It’s a well-known truth of road life that storage is key. Cabinets, built-ins, cubbies… Since space in a vehicle is limited, you have to maximize what you have and use every available cubic inch. Lots of skoolies and vanlifers will build pull-out pantries and toe-kick storage everywhere they can, and I know I’m not going to be any different. Of course, with all these plans comes the logic puzzle of getting it to fit, and the cost of added hardware for hinges, drawer slides, cabinet pulls, etc.

One thing I’ve seen quite often in my Free Searches has been filing cabinets – metal, wood, locking, non-locking, tall, short. Seems like everybody’s got a filing cabinet they don’t need anymore, and can’t be bothered to try and sell. So, I’ve been looking and thinking about ways to use possible these cabinets as solutions to some of my storage needs.

One thing I’ve been considering is undercarriage storage. I see a lot of folks going one of two different routes – either custom-fabricating locking cabinets out of wood or steel, or simply installing pre-built truck tool boxes under their bus. Both of those solutions would work fine, but I’m looking for something that’s both easier to engineer, and less expensive than a pre-built solution. I’ve been thinking that a locking lateral file cabinet, one of the wide 2-drawer ones, would install pretty easily. I may need to do some reinforcing of the top to let it attach more firmly, but I think it’s worth trying it out, even temporarily, until I can manage a more robust upgrade.

But the thing that has me excited about filing cabinets this morning is this design I came up with as a solution for a couple issues in my kitchen. Behold, the Filing Cabinet Pantry Ladder!

Putting a tall cabinet right inside the kitchen just behind the cab will give me four deep drawers of easy, versatile pull-out pantry space, and it would be the perfect height to provide access to the sleep-loft above. Reinforcing the inside-front of each drawer, I can add a sturdy ladder-step that would lock in place when I’m not getting into the pantry. At least, this is the thought. It’s possible I’ll need to do more than reinforce just the fronts of the drawers, and obviously i’ll need to mount the whole piece to the wall to keep it from tipping.

I’m just hoping it isn’t going to require so much engineering that I might as well have just built a custom-cabinet. But I think the ladder on the front of the drawers is a good solution for now. We’ll see how I feel about it after the 1000th time climbing up and down to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night.