Organizing your outdoor gear isn’t just about keeping a tidy backpack. It’s a fundamental habit that can help you enjoy the outdoors as safely and efficiently as possible. From sleeping bags and sleeping pads to camping tents and backpacking gear, proper storage and organization help keep your outdoor equipment accessible, in working order and long-lasting. Plus, knowing exactly where your equipment is stored makes all the difference in your ability to head into nature on a whim, be it a weekend camping trip, a long bike ride or a hike near home.
In our opinion, you can never have enough outdoor gear. Whether you’re an avid hiker, seasoned climber, camping connoisseur or someone who likes to relax at a local park, stocking up on quality gear is essential for enjoying the outdoors. But the secret to stocking a robust gear closet (or basement or garage) is ensuring your equipment is sorted and properly stored.
We know organizing all your stuff is no small feat. However, it’s essential. To help you get your gear in order, we asked outdoor organization experts for their recommendations on what it takes to stay organized and correctly care for equipment so that it’s in working order for many years.
Why is gear organization important?
For anyone with an abundance of outdoor gear, it’s all too common for storage spaces like closets, garages and basements to get a bit chaotic. Aside from the chaos, it’s easy to forget which pieces of gear we even have, or more importantly, which may need some tending-to from season after season of use. Smart storage and organization are key to keeping your equipment at the tip of your fingers and in tip-top shape. By creating a gear organization system, you can ensure your supplies are properly stored, in working order and right where you left them.
How to organize your outdoor gear step by step
Inventory your equipment
It’s challenging to stay organized when you don’t have a pulse on all your gear. Jacey West, an outdoor content creator and founder of Adventurous Homebody, says the best first step for staying organized is to take inventory of your items. You can do this by unpacking and sorting your gear into piles by type of equipment or by category of activity.
“Every year at the beginning of the season, I audit my gear to see what I have [and] see what needs to be replaced,” says West. “I’ve found keeping everything in bins and sorted by type of activity is so helpful for my brain — and it makes it easy to grab and go.”
You can also create a simple spreadsheet or handwritten list of your equipment as you sort. That way, you have a bird’s eye view of what’s on hand and a backlogged history of your items. This helps keep track of your gear year after year and ensures you don’t lose key pieces of equipment from season to season.
“The great thing about camping [and outdoor] gear is once you invest in it, it will last for a long time,” adds West. “That is if you keep it organized and well-taken-care-of so you don’t have to buy multiple things over and over again.”
Invest in proper gear storage
Bins, bags, boxes, shelves and stuff sacks make all the difference when organizing. Once you know the equipment you want to stash, the next step requires selecting storage options that suit your needs. West recommends storing supplies in hard-sided bins so nothing gets crushed. She uses small boxes and bins sorted into different categories for smaller items — from kitchen gadgets and camping accessories to apparel like hats, bandanas and hiking boots.
Kyle Wood, an avid rock and ice climber and passionate gear organizer, also recommends installing peg board or slatwall to hang smaller items like climbing gear, headlamps and kitchen and camp tools on hooks. “The perfect system for me is hanging hooks on slatwall at different depths,” says Wood. “I custom fit pieces of slatwall on the back of my Ikea Ivar shelves so that I can stack boxes and also move and arrange gear on the slatwall as I’d like.”
Sort and store your gear
With the proper storage in hand, it’s time to sort and store your stuff. And while everyone’s preference for organizing and storing gear will differ, a few rules of thumb remain the same.?Most gearheads say it’s important to hang soft items like down jackets and sleeping bags on hangers instead of compressing them. Doing so extends their lifespan by helping the fabric dry out, avoiding wrinkling and allowing natural fibers, like down, to breathe and keep their loft long-term.
“While it’s sometimes recommended to hang up your sleeping bags on a hanger like how they display them in stores, I don’t actually do that,” says West. “Instead, I just keep them loose in [my camping] bin and leave them out of their compression sack.”
Other sound organizing advice is to sort gear into bins and bags by specific use cases, like camping, kitchen and cookware, climbing or biking. You can also pack bags and boxes for your preferred adventure type, be it a backpacking trip, a weekend camping trip or a gear bin stocked with items for a quick trip to the park. Consider hanging your favorite gear on hooks for easy access or keeping commonly used items at the top of your bins so they don’t get buried throughout the season. Lastly, use blue painter’s tape and a Sharpie to write out the list of gear or category of equipment on the front of each storage container, especially for boxes and bins that aren’t clear.
Tend to your gear for long-term use
Properly storing your gear also means washing and mending your items before putting them away for the season. We’ve covered how to clean your outdoor gear before, including washing and re-waterproofing your camping tents, rain jackets and down sleeping bags with Nikwax. Also, fully dry out your hydration reservoirs and clean mud and debris off of your boots, tents and apparel before packing them into storage containers.
“If your gear is organized well, you can take care of it well,” says Sarah Borgen, an outdoor content creator and weekend camping warrior. “I think many people drop the ball on storing gear like water reservoirs and jugs. They’re easy to forget to clean after a trip or you might accidentally leave water in them. Then they get nasty and are much harder to clean.”
Borgen says immediately after returning from a camping trip, she organizes her gear into its proper organization bins. First, she dries her water reservoirs and filtered water bottles before packing them away so they don’t grow mold or start to smell in storage. Then she hangs up her backpacks and bags on S-hooks, hangs her jackets and sleeping bags on coat hangers and puts remaining items in their proper bins.
Outdoor gear storage essentials
Efficiently organized gear unlocks the door to adventure. From categorizing your equipment into containers fit for its intended use case, such as cooking, camping and clothing, to packing your supplies into grab-and-go containers so you can hit the road faster, there are many perks of and possibilities for organizing gear in a way that suits your style of exploration.
Here are our picks for the best gear storage shelves, soft-sided and hard-sided bins, packing cubes and more to maintain order and maximize efficiency so you’re always ready for whatever adventure’s ahead.
