Marie Kondo calls her widely acclaimed process of folding, throwing things out and finding domestic order a “tidying festival”. As in: “can’t this weekend, sorry, I’m having a tidying festival.” But how does it work at an actual festival? Campers at Glastonbury took us inside their tents to talk us through their personal organising systems.

‘After three airbeds burst in three nights, I bought a double bed frame’

Zoe Jones, Didcot, Oxfordshire

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Zoe Jones shows off her tent organising system. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

“After bursting three airbeds in three nights at Reading festival, I don’t do sleeping on the hard ground, so I bought myself a double bed frame to have a bit of comfort. On top of that I’ve got my Airgo mattress. It’s self-inflating – you leave it for about 10 minutes. I use vacuum pack bags to squash all my clothes down; that pillow then becomes about a third of its size. I’ve got a box underneath which has got all of my toiletries and bits and pieces, so that I can find them. On the lid of the box, I put all my clothes, so that I can just slide it out. I brought a washing line so that we can dry our towels and bikinis. My friends said: ‘Zoe, why would you bring a washing line?’ Now they all want to use it. It cost me £1. Our friends have a camper van that they’ve driven in – we did a Tescos order to their house, so they’re bringing all our alcohol for us. The car air freshener, I packed by accident. But it makes the tent smell nice.”

‘My daughter said, ‘I can’t believe you brought muesli’

Delyth Pritchard, Cardiff

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Delyth Pritchard with Dave Bland, from Cardiff. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

“It’s our first year at Glastonbury without our children. The oldest is 23 – she’s flitting between two camps. The youngest is down there somewhere [gestures vaguely]. She’s far too cool to be seen with us. My eldest said: ‘I can’t believe you’ve got muesli here.’ The trick is not bringing loads of stuff, because you have to walk with it. We’re quite pared down this year because we have coach tickets – normally we would drive and bring more gear. But we have everything we need. The process is to get the tent up, get the bed inflated, throw the stuff about inside and then have a wander, see what’s changed. We always used to be in family camping because we had lots of teenagers with us. It’s quite nice, actually, not having them. It was a bit of a mess last time.”

‘You never know when you might need a panda hat’

Matthew Thorrington-Smith, Cape Town, South Africa

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Matthew Thorrington Smith inside his tent. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

“It’s an evolving process. Dynamic. The logic was to have things that I most often need easily accessible at the front of the tent. So there’s clothing. A bag of various dress-up things: tattoo sleeves, South African flag – we’re having a South African-themed day tomorrow – panda hat. You never know when you might need one. Then we move on to food, all of which has been carefully selected. It’s important to get a good calorie-per-square-centimetre ratio, so we have peanut butter, protein bars, nuts, chocolate. Then alcohol: two litres of gin, two litres of vodka, cordial. I’ve got two Camelbaks (a rucksack with a liquid reservoir). One’s for water. This one’s got gin and cordial – a classic combo. Then there’s a bag of dirty clothes and toiletries right at the back. I created this system on the fly. It maintains itself for the most part: you take something, you put it back in one of the piles. My friends will tell you I’m very quick and efficient.”

‘This is causing me anxiety’

Clare Fourel, London

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bertie Dixon and Clare Fourel inside their tent. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

“Only the sleeping mat and your valuables are allowed in the tent. It’s like, order of needs: why do you need to be in the tent? It’s to sleep. I’ve got to have clothes closest and shoes farthest way. If I don’t have that, then I start to get anxious. So this is causing me anxiety right now. There’s been a system breakdown. Something was lost, so then I had to go away, and the thing had to be found, and it was found. We live on a narrow boat, so it’s a similar thing – you have to have everything in its place, in boxes. Usually you tidy in the morning. But when you come back at night and you’re a bit pissed, you’re not thinking straight – it’s all over the place, and you have to retrace your steps.”

‘The sheet masks are a Saturday treat. It’s a bit bougie’

Isabelle Bascombe, London

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Isabelle Bascombe from London. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

“I need a lot of space to get ready, so that’s why I’ve left this big gap here. Over there is the snack station. I’ve got some eco-friendly straws, reusable bottles. Got some Pringles, some biscuits, some cereal bars, and the best one: Maoams. We’re starting to run low on the drinks already, which is a bit of a shame. Water goes there, by my bed, alcohol there. I don’t want to get them mixed up because they look exactly the same. I’ve got makeup, glitter. The sheet masks – that’s like a Saturday treat, for when we’re halfway through. It’s a bit bougie – but any little luxury that we can get. Lots of hairspray. I put all my outfits into little prepacks so I can just grab them. This is very small shorts and a top, socks and pants. How good is that?”

‘I’ve spent no minutes tidying’

Jim Riach, Montana, US

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jim Riach by his tent. Photograph: Alicia Canter/The Guardian

“Check it out. This is how I live. So this is the lobby area, where I put my socks. Here’s my stash of booze. The system? I just sort of crawl in drunk and crawl out hungover. It’s like this weird thing that happens – every time I go in, I come out hungover. I’ve spent no minutes tidying. Look, that’s the bottom of my bag, I just threw it in. I spent no time doing anything in here. But it’s pretty tiny. Oh, tidy tents? No way! I thought you were looking for tiny tents! People shouldn’t be living like this!”