Here are some of our ideas to save space and maintain our stuff. Please share your favorite hacks in the comments below.
Cast Iron pans are great for campers because you can cook directly on the campfire. I like this set because the fry pan is also the lid for the sauce pan.
These pans normally come preseasoned. A cast iron pan that is not preseasoned is silver. Seasoning prevents the iron from rusting and prevents food from sticking. Even though you have a preseason pan, you still have to season the pan after each wash. Dry your pan thoroughly. Apply oil and heat the pan. I like to set my pan by the camp fire for the evening, but you can also heat it in a hot oven for an hour. There are many opinions on what type of oil to season your pan with. Note that olive oil tends to smoke when heated too high so this does not make a good seasoning oil. My grandmother use to use bacon grease but I prefer to use a vegetable based oil. Find a routine that works for you. Cast iron is very forgiving if you find rust on your pan, wash it thoroughly and apply more oil and heat then you did before.
Some folks have never used their camper oven and a lot of newer campers have induction ovens but if you have a propane oven like me, find the biggest baking stone that will fit. Although baking stones are great for cooking your favorite pizza, in a camper oven, they are great for distributing and saving heat. I leave my baking stone at the bottom of my oven all the time. There are some hassles with using a baking stone. For example, since it is in the bottom of the oven, it may get stained from spills and it does take some time to season a baking stone before it has non stick properties. You should also secure it before getting underway but the reduction in propane use is worth it to me.
I learned is that there is a vast difference in quality and price of closet shoe shelves. I found those pictured made of fabric with plastic sheet supports in the bottom and middle shelf.
Most affordable ones that were under $10 were made with cardboard support on the bottom shelf only or they were made with non-woven material. Non-woven material is that fabric that is very popular for reusable shopping bags, but if you get a hole in it it's worthless. I was going to use these for another project so the material was important to me.
They were too long for our cabinets so I cut the bottom three cubbies off
I took the two bottom hanging shelves that I had cut off and stapled them to 1 x 1 outdoor
patio posts.
The plastic support was important to increase the sturdiness. I placed this in the wardrobe to hold cleaning supplies. I used rubberized hooks to hold it in place on the clothes "rod". In our camper our "rod" is a metal bracket with triangle holes in it. The vacuum is also held in place with rubberized hooks.
Puffy placemats can be found cheaply at local stores or at Amazon. These tend to be thicker than the rolls of shelf liner and are nice and grippy when you are underway. I also cut them to fit anything that sits on my counter so the occasional shimmy from walking around the trailer doesn't cause rub marks. Please note that Acrylic cups and dinnerware on foam shelf liner can become stained if the temperature of your rig gets too hot.
We had large deep cabinets that required a step stool and removing half cabinet to get what you needed. I found shoe bins from Ikea. I packed these boxes to hold food items that I would need to use that day. So at the beginning of the day I take out a box and put it on the counter to use. When it's empty the Ikea shoe bins fold flat and get tucked out of the way. At the end of our trip they come out of the cabinet in the camper and go into the pantry in our house so I can refill them throughout the week.
I try to keep my breakables down to a minimum but we like our coffee mugs. We bought plastic three ring binders during the school supply sales and created divider in a drawer to hold the mugs. We cut the binder plastic into strips the height of the drawer then made cuts half way down to they would slip together. We have puffy placemats cut to fit the drawer underneath. They are snug and easy to get to.
If you have a top drawer you can install a cam lock to securely hold wallets and other high dollar items while you camp.
Campers always seem to have odd shaped cabinets and corner spaces. Always be on the look out for baskets or bins that fit inside your cabinets. Keep the measurements for your hard to use cabinets in your phone so when you run across something you can be sure of the fit. We have a cabinet that has an odd shape inside, it is like a V. We were lucky to find a sturdy market that fits this cabinet and now use this for laundry. Another common cabinet problem is shallow cabinets. The cabinet under our bathroom sink is only 7 inches deep. Eventually, I found a Closetmaid mini cubicle on Amazon that fit perfectly.
I love the circular corner shower in the bathroom but it leaves a small wall that is at an odd angle. I found an oval trash can with a lid that fit snuggly at the bottom and a small wine rack to hold towels. I installed it using wall anchors.
If you look closely you can see that I installed the bolts that attach the two pieces backwards so that the nut does not rub against the wall while we are on the road.
I measured the thickness of the wall at the door jam and subtracted 1/2 inch so I could find the appropriate wall anchor.
Camper step covers are expensive and tend to last a season or two. We found rubber back entry mats at a discount store and cut them to fit our steps. We secured them with zip ties. These are nice for keep dirt and sand out of the camper.
We use a soft brush toilet wand and anti bacterial dish washing liquid with Oxyclean to clean our toilet. The owners manual expressly forbids toilet bowl cleaner and bleach but this alternative works well. Since this type of toilet brush is more like a bundled cotton yard than a brush, it holds water. Yuck! I created a toilet wand holder by cutting a shampoo bottle in half and command stripping it to the back wall.
Keeping smells from permeating your camper is more about prevention than a cure. We bought a small tin bucket that is big enough to hold a gallon size zip lock bags. It holds our organic trash such a peels and scraps while we are preparing dinner. I can zip it closed so the smell doesn't get into the trailer while we eat dinner then it can go to the dumpster with the rest of the trash.
One of the things I love about the camper is the glass fronts on the cabinets.
When we were camper shopping it was important to have cabinets that have big doors so you can put bins in them and get them out easily. The glass doors were a bonus. I hot glued fairy lights to the ceiling of the cabinets. I made sure to leave enough cord for the battery pack to be taken out and changed. They turn on automatically and stay on for 4 or 8 hours. They give ambience to the camper at night and are great for watching TV.
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