Camper van elasticated storage nets

Fitting Elasticated Storage Nets To My Camper Van

One of the challenges of living in a van is storage space; you seem to always need more storage, and spend your time playing Tetris with your belongings – using every available gap to store something.

Having lived in my self built camper for 6 months, I can attest that this is an ongoing struggle.

Even though I’ve got ample storage space, my van’s kitchen unit becomes cluttered with stuff on a daily basis. This doesn’t do my OCD any good, so I decided to get myself a few elasticated storage nets [Amazon] for my van.

These things are great! They make use of otherwise dead wall space and turn it into a storage space instead. Those spaces that you’re not using in your camper, they can be storage for odd things when you install these wall mounted storage nets.

One issue I always had was that when I get into my van, I empty my pockets, and all the things end up on my kitchen worktop; my phone, my sunglasses, keys and whatever else I have on me. I also have no storage for the book I’m reading, my iPad, receipts and all those little things that somehow get overlooked when you plan a camper van conversion.

Enter the elasticated storage nets

So I just went all out and bought 4 large storage nets [Amazon]. I could’ve bought 6 (2 for the cab), but I thought I’d start with 4 and see how it goes.

These things saved me! I installed one on the wall just above the main door into the van (that space where you can’t put a shelf because you’ll surely bump your head on it every time you enter the van). Now the days of dumping everything I have on me on the kitchen counter are gone, I just put these things in the storage net and it’s neatly out of the way.

Two of the nets are installed on the wall above the bed. Perfect for your book, iPad, Kindle or whatever you end up taking to bed with you.

Just these 3 storage nets have drastically improved the neatness of my van, so much so that I’ve not installed the 4th one yet. I thought I’d see how things go with these 3 and find a space for the 4th one when I notice where I make a mess, but so far this hasn’t even been necessary.

Large elasticated storage net details and review

The storage nets I purchased off Amazon, are sold as “Large Quality Elasticated Storage net Magazine Rack (Amazon UK)” (Sold as “Map Pocket” on Amazon US) (and sold as Stretchnetz on Amazon DE) and I must say, that the title does it justice. I took a bit of a leap of faith buying 4 nets at once, but I’m 100% happy I got these.

The build quality is great – it’s not just a plastic frame with netting, but the frame is reinforced with a steel wire on the back of the unit. It feels sturdy, and once installed you can really put some force into pulling the elastic without worrying about snapping the plastic.

The Elastic is thick (maybe 4 or 5mm), and the netting is not just interwoven straight strings, but also a stretchy kind of weave which means not just the elastic stretches, but so does the netting. This means you can really stretch it out and put a decent amount of things inside.

The net is large (410mm wide, and 200mm high [16 1/4″ x 7 7/8″]) (please note, the US version is slightly smaller, at 14″ x 7″) , so it can fit those large items. I can easily fit my iPad, a book and a notepad in there without worry. The weight of these don’t seem to damage the netting at all, and I feel comfortable driving my van with these things in there and don’t need to worry about my iPad dropping to the floor.

You can also fit magazines in these (sideways) and of course all those little things that you don’t have storage space for.

The product also comes with 5 black self tapping fixing screws, and installing these onto the cladding in my van was a breeze. It is a two person job though, as naturally, being elastic, it pulls the frame inwards, so you’ll need an extra pair of hands to hold it straight while you screw it in place.

 Final Verdict

All in all, I am extremely happy with these nets, they’re sturdy, large enough and look amazing on my camper’s wall. They’ve solved my storage woes and I’m glad I got them.

If you need a storage upgrade in your camper van, TRY THESE (Amazon UK) or THESE (Amazon US) or THESE (Amazon DE) they really are the biz.