X Storage Options For Caravan Kitchens

A caravan kitchen has roughly a quarter of the storage space of an average household kitchen, yet it needs to hold everything required to cook three meals a day for months on end. The secret isn’t owning less (though that helps); it’s organising what you have so that every centimetre of cupboard, drawer, and wall space pulls its weight.

These storage solutions are tried and tested by Big Lappers across Australia. Most cost under $30, all are available from major retailers, and every one of them solves a specific problem that makes daily caravan cooking smoother.

1. Non-Slip Shelf & Drawer Liners

This is the single most important storage purchase you’ll make. Non-slip liner (sold in rolls at Bunnings, Kmart, and most camping stores) stops everything in your cupboards and drawers from sliding around while you drive. Without it, every item in the kitchen shifts, rattles, and potentially breaks with every bump. Line every shelf and every drawer. It takes 30 minutes and costs $15 to $25 for enough to do the entire kitchen. You’ll wonder how anyone travels without it.

2. Stackable Airtight Containers

Decant everything from boxes, bags, and packets into airtight containers. Cereal, pasta, rice, flour, sugar, tea bags, biscuits, and snacks all go into containers. This saves enormous space (boxes are mostly air and wasted cardboard), prevents spills on rough roads, keeps food fresh longer, and makes pantry contents visible at a glance. The OXO Good Grips Pop Containers ($15 to $30 each) are the gold standard: genuinely airtight, easy to open one-handed, and stack perfectly. Budget options from Kmart and IKEA work fine too; just ensure the lids seal properly.

3. Tension Rods Across Shelves

A simple spring-loaded tension rod placed across a shelf opening stops items falling forward when you open cupboard doors. This is particularly useful for the overhead cupboards where tins, bottles, and containers shift forward during driving and come tumbling out when you open the door. Available at Bunnings and discount stores for $5 to $15 each. Buy several.

4. Under-Shelf Baskets

Wire baskets that clip onto existing shelves, creating an extra storage layer underneath. They’re perfect for flat items (wraps, baking paper, zip-lock bags) or small items that get lost on deep shelves. Available at Kmart, IKEA, and kitchen organisers for $5 to $15 each. A simple way to nearly double the usable layers in a tall cupboard.

5. Magnetic Knife Strip

A wall-mounted magnetic strip holds your knives securely (they won’t fly around in transit), frees up drawer space, and keeps blades accessible while cooking. Mount it on the splashback above the bench or inside a cupboard door. Much better than a knife block (takes up bench space) or loose in a drawer (dangerous and damages blades). Around $15 to $30 at Kmart or kitchen stores.

6. Over-Door Organisers

The inside of cupboard doors is wasted space in most caravans. Stick-on or screw-on hooks, small wire racks, and spice racks mounted on the inside of pantry doors create storage for spice jars, foil and cling wrap, measuring spoons, and small utensils. Command strips and hooks work well if you don’t want to drill into doors. $5 to $20 per door depending on what you mount.

7. Collapsible Kitchen Gear

Collapsible versions of common kitchen items save remarkable amounts of space. A collapsible colander ($10 to $20) goes from full-size to flat in seconds. Collapsible measuring cups, mixing bowls, and even kettles exist. The silicone versions are typically better quality than hard plastic. They don’t replace your primary cookware, but for items used occasionally, collapsible versions are brilliant space savers.

8. Drawer Organisers & Dividers

Cutlery and utensil drawers become a jumbled mess within days of travel without dividers. Adjustable bamboo drawer organisers ($10 to $25 at Kmart or IKEA) keep everything in its place. For deeper drawers that hold pots, pans, or containers, use vertical dividers (like mini tension rods or DIY timber dividers) to keep items standing upright instead of stacking and shifting.

9. Spice Storage Solutions

Standard spice jars in a cupboard are a disaster in a caravan. They fall over, roll around, and smash into each other. Solutions: a wall-mounted magnetic spice rack (small metal tins with magnetic backs that stick to a metal plate, $20 to $40 for a set), a narrow pull-out spice shelf fitted between cupboards, or simply decanting spices into small labelled ziplock bags stored flat in a container (zero space, zero rattling).

10. Fridge Organisation

Your caravan fridge is smaller than your home fridge and gets opened constantly. Clear stackable containers inside the fridge keep categories separated (dairy, meat, veggies, condiments) and make it easy to find what you need without standing with the door open. Small fridge bins ($5 to $15 each at Kmart) are specifically designed for this. A fridge thermometer ($5 to $10) ensures your fridge is running at the right temperature, which is particularly important for 3-way fridges that can be less consistent than compressor models.