RV Storage Hacks: Great ideas for RV Storage

Do you dream of extended or full-time RV travel? We sure do! We love our RV so much that we decided to take a year off and travel the country, which kept us on the road for 10 months. Our RV really isn’t that big – we have a 28-foot Class C motorhome (for those of you who are unfamiliar, that’s the kind with the cab over) – so we had to get pretty clever about storage. Luckily my husband is a genius about the use of space, and he got us all set up to travel comfortably with all our “stuff.” I’m going to share some of his RV storage hacks, because they really made life easier for us on the road. Now that we’re home, we rent out our RV, so all the additional storage is great for renters, too!

The biggest questions people ask us about traveling for such an extended time in our RV are about space: don’t you get claustrophobic, where do you put all your stuff, are you constantly bumping into one another, etc., etc. And we travel with kids, so that adds a whole other RV storage issue to the mix: toys, school supplies (I home-schooled on the road) and other kid items – does anyone else’s child have to travel with a gazillion teddy bears??!! If so, you feel my pain!

Here’s a breakdown of some of our best storage hacks and items we can’t live without in our RV.

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Comfort in the RV

First of all, comfort is key. While this isn’t really a storage issue, getting good sleep is incredibly important when you’re on the road, both for driving long hours and for putting up with each other 24 hours a day! We purchased a mattress topper to go over the mattress our RV came with. We debated replacing the mattress but figured we would try the mattress topper first. It was so great that we bought another one for our bed at home! It worked so well that we also put a mattress topper up in the cab where our daughter sleeps – it’s the perfect solution to long term sleeping in the cab. This particular mattress topper comes in more than one thickness – we went with the 3-inch for our bed and the 2-inch for the cab. And, like I said, we’ve bought two of them now, so we’re obviously pretty happy!

Here’s another key to sleeping well in your RV: shades for your vents! The first few mornings that we woke up with the bright morning sun in our faces we realized that we needed to do something about the vents. Also, when traveling in really hot climates the bedroom and the cab heat up quickly with all the light coming through the vents. These easy shades open and close as you need them and are a must have if your RV has vents right over the beds!

RV Storage and Space Savers

Most of our RV storage hacks require adding features, but most are pretty inexpensive, like these drawers. Do you have a ‘junk drawer’ in your house? I know we do, but I think it’s kind of a misnomer, because everything in my junk drawer is absolutely necessary! Even in the RV we need a place to keep things like pens, sticky notes, scotch tape, scissors, a flashlight, etc. My husband found this ‘add-a-drawer kit’ and attached it to the bottom of our dinette table and we literally use them every single day when we’re on the road.

It’s a handy place to keep small things we don’t want to lose or have floating around, making the RV look cluttered. They don’t in any way affect the way the dinette table drops down when making it into a bed.

The first time I saw the little closets and minimal drawer space in the RV I panicked! I will confess that the words ‘travel light’ don’t really apply to me at all. But we found these great hanging organizers with compartments. We used vinyl organizers, but since then I have a sturdier style.

They are super useful for things like socks, underwear, scarves, gloves or even non-clothing items. The bigger one holds folded shirts, sweaters and pants. My daughter collects things on the road, so we had smaller-sized organizers that were full of shells, rocks, and other items. I could also see using them for jewelry, baby clothes, toiletries or any other small items that are hard to find a place for in the RV.

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Remember when I said I don’t really travel light? That applies to shoes as well! Although I was pretty proud of myself for cutting down on the number of shoes I brought with me on our 10-month RV trip. Particularly since we were packing for all four seasons! My husband had the idea of hanging this shoe organizer behind the toilet in the bathroom.

Sounds weird, I know, but it didn’t get in the way at all and the space was perfectly sized for a shoe organizer. And you have to get creative with RV storage. We put shoes in the top two-thirds of the spaces and use the bottom compartments for some of our toiletries.  

Most of the RV parks we stay in have laundry facilities, but sometimes we boondock or need to wash things out by hand. We also swim whenever we get the chance and wet bathing suits are not something you want lying around in the limited space of an RV. Our solution? This awesome hanging dryer. It has little clothespins attached to it and it hangs perfectly inside the shower! We actually bought this while we were on the road, because we didn’t realize we were going to need it ahead of time. I highly recommend it.

Ok, I’m about to say something controversial here: I think TVs take up too much room in an RV. Unless you have one of those really big RVs, the TV can take up precious space. When we bought our rig, the TV was attached over the dinette. It blocked part of the window and stuck out a little so that it was hard to fit four people in the dinette space. We removed it and replaced it with a gorgeous photo on canvas. All that being said, this doesn’t mean that I don’t like to watch TV when we travel, so we bought a portable TV that is easy to set up and easy to store. It can hook up to the DVD player or stream from your phone. And when you don’t feel like watching, it doesn’t have to be the central feature of your motorhome. Ours traveled the whole country and worked great! We store it in a flat rectangular plastic bin.

One of our best RV storage hacks is investing in storage containers. We use large plastic containers for just about everything in the RV. They fit into the shelf space and that way, nothing is rolling around loose. We have one for toys/games, one for books/DVDs, one for pantry items, etc. We use the 50-qt size, but you should measure the dimensions and see what size will fit your storage compartments, as all RVs are different. They are a great solution because then everything has a place and can be put away neatly.

We also use tension rods in the overhead cabinets so that none of the plastic containers can fall out if we’re on a bumpy ride.

Tension rods work great in the fridge, too. We figured that out the first time we opened the fridge after a long ride and things fell out as soon as the door opened! We use the double rods in the refrigerator.

Let’s talk about command hooks! I’ve seen mixed reviews from RVers about using them, but we can’t live without ours! We use them to hang extra towels, kitchen towels, pot holders, the broom, and more! The large size can hold a pretty hefty weight and they’re easy to stick on.

Bathroom RV Storage

In this picture of our bathroom, you can see the small plastic storage bins on the counter. This is one of my favorite RV storage hacks! They are affixed with Velcro strips, so they are removable, but they stick great and that way we can keep our toiletries and other things on the counter and not have to pack them up every time we drive.

It’s also convenient because each person can have their own compartment. This frees up space in the bathroom cabinet for larger items like towels. We also put these same containers under the windows near the couch. In them, we can store things like phone chargers, headphones, books and other things we use often while traveling.

This hanging fruit basket might seem like a minor item, but the fact that I can hang it from a command hook means one more thing to not have to store on a counter, in the fridge or in some other container. It swings, so it can move along with the RV, but the truth is, we take it down and store it in the sink when we’re driving just in case – no need for anyone to get socked in the head with an apple!

If you’re interested in the RV Kitchen, I have an entire post on all the kitchen items I use to save space and make cooking easy while on the road!

Hope this helps you with all your RV storage needs – happy travels!