Packing the car

Welcome to my world 🙂
Stood at the back reorganising the boot, make some space as part of the master plan and Mrs OTS just sidles up and chucks a random bag in - usually an overstuffed carrierbag that everything is going to fall out of.
F.F.S.

This is so on point! Thank you for the smiles .. before it's my time to do so.

James

Everyone in my house knows packing the car is MY job. They don't even bother putting anything in the car anymore.

Which can be a pain when they bring stuff out and dump it on the floor while its raining!!!!

Mrs Beagleboy is the Tetris Queen of packing. From Tesco shopping to packing the camping gear into the car. I just throw stuff in and hope. She places stuff with geometric perfection so that every space is efficiently used.

The order of it all frightens me a little bit, if I'm honest.

I'm not a fan of massive bags as after you've put a few in they can become difficult to fit around other things, but they're useful for when you can't park next to your pitch. Maybe a mix of large / small bags and then a strap / rope / empty large bag to carry them in?

I think what's needed is plastic boxes to put the food in so it doesn't all get crushed (stuff that doesn't fit in the coolbox).

I am usually the chief packer and I get stressed out about the inordinate amount of stuff we 'need' for short camping trips and my wife goes on at me about getting stressed about it. This week she went away with our girls and she sent me this text...

No just stressing trying to get 3 duvet, blankets and pillows in the car, why can’t they just have a nice neat very small sleeping bag!!!

HAHAHHAHAHA!

Don’t forget to take a photo of the packed boot so you know where everything needs to go on the way back…

Yep, my wife is tip top at tessellation, and packs the car much better than I can.

YES!!! So much of of this I can relate to! We did our annual trip down to Devon at the start of July but it's always down to me to load the car. I've certainly taken photos of the packed boot to know how I did it on the outbound journey (I also emptied the contents onto the drive and took a picture when we got back so I can remember what we took for next year...). My big frustration is having multiple bags 90% finished so I can't start loading.

Don’t forget to take a photo of the packed boot so you know where everything needs to go on the way back…

See, I always think of doing this then never actually do it. But, I always seem to have more room on the way home for some reason, even though we end up with more stuff*!!

*usually wine and Mayo....

Every bit of this. My biggest frustration is that the rest of the family don't get their stuff together till last minute and I want it all ready to go. It is definitely my job, car and caravan. Everything goes in the same place on every holiday.

My Mum favours the approach of packing a bag...

...and then packing lots of other stuff into random carrier bags, bags for life and so on as and when she remembers. A couple of years ago, I'd been at hers then I drove her up to my sister's house. A sound plan. And then this endless stream of carrier bags kept being brought out.
"oh I'll just put this fruit in, it won't last here, I'll take it all up there" (huge bag of apples, oranges, a few bananas and rather randomly, a pineapple)
"oh there's some stuff in the fridge, let me just get that..."
"oh I'd best take my walking shoes as well in case..." (another bag containing a pair of shoes)

It's just unbelievable disorganisation and then whenever the car went round a corner, there'd be a random orange rolling around the boot from a bag that had fallen over.

My grandparents were similarly disorganised. They went on holiday once towing the caravan. Each thought that the other had packed the main suitcase containing all the clothes. They arrived at their destination 5hrs of driving later and discovered that they had just the clothes they were wearing and absolutely nothing else. They drove home the next day.

I'm kind of used to coming back from a ride and just putting all the clothing into a big canvas bag but going away, everything has to be neat and in it's place. Cycling shoes, helmet etc are always just there -----> cos then I can see at a glance. Toolbox in that slot. Everything has a place.

Packing IN the car? Pfft, amateurs, I've mastered packing ON the car...

https://imgur.com/a/fjToAJn

I have many many failings but I am a 3D Tetris ninja, I can tesselate with the best of them. I think it's one of my Aspie superpowers, I can close my eyes and see the Matrix source code. Give me five minutes to think about it first and I could probably get Belgium in the back of a Fiat 500. And then have eidetic recall as to whereabouts in the boot I'd stuck Bouillon.

My girlfriend is fantastic, she'll throw up her hands in exasperation going "well, you do it then!" and storm off in a huff leaving me to do it properly.😁 Whereas an ex thought she could pack but couldn't, so two thirds of the time spent packing was me removing whatever shit she'd helpfully stuffed somewhere completely at random. She'd consider it a win it a loaf of bread took up very little space because it's now 13mm thick after being packed directly under the upright piano.

(Also, why do you need enough footwear to equip the Royal Scots Guards? Are you a centipede?)

It’s just unbelievable disorganisation

Are they serial stuffers-of-things-in-mad-places generally? It drives me insane. I lost a 4-gang outdoor extension cable during a house move, finally to be discovered in a bag of empty jam jars (saved to be reused for making jam). WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS IT MAKES NO SENSE?!?!?!11!!?! Argh.

*usually wine and Mayo….

I assume he just sits in the middle seat in the back?

Sounds like a Confession.

Or the inability to close a zip on bags, being presented with bags 1/2 closed is frustrating.
The random carrier bags really mess up pack stability.

It's when you come to go home and then think 'how the fark did we get this lot in'.

We are at our caravan most weekends (static) and still take too much shoot. I've a road bike down there for the summer (my best one) and just have a shopping bag of road gear that goes and comes back (another road bike at home). If we're going for a week or two, then the MTB get's loaded on the roof, and another set of gear. I usually take more cycling kit than civvy stuff. Add in we usually take the four cat's with us.

Oh and when we have a lad's weekend at the van, my car is full of spares, tool boxes etc.

Fortunately, both car's have big boots, mine is massive being a saloon, but useless for 'big' items as there is a small opening when the seats are down, but for filling with bags and suitcases it's huge.

Are they serial stuffers-of-things-in-mad-places generally? It drives me insane

Welcome to my world.

"hidey tidey"
the floordrobe
the X with the Y dumped on it which now needs the Y put somewhere else before the X is usable (X being dining table, sofa, bed, stairs... Y could be anything, wellies, hat, bag fully of smelly gym kit)
"where are my keys/phone/other-daily-essential"

Holiday packing just involves leaning on stuff until it is compact enough to close the boot. If there was something that needed to remain upright or is delicate, well, now it is upside down / in many pieces.

I load the dishwasher, for reference.

loving your tyres pictonroad 🙂 (aka 'tentsquashers')

We are going away tomorrow, yesterday I put the roof box on the car and packed all of the beach kit, chairs, beach tent, wetsuits, changing kit, dry bags, BBQ, beach trolley, kites and beach toys.

The Wife is now in full panic mode, randomly throwing things in bags with zero organisation. She’s a bloody nightmare.

…and then you get drawn in and buy that lovely seascape painting from that nice art shop in that lovely little village.

And 3 days later you realise it won’t fit in the car without bending it, scratching it or plonking it in the kids laps for 8 hours! 🤣🤣

My wife and I get on really well 99.9% of the time, in fact we rarely even argue...until it comes to packing the car and leaving on time.

She insists on taking far too much stuff - a summer holiday involves multiples of all the summer stuff as well as a warm coat, a backup warm coat, a nearly as warm coat, a warm waterproof coat, a not as warm waterproof coat, the walking coat, the boots and god knows what else.

If it was just this I could handle it but the stuff appears as you pack the car. As soon as I think it's all packed and we can't possibly fit another thing in she appears with another over stuffed bag for life that needs to go in somewhere. Repeat this step 4 or 5 times until there really, really is no space. The kids end up with stuff in the footwell and between the seats and we think we are ready to finally leave....but then she goes back inside and comes out with food for the 3 hour drive. Enough food for a starving rugby tour to survive on for 3 weeks has to go with us.

Are they serial stuffers-of-things-in-mad-places generally? It drives me insane

"Oh I'll just put that there [b]for now[/b]"
"Just leave it there [b]for the moment[/b]"
"No, it'll be fine there [b]for a bit[/b]"

In packing the car, there will be an normal sort of holdall type thing, within it will be a sponge bag containing normal sponge bag type things. And then strewn around the car will be 24 other sponge bag type things - everything from creams to medication to shampoo - across 18 different carrier bags put in "just in case" or "oh I forgot this one".

Sometimes it'll be stuffed into a shoe "to stop it rattling". A carrier bag of books and magazine "to read on the journey" will also contain a pack of indigestion remedies and some ibuprofen. It's absolute chaotic madness.

She insists on taking far too much stuff – a summer holiday involves multiples of all the summer stuff as well as a warm coat, a backup warm coat, a nearly as warm coat, a warm waterproof coat, a not as warm waterproof coat, the walking coat, the boots and god knows what else

THIS!!! ^^

We have a staging area. Bit like Everest base camp. Everything to pack goes there and then I pack the car from there

Normally we agree that is EVERYTHING. And then another box of shoes, bag of stuff appears once I have perfectly packed.

Will have this joy in a couple of weeks.

Night before the early cab to Gatwick to go skiing. All bags packed and ready and relax.
And then the washing machine is going for *something else*, and we have to wait till midnight to finish, put the CH on full for stuff to be only half damp when the alarm goes at 3 so we can pack that sh1t before the cab gets there at 4.
FFS

Good to know everyone else is living the same random stuff

In re: coming home, I find the picture wouldn't work as the stuff has changed in nature. An obvious example is that all the clothes that were in the plastic clothes boxes are now in the bulging dirty laundry bag 😂

Anyway. Similar to seemingly everyone else (beagleboy excepted), packing the car is my job. I have a mild obsession with getting everything out of the cabin as I truly hate driving along rubbing shoulders with bags or not being able to move your legs as a passenger.

Inevitably I get this done, feel dead pleased with myself, and *then* out comes the extra bag of random clobber, bag of food, couple of loose pairs of shoes, etc. It does my head in but there is no escape from it so I'm learning to be more zen about it as the years go by.

This too shall pass 🙏

Inevitably I get this done, feel dead pleased with myself, and *then* out comes the extra bag of random clobber, bag of food, couple of loose pairs of shoes, etc. It does my head in but there is no escape from it so I’m learning to be more zen about it as the years go by.

Yeah Mrs Mat always has to have a couple of bags in the passenger footwell (granted some of it is food and drink to pass over to me and the kids)

Ha, one of my favourite topics.

I like to point out that pre-child we went away for a full week camping in a Mazda MX-5. Tent, sleeping, eating, beach stuff etc.

We now have one child. ONE. He is 90cm tall.

We now go camping in a Mercedes E Class estate, which is full to the top. And has a full length roofbox on.

I now leave space for 3 Additional 'Bag for life' bags crammed with Misc crap to by default.

I also pre-emptively ask before leaving, what item will you be asking if I packed once we are at least 20 miles from home?

Also the family toiletries bag is now a 15L roll top bag just for the volume 'Stuff' it needs to accommodate. I just go round and grab anything and everything that might be wanted.

This is for UK based holidays, Christ knows what we'll do when we next go abroad.

Mrs Beagleboy is the Tetris Queen of packing

Mrs Reeksy has a laminated scale diagram of our pickup tub with all the camping gear allocated to each section.

… I pack and completely ignore it. Helps when you have 1000 litres of space though.

MrsMC is an excellent boot packer.

Though it would be a whole heap easier without her using half a dozen bags for life for last minute extra items

I've gave up arguing with MrsRNP years ago about what she can pack and bring and bought a LWB Transit.
Camping for 2 nights......
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I also pre-emptively ask before leaving, what item will you be asking if I packed once we are at least 20 miles from home?

I can beat that.

Halfway from North Yorkshire to Devon.

"I think there is water leaking behind the sink, I could smell it being a bit mouldy when i got the picnic boxes out before we left"

I kid you not. And apparently its my fault that I was 'a bit of an arse' for the rest of the journey.

Nearing Pembroke Dock, just realised we forgot the fitted sheet for the airbed

Hey ho

We do still have 3 pillows, 2 blankets and a duvet, so we'll probably be ok

The large bags from <ahem> Sports Direct are perfect for packing the boot of my car cos its an estate with a rectangular luggage space. Plastic boxes for food if not in cardboard boxes (cereal etc), perfect for clothes (as long as I get to pack the clothes into the bags not just launch them in from outer space); great for everything really.

I once took Mrs Pondo to a weekend of motocross in our first year together, and I forgot to put the duvet in.

Oh, how she laughed.

Last year, packing the car to go to Yorkshire. I put the raincoats on the back seat of the car, to make sure they weren't under the rest of the stuff in the boot.

We get to Yorkshire and a few days later I'm puzzled about where the raincoats are. My daughter had put them back in the house to make space..

My wife once insisted that she had to have the full size rocking horse on sale when we were on our hols in Devon. We had a Clio at the time so that was a fun trip back home 😀. She also once moved the torches I'd left out to the bottom of her case before loading it into the car. 3 Bikes on the back, pitch black and heavy rain to unload in at our cottage in the Highlands. Joy!!

Don't forget to pack the first thing you'll need upon arrival in the car first.

Car packed to the rafters.
Enough room inside for the 4 of us. Just.
My lad walks out of the door carrying his guitar.

Much like RNP we just kept buying larger cars. Until we ended up with a LWB T5 (V70 obviously being too small) still managed to fill it in almost every trip.
After the divorce I went back to a V40. Which was still plenty big enough for the kids and I to do a week under canvas, with bikes. And regularly got pushed into service for me plus a mate to do a week remote camping (no shopping, very little signs of civilisation.)

Enough room inside for the 4 of us. Just.
My lad walks out of the door carrying his guitar.

🤣
Been there. 😞

https://flic.kr/p/2nB4oDb

The Xtrail packed for a week in a Scottish cottage, I only took the photo so I could remember how I did it.
2 suitcases, booze for a week, fishing gear inc a garden fork for digging lugworm, walking gear, 2 camping/sitting out chairs, some food, spotting scope, waterproof clothing inc 2 pairs of wellies, gravel bike & associated gear, plus the kitchen sink & still room for more.
The rear seats were only 3/4 dropped too. You could live in the back of that car.

Just come away to the Lakes and Scotland for a week with partner and dog.
I was actually ashamed when a couple of neighbours saw how full the van was as I was packing it.
There's barely room for my 2 bikes and 2 paddleboards because of all the non-essential crap.

I like to think of myself as a minimalist camper, but now, 4 person tent that you can barely lift in its bag, 2 double duvets and all the pillows, sheets, self inflating mats covered in sleeping bags, then the duvets.

I hope nobody sees me and thinks I'm a Glamper!... 😂

Don’t forget to pack the first thing you’ll need upon arrival in the car first.

Welcome to the world of large air tent and trailer nose weights. The only way to get the weight distribution right is to drop the 50kg leviathan into the very front of the trailer and then pack behind it. Alright in the dry and a total pita in the wet!

I once met up with the late Orange-Crush (AKA Peter Valente) off here when I was up at the SSDT in Fort William, & in the back of his ‘ Hotel Berlingo’ was a Honda 90, a set of stepladders ( he didn’t have a real ladder), a porta potti & a 25 ltr water barrel. Plus everything else for a week away in a Berlingo.

T5 kombi. Pack bags. Lob them in the back. Realise you've got shed loads of room still. Throw in the fishing gear. Body boards. Surf boards on the roof. Rearrange it a bit so when you pull up somewhere for the night on the way down south you can easily pull out the bed, pop the roof up and the 4 of us and dog can get a few hours comfy sleep.

I don't think we have enough moveable stuff to fill our LWB van. So long as we don't take too many of the bikes.

I was going to post a few hours ago about the joy of going on holiday in a van, (a proper van, not one of your aspirational lifestyle wagons) but we're off to Cornwall next week and I'm taking Darcie's luggage while her and my daughter fly down from Manchester.

It's only got 4m cubed luggage space. The dog'll probably just have to run behind.

Just need a woof rack.

Just need a woof rack

Get ya coat!

Get ya coat!

Has he pulled?

@DaveBoyWonder

How do you deal with the dog when travelling in terms of securing/safety?

We've previously ruled out T5/similar campers on the basis of not having an easy method of securing the travel sick (but responds well to anti-sickness medication) pooch.

We currently do the very large tent + trailer thing but I'm increasingly of the view that van + larger driveway awning might be better.

It's needs to be planned just like everything else on a trip.

Even do it before to test the best way.

Shuddering memories of many annual trips to France. Land Rover Discoveries have an enormous load space but with two active kids and a fortnight of fun to look forward to it was very much my job to load carefully and methodically. I used the bodyboards as a makeshift bulkhead and could load the boot to the headcloth and the family knew to bring all their stuff to the garage so that I could play suitcase/hold-all/bedding/inflatable pool toy/cycling kit/essential groceries Tetris. Then once I had loaded all three bikes onto the tow bar mounted rack Mrs Scape would inevitably appear with a bag for life full of more “essentials” and an inflatable dolphin just to cheer me up.

There’s barely room for my 2 bikes and 2 paddleboards because of all the non-essential crap.

I skipped past this last night. Love the fact the bloke in this relationship* regards the bikes and paddleboards as essential, all that crap the missis packs, meh.

* OK, yes. Massive assumption I know. Flame away.

I assumed that it was intended to be humorous (which it is).

Heading to the isle of wight for four days camping on sunday. @Scapegoat good tip on the bodyboard bulkhead. 🤌

On a slight tangent how hard is it to put a small case / rucksack / Disney bag for life into the overhead locker of a plane and then quickly sit down in the seat on your boarding pass.

Pilot last had to say if you all don't sit down wewillmiss our tight take offslot. Seemed to mainly be women trying to rearrange the contents of said carry on case and the seating plan of the entire aircraft so little jimmy didnt have to sit on their own.

As for car packing, absolutely, i want the heavy square stuff first and preferably no bags for life that will vomit their contents when you open the boot. And when you say thats everything but neglect to mention the three or four bags for life with various essentials that is not everything.

Reading this I now know what a lucky bloke I was!

My late wife seemed to take a small rucksack for a 2 week holiday, it was me that had all the gubbins. Bikes & cameras etc. I am a very fussy car packer though as the slightest thing rattling boils my piss.

Carolyn's minimal approach did come in handy when we did a 3 week camping tour of Fance in my 1966 MG Midget. That does require a level of creative packing including stuff put in plastic bags taped up inside the engine bay under the front wings 😮

The random carrier bags is blue touch paper when I’m packing. Just random stuff that never stops coming out the house! CRV has 700L boot. We’re not short of space until the dog cage takes half.

It’s odd how also many of you are also married to my wife.

@IdleJon whereabouts is the body buried?

We’re not short of space until the dog cage takes half.

My sister's car (a Focus estate) has to be very carefully packed for exactly this reason. The dog cage lives in the car. And then fitting the "stuff" for two small kids, and a weeks' worth of holiday gear into it requires very careful packing.

The dog actually has more space in her crate than everyone else has in the car once it's fully loaded.

I am a very fussy car packer though as the slightest thing rattling boils my piss.

Two plastic bottles of pop next to each other. SQUEAKsqueak, SQUEAKsqueak, SQUEAKsqueak, SQUEAKsqueak, AAAAAAAAARGH!

MrsMC is taking daughter, daughters friend and quite a lot of kit the leaders couldn't fit in a horsebox off to the Poacher Jamboree this afternoon.

I kept out the way once I'd loaded the big trolley for her.

My lad walks out of the door carrying his guitar.

If it's an electric with a headphone amp I'd chuck all my own stuff out including the spare undies to make sure there was space for it. The price of a peaceful holiday.

Yep, I sympathise! Sold my Astra to buy a relatively new A3 which I’ve always wanted. The boot is definitely smaller, even though litres are apparently the same!
Going camping it was so chocked full I could only just see behind me! We had the same with her and being pregnant helping pack the car, me knowing it wouldn’t fit like that and having to change it, she threw her toys out and I sorted it all… 30 mins later all water under the bridge but yes, bigger car needed when little un arrives!!

Just packed to drop the 4 little kids at camping, we're not even going with them and the tent will be there when we arrive. Pram, clothes bag, sleeping kit and a couple of bags for life neatly stowed. Turn around and there's an Everest sized collection of motley carrier bags and tat in the hallway, 2 hours later it's still growing. My plans of fast and light camping with them this summer have been cruelly dashed.

I genuinely don't get it. I am, by any sensible metric, an over-packer. On the trail I'll have inner tubes, chain links, cable ties and duct tape, first-aid kit... I'm the sort of geek who takes a screwdriver to the pub "just in case."

Packing for a night away a couple of weeks ago, I slung underwear and basic toiletries into a small rucksack, my girlfriend had a suitcase. Like, how long do think we're away for, love? I've done a fortnight in America with less.

Packed yesterday for a fortnight camping in France - five years ago, we could squeeze everything into a Mitsubishi Colt. This year, the Astra Estate is bulging at the seams like a cartoon clown car. No idea what we've bought extra - I guess, whatever the space, Mrs Pondo'll always fill it. 🙁

🤣 we had things like a plugged in coolbox this time to keep food cool in the car. Also 2 reclining chairs as we were staying at her folks house with no mod cons, we really really needed that house to have a pool though on the days it was 25 degrees at 9am and 36 degrees at 4pm!!

It has begun. Bodyboard bulkheads deployed.

https://imgur.com/a/iR5aJHs

I just got myself into trouble reading this thread and s****ing away - Mrs a11y wanted to know what I was finding so funny, I let her read some of the comments and was met with a massive eye roll and a "yep, that's you" comment.

Well, I like it all being organised and actually fitting in and having easy access to some stuff without moving everything else to get to it. Like packing the waterproof jackets in the deepest part of the cargo area underneath EVERYTHING, and it pissing down on arrival at the campsite. No, that's never happened dear.

This is partial pack of our van for a 2-week camping/biking/SUP trip. So far 4 x bikes, biking gear/toolbox, toilet, freezer (really), 4 x clothes bags (1 each), camping kitchen, cups/plates/cooking stuff, induction hob, plus 4 x plastic tubs mainly filled with food, folding crates with various shite in them. Still had the coolbox, 2 x SUPs, more folding crates, and a 50kg inflatable tent to fit in there. That's the back of a dual-cab Transit - it's true that you expand to fill the space you have...

Everyone in my house knows packing the car is MY job.

Exactly this. And it's a fail if I can't use the rearview mirror, or if I can hear any knocking or rattling about.

We’re not short of space until the dog cage takes half.

Yeah, dogs.

I gave in and bought some external storage. Roof bag*, and 4 x 50L dry bags, one per person. All the clothes and similar kit now go on the roof. Solid stuff goes in boot, 'next door' to the dogs.

The roof bag & dry bags cost the same as kennels for a week, so, swings and roundabouts.

* very importantly, a roof bag can be stored in a small space; a roof box, not a chance.

This is partial pack of our van for a 2-week camping/biking/SUP trip.

Credit where it's due, that's some impressive stuffing. I think at that point I'd have been investing in a bike carrier.

@a11y back wheel of bike on the left looks to be too far out, you sure the door will close properly?