A well stocked Van

  When we got the van that we have now (A Honda Odyssey) one thing that I was quite excited about with it was all the storage compartments. I love having handy little spots to tuck things out of the way until you happen to need them.

  As a busy family of 6 our van has been fairy well used even though I am not a "soccer mom" who is always out running and we also like to bike when we can. When we drive places like going blueberry picking, camping, grocery shopping, even to church in can be very handy to have some things that we just always keep tucked away in the van. I thought I would give you a "tour" of all the storage places in our Van and what we keep in the them.

First we are going to look in on the passenger side.
Above the glove compartment we have another little compartment in which we keep:

• A couple of flashlights (good when camping, an evening walk and emergencies.
• An Ace Bandage. - Just in case. Things can happen when you are out and about.
• A lighter- in case we need to start a fire or light a candle.
• A deck of Cards. This was Ken's idea as he loves to play games and always likes to be prepared should we forget to pack them when we go traveling.

Below in the glove compartment we keep:

• The owners manual
• Proof of insurance
• Maps
• A book of traveling games
• Extra napkins, plastic cups and silverware.

Underneath the seat we keep:

• An old wipes container in which I now keep little rags and some water to moisten them. Kids can get pretty dirty when they eat in the van or play and sometimes I like to have them look presentable.

My waist pack with emergency stuff in it which I use for hiking but I decided that I might as well keep it stored in the van in case I ever needed those things while out and about. They include:

• Band-aids, gauze, etc.
• Water purification tablets.
• a lighter.
• a sewing kit.
• extra batteries (no matter the situation you need to be sure you have batteries for your camera!)
• A compass
• A pocket knife
• A Handy-Dandy
• Pepper Spray

In the compartments on the passenger door I keep:

• Hand sanitizer
• A water bottle (with water)
• Gloves
• Snacks (currently a box of crackers) - these can be wonderful when errand running gets long!

In the compartments in between our two seats we keep:

• Pens
• Phone charger
• Power converter

In the driver's door compartments we keep:

• Kleenex
• Tire pressure gauge
• Water bottle
• A small ice scraper

Under the driver's seat we keep:

• An umbrella
• A big ice scraper
• At times a Frisbee but I don't think it is there right now.

In between the seats we keep:

• A trash bag- we like to keep our van as neat as possible.

 On the back of our seats we keep:

• Coloring or activity books.
• Markers
• Notebooks

 In the compartment in the floor we keep:

• Reusable shopping bags
• A collapsible shovel
• A bag with all our raincoats or ponchos (except Ken's - he keeps it elsewhere so he will have to use the umbrella).
• A bag with a change of clothes for everyone (except Ken who didn't think it necessary). I used to just have this for the youngest kids (and that has been used frequently, and not always be my children) but lately decided to have a change of clothes for everyone. They aren't fancy but there are many situations in which they could come in handy.
• A blanket
• A small tub with food that will store well. This is one of those- who knows if we will ever need it but it doesn't hurt to be prepared.

We also have more water bottles stored in the holders by the seats. We can get thirsty when traveling!

In the back of the van we have:

• Jumper cables (which we have used more times with this van than I would prefer!)
• Spare tire and equipment to change it.

I do like being prepared!

Some other things that I think I should add are:

• A roll of Gray tape and perhaps a spool of wire. - sometimes you just need to fix things!
• A bag of extra hats and mittens in the winter time.

Can you think of anything else that we need? What do you keep in your vehicle?

Having a well stocked van works for me!