Bins and Cases to Carry Your Camp Gear in Organized Style

Field magazine

Staying practiced in a spectrum of outdoor pursuits requires two things: time and the gear to get it done. As urban dwellers with finite storage space, keeping track of all our ~~crap~~ gear investments can be quite a task. We stuff backpacks and tote bags with our climbing shoes, hiking boots, camp lanterns, and so on. It can be a real challenge to remember where that one piece of gear is hiding without a very dialed system.

More organized outdoor people have long relied on bulky, plastic, clear storage bins to haul their gear from the basement or closet to the trailhead and campsite. Now, brands from the outdoor industry have worked up storage options designed explicitly for storing gear at home, hauling equipment in your car camping vehicle of choice, AND to the campsite or crag. Whether you live in the exurbs, the city, or a van, these camping storage boxes, bins, and containers will help make your life easier in more ways than you might imagine.

Below we’ll breakdown the ins and outs of what makes our top picks special. Read on, take some notes, then embrace a more organized like (perhaps give your gear closet a proper KonMari while you’re at it).

What to Look for in a Gear Storage Container?

Size

It might seem like an obvious overstatement, but the size is probably the first thing to consider. For example, a huge 100+ liter bin might sound nice but think about lugging that thing up and down from a second-story walkup. Instead, two individual 50-liter containers would allow for easier backseat Tetris-ing, with the added benefit of keeping your camp kitchen and cookware separate from dirtier outdoor gear.

Construction & Material

Some of these gear storage containers use flexible materials (Cordura, nylon) mated to a frame, which is collapsible when empty to save space. The more bombproof gear containers mold themselves in hard plastic, tested to handle significant, repeated drops through a lifetime of service.

Weatherproofing

This trait tends to follow closely with the material selection. Heavy-duty, rigid containers for outdoor gear will keep the weather out as long as their closures are well-considered, but don’t overlook the soft-sided bins that use welded seams and fully-waterproof materials to keep your sleeping bag bone dry.