Kmart find transforms caravan's family's kitchen for $10: 'We don't have drawers'
When Kat and her hubby, Stuart Sobczyk, took to the road in their campervan two and a half years ago, one thing quickly became very obvious. With three little kids, organisation was key.
'You're in a small space which has to work efficiently,' Sobczyk, 41, told Yahoo Lifestyle. 'You need order, and everything has to be stable and stay in place for off-road travel.'
It's something she discovered other families were interested in learning about, and, alongside their journey around Australia, she started sharing her tricks and tips on Instagram.
Perhaps one of the most "controversial" decisions they have made for their home on wheels is not to have drawers. Yep, you read that correctly. The Sobczyks have learnt that drawers add weight to their van and, instead of eight drawers, the kitchen space can be better utilised with shelves and cupboards.
'We chose not to have drawers...and instead have opted for a few random storage solutions,' Sobczyk told her followers in a recent post in a popular caravanning group.
One of the best things about Kat's storage solutions is that while they are perfect for fellow caravan owners, many of them can also be used in brick and mortar homes or by anyone who is craving a little more organisation and less clutter in their lives.
Kat tells us that many of the products she uses to streamline her space come from Kmart and Bunnings, with a few other, more obscure brands also thrown into the mix.
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Take, for example, one of her favourite items: Kmart's $10 turntable, which allows her to have all the pantry bits they use regularly easily accessible and not stuffed at the back of a cupboard.
She also uses Kmart's clear storage boxes, which make it easy to pull out items on a top shelf and see, at a glance, what she has.
Another Kmart favourite is the $14 collapsible laundry basket - perfect for slotting in somewhere instead of needing an entire shelf for it.
Herbs and spices take up a lot of space in a van (and can also take up their fair share of space in regular homes, too), but it's something Sobczyk can't live without, so she's had to find somewhere to store them that works.
'We love to cook and we take our spices everywhere,' Sobczyk tells us. Her spice storage always provokes lots of questions from her followers because instead of chucking them in a cupboard, they are mounted on the door of one.
'The spice racks are from eBay, about $12 for a set. They come with stickers but with the heat they un-peal which would be a spicy fail so we use tiny screws to mount them,' she says, adding that she also uses labels from Pretty Little Designs - making the area look straight out of a catalogue rather than a caravan.
'I love, love, love how you style and create these great storage spaces! Thanks for sharing,' read one comment on Sobczyk's recent pantry post alongside many followers asking for details of where to buy.
Jokingly describing 'Kmart as life', Sobczyk's biggest tip for organising a caravan is to go to Kmart and buy up big.
'Buy all the things and then return what you don't need,' she said. 'It's too hard to go with 30,000 measurements for all the different spaces. Get what you think will fit, and if it doesn't, take it back,' she said.
Some of her biggest Kmart storage hits have been shelves and shelving units, which she's added her own touch to with a different colour paint or by trimming them to size.
'We want things off the benches as space there is a premium,' she said, explaining why the extra shelves are useful. 'We hook things up for a week to see if they work and then mount them [properly].
Sobczyk has the $13 Kmart shelf in her lounge area and various other rattan shelves from Kmart, which she has customised.
'It's our home, our space,' she added. It has to look good as well as being practical.
Since they started their adventures, the family have had three different vans and each time she's learnt something that she's changed in the next one.
'In our first van we had a cupboard we fitted out with [$14] metal baskets from Bunnings for the kids clothes,' Sobczyk said, 'The kids were three and four then and they couldn't read so I got pictures to go on the baskets so they could put things away themselves. It's important they can be independent.'
That's changed now, and she has replaced the wire baskets in their new van with shelves and a lighter wicker basket from Adairs as a space saver.
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There are certain things Sobczyk couldn't find in Kmart, but another, less well-known brand has come up with the goods.
Drop Bear Storage is Sobczyk's go-to for storage pockets, which she has attached around the kids' beds and on the back of cupboards, customising them with hooks to hang handy items like hats and sand brushes from.
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'The kids put their school work, readers and sight words in there,' she said.
Of course, Sobczyk confesses that sometimes things don't work and her van doesn't always look as neat and beautiful as in the photos. 'If it doesn't work, I'll post about that too,' she said. 'We live and learn and have a laugh. It's all part of the journey.'
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