Did someone ask for PICS? Okay!
My goal is to get good enough at camping that we can use it in place of hotels on extended road trips. I knew we needed organization, and also a full set of stuff that would keep us from having to pack up home stuff in order to get going.
Along with that I'm making the transition from the 'disposable sacrifice' of car camping, where everything used is disposable and you sacrifice the menu for easy prep, to sustainable on-road living with real food and a lot less garbage.
I built these two boxes to help keep us better organized and form the foundation of our camping load - but we're still newbies and this is a work in progress.
I built the Grubby One (g1, left), and the Work Top Box (wtb, right). The G1 has drawers and shelves and the WTB is just a box with a lid that sits on stilts to form a table.
The cover is off, and the stilts are in place and you can see my coleman stove in there.
I could fit a lot more stuff in here, usually there would be a 12" fry pan laying in here. I've got 3 kids, so there's never enough flashlights/lanterns ;-) Even with the frying pan there's still a ton of space and I have yet to pack the box properly.
Here are the two fully deployed with my liquid fuel 413G sitting on the wtb. The g1 has shelves on one side, and drawers on the other - both sit on shelf pins in holes, so they're adjustable.
The washtubs and dish drainer hold the the dishes, and usually towels as well. the middle shelf holds some foil, paper towels, plastic bags and the like. There's still a lot of room for smaller times to be fit in there, it's a matter of how tight you want to pack it. The bottom drawer slot may get another drawer. The paper towels in there now have yet to be used, and it's wasted space. Maybe that will be a taller drawer/box for spices, coffee/tea, and stuff like that.
The left side holds bug dope, sun screen, salt and pepper. The right side has some hooks to hold spoon and spatula, some cards and soap. both of these areas could have more stuff with better organization, the left side could use another shelf for spices. I could also add hooks for the tongs, whisks, and measuring spoons and clear up one of the drawers.
The tubs & drainer hold dishes, towels (usually) and a few other cooking implements.
I have a grater because my kids will always eat a cheese quesadilla ;-)
The three drawers hold utensils, cooking tools, and one is a junk drawer with odds and ends. The drawers are just boxes that rest on shelves and pull out easily, so the silverware drawer can be pulled out and set on the serving table.
Altogether the boxes take up a fair bit of space, and at first it seemed like a bad deal. As I learn to pack stuff better, it's working a lot better.
Really, I used to take two totes + food, and one tote isn't much smaller than the wtb:
BUT these boxes form tables and provide organization.
I can't fit the 413G in the wtb, but if I didn't have to put a stove in there I could fit our food in for most shorter trips - I mean the canned/boxed stuff, and assuming we're not bringing a lot of bread or bakery. I'm learning that tortillas are even better on the road than they are at home
So what used to be stove + two tubs + bags of food is now two boxes and a tote of food when I use the propane stove. A bit more space, but a lot more utility. If I use the 413G stove, it would be two boxes + stove with the food in one of the boxes.
The weight of the g1 is very high because I bought some used corelle to use as dishware. I now see my mistake, and am looking for some cheap plastic dishware. Even with the corelle, I can carry it out of the truck, although a few hundred feet is the limit.
The main part of the g1 could be used by itself on the tailgate, or the table it would normally sit on could be repurposed as a coffee table or to eat on.
Building them wasn't too difficult, but study the plans and cut no piece until you need it. Especially do not trust the cut list provided in the first part of the plans! Start with the inside structures and build the table only after the main box is done. The design can be changed to fit a wider stove, etc. Do make sure you get the tubs, drainer, and anything else you expect to fit and measure them to make sure they will fit.
I used cedar and birch plywood - the plywood was fine, the cedar was not a good choice. If this works out I will make a new set, fix a few dimensional issues and use hardwood for the frames.
The g1 and wtb by themselves would provide a doable space for cooking a meal. Add a tailgate and you have even more space. I've added a 4' lifetime folding table and that makes for a pretty spacious workspace if there's a picnic table, or a serving table if there isn't.
The only downside I've seen is that both require a flat spot, but really, what table doesn't?
You can find the plans at blueskykitchen.com
