How To Prepare For Full-Time RV Living
Full-time RVer, Diann, reveals the random but useful RV items you might not think to pack for your RV trip. Hit the road prepared with these RV packing tips.
Almost two months into living full-time in our RV, we’ve discovered a few things that could be beneficial to those of you out there traveling, whether full-time or just occasionally. I suppose you don’t know what you need until you need it, so here are a few RV packing tips for the road.
When you’re preparing for travel, we found that using inexpensive, spring loaded curtain rods in your cabinets or pantry keep items from sliding and causing cabinets to fly open during transit. We also keep small things in plastic bins for safe keeping, rather than loose in a cabinet. Since bins come in various shapes and sizes, it’s pretty easy to find bins to fit your needs. I highly recommend measuring your various cabinets and keeping the list with you when you’re shopping. If you have a smartphone, keep the list on your phone so it’s always handy.
One of the least expensive purchases we made are mesh folding laundry bags with handles. They fit easily in our closet until it’s time to wash our clothes at the laundromat. You can purchase those at most large retail stores and even some dollar stores. If you’re living in San Diego, here is the list of best San Diego RV Parks.
Camping in the desert for six weeks, we learned quickly the importance of keeping light out of the RV during the heat of the day. We still have the skylight open for natural light but the window on our RV door is covered with a Camco 45167 SunShield Reflective Door Window Cover, which made a huge difference in the temperature.
Since we have dogs, we like to have them with us when we’re outside. Not all RV parks allow outside fences, but for those that do, we bought three MidWest Exercise Pens and put them together, allowing our girls to enjoy time with us in the sunshine or moonlight. We use small tent stakes to keep them secured. Because the fences have added weight, we just keep them chained in the back of the truck, so they don’t add extra weight to the RV when towing. We also use air compressor, in case of need.
We cook a lot inside the RV when the temperature gets too hot and we don’t want to grill outside. Many times, we use a crockpot or our Power Pressure Cooker. Both are efficient and allow us to prepare a variety of meals with little effort and no additional heat in the RV. Even when we cook on the stovetop or in the oven, we make sure to turn on our inexpensive rotating fans to help circulate the air inside.
While it’s not everyone’s favorite thing to discuss regarding RV living, some maintenance is required with the RV plumbing. We like to keep things clean and efficient, particularly with our black tank, so we purchased a Valterra A01-0184VP Master Blaster Tank Wand. It attaches to a water hose and helps clean out the inside walls of the tank and the sensors. We use it every time we prepare to pack up the RV and head to our next destination. It’s a dirty job but someone’s got to do it!
We hope these RV packing tips are as beneficial to you as they have been for us.
