I was feeling a bit homesick the other day. We’ve been work camping for several weeks now and while I love living in our RV, I sometimes still miss home. I was contemplating the calendar (counting down the remaining days) when it hit me. I loved our RV, but our RV just wasn’t loving me back! I needed to make the RV feel more like home.
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Who lives here?
Here’s what I mean. Because making this trip had been a rather quick decision, I hadn’t packed along our Nix play (digital photo frame). The sentimental, handmade quilt for our RV bed didn’t come along with us either. (It was the hottest time of the year, so who needs a quilt, right?) Even the calendar I’d been staring at was from a bank! Why hadn’t I packed the calendar that our grandkids personalized for us? As I gazed around our RV’s interior, I quickly realized that it might as well belong to a stranger. Nothing (and I mean absolutely nothing) gave even a hint about us or our personality. It was as sterile and cold as an operating room.
Outside? Meh.
Our RV’s exterior was much the same as the inside. It lacked anything “homey” or reflective of us. No outdoor plants, flags, or other decorations. When we’d arrived, several weeks ago, it was raining, so we didn’t put out our RV mat or retrieve chairs from the basement. Since that time, we just hadn’t taken the time to fully “set up” like usual.
Inexpensive solutions to make your RV feel more like home
What to do now? I didn’t want to purchase another Nix play or buy new sofa pillows and wall art. I needed a quick, easy, and cheap fix. So, I went to the local Dollar Tree. (Yes, due to inflation, Dollar Tree has raised its prices to $1.25. To me, that’s still quite a bargain!)
I found several items that would quickly turn our “blah” RV into something much better. In fact, I had to carefully sort through the different items in order to stick to my budget (five bucks.) I didn’t want to purchase things we already had at home. No sense in having duplicates, after all.
Placemats
I finally settled on two plastic placemats for our table, for a total of $2.50. Each mat featured an old pickup truck with a truck bed full of fall flowers. Since we’re working in a farming community, the farm truck seemed fitting. The wording on each mat read: “Make memories along the way.” What a good reminder for me.
Dish towels
I also purchased a dish towel that read: “Simmer down and roll with it.” I need that admonition on days when things don’t go as planned. The humor helps me not to take things so seriously. The towel cost $1.25.
Photo frame
Finally, I found this decorative item. The metal house has a circular opening that I thought could work as a picture frame. I printed out a photo of our grandkids and taped it behind the opening. The picture frame now sits on the sofa’s end table where I see it often. Cost? $1.25.
And more…
There were many other items I could have purchased to make our RV feel more like home. The store had wall clings just perfect for the RV bathroom and/or bedroom. There were candles and twinkle lights. There were whiteboards and chalkboards, too—perfect for writing encouraging words or a grocery list.
Outside
We finally took the time to spread out our RV mat and set up the camping chairs. We got out the grill and portable propane firepit, too.
I might make a return trip to Dollar Tree. They had really cute yard stakes and hanging signs that would add pizazz to our outdoor space. But for now, I’m feeling much better. And all for around five dollars. Money well spent because it makes our RV feel much more like home.
How about you? How do you make your RV feel more like home? Please share your ideas in the comments below.
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Would like to be able to share pics of the inside of our camper on how my wife has decorated. We use Dollar Tree for a lot of inexpensive decorating ideas, as well.
Dollar Tree is a favorite store for smaller items to carry in the RV. We only need to get enough for the trip, not the next three months.
In my home are pictures of several of my dogs. Their pictures also ride in my van. There are purple tiny lights around the bedroom to make it feel more like home. I have some of my favorite quotes posted that help me remember why we are out here in the first place.
Our RV has a very contemporary feel which is much unlike our old farmhouse. So it was fun for me to find decor that would fit in as well as give it our personality. In the living room area, I used some sage green and cream color accents on throw pillows and a quilt (which is a vintage extremely bright quilt that I simply flipped over to the cream colored muslin backing). Then I found a little sage colored wooden pumpkin at Walmart that says Happy fall. It was a whopping $1.58.
In our bedroom, I found some sheets at Ross that had a geometric pattern in a orangish pink color. Normally I would have never picked this, but I thought I’d try something different. And then I found the cutest accent pillow that went with it perfectly so it all worked out. I got a cheap $8 throw at Dollar general and put it across the foot of the bed over a white coverlet I already had. This week, I added a small white lamp on the counter, and that really made it look like home to me with the warm light.
Full timers. I use pillow covers and throws to decorate for the season. Not a lot of stuff on surfaces, although I do have two table lamps next to my couch and I put up sheer curtains underneath the valances with tension rods. I have a few seasonal scatter rugs that also help when the floor is cooler than we like. A few small things I brought from my S & B. Pottery utensil holders on the counter, small lacy curtains in our bedroom, changed out the two folding chairs at the dinette for a storage bench and put colored pillows as the backrest. All useful and easy to pack away when we move. We love our little “house”.
I don’t ‘decorate’ the RV like it was a house; it is a vehicle too, and I want it to be streamlined for use and saleable when I am ready to pass it on. And frankly, just don’t want to re-accumulate clutter.
But I do acquire a few things I need here and there in my travels, and that gives me some personal touches. Let the new glass or mug or glasses holder be from that shop in Mexico, let the coverlet be a Vermont Flannel one, let the hand-towel be the one my RVing friend made, etc. And yes, one ‘Wonder and Wander’ box from a dollar store. Let good things enter the coach, slowly, one at a time, as you need them.
I always include seasonal decorations when we are in our fifth wheel (not full timers). The BEST is in the Fall season and Halloween! We even attend a Halloween Camp in mid October and the campers can get competetive with their seasonal decorations. We are as cpmfortable in our fifth wheel as we are at our home just on a smaller scale.
I decorated my RV to match the contemporary style. My house is an older cabin style in the redwoods so the contemporary decor works out well in my “second home”.
Before we went fulltime I decorated with items that stayed in RV. Like my dish towels ,bath towels and decorations. I even had a quilt I kept in RV. When not /reveling they were put in storahe containers in RV..amazing how a few items makes a difference. I got wood saying at dollar tree and painted them. Put them up with museam putty. They never came out.
We’re full-timing like many and do not own a home. I do not know who decorates these RVs but it must be someone who used to work at a hotel. 😉 We took down two of the window treatments in the “living area” and I made and hung curtains, I recovered the cushions on the dinette. I took down the hideous things that were on the wall as decoration and hung up pictures and cross stitch projects I had done. We also took down the window treatments in the bedroom and I made curtains for them. New bedspread on the bed. Pictures hung above the bed.
Were going on our third year so this didn’t happen all at once. However, this is my home now so better or worse, I make it my home.
A good reminder to make RVing enjoyable for all members of the family. Thanks for keeping it wallet-friendly too.