The only feeling that comes close to being outdoors on your favorite trail is organizing your gear within an inch of its life.
While you’ve got some time on your freshly-sanitized hands, it’s time to learn how to organize your gear at home. You’ll spend less time rummaging around when you’re ready to head outdoors again—and you’ll have a set-up that you’ll want to photograph and carry around in your wallet.
Here are ten tips for organizing your outdoor equipment and apparel like a pro.
We’re all about becoming one with the stank when you’re out on the trail, but when you get home, you can’t stash your dirty gear and hope the filth will just go away. Before you even think about packing anything into storage, clean and repair your camping and hiking stuff.
Now that everything is spiffo, lay all your gear out and sort it into two categories: Core gear and gear for specific outdoor activities. From there, divide everything into smaller piles like these:
Core gear piles: Sleep system and tent, camp kitchen, hydration, camp essentials (first aid kits, headlamps, toiletries, mosquito nets etc.), packs and bags, dry bags and stuff sacks. Activities piles: Bikepacking, climbing gear, ski gear, water sports, trail running, and car camping.
When you’ve been on the trail, has someone ever asked you if you have [insert obscure object here] and you’ve said yes? That smug feeling is addictive… but a light pack feels even better. Avoid your next shake-down on the trail and sift through your gear. Do you have any double-ups? Do you really need three stoves or four of the same jacket? Throw sentimentality out the window. If you don’t need something, sell it or give it to someone who could use it.
Most of us either don’t have enough storage space—or we just don’t know how to use it well. If you don’t have the luxury of a garage, get creative with smaller spaces. Scope out some underused sections of your wardrobe or laundry cupboards. Never underestimate the storage potential of your backpack or the space under your bed. You might even find yourself selling off old university books to make more storage for the important things (gear, gear, gear) on your bookshelf.
You’ve just spent all that time washing your down or synthetic sleeping bag, reconditioning your hiking boots and making space. Don’t put all that squeaky-clean gear away somewhere dirty and dank. Wipe out any tubs you’re going to use, and give the newly vacated shelves, storage containers and cupboards a once-over while you’re at it. That way, you can also make sure there are no damp spots—or moths who have a penchant for nibbling on expensive merino. Once you’ve done a big clean, it will be easy to maintain it with a quick dust and bug-check every couple of months or so.
Get a few square storage bins for your tent and tarp, sleeping system, camp kitchen, and any clothing you can’t fold like merino base layers. Bins for storing tents or sleeping pads should not be airtight, otherwise the fabric coatings are constantly exposed to the same (high) level of humidity – ventilated boxes are the way to go. For apparel make sure the bins have lids to keep moths, water and dust out. Choose tubs that will fit in your storage space—and your car! If you’re planning on storing some stuff under your bed, make sure you don’t end up with tubs that are too high. Whatever size and style you choose, clear tubs make it much easier to determine what you’ve stored in them.
If you’re storing anything merino for an extended period of time, consider sealing it in a Ziploc bag to keep the moths and silverfish away. Red cedar wood is a natural moth repellent too, and can be stored placed in your wardrobe or drawers without stinking everything out.
If you have hiking poles, oars, skis, tripods or any other long items for outdoors activities, tuck them away in a corner in a tall laundry basket.
If you have very limited space or you want to make more room in your tubs, pick up some dry bags or dry sacks to contain your bulky gear and essential bits and pieces, like toiletries and first aid supplies. Same rules apply as with bins: if you’re storing tents or sleeping pads, leave the dry bag open so ventilating air can get in and out. Choose one color for each category so you can easily find everything weeks or months later. Start your color coded system at home and it will be easy to replicate this organization when you’re out adventuring.
Make sure you take the batteries out of any electronics before you put them into storage. A corroded headlamp casing is the last thing you want to deal with when you’re trying to get out the door for a spur of the moment adventure. Keeping spare batteries on-hand is always useful, too.
It’s no use having a bunch of storage bins if you don’t know what’s in them. Go wild with sticky labels. Label your gear according to your core categories and any other activities like we mentioned at the start. If you’re using stuff sacks or dry bags, you can either label or color code them. For example, you could choose blue labels for your sleep system and red for your ski gear. When you’re done, stick a laminated, adventure-specific checklist to your tubs. You’ll never find yourself halfway up a creek without a paddle again!
Hanging your clothes will save a ton of space and keep everything organized. Hang your base layers on the left and work your way right towards your puffy jackets. You can also hang up your backpack to keep more floor space for tubs.
Keep merino wool in a tub or a stuff sack so it doesn’t lose its shape.
Loop that through the top of the hanger to take some of the pressure off the shoulders. It’s also worth investing in a couple of thicker hangers for things like your down jacket or heavier outer layers.
Stack your storage bins with the gear you use the most close at hand. You’ll probably find the order changes with the seasons. If it’s summer, you’ll want to put your lighter summer clothing and water sports nearby. In winter, your snow jacket should be within arms reach for last-minute backcountry skiing trips.
If you have shelves, use them. If you have some space in your garage, think about getting some warehouse-style shelves that can hold a bit of weight. It’s still worth keeping things like your sleeping bag at a more constant temperature if you can, so inside the house somewhere, rather than the garage, is better if you can spare the room.
Keep your heavier gear-filled tubs on the floor or the very bottom shelf. That way, you can bend your knees when you lift it. Don’t put your back out before you’ve even hit the trail.
On the middle shelves, store the lighter gear you’ll use this season. Keep high shelves for gear that’s light but out-of-season or rarely used. You don’t want to go hunting for the step ladder every time you want to get something out.
Give your hiking boots some air. Once you’ve cleaned them up, sprinkle some bicarb soda in your boots to absorb any funky smells or dampness—and tip out the soda a day or two later. Keep them on the floor next to your tubs.
Moisture is bad news for your camping gear. It will damage flashlights and other electronic gear and it’ll bring mold and mildew to fabrics. It will cause the PU coating on your tent to break down and become sticky.
Triple check everything is 100% dry before you store it. Feeling extra? Add some desiccant to your tubs—like those little silica packets that come with almost everything. Save them up and throw them in.
Once you’ve taken all these steps, you’ll be so organized your hiking buddies will wonder if you’re a secret doomsday prepper. But, more importantly, you’ll be able to round up your gear in minutes and head out the door.
Recently, I’ve seen a bunch of gear storage projects. If you look on Pinterest, you’ll see so many clean and aesthetic ways to store gear. After years of renting small apartments and cramming gear wherever it fit, I was excited when we bought a house four years ago. I felt overwhelmed on how to not only just organize my outdoor gear but where all my other things would go. I’ve never had this much square footage in my adult life. We decided to unpack everything else.
Still going to the mountains almost every weekend, it took a while to conceive the best way to store the gear other than in boxes and on the floor of one of the spare rooms. Below are a few tips to use when finding what works best for you, along with a summary of how my gear is organized and stored today.
From jackets to socks to climbing ropes to first aid kits, I tried to group or pile my gear together to see how much I have (and also donated things I didn’t need or use anymore). Think Marie Kondo method of organizing, minus the whole ‘sparks joy’ requirement.
Start by creating a spreadsheet and/or categorize your gear into many sections. Taking inventory can be used later as a packing list. Get detailed and add item weights to calculate how much your bag is going to weigh before you even pack.
After renting for many years, I finally bought a house and knew I wanted a nice gear organization system. Instead of rushing in and throwing up shelves that might not be needed, we waited probably 6 months before building out and organizing. Yes, it was frustrating to pack during that time but we wanted to see how we moved around the house while we packed to help organize all the gear.
I tend to move most of my gear to piles on either a bed or the floor of a room on the same level as the garage. I choose this because the garage tends to be cold with hard surfaces that kneeling to stuff things in packs isn’t the most comfortable.
The bulk of my gear is in a two-car garage, a very spacious area. Living in the PNW, we don’t need to park in the garage but we do have concerns about humidity. Consider a dehumidifier where you store your gear or keep an eye on the soft items to see if moisture is collecting to items. You may want to move those items.
All jackets are stored in a hallway closet. My soft goods or clothing stay in the closet where most of the technical gear can be stored in the garage.
Sleeping bags would optimally go with the rest of the gear but humidity levels of storing in the garage resulted in having our sleeping bags separate and hanging in a closet in one of the guest bedrooms since we want to store them lofted or not packed and compressed.
After you have taken inventory, you should have a good idea on how many containers or shelves you need. Measure your space and check it twice. Consider buying customizable or adjustable shelves that can be changed over the years. Target has sturdy options that we had already from our rental but we bought more that could connect together. The removable shelves work best for us versus built-in shelves in case we were to ever move again, we wouldn’t have to start over.
Starting to build out shelves and organizing gear.We did an initial pass of putting things on shelves. However, some things needed to be stored in bins. We bought various sizes and decided to go with black since our outdoor gear tends to scratch or be dirty and we didn’t want to have to clean light shelves.
We have all our footwear, including climbing shoes, hiking and mountaineering boots, and gaiters. Next column of shelves is for tents, sleeping pads, water containers, dry sacks and compression bags, and water filters and hydration gear.
Left shelves include helmets, ski skins, first aid, personal gear shelves and bins for odds and ends, crampons, and snowshoes. Right shelves include dehydrated food, fuel, stove, odd sports, and bins that store camp kitchen gear.Our camping cookware is stored in a rubbermaid container. The Coleman stove, MSR Reactor, gas canisters, and cooler, along with our random sports gear, like baseball mitts and softballs are stored together.
I’ve always wanted a peg board with all the trad gear and carabiners to hang up. However, with our space, a peg board wasn’t necessarily an option. Instead, we strung old perlon up to clip the cams and draws, along with all the carabiners. Ropes received their own shelf. Harnesses lay on a short shelf. We added a bin for miscellaneous gear we can look through depending on our objectives.
Backcountry skins, beacon, shovel, probes, goggles, ski and climbing helmets, and ski crampons and boot crampons all are in the next section, along with essentials like first aid, mylar bags. The snowshoes one some of the only items that touch the garage floor.
Andy designed and built a mounted ski rack that holds not only our skis, but ice axes and poles as well. We bought a shoe tray to catch all the snow melt from our ski boots.
On the back of the garage, white metal shelves were already installed. I bought S-hooks to hang all our backpacks from the bottom. We use the other storage for miscellaneous things that aren’t outdoor related.
Larger items like skis take up a lot of room if you’re leaning them in a pile. I bought a Topeak B2 bike stand to store our two bikes, which keeps them out of the way and off the tires.
When living in a small townhouse in the city, we had a one-car garage that we did park in. We used our guest bedroom closet to store all the sleeping bags, tents, and sleeping pads. Along the wall at the foot of the spare bed was most of our other camping, backpacking, climbing, and mountaineering gear. The bins were labeled by activity with fancy Duct tape.
We had one standing column of our current setup with five shelves to store our boots and also stacked our skis in the corner of the garage. The bike rack helped keep the bikes out of the way on the other side of the garage.
Do you have gear storage tips? Please leave yours in the comments below.