When your home is on wheels, all bets are off for keeping things in one place on the road. Take your kitchen for example. You might leave home with everything neatly tucked away in your cabinets, only to pull into a campground and find this:
Don’t assume that whatever you left on a counter will stay in that same spot indefinitely. Road conditions are constantly changing and even places where you’ve been before might not be as smooth and uneventful as you remember them. You can be hit with a bumpy ride when you least expect it, which is why it’s critical to use the right RV kitchen storage accessories when you travel.
Rubber shelf liners
These low cost rubber shelf liners will prevent pots and pans from banging around in your cabinets.
They can also be placed underneath appliances like coffee makers and gadgets like water filter pitchers. Secure them with heavy double-sided carpet tape.
Refrigerator and cabinet bars
Another item that will keep your groceries in the cabinet and refrigerator where they belong: cupboard bars.
Buy double bars for your RV’s fridge and storage bars for every cabinet that could potentially open up and spill messy or heavy items on the floor.
Square containers
Round containers don’t work in tight kitchens, which is why products like the Smartspace pots and pans were invented.
Ditch round plastic containers in favor of square and rectangle ones and you’ll fit more items on your shelves.
Flexible cutting boards
Buy a pack of thin flexible plastic cutting boards instead of relying on traditional ones. These food-safe boards weigh nothing and can be stored underneath your pots and pans when not in use.
Ditch food packaging
Food packaging is meant to look nice on a store shelf, not in your RV. From boxes of frozen food to cereal, ditch the packaging in favor of square and rectangular-shaped containers that fit better in your kitchen shelves.
Don’t forget to save the product cooking instructions and keep them inside each container.
Make friends with self-adhesive hooks
These small hooks can be placed inside kitchen cabinet doors to hang utensils and potholders and save space in your drawers. Choose the cooking utensils you use most for easy access.
More kitchen organization tips by iRV2 members suggestions include:
“Use wall and cabinet door space to hang cooking utensils, measuring spoons, and knives. Shelf dividers help with canned food and spices.” – decodancer
“We use a white wire/rod organizer with wire shelves that holds plates saucers, and bowls stacked vertically.” – Clay L
“Pop off the dummy cover above the dishwasher and use it as a drawer front for a new drawer.
Great for knives and cooking utensils. I also added a roll out in the far right lower cabinet to make access to a lot more storage space.” – bertman
“Go to a dollar store and buy an arm load of different size plastic baskets. They are great for storage and organization in the cabinets.” – scgator
Whatever you choose to keep your RV kitchen organized, keep in mind that it has to be easy to set up and tear down as you move from place to place or you’ll never use it.
Often called “The O.G. of full-time RVing,” Rene Agredano and her husband Jim Nelson hit the road in a fifth wheel trailer in 2007, after their dog Jerry lost a leg to terminal cancer. Sixteen years later they are still traveling and sharing their nomadic adventures at LiveWorkDream. As a self-employed wordsmith, Rene shares her expertise for many RV industry videos, publications such as the Escapees RV Club Magazine, and has authored numerous books, including the Essential RVing Guide to National Parks, and Income Anywhere, a guide to earning money on the road. She has been featured in global media outlets including the PBS documentary “NATURE: Why We Love Cats and Dogs,” The Guardian Sunday Edition, and the Dan Pink book Free Agent Nation.
If you stack your dish, put paper plates between them to keep them from that annoying rattle.
I totally agree, just took our dish set out of storage. We put paper plates between all the 13″ flat plates, however we also have dished plates, bowls and small 6″ plates which I was going to cut down paper plates for. Was thinking of getting some plastic (throw-a-way) bowls to divide our ceramic bowls. I made a roll-a-way shelf with holes cut out for all the matching coffee cups. Just not sure about the 13″ dished plates.
Store pots and pans, potholders, even cutting boards in the rarely used oven. We use our electric frypan and microwave most of the time..
We store cookie sheets, pizza pan, frying pan set and some small baking pans and dishes in there. However when we do need the oven we unload it onto one of the benchseats by the table. Most the time we use the oven, microwave, crockpot, or the smoker and BBQ outside.
When transferring food from original package to other type, remember to transfer the expiration date in some manner….grease pen on outside, paper note, etc. Plastic zipper lock bags are more volume efficient than any “tupperware” rigid style storage containers…..also, pitch when done…no washing containers.