Soft-sided, collapsable totes?

[teejaywhy]

Perhaps someone has encountered a product that will fit our need ?

Our TT has ward cabinets on either side of our bed that we use for clothes storage. Folded shirts, shorts, trousers, socks and underwear. To keep things semi-organized and prevent a big pile of wadded up clothing, we use totes to hold the folded clothing.

Problem:
The inside of the cabinets are 12" wide, but the face frame opening is 9" So any sort of hard sided totes leave a lot of unused space side to side.

Solution:
A crushable, soft-side tote that can squeeze thru the opening but is actually wider.

Everything I have found in the "soft side" category has metal stiffeners to hold the shape.

Has anyone encountered a product that might work? Just a basket or heavy canvas that will hold folded clothing but can squeeze into the space.

Wondering if anyone has tried removing the metal stiffeners that commonly come in the soft side baskets typically found ?

I'm also considering getting some heavy canvas "boat and tote" bags and modifying (fold the sides in and sew or hot glue). LL Bean makes them but they are pricey. Looking for some cheaper alternatives.

Thanks for your ideas!

[Caveman_Charlie]

I put shelves in the Wardrobe and just put my folded clothes on the shelves. I use disposable grocery bags to haul the clothes to and from the house.

[Darryl_Rita]

Reusable shopping bags. Almost square, but flexible enough to pass through the door opening.

[teejaywhy]

Thanks again for the ideas!

[toedtoes]

I use the packing cubes like that. Because they are fully softsided and the contents are all soft, it is easy to "warp" the filled cube to fit through the smaller opening and then spread it out to fill the larger space. Sort of like fitting paper towels into a bottle - even though the mouth is smaller than the interior space, the towels can be folded or scrunched to fit.

[Sjm9911]

Yea, I'm kinda with the last coment. If it fits through the opening your really not pavking it the whole with, if you were it wouldn't fit through the opening. So you are really not using that space anyway. I have simmiler unused space in my closet. I pack my milk crate and put some socks and underwear on the side of it ( or pjs for the kids) . I still have unused room, otherwise I wouldn't be able to get my milk creats out. But at least its not all wasted space.

[JRscooby]

Another question; If you stuff a container wider than door into cabinet in and it spreads out to fill the area, what happens when you pull it out. Will the cabinet take the force, or will the face pull off?

[toedtoes]

JRscooby wrote:
I have found the best way for me to pack to eliminate the big ball of clothes is the way I stack the clothes; I but all the clothes I will wear in a day together, and stack the days. This means what I want is always on top. The most I have to dig thru is a towel and pair of socks. (I always put a odd pair of socks in because wet feet has caused issues before)

I do this with smaller sized packing cubes. One day's worth of clothing goes in one packing cube. Makes it easy to pull out that day's clothes without a stack of loose clothing falling over. I usually have one cube containing extra socks, etc. The cubes stack better in cupboards. And by getting different colored cubes, it's easy to distinguish between his and hers, specialty wear (eg, swimsuits, exercise clothes, pjs, etc) and daily wear.

[Grit_dog]

The big wards with no shelves are def a waste of space and the totes are a good idear.
If we used our camper more than the extremely infrequent amount we do now, I’d consider making some shelves to go in them.

[ryegatevt]

What about a simple duffle bag?

[JRscooby]

I have found the best way for me to pack to eliminate the big ball of clothes is the way I stack the clothes; I but all the clothes I will wear in a day together, and stack the days. This means what I want is always on top. The most I have to dig thru is a towel and pair of socks. (I always put a odd pair of socks in because wet feet has caused issues before)

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

I used a hanging "Sweater storage" thing to my closets - they are folding and soft-sided but when hanging, create 12" shelves/cubes. If they are too long, the bottom unused shelves simply lie flat - or you can cut them off with scissors

hanging storage

[teejaywhy]

JimK-NY wrote:
...I roll the items and use rubber bands to keep the clothing rolled...

I like it! think outside the "box."

Guthaways wrote:
We have used collapsible soft tote boxes from IKEA for years. They compress if necessary, fold down to nothing when not needed, and are very reasonable. Might be worth a try!

Been to Ikea dozens of times, how did I miss these? I will renew my search, thanks!

toedtoes wrote:
You can try packing cubes instead...

Aha! a helpful new search term. I see some possibilities. Thanks!


Keep 'em coming folks. Thanks in advance.

[toedtoes]

You can try packing cubes instead. Many sizes available. Completely "soft-sided" so no wires, stiffeners, etc. Can be squished to fit. Many have a mesh top that you can see the contents through.

[Guthaways]

We have used collapsible soft tote boxes from IKEA for years. They compress if necessary, fold down to nothing when not needed, and are very reasonable. Might be worth a try!