How To Be More Space Efficient When Packing for a Road Trip

Great Tips for Max Packing Efficiency for Your Next Road Trip

Going on a road trip is quite an adventure that everyone should try at least once in their lives. It’s a fantastic way to explore the great outdoors and spend a few days with a group of friends and family members, or even on your own as a way to unplug from your work and other responsibilities. However, one of the more difficult parts of planning for a road trip is fitting all of the stuff that you’re going to need in your vehicle.

Unless you’ve invested in a large vehicle with a lot of space, you’ll need to do a bit of rearranging and planning to fit all of the stuff that you’re going to need for your road trip. With that said, a road trip typically doesn’t require a lot of things; some clothes, toiletries, and other essentials are really all you really need. But there are times when people might want to bring along more equipment to try their hand at kayaking, enjoy some off-road camping, or they might just want to bring a few extra things for safety.

So in this post, we’ll be covering a couple of ways that you can be more space-efficient when packing for a road trip.

Use the space on and around your car as well

If you need a bit of extra space then you may want to consider using the space around your car. Specifically, using accessories such as a kayak roof rack, a bike storage rack on the back, or even just a roof storage compartment. These add-ons are generally quite inexpensive and will give you a lot more space to play around with, but they’re also fairly important when it comes to bringing along heavier or larger items that may not fit in your car.

For instance, if you plan to go kayaking with your own kayak, then you’re definitely not fitting it inside of a small car. However, you can easily fit it on top of your car with the right mounting equipment. The same goes for bicycles; these are much easier to fit on the back of your car and you can even fit multiple depending on the rack that you purchase. Lastly, don’t forget that if you really need more space, you can always tow a small trailer behind you if your car is capable of pulling it along.

General space-saving tricks

You should also consider some general space-saving tricks that apply to any kind of travel such as the following:

• Get rid of any items that you don’t necessarily need such as extra toiletries and full-sized cosmetics that have weird bottle shapes. Pack light and get products that can serve multiple purposes so that you can save space.
• Bring versatile clothes so that you can pack less but still look and feel great. Functional clothing is fantastic as well if it can serve multiple purposes. Look for clothes that are durable, won’t need much cleaning during the road trip, and will keep you nice and warm.
• For other equipment, try and bring things that can be packed into smaller shapes. For example, sleeping bags are much lighter and save space compared to full duvets, and you can get tents that fold down into very small shapes so they’re easier to fit in a car.
• If you’re really tight for space, consider rolling up your clothes instead of folding them. This can help pack your clothes and similar items into a much smaller footprint while also preventing them from wrinkling.

Is your car too small? Consider renting a larger one for your tip.

Driving in your own car is the most comfortable way to enjoy a road trip, but there are times where you might want to consider renting a larger vehicle for the sake of taking more people or storing more things in the vehicle. Renting a vehicle is ultimately going to be a lot cheaper than other methods, and there are some cases where you could even set up temporary sleeping space in the vehicle if you don’t plan to travel with a lot of people in a large vehicle.

You could even rent a recreational vehicle that already has sleeping and cooking amenities. This is fairly affordable and a great option to consider if you want to maximize the amount of space that you have and also make packing for your trip a lot easier. Your group members will also appreciate being able to take a few extra things, especially if you’re planning other activities such as camping or cycling as well.