Camper van packing: what we forget every single time

Our camper is a 2008 Volkswagen with one working cup-holder and a fridge that thinks it’s a freezer. We’ve taken it on six trips in eighteen months. For five of those trips, we forgot the same thing: the small black bag with the gas-cooker regulator. Every time we’d arrive somewhere beautiful, set up camp, then drive back to a hardware store. Once we paid €40 for a new one.

That last €40 was the trigger. We sat down on a folding chair outside the van and tried to figure out what was actually wrong with how we pack. The list was not the problem — we had a list. We had three lists, in fact. The problem was that the list assumed everything is equal, and not everything is.

The four-column rule

Most packing lists are flat. Tent, sleeping bag, head torch, gas regulator, all with checkboxes next to them. The problem with a flat list is that it doesn’t tell you when to pack what, or who packs what, or whether the item is something you keep in the van permanently or pack fresh each time.

So we split every item into one of four columns:

1. Lives in the van. Folding chairs, awning, water hose, the tiny dustpan. These items never leave the van. You don’t pack them — you check that they’re still there.
2. Pre-pack (week of). Anything that needs preparing in advance: charging head torches, defrosting freezer meals, refilling the gas bottle, washing the cool-bag liner.
3. Day-of. Fresh food, clothes for the actual weather, the cooler ice packs out of the freezer. You can’t do this earlier without something melting, spoiling, or being needed at home.
4. Last minute (engine running). Phones, chargers, wallets, keys, the kid. The stuff you grab on your way out the front door.

Each item gets exactly one column. If it could go in two, it goes in the later one — pessimism is the right default for packing.

The forgotten things, almost always fall in column 2. “Pre-pack” is the column we kept skipping because the trip didn’t feel imminent yet. The gas regulator was a pre-pack item we treated like a last-minute one.

Things we forget, ranked

A real list, from a real notebook in the van, of things we’ve forgotten across six trips. Yours will look different, but the categories tend to be the same.

Item	Trips forgotten	Column
Gas regulator	5 / 6	Pre-pack
Tea-towels	4 / 6	Pre-pack
Refilled drinking water	4 / 6	Day-of
Reading book for the partner	3 / 6	Day-of
Phone charger (USB-C)	2 / 6	Last minute
Toothbrushes	2 / 6	Last minute
Sunglasses	1 / 6	Last minute

Notice the pattern: the items we forget most are not the cliché ones. Toothbrushes are easy because they’re attached to a morning routine. Gas regulators are hard because nothing reminds you about them until you try to make a cup of coffee in a field.

The “lives in the van” inventory

Once we identified the first column, the trip-prep got dramatically faster. You stop packing twelve things you already own twelve copies of. Our current “lives in the van” list:

• Two folding chairs and the small folding table
• Awning, poles, guy ropes, four pegs, mallet
• Water hose, watering can, washing-up bowl, bucket
• Kettle, two pans, cooker, gas hose (regulator pre-pack!)
• Plates, mugs, cutlery for four, sharp knife, chopping board
• Dustpan, brush, dish soap, sponge, microfibre cloths
• Head torch (×2), spare batteries, gaffer tape, multi-tool
• First aid kit, antihistamines, sun cream (last year’s, replace)

Twice a year, on a quiet Sunday, we open the van and tick each one off. Anything missing goes on the next “pre-pack” list. That single habit has stopped us from buying a third dustpan.

What the app does

We built Packd partly because we couldn’t find an app that handled this. Most packing apps assume you’ll never take the same trip twice — they’re for the annual two-week holiday. Camper-van life is the opposite: short trips, often, with 80% of the same gear. You want a list that you reset, not delete.

The trick is the “Won’t pack” column. It sits between “To pack” and “Packed.” When you decide on Friday morning that this weekend’s too short to bring the awning, you move awning to “Won’t pack.” Next trip, one tap moves it back. Nothing is ever deleted; nothing is ever forgotten because it wasn’t on this trip’s list.

A short trip checklist

For our weekend trips — Friday afternoon to Sunday evening — this is the whole shape of it. Build your own based on your van and your patience.

1. Monday: Check “lives in the van” — anything missing goes on pre-pack.
2. Wednesday: Run the pre-pack list. Charge things, refill things, replace things.
3. Friday morning: Tick day-of items. Cold things go in the cool-bag last.
4. Engine on: Last-minute items get a final swipe. Then drive.

We’ve done eleven trips this way without forgetting the gas regulator. We did once forget a child’s favourite stuffed animal — but only once, and the lesson was added to the pre-pack column. The list grows. The trips get easier.

Filed under: camping, packing, the long slow project of not buying a third dustpan. If you have a packing column we missed, write to us at [email protected] — we read everything.