My latest 'must-have' camping purchase........

It seems rather sad that my first ever post on my first ever blog should be about something as mundane as a piece of luggage! But I guess everyone has to start somewhere, and it is with a review of the Kampa Handy Harry Holdall Organiser that I have chosen to start. Before I get on to what I like (and the things I don't like) about my latest purchase I should just briefly explain what led me to the purchase in the first place.

As a family, we have camped for many years in tents, trailer tents, caravans, back to tents and now in a VW campervan called Denzel! No matter what we have been staying in we have experienced the same frustration with one thing - the inevitable mess that four people can make when living out of four holdalls crammed full of a selection of clothing for the variety of weather conditions we expect to encounter on our holiday. When you take into consideration that two of the four of us are teenagers, one an incredibly untidy boy of fifteen and the other a thirteen year old girl who can't leave home without a suitcase full of make-up and enough clothing to cover every possible social situation, you will understand the problem. Very quickly our living accommodation became filled with holdalls with the contents spilling out as we each had to rummage for some missing essential item that inevitably turned up at the very bottom of the bag.

We already own a folding camping wardrobe which is useful but, even when folded, it does take up a lot of room, won't cope with all of our clothes and obviously means that, once on site, we have to partially unpack our bags and hang our clothes up. As we still have to keep some clothes in holdalls it doesn't really solve anything and just takes up more room in our tent or awning.

So, it was this problem that led me to start doing some research online to try to find a solution. After much looking, I settled on the Kampa Handy Harry. Initially I bought one to try it out. We were very pleased with it and quickly bought three more. They were not cheap at £54.00 each  but they were a comparable price to other good quality holdalls that are available. Essentially the Handy Harry consists of four 'drawers' that sit in the holdall. Each drawer has a strong wire frame that folds into place, secured with Velcro, creating a drawer that is 33cm (W) x 37cm (D) x 18cm (H). The drawer has a little label pocket that allows you to write the contents of the drawer on a piece of card so you dont have to remember what you put where. The overall size is 40cm x 40cm x 70cm with a capacity of 112 litres ( that doesn't mean much to me but it might allow you to compare with other products). When the Handy Harry is not being used it can be folded down to a packed size of 40cm x 42cm x 17cm, making it really easy to store.





So, I like:-

•  the fact that it keeps our clothes organised and easy to find, meaning my awning is not strewn with clothes.
• the fact that two units can stack on top of each other, taking up less floor space.
•  the ease of carrying them using the shoulder strap or side handles.
•  if you pack it neatly at home, the clothes seem to stay in place and are less creased up.

The disadvantages:-

•  when you unzip the front section to access the drawers there is no way to secure it to keep it out of the way. I have solved the problem with two ball bungees that allow me to roll the cover up and secure them in the centre of the holdall but it is a shame that Kampa didn't solve this themselves.
•  because the drawers have a rigid wire frame the holdall can't be squashed up in the same way that you might cram a normal holdall into the car boot. For us this is not a problem because we load them into the cabin of the campervan but I can see it might be for some.

I hope that helps if you are looking for a storage solution or if you have been considering buying one of these.