Storage is a tricky thing in an RV. Closets and cupboards are small, sometimes oddly shaped, and it’s hard to find a place for everything. I am a neat freak. I like having a place for everything and everything in its place. I hate looking for things and I hate messy clutter – especially in my trailer! I’m on vacation! Don’t mess up my space! In our 15 years of RVing and traveling with kids and dogs, we’ve learned a few tricks.
First and Foremost – Choose Wisely!
If you’re still shopping for your rig, make sure you’re thinking about what you’ll want to bring and where you might put things inside. When we were shopping for our first bunkhouse trailer in 2004, we had trouble finding one that actually had room for clothes and food in the length we were looking for. The RV industry has changed quite a bit since then and they are using storage as selling points. So, they better have it already! If you’re already in your rig and trying to figure this all out, keep reading. I’ll find room for your stuff!
Secondly – don’t bring too much stuff!
It’s not as easy as it sounds! Especially when you’re traveling with kids! The less stuff you have, the less you have to figure out where it goes. We travel around the Pacific Northwest. The weather is unpredictable. I always pack way more clothes than I need for any given trip – you know, just in case the weather doesn’t turn out to be what it says on my iPhone!
Here are our packing parameters. We have folding crates that we keep in the trailer and use for packing. We leave them in the living room at home while we’re gone. When our kids were little, we would give them a packing list and their crates, and they weren’t supposed to pack more than would fit in the crate. That worked great most of the time. There were a few trips where we had to make an emergency trip to Walmart for underwear, but for the most part, it taught them to be really good packers! My husband and I use the same rule. I have learned over the past 15 years how to pile over the top of the crate too. When we packed for a 10-night trip, I got all of my stuff in one crate …. Piled pretty high! Once our crates are in the trailer, we un-pack it into our closets and leave the crates in the living room of our house. (See my blog post about Weird RV Closets for more closet tips.)
We also use the crates for packing food but fill the crates up as many times as needed to pack for the trip. The amount of food we bring varies with our destination. For one of our favorite go-to get-a-ways, sometimes all we’ll pack is juice, coffee, and some breakfast food and figure out the rest when we get there. There’s a grocery store, a wine shop, and some restaurants that we like in town. Figuring our meals out while we’re there is part of the fun. For our 10-night trip, we packed like we weren’t going to see a grocery store outside of a camp store. It served us well!
Containerize
If you’ve read any of my blogs, you know that I hate jumbled messes. So, as a neat freak, I am also a bit of a container freak. I find stores like the Container Store inspiring. I’m weird like that! My love of containers has served us well while RVing. They keep things from jumbling while we’re on the road. Here are some of my favorites:
- Clear Bins. I have them all over the place in our trailer! I love them! I can see what’s in them and they keep everything upright and tidy.
- Sterlite or Rubbermaid Containers with drawers. These are great under sinks or in the bottom of a closet when you don’t have a drawer. Measure your space before you buy.
- Crushable Baskets– These squish into spaces as needed. We use one for our dirty clothes under the bed. After our trip, we bring in all the laundry. Our trailer has to live in storage. When the laundry is all done, we take the basket with clean laundry back to the trailer in storage.
I purchased this from the Container Store. Click here for shopping link.
- Shower Caddies– Find one that works for your shower. My new favorite is one with knobs that make the suction cups actually stick. It’s worth the extra money. Our stuff stays put on the road. It’s no fun cleaning up shampoo goo out of the shower! In our first trailer, there was no place to put a shower caddy, and we had a plastic basket with a handle. It was full of shampoo, body wash, etc. It lived in the shower when we were parked but was put away in the cupboard when we were on the road. If you use this method, be sure to dry it out before you put it in the cupboard, or you could end up with a whole new mess. See photo below of my new favorite shower caddy from Bed Bath and Beyond.
- Plastic baskets for cleaning supplies– Things like dish soap, Windex, etc. sometimes leak. If they’re going to leak, they should leak in a container that’s easy for you to clean out. Also, they’re less likely to leak if they can stay upright while you are on the road.
- Plastic bins for anything liquid– I have things like olive oil, vinegar, wine, etc. in clear bins. This way, the contents of the bin stay upright and if there are any leaks, I can just clean the bin instead of my cupboard.
- Nesting items – Put things inside of other things. Think nesting bowls, pots and pans, etc. I put my dry measuring cups inside my clear glass big measuring/mixing bowl. I can always see where they are.
- Zippable Soft Containers – I’m sure they have a better name, but I like them because they’re squish-able. If I were to put whatever I have inside of my zipper container in a bin, there might be wasted space and there would be no flexibility for storing things around it. I use these for things like sheets. You could also put seasonal items such as hats and gloves in one so they’re not in your way in the middle of summer. I got mine from the Container Store.
Make use of your nooks and crannies
If you’re like us, when you looked at your trailer at the dealer, you looked at the basement storage and thought, “Wow! Look at all of that space!” Then, you put your sewer hoses, water hose, chalks, a few chairs, and a grill in there and thought, “Dang! We could use more space!” Many trailers have hidden storage space. Here’s where to look:
- Under the bed– if you have a designated “master bed” (some trailers have Murphy Beds), most likely there is some storage underneath. You might be able to lift the entire mattress and access all the space under your bed easily. In our last trailer, we had storage under the bed, but it was too hard to lift the mattress. So, we had drawers built into the bed. It was a great modification that was worth every penny we spent on it! Here’s what we keep under the bed: Dirty clothes, laundry supplies, and a mop. When we are on a trip where we’ll be doing some hiking, we’ll put our backpacks, trekking poles, and boots under the bed as well.
- Under the dinette – If you have a booth dinette, you most likely have storage under the seats. In all 3 of our trailers, we’ve been able to lift up the cushions, to find a piece of plywood that lifts out to expose storage. We keep things that we don’t use very often in our dinette storage such as beach towels, a beat-up pot for cooking things like clams, etc. It’s also a great place to store things like board games.
- Under the sofa – If you have a jack-knife sofa, you might be able to access storage under your sofa. We were able to do this in our first trailer. It was a little awkward to get at. So, it was best to keep things like extra blankets under there.
- Add hooks – Our trailer has a funny little closet that is supposed to be a coat closet. They even went to the trouble of hanging a bar in it for hangers. Only one little problem. The closet is too small for hangers. So, my husband installed several hooks in there. Now we have a place for dog leashes, jackets, etc. We have also added hooks on one of our walls for hanging wet jackets and things.
Create your own storage
We are on a Facebook page for owners of our brand of trailer. It’s fun to see pictures of their modifications. Many trailers in our brand come with a table and chairs. People are building or buying benches with storage and replacing the chairs with these benches at their tables. I think it’s pretty smart! Our rig has a dinette with booth type seating. I love it. It’s comfortable and there’s storage underneath. Maybe there are other ways your can add storage to your rig.
No matter what size your RV is, you can pack it in a way that works for you. Just remember, before you traveled in an RV you probably packed a suitcase when you traveled. How did you fit a week in one suitcase? Maybe you car camped and you shoved your tent, sleeping bags, coolers, and everything in a hatchback. You can do this! You’ve got lots more space than your suitcase! How are you going to make it so its functional and fun? Remember, you’re on vacation! Have fun!
Next Trailer Girl Blog Post – Entertaining in your RV and our Adventure with Our Trailer at the Airport
Trailer Girl's Guide to Happy Camping 