I'm not talking about securing in the sense of safety and making something inaccessible, but rather in making sure something stays static relative to its container.

When you're setting up your room or a new piece of furniture, generally the last thing on your mind is making sure it stays in place. It's basically just a given that your various belongings aren't going to wander around when you aren't in the room. I knew from the start that I'd have to be careful about driving with everything in the back, and one of the first things I did was secure the bed with some rope. Even with proper securement at the forefront of my mind , estimating the stability and safety of various restraints is apparently not my strong suit, and I'd still occasionally find things fallen over after a trip to the post office. So without further ado, here are some things to remember when securing your very own truck-house.

The Little Things

When you're building furniture for the truck, you've probably already thought of what it's going to be screwed into, and so it generally isn't the big stuff that gets you, it's the little things that you leave around. An e-book reader, a battery-powered light, the broom, it's usually the most mundane things you'll forget to secure or put away. And nothing is worse than taking that first turn and hearing all your various belongings crash to the floor, and then proceed to roll around for the remainder of your trip. Not pleasant, and easily avoidable.

Check it or Wreck it

Sometimes I won't have driven the truck for 3 or 4 days, and I'll forget that I've left a bunch of things sitting on top of my dresser. Oops. Luckily, this is a super easily-remedied problem: Even if you're very on top of putting the little things away, take a quick look in the back before you leave. If there's anything loose back there, put it in a drawer, hang it up, or put it under the covers.

Velcro is not your friend

I built a dresser for my clothes and tools early on, and very quickly found out that low-friction rollers do not stay put on their own in the back of a moving truck. I've since developed an acute fear of left turns, which caused all the drawers to fly out and careen across the truck, uniformly showering the ground in my belongings. My brilliant solution to the problem was to secure the drawers with Velcro, which as it turns out doesn't have nearly the holding strength necessary for my purposes. The takeaway here is that you should be using rope or screws to hold everything in place, don't trust Velcro or most adhesives, which weaken with time and temperature.