How do you store things you keep in the car if you don't have a boot?

[Schwabischeweihnachtskanne]

Not exactly sure if this qualifies as prepping - more prepping for the car breaking down in the middle of nowhere with small kids or unexpectedly having to stay in hospital over night with a DC (both of which have happened, once in temperatures a very long way below zero with a baby) than for the apocalypse (but it would come in handy for that too...) We live very rurally and have to drive quite long distances quite regularly, and I like to be prepared for "everyday" emergencies.

However thought this might be a corner of MN where people would have useful suggestions and not think I am being a loon with my question!

I have a van style (like a Kangoo ) 7 seater car, and I like to keep emergency kit in the car - in a saloon style car it would be in the boot, but I don't have a boot - the rear seats are "in the boot", so while there is plenty of space to put things, they would fly around in the case of a crash, which kind of defeats the "being prepared" objective by making things worse!

I like to keep a change of clothes for myself and 3 kids, emergency over night toiletries, hi vis jackets, bottles of water, some packed biscuit bars, power packs, books and CDs and stationary for child (and my) entertainment in traffic jams and break downs, a can of diesel, blankets etc. in the car, and also have to have a comprehensive first aid kit by law plus have some extra things to actually use for non emergency situations, including wound disinfectant, plasters etc.

How would you store all that in a car like the one I link to above, to keep it clean and easy to access but stop it flying around the car and killing somebody in case of a motorway crash!

You could use vacuum storage bags and put them under seats or if they are flat enough you could put them down the sides of chairs?

They would also be clean as it's had all the air sacked out. Argos sell them and they are great.
What about a roof rack?

Hmm that is an interesting idea for the clothes and blankets (just looked it up as I thought you needed a special machine to vacuum pack things, but apparently those work with a hoover).

Its the heavy items I am more concerned about though - atm I have a 5 litre can of diesel and several half litre bottles of water, toiletries, a big first aid kit (that one I am required to carry where I live though I have extra items) and jump leads all under the front seats, but they slip back into the rear foot wells and are not well secured. There are anchor points on the floor in the back and I was more wondering about some kind of box I could somehow anchor in, but don't want to DIY that or it could actually be more dangerous if it wasn't secure enough and flew forward than all the loose items.

How flat could you get everything if it was spread out ?

Could you make a large but quite flat box with a pull out drawer in to effectively raise the last bit of boot floor behind the seats

Use the existing fastening points to secure it down properly, keep it as low as the contents will allow and you might even find you have space for a bit of other stuff as well

Thanks Zombies - I guess the petrol (diesel) canister thing is the biggest problem with getting everything flat, and that I really would not want to do without as it has saved my bacon twice (you can't guarantee an open petrol station when you need one here - last year I was at work with 1/4 tank of diesel, DC1's school phoned me to fetch her as she was a bit unwell, left work, fetched her, she was very pale and shaky so took her straight to the GP, GP did a blood test and phoned a specialist hospital 90km away and told me to take her straight there... made it with the fuel warning light on the last few km but didn't stop for diesel as she was clearly very unwell by that point. She was admitted for a week...

5 days later she was well enough for me to leave her in hospital for the day and I really needed to do my scheduled shift at work, so got in the car and of course it was running on fumes - Sunday morning 5am, no petrol stations open even though I was in a city and drove past 4 before I gave up and filled up with the diesel in the can!

I have been googling around with various search terms and think maybe I need a tool box type thing designed for tradesmen to use for their tools... they are expensive though!

If you purpose made a box with drawer you could leave a cut out at one side for the fuel can to sit down into, this would stop it sliding about at all and a strap over the top would stop any other movement

It would probably only intrude a couple of inches above the new false floor at the side it was at as well after taking the box depth into account

You're right to worry about the diesel. You don't want 5+kg of metal flying through the car if there's an accident. Friend had an accident with an unrestrained spare tyre (on the floor in the back of a Defender): tyre injuries were the worst.

Ouch, defender wheels and tyres are heavy, must have been quite an accident to get that moving

We have our emergency/breakdown stuff in a couple of sports holdall style bags in the kids footwells - but they are still little so leg room isn't an issue! You could use some narrow bags to fit behind your rear seats? We don't carry diesel in the car though, I've always been worried about it catching fire in an accident. I carry a small fire extinguisher instead! Although that's also an explosion risk if punctured...

Otherwise, our contents similar to you, plus a wind up torch and radio (if stuck in queue for hours and need to turn engine off), pop up tent (shelter for kids if break down on hard shoulder and need to wait away from car, also handy for beach trips!), toiletries include feminine hygiene, nappies, lots of baby wipes and kitchen roll (for mopping up sick in the car - hope never to have to do that again!) and plastic bags for putting dirty wipes and dirty clothes in...

Oh yes Sooty I have most of that stuff too - a roll of pedal bin liners for rubbish and sick a kitchen roll, numerous torches... we have a wind up radio just knocking about, I should chuck that in the car as it never gets used in the house... (as an aside I wish wind up CD players were "a thing" as my kids like story CDs, not so much listening to the radio as fights always break out over whether or not singling along should be allowed...) No pop up tent or nappies though as thankfully nobody in nappies any more - did used to have nappies and potties, glad not to need those and the accompanying stops for toddlers to pee any more!

zombies I don't think I am capable of making a false floor for the car sadly, I even managed to build the last flat pack furniture I attempted wrong...

I have found tradesman's tools holdalls on Amazon so they might be a good compromise. I worry that a holdall won't actually help at all with the unlikely but possible event of an accident in which things fly forward - having a hold all flying about instead of numerous separate items may not be an improvement! I don't know enough about the mechanics of a crash to know whether wedging it in actually makes it safe - want to anchor it down, but with straps (forgot the proper name, the ones meant for securing luggage) and the anchor points in the back of the car a strong hold all such as the type meant for tools (so it won't break/ rip under the pressure from the weight of heavy contents moving in a crash at high speeds) may be the solution.

The diesel is in a plastic fuel can under the front passenger seat so not knocking about loose but still slips back into the footwell.

One kid is still small enough for his legs not to reach down far into the footwell, but the others need the leg room, and I also use the car to transport other people's kids quite a lot - reason to want it to be safe and to want the foot space.

zombie, yes: car rolled...

Could you fit anything in one of those plastic underbed storage boxes?

My friend made a netting roof storage area in her berlingo, wouldn't work for the petrol can of course but maybe for the other stuff?

Not rtft but I ut it in a rucksack and seatbelt it into a seat. Could you do.that?