By Curtis Carper
A place for everything, and everything in its place. Sounds like the mantra for someone with a compulsive disorder, but in reality neatness counts when you’re restricted to only a few hundred square feet of living space.
Most RVs today have an ample amount of storage, both inside the rig and outside in compartments that are supposedly watertight. I know my own experience has shown that in time, watertight may become water resistant and eventually turns into leaks like a sieve.
Outside storage compartments are great places to store things like camp stoves, the BBQ and charcoal, and other items best left outside. Once you start stuffing in extra clothing or dry goods, moisture can quickly turn your belongings and dinner supplies into a soggy mess. Kids’ toys, Fido’s favorite squeaky toys, even craft supplies for that day when the rain seems like it will never end — all need to be stored in a manner that will ensure their usability when the time comes you want them.
Plastic totes come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. You can stack them, buy them to fit odd-shaped spaces, and mix and match as you see fit. I like to cook, so my collection of spices takes up quite a few shoebox-sized totes. I can have the more common spices in a tote stored in a kitchen cupboard, but the collection of more exotic spices are in a separate tote stored in an outside storage compartment.
As I am a full-time RVer, many things such as financial papers, bills to be paid and even old tax documents are stored away in plastic totes buried deep in my larger storage compartment. Should a water line develop a leak, I have no concern because everything will remain dry, sealed up nice and tight in a plastic tote.
To aid in identifying the contents of your totes it’s recommended you go with a translucent style that you can see through to some degree, allowing quick identification of the contents.
Being neat and orderly and storing your items grouped together in plastic totes will make life simpler and more efficient. Nothing is worse than digging through all your scrambled belongings looking for one particular item. Placing things in plastic totes will put the mess in its place.
