Okay, fine, I’ll admit it. After four days cooped up inside our RV because of steady rain, little irritants can really get to me! I’m talking about those small inconveniences that make me sigh in frustration and wish for a simple solution. Maybe you’ve had similar moments and experienced these same problems in the RV, as well.
I’ve compiled simple hacks and tips that can make everyday RV living just a bit easier and hopefully less frustrating. The only criteria for potential solutions to everyday nuisances is that the “fix” must be quick and easy. See what you think and then add your own ideas in the comments or over on my forum.
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10 fixes for irritating problems in the RV
The cutting board slide
I know it sounds a bit like a dance move, but there’s nothing smooth about this problem. Whether I’m cutting meat for shish-ka-bobs or slicing up an apple snack, the cutting board always slips and slides around on our RV countertop. The fix? I stretched a rubber band over each end of the cutting board. Now no more slide!
Wrestling wrenches
My husband was frustrated with trying to find a handy way to keep all of his RV wrenches together. The solution? I gave him oversized carabiners like these. He uses the blue carabiner to corral all of his metric wrenches and a red carabiner to hold the others.
Truck seat black hole
Sunglasses, cell phone, pens, papers—you name it and it’s probably found its way into the “black hole” located between the edge of the truck seat and center console. Absolutely everything seems to somehow slide down this “hole” and somehow my hand is never quite nimble enough to retrieve the items. For an easy fix, my husband cut a piece of foam pipe insulation the length of the crevice. We poked the foam down into place and the “black hole” is closed for good. (Note: This nifty gadget works too!)
The stubborn lid
I sometimes have trouble removing jar lids. My tip? Grab your rubber glove. You don’t even need to put it on your hand. Just lay the glove over the jar lid and twist. The glove will grip the lid and help you open the jar.
Jumbled wires
Those tangled wires that lay willy-nilly all over the carpet cause me fits—especially when it’s time to vacuum! Corral them like this: Loosely gather the wires together so they’ll slip inside an empty toilet tissue cardboard tube (or paper towel tube). Then you can vacuum right up to and even under the contained wires without a problem.
Too many shoes
Can you ever have too many shoes? Yes! Especially if you don’t have a way to contain them. Here’s a free RV storage hack for shoes: Use empty wine cardboard boxes. Put one shoe into each bottle slot and voila—no more tripping over shoes.
Bushels of bags
Just like storage containers, plastic grocery bags can seem to multiply in the cupboard. Need a free solution? Poke the bags into an empty tissue box. Bonus! You’ll free up space inside that cupboard where the bags used to live. Note: Plastic bags can also be housed inside a paper towel tube.
Handy handles
When one of our RV hoses sprung a leak, we cut a small section out. We used a utility knife to slit one side of the hose, and slipped the hose piece over the wire handle on a five-gallon bucket. Now even heavy bucket loads are easier to carry.
Soap scum scrub
Use a dryer sheet to clean soap scum off your RV’s glass shower doors. I’m not sure why this works, but it does!
Wine chiller
Freeze grapes and then place one or two into your glass of wine for a quick cool down without watering down the beverage.
Do you have some quick tips or hacks to share? Please do!
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Wires inside a cardboard tube increases the possibility of a fire. You can get wiremolding designed for that, but why do you have loose wires all over the floor of the RV to begin with?
i stuff my plastic bags all in one first bag..brown in brown..white in white (easy to recycle) and use the stuffed bags as knee pads. keep ’em in the garage locker, under sink cupboard, under seating cupboard…wherever you gotta get down on your knees.
Our plastic bags are used to catch the mess of cleaning the litter box. And nope, don’t want carpet in my RV.
SHOE STORAGE:
My wife purchased an over-the-door shoe holder (4 pockets on each row). She cut them down and sewed them back together again to make a length of single row pockets. She then attached those pockets around the bottom of the bed. Shoes are out of the way and take up basically NO storage space in the travel trailer.
As an avid wine drinker, the frozen grapes tip is golden!!! And you can never have too many shoes!
Dampen a dryer sheet to remove bugs from the front of your vehicle.
We stuff plastic bags into a plastic 1/2 gal bottle with hole cut round handle.
We have a Casita – so you know there is NO counter space. A just-the-right-size cutting board can be placed atop the small drawer that’s under the stove. Voila! A tiny, but useful, flat surface.
Our countertops are Corian, which means they are easily scratched. I cut pieces of solid shelve liner (in a coordinating color) to fit each work area of the counter. Provides a non-slip surface, protects from cuts or scratches and even provides some heat insulation. They roll up and store in a drawer or can even be used to pad items in a cabinet on travel days. If they get stained, flip them over. Stain both sides, toss (or cut for padding between dishes) and cut a new piece. Still on my first roll after three years and my counters look brand new.
For a truly stubborn jar lid, hold the jar lid down and tilted slightly. Then rotate the jar while gently tapping the lid on the counter top in a circular motion. 1 revolution (4 taps) should loosen the seal quite nicely.
We bought a rubber-like (probably soft plastic) jar lid opener at a dollar store. It is about 4″ in diameter and shaped like a truncated cone. We are in our mid-70s, so a bit weaker than when we began RVing, but we have not found a jar yet that we couldn’t open with that circular piece of rubber!
We bought some shoe hangars at the Dollar Tree, hung it under the mattress and hung the shoes there.
Also, if you do keep plastic bags like we do (for cat litter), fold then into little triangles, similar to folding the American flag, and store them that way.
My wife does the same folding of our plastic bags. It only takes a couple of minutes to do after each grocery shopping trip. Then she can keep dozens of bags neatly folded and dropped into a single plastic bag hung from two adhesive-backed plastic hooks stuck on the back of the cabinet door under the kitchen sink. Lightweight, handy location, and very tidy solution to bag storage. We then use them to line our kitchen and bathroom trash cans instead of wasting money (and petrochemicals!) on Hefty trash bags.
Another solution to the proliferation of plastic bags is just to not use them at all! Instead, keep a collection of reusable bags.
YES! This also eliminates the problem with the cheap plastic bags that tear, causing everything to fall all over the ground. Lately, we’ve acquired quite a collection of reusable bags from all the “non-profit” junk mailings. Some are even insulated.
A piece of damp paper towel between the cutting board and counter helps also, then use it to wipe up when finished.
Genius! Thanks, Roger.
I just use the dish cloth, damp. No need to waste paper towels.