More camper and van 'essentials' - Part III

So, you've got everything you need? All of your motorhome, camper or van essentials? Think again! Even if you've got all of the gear we suggested in Part I and Part II, there will be more (in fact, we could go on forever).

So, here's more stuff that you may not need (but we definitely find they make life easier)....

• Plants: OK, admittedly this won't be. on everyone's camper or van essentials list but, for us, both practically and for our mental health, it makes a difference!

  
  

  We recommend real plants if you're not crossing borders but, for us, as we were coming from the UK to Europe, and for any of you heading back to the UK, the only choice for a bit of green was a few faux plants which we’re still using despite now being able to buy real green-babies for our motorhome! Please don't take real plants in your camper from the UK - It’s illegal unless you have their original nursery phyto-sanitary certificates. If you do have the right paper-work, you’re good to go, of course.
  

• These adhesive/sticky tiles give a 'fresh', updated look in our super old camper as well genuinely being quite a practical solution to protecting walls around the cooker.. They’re designed to stick easily to a cleaned surface and to remove without damage. Thus, far ours haven't budged and clean sup easily. Also, we're not artists or tilers so don't look too closely at the lines (it was our first attempt. We've also used some brightly-coloured sticky 'tiles' in our teeny-tiny bathroom but more on that coming!
  

• Sustainable wooden boards: These can change up the look of your camper, are a practical resource (for cooking or serving) and they introduce some natural wood, which we reckon is always nice in a generally real-wood-free environment. They don’t have to be heavy and you can bring them outdoors if you need to. We have put little nipple type rubber feet on ours and one sits directly over the sink when we're cooking. or prepping food and don't need the sink for more worktop space - bonus! To be honest, this board, with it's built in colour-coded chopping boards, has been ludicrously invaluable. We love to cook and we like a little (safe, hygenic) order in the kitchen so the secret slot for all of our boards has been brilliant! Note that not all of the colour-coding makes a lot of sense (i.e. we don't all need a chopping board specifically for bananas!) but we just stick with blue for fish, brown for stinky stuff like onions and garlic, green for other veg, red for meat and so on. I mean, you can knock yourself out as there's six to choose from - go crazy!
  

• Large stackable storage containers or drawers. Make sure they have front access as you want to see or easily access what’s inside and access the stuff without lifting them all out. We bought some from Dunhelm in the UK but these are very similar. We bought a four stacker but only used three due to limited space. We've put ours inside our big cupboard and we keep tools, emergency breakdown stuff, doggo's food and her many jackets as well as other random leisure bits and bobs. And, yep, they're all labelled!
  

• Blankets galore: It saves on expensive and space-consuming four season bedding (which is recommended for winter travellers in cold countries.) They also looks great, can be moved around and who doesn’t want to be cosy? It’s not usually practical or energy-efficient to heat a camper or motorhome all night so it really does matter. Side note is that we've also got tons of cushions for comfort sitting in the hab or even outdoors. We have quite a retro/oldschool look in our camper as our camper is old (and beautiful) so we mix up fabrics and tend to lean towards oranges, rust colours as well as herringbone etc. Having said that, we bought one budget-friendly 'sherpa' style blanket quite early which we use on the bed and for general OTT cosiness (it's obviously now one of Gracie's favourites too). It's been washed tons now and has held it's colour and comfort. Super cosy!
  

• A BPA free water carrier: You don't want to constantly buy drinking water in plastic bottles and most places (even some of the free aires) offer drinking water taps etc. Fill up and take it back so you save the planet, your energy levels and your bank balance. We also use ours adding liquid (from a height to avoid any chance of contact) to our chem loo as well as for watering our plants. Speaking of which, meet Baz (I probably don't need to tell you it's a basil plant!) in his 'hanging basket' (a woven bag) as a current member of our team.... Isn't he lovely? He smells good too!

• Back-up lighting: This one's been another game-changer for us. We're set up to be off grid for several days at a time (perhaps longer) with our solar panel, our powerstation and our LPG fridge etc. However, your electric hook-up or other sources can trip or whatever so back-up lighting has already proved crucial for us loads. So crucial, that it should be in the earlier parts of this fascinating trilogy. We have bought adhesive push button battery powered LED lights (very similar to those ones) and set them up in several spots around our hab. We use them when we want to avoid draining the leisure battery too. We're buying more of these particular ones as the remote is handy for the deep dark cupboards (holes in the wall) in our also-very-old (and sometimes dark) little house in Spain too.
  

  Controversial question - warm or cool lighting? We are warm all the way in this family!

Also, you won't want to forget:

• toilet liquid if you have a cassette toilet

• rubber gloves

• anti-bac floor wipes

• kitchen towel

• sponges (bathroom, kitchen and probably floor)

• a torch or headlamps

• batteries.

The list goes on......

In fact, we've now created our very own downloadable packing list. Just subscribe to our update emails and we'll send them to you!

[Don't forget to check out other roadtrip tips]