Packing the kitchen/food

[Helsa]

Firstly, I need to say thanks to everyone who contributes to this forum. I've been reading your posts for a while now and have learnt so much. Forgive me, I am a little shy when it comes to posting. But there is something I haven't been able to figure out yet and I guess it's time to ask the question as I need to pack the camper this weekend for the maiden voyage.

If you had a lovely pull out kitchen like this would you pack your food into the pull out draw or into a food box to store in the truck? Also would you close up you kitchen each night? If so, why?

All ideas and suggestions welcome.
Helsa

[rossbarb]

Hi Helsa1
welcome. We close our kitchen at night for a few reasons. 1 it tends to keep the camper a bit warmer as the cold air gets in under the bed making it colder. It stops it getting wet from the rain or the dew. it also keeps little visitors such as field mice out of the camper. we did have a visitor once and it took a while to get it out. It was a buggar!!! Hope this helps. I would put the pots and pans and plates etc in the area and put the food in boxes but that is just my preference.
barb

[Kit_e_kat9]

Don't have a kitchen like yours at all, but thought I might share as the same sorts of things will affect us all.

Sometimes we do close the kitchen at night.  Not to keep the bed warm ... wouldn't make a difference with ours ... but to keep the critters off it.  Nothing worse than having to clean it before you can use it.  Also to keep the critters out of the kitchen box itself, which holds the kitchen and the pantry.  Possums are the usual theives, but sometimes they come smaller or two legged and drunk ... we can lock our fridge and food away at night or simply when we leave the campsite for a walk etc.  Closing things up also helps to keep heavy dew out of your precious food stuffs.  Salt, flour, gravy and the likes don't take well to damp conditions and closing things helps to keep the atmosphere inside as it was when you closed it.

Kitchen parts are with the kitchen ... plates, cleaning, drinking, saucepans etc ... and the pantry is seperate.  Everything has a place and is in it.  Staying organised is the key whether it's a short or long trip.  Having to pack things away every time you wish to get on the road can be frustrating and time consuming, and in my opinion, packing up always takes longer for some strange reason.  

Kit_e

[GU Rich]

Firstly welcome to the forum Helsa, We use food boxes for our general food and place tea/coffee/detergents and cleaning products in the tailgate section. We also place our plates/bowls/mugs etc in containers in the taigate. We use a cutlery roll for our knives and forks etc. We have seperate containers so that everything has its place. I find this works well for me so when I do weekends without the camper in the swag which  is often I can grab what I need quickly.

We also close the tailgate each night. I don't find it a chore, it becomes more of a habit then a hinderance. It also keeps it wamer and keeps the critters out.

Hope this helps a little.

 
Rich

[Nomad]

Hi Helsa,

All the above and get some of that non slip rubber matting for inside your draws and shelves. It stops alot of movement.
Thats a good sized trip you have planned.

Cheers 

[GU Rich]

Hi Helsa,

All the above and get some of that non slip rubber matting for inside your draws and shelves. It stops alot of movement.
Thats a good sized trip you have planned.

Cheers 

Great tip, I have that in mine!

 

[Duchess]

Hi Helsa,

If I was camped overnight, I would put the kitchen away, mainly because I don't have the awning up and as it is a timber kitchen, I am concerned about dew. If it is a longer camp, with the awning up, I tend to leave the kitchen set up as well.

As I have the Drifta pullout and return, I mostly have all my kitchen things in it already, including my food stuffs that are non perishable. If I can't fit all of my food in the kitchen, I use a couple of plastic bins.

Ages ago...it seems! Kit_e posted up an awesome pic of her spice array. She uses the tiny zip lock bags to store spices and herbs, which is a great idea! I have found the little round storage containers from Woolies are also great, though they probably take up more room than the bags. You can buy them in two sizes.

My friends with a Lifestyle CT and a tailgate kitchen, store their food in the plastic bins with lids and put their kitchen equipment in under the bench. They have found that they need to be a little more organized though and make sure that they put like food stuffs together. Either that or put a list on the lid of food that is in that bin, so that they aren't searching through everything for the one item they need.

[duggie]

Just one tip that we do is to put the name of what the tin food is on the top with a marker pen, that way you can see what it is that you want without pulling the tin food out of your storage box/draw to see what it is.

[HerGU]

We were lucky enough to pick up plastic half size mccormick spice containers to which i made up labels at work as i found the texta rubbed off when cold / dew covered and when they rattle together. (not sure if they are still around as we got them as they were in discontinued 50c trolley and ended up buying like 8 oregano to get enough containers lol).

Non slip matting also helps things from rubbing together in travel. I also put the non stick matting between all the components of the cocoon cooking set (advertised on here a while ago). I also have it coating the bottom of our utensils draw thingy - to help protect the wood from the knives as well. I also have a sheet under the grill plate in the 4 burner stove. It still slides out on rough trips but it doesn't scratch the stainless.

Personally i would put things you regularly use in that section of the kitchen such as plates, cooking utensils with the non slip matting and pack food into a plastic clip lidded container.

With packing things in a plastic box, if you put everything back in the same spot, you will remember easily. Also save your 1kg plastic fruit containers with the lids - really handy to store sugar, coffee, flour (i buy the square flour platic from the shop and just re-fill it), but you will be amazed what you can put in those fruit jars and they are square so the pack well.

Also if you buy a couple of the small tomato/ bbq sauce bottles - keep the empty ones, re-label them and re-fill with soy or worcestershire sauce (i dislike carrying glass when possible).

Hope this gives you a few ideas

[geordie4x4]

With a nice steel kitchen like that I would put the awnings up, shut the door on the kitchen and leave it out overnight.
 I have a kitchen that is free standing when it is out, so I cover it with a small heavy tarp at night to keep the critters out. On the trailer I have small door to cover the slide out hole when the kitchen is out.

For packing food I keep all the tinned and non perishable stuff in the trailer kitchen and all the perishable stuff in the back of the car draws and fridge. I find that particularly on rough outback corrugated roads stuff in the trailer getts quite a bit of shaking up which can leave your food in less than ideal condition.

For highway trips to the camp site it all goes in a big plastic lided crate in the trailer except for cold stuff in the fridge.

[Helsa]

Thanks so much for your replies - some good tips there.
I have lined the under sink area with the non slip stuff and can fit all the cooking equipment, plates, cutlery, washing up stuff in there. I've also lined the large draw and have found boxes to fit into it and hope to store non perishables there. I have so many 'modular mates' tupperware at home I'm considering taking these for flour ect as they are square and all fit toghter nicely. I also saw kit_e_kat's great idea with herbs and spices and with be doing the same. I guess the remainder can go in a food box in the car and fridge.
In regards to leaving the kitchen up I guess I'll just work it out on the way. I don't want to encourage the critters but also think I will get sick of putting kitchen in and out. The downside to lovely stainless steel is it is quite heavy for a small person like me - although I could allow hubby to step into my kitchen domain to do it for me! I'm thinking for the o/night stops it will go away but for longer stops with the awning up we could attach the full enclosure to close of the 'room' and leave the kitchen out. Who knows - I guess after a week or so I'll work it out.
Thanks again - I'll let you know how we get on.
Helsa

[Dion]

We usually close ours up each night, to keep critters and the cold out.

Under the sink is plates/cups/cutlery/washing up.  Food goes in a spacecase.