By Greg Illes
Every once in a while you run across a really handy little accessory that makes RV life just a little bit better. Every RV always seems to have a long list of small items — pens, hair clips, Post-it notes, a screwdriver, you name it. The standard large drawers and cabinets in RV furniture just aren’t right for these tiny items, which always seem to roll to the bottom and the back of any large space.
Enter the Add-a-Drawer (Camping World and other retailers, or on Amazon), an excellent solution to small-item organization. These little drawers mount simply and easily to the underside of a typical dinette table. On a normal-sized table, there’s room for two drawers. They take up only about two inches of vertical space, so unless you are really long-legged they won’t impact your knee room.
Installation requires only basic handyman skills. The drawers have side rails which must be screwed to the dinette underside, and you’ll want to be careful not to drive the screw holes through the top of the table. It’s best to use a drill stop, or at least a piece of tape, to make sure you don’t go too far.
The drawers have a pretty good retention system (I’ve never had one jostle loose even on rough roads). But they don’t have any “stop” when you pull the drawer out and it can be a little too easy to pull the drawer all the way out and dump the contents on your feet. So it’s advisable, once the drawers are installed, to mark with tape or marking pen on the top edge of each drawer where to stop opening it.
Depending on what you’re keeping stored in your new drawers, you might hear some new rattles from the new plastic while going down the road. These can be quieted down with some thin foam drawer liner, available in hardware stores.
Happy organizing!
Greg Illes is a retired systems engineer who loves thinking up RV upgrades and modifications. When he’s not working on his motorhome, he’s traveling in it. You can follow his blog at www.divver-city.com/blog.
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Installed these in both my RVs. As the dinette generally served as my ‘office’, they served well for all the small stuff needed.