6 Simple & Space-Saving Van Life Storage Hacks

1. Small packaged meals

You've seen these, the food packages I get, and you can get so many different things—quinoa and brown rice, quinoa, and lentils, and they're flavored. You can get all sorts of these. In my container is seven packs. I also have some more meals. So that's a week's worth of food minus the produce I just carry in little bags or in my cooler.

In this little space is a week's worth of food versus cans, jars, or boxes. These compact meals are a week's worth or more. I don't have the space to store larger food items, so this is what I do.

2. Puzzle mat

I love to do puzzles, and I've found some people who like them. The problem when you're on the road is that you don't have anywhere to leave them out. If you're working on one, what do you do?

So I would be doing a puzzle like this and instead of having to get it all up and put it back in the box, you would be doing the puzzle on a table but on a puzzle mat. It's a felt mat. Imagine there's a puzzle there. This is a little device that keeps it so that you can roll the pieces up in the mat and then stick them in this little carrier. It will be up and out of the way.

The pieces might fall out a little bit, but they'll be stationary as much as possible. Then I just put this under the bench or on the other side of the seats, saving space.

3. Pillow blankets

My all-time favorite van life storage solutions are pillow blankets because they fold into themselves. I have a full-size blanket, and they have other ones that I love. If you have more than one, you simply snap them together, and it can be like a sleeping bag. You can make it a big blanket. Then when you're all finished, you stuff it into itself. 

Other pillows can also be used for blankets or towels. You stow them away inside the pillow covers. I also use them for jackets sometimes. They have double use as a pillow and a little storage space.

4. Norwex towels

So you just saw me pull a towel from my pillowcase, and two normal-size towels would fill that entire pillowcase. What I use instead are one Norwex towel and a little facecloth. What I love about them is they have these where this can be a cleaning cloth, and then they've got a body cloth, and then they've got a mirror cloth, they're little teensy travel ones.

I use them because they're so little to clean up messes. You can use any kind of microfiber these days. They have these that are special, fold down small, and have bigger ones. They have hand towels.

Norwex towels and cleaning cloths are made with colloidal silver, which is supposedly bacterial cleaning. In between washing, if you let it dry thoroughly, it doesn't smell. It's odor free, and you can reuse it several times before you have to wash it, which is a plus when you're in a small space.

I'm not being sponsored by Norwex or anything. I've used these in my home because I have many kids, which is a laundry-saving tool for me.

When you wash it, you just need to watch that you don't have lint in the dryer, and you're good to go.

5. Laundry detergent strips

If you have a regular laundry detergent container in a small space like this, imagine it actually is taking up maybe a jug of water space or something like that. What I have found as a hack for that are these little things, and I'm sure you've seen them advertised. They work great.

They're just little strips that you tear apart, and you throw them in your wash, and they dissolve into soap that is eco-friendly and safe for the environment. They're also space-saving. I tuck them back over here, and they're out of the way.

6. Cut up garbage

This is my favorite van life storage hack of all. I've shown this to some people, and I don't know why it's so mind-blowing, but I do this at home. I have less time at home, but when you're in a little space like this, you've got to have this.

All right, so here's our garbage. You maybe had something out to eat. You have a leftover roll. You've got all these things, which practically fill up your garbage. This is what I do to save space. 

I take my garbage and cut it into small pieces. A big pile of garbage is now little pieces, and you can cut them up even more. When you are out boondocking somewhere, and you have things and cut them up, you now have maybe a quarter of what it was before you would have had to throw out that whole big thing of garbage.

Now it's in little pieces, saving a lot of room. I love this hack, and as long as it's nothing messy, it's really easy just to cut it up, and the smaller it is, the more space it saves.

Van life storage hacks

As you can see, I'm really excited about saving space in my little van, and I hope that these hacks for van life storage have been helpful to you. What do you do to save space in your an? Share in the comments below.