Tiny camping kit

[demotedreally]

We are family of five in a 6 berth caravan with bikes and all the kit that goes with it. I'm sick of shifting stuff so this year I am on a mission to shrink things! So far I have compact duvet for DH and I, small chairs for the beach and replaced all normal towels with those microtowels which are actually amazing! We've hardly bought any clothes which has been good and I have improved our use of storage with mesh bags and taking out pointless crap.

Anything else anyone has done to shrink?

try mini wash bags - I have a mini bag for flying with soap,hair bar shampoo and mini toothbrush etc - so its very small for packing.

im packing for a few weeks and wondering if I can getaway with a capsule wardrobe for camping. If it will all fit in washing basket then I can wash it all in one go and have clean again.

I don't know if little portable hand hoovers are strong enough but I know people who put everything in shrink bags.

You can buy collapse-flat tubs of different sizes, for things like washing up, laundry etc - if you have one of those and a small bottle of travel hand laundry detergent, you could pack less clothing. Bonus points if you camp somewhere which has a tumble dryer (or that plus washing machine).

Kindles pre loaded with books instead of real books and comics.

One pack of regular playing cards and a Kindle book on all the different games you can play with that one deck.

Precook some of the meals and store them in proper sealed food bags, rather than take loads of cans and packages.

One pot meals are your friends.

Any of that good?

Are you trying to reduce stuff? (in size or quantity)
Or, reduce the amount of stuff you have to shift in and out? (buy duplicates to live in the caravan)

Just be careful if you reduce the size if stuff (e.g. chairs) that this doesn't just end up creating more space for additional stuff.

Some great tips! I have a Kindle,which also allows me to read while kids sleep.

We have a communal shower gel / shampoo collection. Minis would be no good, some of us have a lot of hair! I have done some hand washing this year, we've got half a bag of laundry so far and another half to take home. We do a lot of re-wearing and swimsuit wearing.

I'm trying to reduce the amount of crap we carry so we aren't all tripping over it and each other. We have also got rid of the awning as that is just one large cupboard of crap too. (But we did buy a van to put the bikes in!)

I've had to do this - no caravan but we couldn't fit the gear in the boot + roof box anymore so I had to pare it down. I bought a camping cook set, fold down tubs, and whittled down the equipment/toys. I also bought better sleeping bags which provide the same comfort for less space. It's really tricky!

Swap bottles for shampoo and conditioner bars

We use a Tefal Ingenio pans as the whole nest of them stores in the oven, freeing up a cupboard.

I think having a really minimal set of camping clothes each could help. So, maybe those walking trousers where the legs zip off to become shorts. And definitely being happy to wear trousers / shorts again etc.

Exciting update: I've pursuaded DH to get a collapsible bucket instead of the massive waste container. Noone has one on the continent and we don't use much water in the van so it doesn't earn it's money.

I'm also wondering whether I can pursuade him to try a foldable caravan step again. The last time resulted in disaster, so it needs to be foldable and STRONG