packing, organizing

[Johnwgreer]

I have a Chalet 1935 hard-shelled A-Frame. I'm looking for advice in packing the trailer so it doesn't turn into an inconvenient mess 10 minutes after I get it set up. I'll admit to not being the most organized person in the world, but I feel like I have a failure of imagination here and am looking for ideas. My particular model had a permanent bed with bins underneath in back and kitchen (with dormer) in the front.
I love the size, the ability to store it in my garage, and the easy towing. And I truly love camping in it. I must admit to a little envy of those mega-RV's in campgrounds sometimes, mainly for all those cabinets!

[toedtoes]

The end of year/season works well. The only items exempt from that rule are emergency supplies.

For canned goods, I just stock about 3-4 days worth of quickie meals over my planned menu. That means about 9-12 cans total for soup, beans, chili, etc. Gives me an emergency food ration if needed (or more usually, something easy to fix when I just don't want to mess with cooking).

Double duty works well for "special" trips. I go to a clipper rally twice a year. It's the only time I cook larger quantity meals. I used to carry a large frying pan and a large pot and a casserole dish. The latter two only got used for the rallies. Now, I have a large straight low walled pan that can work as a fryer, pot or casserole dish. It gets used all the time.

The other thing I've discovered is that if I require myself to find a place in the RV to store it before I buy it, I buy less stuff I don't really need.

[Johnwgreer]

Thanks, toedtoes. Good advice. I especially like the "end of season elimination" idea. I've thought of keeping track of what I use and what I don't for each camping trip, but a) That's something I'm likely to keep up for about 2 hours, and b) Heck, I'm out there to relax and have fun!
But the idea of laying everything out at the end of a season and looking at each item and saying, "Did I use this at all this year?" is something that seems entirely workable and a really good practice.
Thanks again.

[toedtoes]

Use softsided packing cubes for as much as possible. They can squish to fit the space better than hardsided bins. Save hardsided bins for breakable or sharp items that will poke through the packing cubes.

At the end of each year, go through and eliminate anything you didn't use the year before. That will keep things from breeding in the dark.

Focus on items that can double duty. Skip the "it'd be nice to have" stuff.

If you add something, something else must go. Again this keeps things from multiplying.