We didn’t have a van. We didn’t have a rooftop tent. We had our Prius and our trusty Passenger Duo Tent from REI.

Don’t let your vehicle size stop you from taking a life-changing road trip. You don’t need more space. You need a system. We were on the road in our prius for 2 months and dialed in everything you need for a roadtrip in your small car.

Here’s exactly what we bring and how we made it work. Everything listed is what we used as two women, adjust for your own needs.

---

The Bin System

Bins, totes, whatever you want to call them, saves everything.

When you’re camping out of a small car, digging through loose bags every night will make you miserable. Organization matters more than anything.

We divide everything into clear bins. One large bin, two mediums, and one food bin.

Let’s break them down:

---

The Triple Level Food Tote

This bin that we used was by far the best option for our food.

We did not travel with a cooler. We didn’t want to deal with ice, keeping things cold. This was an adjustment that we quickly fell in love with and actually made cooking feel easier. It was our intention to have a more primitive food system while we were camping.

Each bin has a job. Nothing floats between categories. Everything goes back to its assigned spot. It is so nice to keep everything like this because then you are never searching which is really annoying. At the start of our roadtrip we were extra and labeled the top with everything that was in the bin, but we eventually removed the labels.

---

Accessible Items

There were many things that should be kept ‘accessible’ not necessarily ‘stored’.

---

How We Stored Our Tent

An exception to our well organized car was that we didn’t remove our sleeping mat, bag, or rain fly off of our tent and neatly fold and stuff them back into their bags.

We figured out that we could neatly fold it all together into one large fold and we had a place that we would put it during our days to the next campsite.

This was honestly very effective.

Everything that was packed in our small car from cooking setup, campsite essentials, clothes, shoes, and self-care.

Small Car Campsite Essentials

These are were all of our top tier essentials and the only thing we would change is finding a tiny table big enough for our cooking stove.

---

Small Car Camp Kitchen Essentials

This is all you really need. Everything here is all of our ‘cooking supplies’ that we kept in our large bin.

---

Clothing and Daily Self-Care

Think of this as a camping capsule wardrobe. Give and take depending on your climate. We each had our own bag for our clothes stored behind the driver and passenger seat. Shoes went on the ground and bag of clothes sat on top. We also each had our own dirty clothes bag.

Quick-dry fabrics make everything easier. We re-wear layers. We rotate. We don’t pack “just in case” outfits. Just put on the clothes that you packed knowing you are going to wear them for days.

Our daily self-care essentials that we used for morning and night routines were kept in their own bag that we always had accessible.

---

How to Keep it Organized

The system only works if you reset.

Every morning:
Bins restacked
Loose items returned
Front seats cleared

Every night:
Food contained
Trash removed
Headlamps stay with you and in the tent

Between trips:
Bins restocked
Fuel checked
Water Filled
Basic Food Repleneshed

A small car can feel calm or chaotic. The difference is five minutes of organization.