Organizing hiking and camping gear can seem daunting, or even impossible. Limited space, uncertainty about storage methods, tight budgets, and simply not knowing where to start may be stopping you from organizing your beloved outdoor gear.
But organizing your hiking and camping gear does more than make packing and unpacking easier. Proper storage helps protect your gear and extend its lifespan. Giving your gear room to breathe, rather than stuffing it into backpacks, totes, or stuff sacks, increases the likelihood that it will last for a very long time.
In this guide, I’m going to share 14 practical tips for organizing your hiking and camping gear, with ideas for a variety of budgets. With everything clearly laid out, organized, and labeled, you’ll be able to quickly grab what you need, pack up, and head out on your next adventure.
14 Tips for Organizing Hiking & Camping Gear
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1. Keep Only What You Need
Before you start organizing all of your camping and hiking gear, you should first assess your gear.
Decide what you really need and what you will actually use. If you haven’t used it and/or don’t think you’ll ever use it, what’s the point in cluttering up your precious, possibly limited, space?
If it helps, put your gear into three piles: keep, donate, and maybe. Once you’ve assessed all your gear, put the “maybe’s” into one of the other two piles.
2. Maximize the Space That You Have (Big or Small)
I asked my readers and social audience to tell me their biggest concern when it comes to organizing their hiking and camping gear, and the most popular response was some variation of “I don’t have enough space.”
Meaning they don’t have a designated space in their house/apartment for gear, like a garage, storage shed, or a spare closet.
If this is you, don’t worry!
Here are some tips to maximize the space that you have to make room for a gear storage area:
- Declutter. Use this as an opportunity to declutter. Chances are, you’ve got closets filled with things you may not need or use anymore. By clearing those out of the way or getting rid of them entirely, you’ll make room for things that bring you joy, like your hiking and camping gear.
- Utilize wall space. Even if you don’t have a garage, storage shed, or spare closet, you probably have lots of free wall space! Utilize that prime real estate on your wall by mounting shelves, hanging pegboards, or, on the more expensive end, carving built-ins.
3. Designate a Single Space
Designating a single space where all of your gear will live will simplify trip packing. If possible, have your gear all in one location, whether that’s a wall, closet, shed, garage, etc.
Keeping all of your gear together means that when you go to find a piece of gear, pack your backpack, or unpack from your trip, you won’t have to search or hop around in multiple locations.
Spend less time hunting for gear and more time outdoors!
NOTE: Make sure that you store your gear in a cool, dry environment. Water, humidity, moisture, and excessive sunlight can damage certain pieces of camping/hiking equipment. Place a few packets of silica gel inside each drawer/tote to absorb any lingering moisture.
4. Lay Out All Of Your Gear
Before organizing your gear, it helps to see what you’re working with. Lay all of your gear on the floor right beside the space where you plan on setting up your gear wall/storage closet/etc.
This will help you gauge how many totes, hooks, shelves, pegboards, baskets, etc., you’ll need for your organizational project.
5. Utilize Storage Totes & Drawers
When you’ve found a space to work with – whether it’s your garage, storage shed, closet, room wall, or some other place – you’re ready to start organizing your camping and hiking gear!
Totes and drawers are great storage methods to start with! They can be used in conjunction with other storage solutions – like pegboards, hooks, baskets, shelves, etc. – or as a standalone organizational method.
If you decide to organize some or all of your gear into totes and storage drawers, make sure to group similar items together so they are easy to locate when you’re ready to go on your trip. And label them!
For example, you could have one drawer labeled “cookware” with all of your pots, pans, and utensils, and another drawer labeled “water” with all of your filters and water bottles.
6. Hang Backpacks and Trekking Poles on Hooks
Backpacks and trekking poles are examples of bulky items that shouldn’t be hung on pegboards (too heavy) and shouldn’t be shoved into a storage tote or drawer (let them breathe!).
Since they come equipped with straps, an easy solution for displaying/storing backpacks and trekking poles would be wall hooks! Drill a hole into your drywall and twist a strong wall hook inside; bam, you’re done!
7. Use Pegboards, But Don’t Overload Them
Pegboards are a great way to organize smaller, lighter gear, but make sure not to overload them!
Most pegboards have a weight limit. Look at the weight limit before hanging gear on them. Usually, the heavier and sturdier the material of the pegboard, the more it’ll hold.
Depending on the type, pegboards can hold anywhere from 5 to 100 pounds. To play it safe, I’d stick to hanging small, lightweight gear items on your pegboard like water bottles, headlamps, tent footprints, satellite phones, etc.
8. Keep Your Gear Clean and Protected
Keeping your gear clean and tidy not only improves the look of your space, but it also ensures that when your next trip rolls around, your gear is ready to go, not dirty, broken, or missing pieces.
I’d recommend cleaning your tent after each trip, inspecting your sleeping pads for holes, and making any repairs as needed.
Store your gear somewhere dry and cool to avoid damage from environmental factors like excessive sunlight and humidity.
If you’re curious about how to care for your tent, including how to protect, clean, store, and repair it, on and off the trail, read my blog post!
9. Not Everything Has to Be Hung or Stowed in Totes
When you’re organizing your gear, if you find that some gear doesn’t fit well inside a tote or doesn’t hang well on a wall or pegboard, you can always store it on the ground or on top of a tote.
For example, pieces of gear like my tent, inflatable paddle boards, water jugs, bike rack, bicycles, snowshoes, and coolers are on the floor, not inside a bin/tote/drawer, on a shelf, or on a peg/hook.
10. Label Drawers & Totes
When you’ve got everything organized and in its rightful place, it’s time to label it all! This is optional, but it does make packing and unpacking easier.
Label makers are pretty cheap and are helpful for many projects, so I’d recommend investing in one!
While you can certainly take a Sharpie to the totes and drawers, clean printed labels typically look nicer than handwriting, are easier to read, and won’t fade as quickly.
Labeling makes it so you can easily spot what you need, toss it in your bag, and go! And when you return from your trip, unpacking and putting everything back in its rightful place is a breeze.
11. Hang Sleeping Bags or Store in Mesh Bags
Sleeping bags need to breathe! To make this happen, you can store them on a hanger or inside an oversized mesh bag. Try not to keep it in its stuff sack unless you are actively backpacking or camping!
12. Get Creative With Storage Solutions
Aside from storage totes, plastic drawers, hooks, shelves, and pegboards, here are some other creative methods of organizing and storing hiking and camping gear:
- Wardrobe hanging racks – to hang sleeping bags or hiking clothes
- Backpack – if you’re consistently filling your backpack with the same items, you could store many things in there, so it’s ready to grab and go for your next trip
- Laundry basket – great for long, bulky items like trekking poles, backpacks, snowshoes, etc., or outdoor blankets
- Hanging shoe organizer – hang over a door or mount to a wall to store small pieces of gear like socks, headlamps, hats, first aid kits, etc.
13. Keep it Simple
If you’re on a tight budget, you can still design a functional organization system for your gear.
You can swap pegboards and shelving for hooks or plastic storage totes/drawers. And label with a permanent marker instead of a fancy label maker.
Take a trip to your local hardware or craft store and purchase some basic hooks, totes, and plastic storage drawers.
Depending on how much gear you have or what storage solutions you want and/or already own, this project could cost anywhere from nothing to hundreds of dollars. Design a storage system to match your budget!
14. Decorate Your Space
Your storage area will already feel pretty great because it will have all of your precious gear on display, but you can add even more style and inspiration to your space by adding some finishing touches.
Hang some photos of your favorite trails, destinations, campsites, etc.
Print out a bucket list of all of the places you want to go and check off each one as you complete them to inspire you to keep traveling.
Print a gear checklist. Hang it in a frame or laminate it and set it beside your gear wall so that you can use an erasable marker to check off each item as you pack.
More Gear Guides!
- Inflatable Vs Foam Sleeping Pad: Ultimate Comparison
- 30 Excellent Gifts For Campers Under $30
- Camping Gear You Never Knew You Needed
- Luxury Backpacking Gear That Is Worth the Extra Weight
- What to Wear Hiking in the Summer
- 6 Things to Consider Before Choosing Your First Backpacking Pack
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