better for us, we keep them in the boot and get clothes out each night.
Have a look at the Spice Tailor lentil daals. They are great emergency stand bys. The Smokin' Midge is great to keep the bugs at bay. Have a great time
I used our emergency tin of ratatouille recently, just add mince or tinned sardines and/or tin of beans to make an emergency pasta meal, extremely tasty compared to tin of toms. After bikepacking the Outer Hebrides we are VERY aware of the need to be "well prepared" , easy to get caught out in Europe even France/Germany can be very hard on a Sunday 🤣🤣 Do you light the citronella just outside the door? We don't have any fly screens but also know they do not work for midges and that citronella is not for inside use. a problem we are still mulling over the best solution.
Thanks for this idea Fiona- we had one of the tins of curry tonight...no emergency, we just fancied it...and it wasn't too bad at all. Bulked out with rice and Nan it was a spicy treat! We will seek out a tin of ratatouille as tined toms can be a little bland. We only the candles outside- we didn't realise that you couldn't use them inside. On that note, we haven't really needed them on this trip which is all good👍 Thanks for the comment👍
Likewise I’ll seek out a tin of the MandS curry too. Still have childhood flashbacks to caping meals that alternated between corned beef curry and corned beef pasta. Ready made Dahl being added to van storecupboard too. Tinned toms are great when cooked in for an hour plus but sometimes you need quick in van! Acidic otherwise.
Some good tips and watching with interest as Orkney & Shetlands are on our list for next year. We also have a VW such as yours and another tip to make additional space in the van is to store your hook-up cable wound up in the engine compartment just above the engine battery- fits a treat and means more space for the boot area
Thanks for this- we have a 25m extension lead to cover most campsites (particularly in Europe), so we have a dedicated space in our boot for it. It is a pain to store, but really useful on extended trips to Europe when we feel that we need periodic 230v power-ups. We absolutely recommend the Shetland and Orkneys- hopefully we will be able to show them at their best to you over the next few weeks. Have a great weekend👍
We have a computer file with a list of what we need for our caravan trips, and just tick things off as we go. Hope you have an awesome trip and the weather is clement for you.
As you would expect from him- Richard has a spread sheet that we used to double check to make sure we have everything. We have arrived with no kettle before and on one trip no front screen cover! The weather has been fantastic for the last 3 weeks we have been away 😊🚐
@@earlyretirementwanderlust Sounds like my husband…he had a list of menus which he programmed to spit out a random selection so we didn’t get bored! I’m really glad you have had good weather. We had a trip to the Highlands once where a storm kept blowing out the pilot on our caravan heater, and due to lack of grocery stores, we ate a lot of soup! Have a great time!
Wow, I can’t believe how much you pack in. I can highly recommend the woven leather bracelets to keep the mosquito’s away. They are from Pestects/Amazon.
Richard has seen the bracelets before and is thinking of ordering some. The midges were out last night as the wind dropped on the Isle of Hoy!! It's amazing how much stuff our little van will hold in all the little nooks and crannies 🤣
Not sure what kind of bike rack you have? My second hand van came with a Fiamma Bike Rack and instead of bikes I bought a back box - 360 easier than a roof box if you are 'short". It's great for wet suits, wet boots, pfd's and SUP. No need to take wet gear into van.
Another great and essential video on travel and preparation for it. wrt clothing, for me it all about layers and shoes. And expecting to be able to do a laundry run every two or three weeks. using a washer AND dryer. We cafry three types of shoes with us.. The quick slipons for around the campervan. quality sandals (like TEVA) for a walking reasonable short distances in dry weather and hiking boots or the wetter and longer distances. With food we always a buch of dry goods, like rice, noodles, pasta and quinoa with us and stuff in tins. Never heard about tinned curry. We do love the M&S marmalades. My wife is the reader of physical books, I am more of a KIndle person. However I do take my writing stuff with me and a journal. Now the issue becomes how to stow everything in the campervan. There are so many nooks and crannies h=that you can store evrything and you both probably differ on where you store stuff. It always takes us some time to figure out the storing spaces. For storing clothing we use the watertight bags from Osprey in various sizes. Did I spot a ridgemonkey? Yay! Essential cooking gear. I hope you guys will have a great month on the islands. Hope you luck out on the weather.
I am going to invest in some Teva's for when we are in Thailand later in the year as they will be quite versatile for beach or walking days. 3 weeks in and we have not had to resort to the tinned curries yet as there was a big Tesco in Lerwick to stock up! But I think we might have a curry night soon to try them 😊 We have got a couple of smaller remote islands coming up where I don't think there will places to stock up on food. We do have a ridge monkey which we need to use more - we do like making toasties for lunch. The weather has been fantastic so far - only a couple of afternoons of rain and a couple of windy cloudy days but nothing bad enough to stop us getting out!
This is a very handy video, especially today. In the spirit of Finitude, I've fulfilled a long held dream today and collected a California Camper of my own. I hope you have a great trip and I'm looking forward to seeing how your adventures go.
Oh Graham- congratulations- you will love it! Even now we think back to how we were excited to pick up Nelson for the first time. We whisked him off to the Yorkshire Dales for our first trip away...not knowing that we would eventually end up living in the Dales. Having a van was a real life changer for us, and we hope that you have the same joy. Enjoy getting to know the van!👍
@@earlyretirementwanderlust Thanks for the kind words. I’m just writing a preliminary list of stuff I need to get to make the van useable, so your video has come in handy today. Life’s too short and I’ve nicknamed the van after my late German friend Holger ‘Holgi’ who died way too young earlier this year. That sad event convinced me to do what I’ve done.
Hi! We've been enjoying your videos over the past few months - they're really great and inspirational! I wanted to ask if the aftersun midge repellent has actually worked? Or maybe you didn't get bothered by them much...
Hi Jenny, we didn't have many issues with midges for most of our trip, mainly due to the breeze keeping them away. However when they did descend they were really bad. We felt that the aftersun lotion really helped and was so much nicer to use than greasy insect repellent. We will be packing some for our upcoming trips to the US and Thailand.👍 Thanks for the comment.
I always like these types of videos… it’s always interesting to see how and where others store their stuff in their small campervans! I too wouldn’t be without my packing cubes for clothes. Many thanks for allowing us a sneak peek into your cupboards! 🤭
@@earlyretirementwanderlust Can't believe you haven't got them yet! 🤣🤣 We have different colours so he doesn't have to go riffling through my smalls 🤣 Oh and I need to send you a bill for the snow peak coffee drip thing 🤣🙈
Well done guys you’ve got that packing down to a tee. A place for everything and everything in its place. You are indeed correct in that you never know what the weather is going to be like in Scotland so that does throw up its challenges. Is that a picture of Monument Valley we see on your wall? Looking forward to the Shetland and Orkney videos. Keep safe. Irvine & Karen.
We thought that we had packed too much winter stuff until last night when we had a monumental storm! Scotland once again reminds us that it has all the weathers and we love it. Yep- well spotted it is indeed a picture of monument valley. Even now we can remember the night vividly stood out on that cliff edge as the sun set- it was freezing in the desert! Have a great day👍
Your cupboards seem a lot more versatile than ours, we thought long and hard about the cupboards for ours. I have a medical appliance for nights and we were worried about that, a friend of ours had the exact same kitchen so we were able to test that out. Actually in reality the cupboards are quite poor for storage. As for food we do similar to yourselves with tins but we also have a days worth of dehydrated camping meals that we keep in the van as these will last a long time. So far not even come close to using them. We clearly write the use by dates on everything so that we can easily see and not waste anything.
Thanks for this. Our cupboards would not work anywhere near as well if it wasn't for the plastic boxes we put in them. It took us a while to source the correct dimension boxes, but we have had them pretty much for the full 6 years of having the van. It is so easy to access stuff- no rooting around at the back of cupboards, and we also have a pretty good "filing" system for each box. Love your idea of dehydrated meals, although it may bring back dark memories of the Dale Way trek for me😂 On a serious note- I was really surprised on that trek as to how tasty and filling the dehydrated meals were. They have come on along way in the last few years. Thanks again for the comment. 👍
@@earlyretirementwanderlust The dehydrated meals are just a means to an end and long lasting as they will be fine for quite sometime after their printed use by date. The corner upper cupboard to the right of the worktop is a tamber which look great but take up a lot of space and don’t have a wide opening and as I found out they can get wedged closed which is far from ideal when my medical supplies are in there (lesson learnt and they are stored in a different place now). Short section of worktop to the right of the sink has a lift up top and half way down that cupboard is yet another lift up lid to get into the bottom of that cupboard. Definitely looking at an external gas point for the cadac too, my van will never be finished but will instead just keep evolving.
I save space with my Kobo ereader for reading books (epub format. Paper books take up too much space) and an ipad for travel nooks (pdf format and Books app), no internet needed. The ipad makes a Marshall speaker redundant, and can even work as tv or Netflix screen if you would want that. I also always carry some dried meals (adventure meals) to solve the days without fresh food. You don’t seem to sleep upstairs, or do you?
Richard travels with his Kindle book reader and his iPad on to which he downloads magazines from the readly app to read at his leisure. I am old school and hate reading on a screen so take a couple of books and swap them at campsite book exchanges - even in Europe. We do take travel books with us as we like to look for inspiration as we go along. We sleep downstairs and the board for the roof bed is in 2 parts that we can make into a shelf to store everything out of the way when we stop for the night.
Another great video. The number and duration of trips you undertake in that little van is very impressive.....my vanning is quite lame compared to yours, I need up my game 🚐😂
Many thanks- being early retired does help😂 We genuinely love our time in the van and it our happy place. We love been at home in the Dales, but soon feel the need to get out again on the road.👍
We have a caravan and like to keep everything lightweight and tidy so definitely another vote for packing cubes. Especially one each for underwear and socks.
We have already pinched an idea from someone else's comments to use the gauze veg bags for socks and underwear as they are sheer and you can see in them and can squeeze the bags easily into the space we have - I love sharing ideas with the community - we learn so much too! We are ordering some packing cubes for our trip backpacking in Thailand particularly - thanks 😊
Another vote for packing cubes. They are so great! The end scene lighting was beautiful. The magical hour. ✨️
Definitely on our list - I will have to colour code them though so I know what I am grabbing! We love the golden hour and we had a pretty fab view too!
Emergency Food - we carry some Parsley Box meals which can be heated up on the stove or if at a site microwaved in a wee kitchen. Tastier than Wiltshire and do not need to be frozen so just in a cupboard. They usually have at least a 6 month shelf life. Favourite is Chicken Tikka.
Packing cubes shout out, again 😀 We have two sets, different colours. Game changer. Try Tesco vegetarian Bolognese in a tin, brilliant for camping. There is also a wider range including meat products. Great quality and reasonable, we needed an emergency meal on our way south two weeks ago, tin of Tesco VB, a packet of Bachelor's golden vegetable dried rice, frozen peas, left over lentils, greated cheese, yummy ❤️🚐😀 Great video as ever. xxx
Thanks Janet- we have had our eyes opened to the tinned food emergency options. Great shout out for Tesco and their range.
Packing cubes are seemingly becoming inevitable- thinking of investing for our Thailand backpacking trip👍
Thanks as ever for your kind words.
What! Tinned curry's and stews are amazing. Try them! Especially on camp!!
We had one of the curries a few days ago and it was fab!
Don’t buy the cheapest packing cubes as the zips break but we love them too. That’s a posh kettle you have there 😂. We got a collapsible kettle this year. I was a bit dubious about it but actually so far is been great ( and folds down small)
Thanks for this...there are so many options out there that look the same...it's a minefield- but we feared what you have confirmed👍
Jackie is very proud of her van kettle...we imported it personally from our last US trip😂 Imagine the security X-ray of that particular bag😂
Thanks for the comment.👍
Packing cubes are a must have in a small VW like we have. We take 1 each for our clothes & a third contains towels & nightwear.
Thanks for this Gillian- so many people have recommended them, we just need to get organised and actually order them. They are so popular, how have we gone 6 years of van ownership and never thought of them as a solution?😂
Thanks for the comment. 👍
5:58 😮 we have watched most of your vlogs and never knew this 😂 for me the insects are the worst thing about van life. I would watch you two sitting outside and think that’s what real outdoorsy people are like, not like me being a big baby over a few mozzies 😂 I also don’t want to use strong chemicals to repel them, so if you can recommend anything I would be very grateful!! ❤
No I am not a van of insects especially after the ticks on Arran 😂 Luckily we have only had one night of midges on Orkney - but wow did they descend! And they got in the van. I hate to think what I will be like if I encounter and tiger creatures when we are in Thailand 😬 We use the Avon skin so soft and the boots aftersun with anti bug juice in it
@@earlyretirementwanderlust thank you! 👍
I don’t have a camper van or go camping with friends that often but I loved this video! I’d recommend having a digital packing list to use each time so you don’t forget anything.
Thanks for this Ros- you will be glad to know there is a spreadsheet list lurking in the background that we started using 6 years ago. To be fair, we have become a little blasé about it, but I feel a time for its return!😂
We had to make it as we have previously forgotten winter coats, kettle, washing up kit and the front cover...not all on the same trip thankfully!
Thanks for the comment👍R
Loved this video, we tow a small camper trailer and have found that a tub of clothes works better for us, we keep them in the boot and get clothes out each night.
That would make sense as you can just get it out of the boot to find what you need. We just live in organised chaos with our clothes cupboard!!
Have a look at the Spice Tailor lentil daals. They are great emergency stand bys. The Smokin' Midge is great to keep the bugs at bay. Have a great time
We could do with a smokin midge at the moment - we are pinned in the van as they are swarming 😬 first issue in 3 weeks so not too bad!!
@@earlyretirementwanderlust I swear the Scottish midge are from another planet 🤣😬
I used our emergency tin of ratatouille recently, just add mince or tinned sardines and/or tin of beans to make an emergency pasta meal, extremely tasty compared to tin of toms. After bikepacking the Outer Hebrides we are VERY aware of the need to be "well prepared" , easy to get caught out in Europe even France/Germany can be very hard on a Sunday 🤣🤣
Do you light the citronella just outside the door? We don't have any fly screens but also know they do not work for midges and that citronella is not for inside use. a problem we are still mulling over the best solution.
Thanks for this idea Fiona- we had one of the tins of curry tonight...no emergency, we just fancied it...and it wasn't too bad at all. Bulked out with rice and Nan it was a spicy treat! We will seek out a tin of ratatouille as tined toms can be a little bland.
We only the candles outside- we didn't realise that you couldn't use them inside. On that note, we haven't really needed them on this trip which is all good👍
Thanks for the comment👍
Likewise I’ll seek out a tin of the MandS curry too. Still have childhood flashbacks to caping meals that alternated between corned beef curry and corned beef pasta. Ready made Dahl being added to van storecupboard too. Tinned toms are great when cooked in for an hour plus but sometimes you need quick in van! Acidic otherwise.
Some good tips and watching with interest as Orkney & Shetlands are on our list for next year. We also have a VW such as yours and another tip to make additional space in the van is to store your hook-up cable wound up in the engine compartment just above the engine battery- fits a treat and means more space for the boot area
Thanks for this- we have a 25m extension lead to cover most campsites (particularly in Europe), so we have a dedicated space in our boot for it. It is a pain to store, but really useful on extended trips to Europe when we feel that we need periodic 230v power-ups.
We absolutely recommend the Shetland and Orkneys- hopefully we will be able to show them at their best to you over the next few weeks.
Have a great weekend👍
We have a computer file with a list of what we need for our caravan trips, and just tick things off as we go. Hope you have an awesome trip and the weather is clement for you.
As you would expect from him- Richard has a spread sheet that we used to double check to make sure we have everything. We have arrived with no kettle before and on one trip no front screen cover! The weather has been fantastic for the last 3 weeks we have been away 😊🚐
@@earlyretirementwanderlust Sounds like my husband…he had a list of menus which he programmed to spit out a random selection so we didn’t get bored! I’m really glad you have had good weather. We had a trip to the Highlands once where a storm kept blowing out the pilot on our caravan heater, and due to lack of grocery stores, we ate a lot of soup! Have a great time!
Wow, I can’t believe how much you pack in. I can highly recommend the woven leather bracelets to keep the mosquito’s away. They are from Pestects/Amazon.
Richard has seen the bracelets before and is thinking of ordering some. The midges were out last night as the wind dropped on the Isle of Hoy!! It's amazing how much stuff our little van will hold in all the little nooks and crannies 🤣
Not sure what kind of bike rack you have? My second hand van came with a Fiamma Bike Rack and instead of bikes I bought a back box - 360 easier than a roof box if you are 'short". It's great for wet suits, wet boots, pfd's and SUP. No need to take wet gear into van.
We have seen these on a lot of vans in Europe but couldn't find a name for them. We will look them up👍 Many thanks.
Another great and essential video on travel and preparation for it. wrt clothing, for me it all about layers and shoes. And expecting to be able to do a laundry run every two or three weeks. using a washer AND dryer. We cafry three types of shoes with us.. The quick slipons for around the campervan. quality sandals (like TEVA) for a walking reasonable short distances in dry weather and hiking boots or the wetter and longer distances. With food we always a buch of dry goods, like rice, noodles, pasta and quinoa with us and stuff in tins. Never heard about tinned curry. We do love the M&S marmalades. My wife is the reader of physical books, I am more of a KIndle person. However I do take my writing stuff with me and a journal.
Now the issue becomes how to stow everything in the campervan. There are so many nooks and crannies h=that you can store evrything and you both probably differ on where you store stuff. It always takes us some time to figure out the storing spaces. For storing clothing we use the watertight bags from Osprey in various sizes. Did I spot a ridgemonkey? Yay! Essential cooking gear.
I hope you guys will have a great month on the islands. Hope you luck out on the weather.
I am going to invest in some Teva's for when we are in Thailand later in the year as they will be quite versatile for beach or walking days.
3 weeks in and we have not had to resort to the tinned curries yet as there was a big Tesco in Lerwick to stock up! But I think we might have a curry night soon to try them 😊 We have got a couple of smaller remote islands coming up where I don't think there will places to stock up on food.
We do have a ridge monkey which we need to use more - we do like making toasties for lunch.
The weather has been fantastic so far - only a couple of afternoons of rain and a couple of windy cloudy days but nothing bad enough to stop us getting out!
This is a very handy video, especially today. In the spirit of Finitude, I've fulfilled a long held dream today and collected a California Camper of my own. I hope you have a great trip and I'm looking forward to seeing how your adventures go.
Oh Graham- congratulations- you will love it! Even now we think back to how we were excited to pick up Nelson for the first time. We whisked him off to the Yorkshire Dales for our first trip away...not knowing that we would eventually end up living in the Dales.
Having a van was a real life changer for us, and we hope that you have the same joy.
Enjoy getting to know the van!👍
@@earlyretirementwanderlust Thanks for the kind words. I’m just writing a preliminary list of stuff I need to get to make the van useable, so your video has come in handy today. Life’s too short and I’ve nicknamed the van after my late German friend Holger ‘Holgi’ who died way too young earlier this year. That sad event convinced me to do what I’ve done.
Now there’s an interesting thought. Will you give your new camper (in two years time) a new name or will it be Nelson 2.
Not thought of that one yet...just coming to terms with potentially passing him on to a new home...something that will break our heart 💔
Hi! We've been enjoying your videos over the past few months - they're really great and inspirational! I wanted to ask if the aftersun midge repellent has actually worked? Or maybe you didn't get bothered by them much...
Hi Jenny, we didn't have many issues with midges for most of our trip, mainly due to the breeze keeping them away. However when they did descend they were really bad. We felt that the aftersun lotion really helped and was so much nicer to use than greasy insect repellent. We will be packing some for our upcoming trips to the US and Thailand.👍
Thanks for the comment.
Wouldn't be without our packing cubes.
Hi Beverley- we know we need them in our lives😬 We just need to get on and order some!
Thanks for the comment👍
@earlyretirementwanderlust ha ha the list is never ending 🤣
Great tips there guys.. enjoy Scotland 😊
I always like these types of videos… it’s always interesting to see how and where others store their stuff in their small campervans! I too wouldn’t be without my packing cubes for clothes. Many thanks for allowing us a sneak peek into your cupboards! 🤭
@@earlyretirementwanderlust Can't believe you haven't got them yet! 🤣🤣 We have different colours so he doesn't have to go riffling through my smalls 🤣
Oh and I need to send you a bill for the snow peak coffee drip thing 🤣🙈
Another good one guys.
Thank you 😊
Great idea for a video 😊 just wondering who done your van conversion? Your van is lovely 🚐
Thank you - we used a small converter in Stoke on Trent - Autobarn.
Well done guys you’ve got that packing down to a tee. A place for everything and everything in its place. You are indeed correct in that you never know what the weather is going to be like in Scotland so that does throw up its challenges. Is that a picture of Monument Valley we see on your wall? Looking forward to the Shetland and Orkney videos. Keep safe. Irvine & Karen.
We thought that we had packed too much winter stuff until last night when we had a monumental storm! Scotland once again reminds us that it has all the weathers and we love it.
Yep- well spotted it is indeed a picture of monument valley. Even now we can remember the night vividly stood out on that cliff edge as the sun set- it was freezing in the desert!
Have a great day👍
Your cupboards seem a lot more versatile than ours, we thought long and hard about the cupboards for ours. I have a medical appliance for nights and we were worried about that, a friend of ours had the exact same kitchen so we were able to test that out. Actually in reality the cupboards are quite poor for storage.
As for food we do similar to yourselves with tins but we also have a days worth of dehydrated camping meals that we keep in the van as these will last a long time. So far not even come close to using them. We clearly write the use by dates on everything so that we can easily see and not waste anything.
Thanks for this. Our cupboards would not work anywhere near as well if it wasn't for the plastic boxes we put in them. It took us a while to source the correct dimension boxes, but we have had them pretty much for the full 6 years of having the van. It is so easy to access stuff- no rooting around at the back of cupboards, and we also have a pretty good "filing" system for each box.
Love your idea of dehydrated meals, although it may bring back dark memories of the Dale Way trek for me😂 On a serious note- I was really surprised on that trek as to how tasty and filling the dehydrated meals were. They have come on along way in the last few years.
Thanks again for the comment. 👍
@@earlyretirementwanderlust The dehydrated meals are just a means to an end and long lasting as they will be fine for quite sometime after their printed use by date. The corner upper cupboard to the right of the worktop is a tamber which look great but take up a lot of space and don’t have a wide opening and as I found out they can get wedged closed which is far from ideal when my medical supplies are in there (lesson learnt and they are stored in a different place now).
Short section of worktop to the right of the sink has a lift up top and half way down that cupboard is yet another lift up lid to get into the bottom of that cupboard.
Definitely looking at an external gas point for the cadac too, my van will never be finished but will instead just keep evolving.
I save space with my Kobo ereader for reading books (epub format. Paper books take up too much space) and an ipad for travel nooks (pdf format and Books app), no internet needed.
The ipad makes a Marshall speaker redundant, and can even work as tv or Netflix screen if you would want that.
I also always carry some dried meals (adventure meals) to solve the days without fresh food.
You don’t seem to sleep upstairs, or do you?
Richard travels with his Kindle book reader and his iPad on to which he downloads magazines from the readly app to read at his leisure. I am old school and hate reading on a screen so take a couple of books and swap them at campsite book exchanges - even in Europe. We do take travel books with us as we like to look for inspiration as we go along.
We sleep downstairs and the board for the roof bed is in 2 parts that we can make into a shelf to store everything out of the way when we stop for the night.
@@earlyretirementwanderlust thank you for this Jackie
Another great video.
The number and duration of trips you undertake in that little van is very impressive.....my vanning is quite lame compared to yours, I need up my game 🚐😂
Many thanks- being early retired does help😂 We genuinely love our time in the van and it our happy place. We love been at home in the Dales, but soon feel the need to get out again on the road.👍