Every RV camper has been there at one point or another – you make a drive of several hours across a couple states or more to arrive safely at your camping destination. You find the perfect spot, get the RV parked and leveled, and get ready to settle in for a relaxing week. Everything is perfect until you step inside the RV to start to unpack – and realize that the contents of your cupboards have decided to ‘redecorate’ the interior. Now, you have a mess to clean up before you can start your trip, and you may have lost some of the items you were planning on using for the week. Not a good start.

Properly packing your RV cupboards for a safe trip to or from the campground is an important skill for any RV owner to possess. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but there are some basic rules that you need to follow. Once you get the hang of packing your cupboards safely, you should be able to do it quickly and easily for all future trips.

Start with Non-Skid Liner

As a first step, you should consider placing a non-skid liner on the bottom of all your RV cabinets and drawers. This is an inexpensive item to purchase, and will only take a few minutes to install. While the liner won’t keep everything perfectly in place while you rumble down the road, it will help lighter items get a grip and not be so quick to slide. Considering how cheap and easy this tip is, there is no reason to start using your RV without some non-skid liner in place.

Think from the Bottom Up

It might be common-sense, but many RV owners mess this one up. When packing your cupboards, try to place the heavier items on the bottom, with the lighter goods up top. Obviously, if something is going to sneak its way out of a cupboard and fall inside the RV, you would rather it be something light that isn’t going to do much damage wherever it comes down.

When you get ready to start packing, organize your items by weight just outside the RV. Start with the heaviest items, and fill up the bottom cabinets with them. As your items get lighter, you will start to run out of space on the bottom shelves and will need to move higher and higher. Hopefully, when you get to the top of your storage area, you will only have lightweight items remaining to pack.

Use Bins to Keep Control

This is one of the best packing tips that an RV’er can use. Consider purchasing several bins in which you can pack your food, cooking equipment, etc. By containing all of your loose items within some bins, you will achieve a couple goals. First, you will make it less likely that anything will go flying as you make the drive to your destination. The combined weights of the items within the bin will make the bin itself less likely to move – therefore, you should be able to keep everything in place.

Even if something were to move, it will at least be contained in the bin and less likely to do damage or make a mess inside the RV. See-through plastic storage bins with locking lids are great because you don’t have to open them to find out what is inside, and they come in a variety of sizes to fit your needs on the RV. Take measurements to find out what sizes will fit inside the cupboards that you have, and purchase bins accordingly.

Learn From Your Mistakes

Even the most-capable RV packer will make a mistake from time to time. Sometimes, the best way to improve the packing of your RV cupboards is simply to learn from your mistakes. If you have an item or a certain bin that doesn’t seem to behave itself on the trip, try packing it in a different place until you find the right spot for it to ride. It shouldn’t take too many trips to figure out the best location for all of your gear, so there are no surprises when you arrive.

The last thing you want to start off your camping trip with is a mess to clean up inside the RV. With smart packing, and the use of items like non-skid liner and some plastic bins, you can keep your gear safe for the ride to the campsite and back home again. There might be a slight learning curve for the new RV owner, but packing the cupboards safely is a task you can soon master.

This Blog brought to you by Coastal Breeze RV Resort in Rockport, Texas