Truck Camper kitchen drawer redesign

 

I still love the kitchen pullout, but it wastes a lot of space.   

 

I'm going to make some rectangular bags like the green one on the right to store stuff more compactly and improve organization in the drawer

• A bag for my white gas backpacking stove stuff, including fuel bottles, matches and windscreens
• A bag for plates, bowls, eating cutlery, and utensils for digging food out of fridge containers
• A bag for cooking utensils, cooking oil and frequently used pans
• A bag for misc pots
• maybe a bag for food storage containers. 
• Spice rack, salt and sugar bag? 

I'm not going to add zippers to the bags, I'm going to use coroplast signboard to reinforce the bags so they stay in box shape, so I'll have to sew an inner bag liner to cover the coroplast.   I like signboard because its cheap, light, easy to cut, and flexes a little.   I want the bags lightweight, but have some box-like rigidity, so they keep their shape when pulled out of the Drawer.    Wood boxes would be too heavy  

The plan is to hang the bags from the rear bumper swing arms (going to add hooks to the arms), so I'm going to make one large side of the boxes square shape easy to drop down after opening a twist lock toggle holding the side panel in place (like an old school lunch box lid).   The side panel that drops down will also have a mesh sleeve to hold bigger stuff in place when the bag is closed up.   Like plates, bowls, pots or pans.   That mesh sleeve will be upside down when the bag is closed, so when the side panel drops the stuff doesn't drop to the ground.

I might even redo the padded bag I made for the induction plate.   it's just a tad too big, but that will come last.  For now, I just have to push down on it a little to shut the drawer.

The goal is I want to easily pull a bag out of the kitchen slideout, hang it on a bumper swing arm, untoggle the strap holding the side panel in place and drop a panel exposing everything.    After that, stuff has to be easy to see, remove or put back into the bag. 

Maybe I'll make some youtube vids as I work on it.   If done correctly, I may have enough room in the drawer to store my half-size 3quart instant pot or blender in the drawer too. 

Right now I have stuff in the way to get to cut up pvc patio railing spindles and post sleeves that keep cutlery and utensils organized.    There's just a lot of empty space in the pullout drawer most of the time.  Pull out bags will use the space better because it will let me vertically stack shorter stuff better, AND it will keep things better organized.   The trick is making it easy to use the bags or I'll just go back to the open mess approach.