RV Storage: Making It All Fit With Mods, Hacks & Hidden Spaces

have you ever been ready to start rv life and you just are wondering where is it all going to fit in this video we are going to talk about rv storage and how to find a place for everything that needs to come with you so stay tuned we are charity ben dakota and trinity we decided we didn't want to wait for a life of adventure so in 2017 we bought our first rv and set off to live a life of travel in the usa we've visited over 38 states in three years and have many more to go follow along to learn all the best places to see rv and travel tips and much more so we have been living rv life for four years now and boy we learned a lot along the way when it comes to rv storage and organization i feel like in those early days when we were just getting started we were always tripping over not only each other but over everything and we couldn't find anything and you better watch out if you open a cupboard because you don't know what's going to come spilling out on top of you especially if you just ended a travel day so in this video we are going to talk about some hacks for rv storage and making it all fit so let's jump in tip number one is to make use of the space that you have and look for those opportunities where there could be wasted space so one of the first things that i want to show you that we have done in our rv is we try to make use of every single bit of space that we have so we actually built these bunk beds as part of a rv renovation that we did and we'll put a link above for that particular renovation series where we talk about that but before this was here there was a couch here and even under that couch we made use of the space we have these roll out bins for the kids everything now not taking time to organize these bins you are getting it real life as raw as it comes but these particular bins have been modified and loved to fit in this particular space so these are your typical underbed storage bins they would have been too long to fit under this space so they've been cut in half we've got a few small screws and good old duct tape and gorilla tape to kind of hold them together but to modify them to be the exact space to be able to fit underneath of this bed area so each of the kids gets a bin for clothes and then they kind of collectively get an extra bin for any extra miscellaneous items you can see my daughter's got all of her bracelet making stuff hats scrunchies all of the things that i said you don't need and she needs them anyway so that is what is in this bin here and then these just slide right under the bed now on travel days what we have is a bungee cord it goes across the bins and then clips in to be able to secure these on travel days when we go around a corner so making use of every single bit of space that you have available with these types of bins or whatever else that you can use for rv storage is absolutely key to being able to fit everything that you need to fit and make sure that it's not in the way of just daily life as you're living rv life so unclip that because the kids won't be able to get to their bins and then actually one thing that i've noticed is we still have quite a bit of storage underneath here that we're not even really utilizing so there's a gap between these bins and the wall and even these bins could fit a little bit closer together and so the nice thing is is we still have room for a little bit more if we needed it underneath of here to be able to fit a few more things especially things that are like blankets or coats or anything that can kind of be packed down or smooshed down that's not hard sighted making use of little spaces like this for items like that is a great way to store things so my next tip for rv storage is to look for those areas where the rv manufacturer may have left wasted space and here's a hint there's a ton of wasted space in rv just my little secret to you there one of those areas that we found in this rv when we first moved into this one was this particular couch now this is not a sleeper couch it doesn't fold out it just is a couch couch and there's duct work that goes underneath of here but what we found is this front piece would come off just to be able to access the duct work and then also the seat belts that were back there and how it came off was this was all one big board and it would come out this way so it really was not built for or meant to come off and be clipped back in and back and forth multiple times we really felt like there was so much space under here that was completely wasted as a potential storage space partially because this particular manufacturer also used this for some of the duct work for the heating so they didn't really turn it into any sort of storage because of the duct work what we did is wanting to gain every single bit of storage that we possibly could we got it we actually modded this so what we did is we actually took this whole front piece off and we cut right here where the board was and then added these two hinges to be able to actually hinge this open without this front piece having to come off and look at how much unused storage was underneath of this particular area it is crazy so we have a couple bins underneath here now the tv is under here at the moment because we're working on some other storage things which we'll show you here in just a few minutes this opened up so much more storage that would have been completely unused and wasted if we hadn't thought a little bit outside of the box so this duct work is flexible and it can just flex as you put this back onto the front and it's nice and secure during those driving times so as you go through your rv look for those little nooks and crannies and spaces where maybe the manufacturer didn't create a specific storage area but you could make a small modification and open up more storage area so i'm going to show you another area that we found that was exactly like that where the old style tube tv used to go so let's look at that so this monstrosity of an empty space is where the old tube style tv went so this particular rig is a 2004 model and so when we bought this from the owners we bought it from it still had the old style tube tv and that thing was so heavy the the brackets that actually held this to the roof were actually starting to come out because it is so heavy so we took that out and we have a flat style screen that normally goes here we have it removed for right now because what we realize is putting a flat screen in here opened up a ton of storage in the back part of this particular box area this is our file system hard drive ben would know all the technical terms network attached storage device so this is all of his fancy schmancy stuff for video files for all the videos that we do and so he's working right now on some modifications in this particular area for us to be able to use more storage space in here so this is another one of those areas that was a big empty space and we are working on modifying that to fit our needs to be able to keep things nice and neat and organized so up here is where all of like the controls for the satellite in the tv are now we actually took the satellite dish off we are not big consumers of tv we actually watch more videos on youtube or streaming services than actual television but that's where all of this is and then there's a a ton more empty space so we added more things up here for chargers and things like that now this shelf that's here this was here and one thing that you always want to look for with these rv cabinets is you tend to get these cavernous type of rv cabinets and anytime that you can put some sort of shelf in here to provide separation you're utilizing that space much much better for storage so let's go over to the kitchen and i'll actually show you a few places that we've done that in the kitchen and in our other cabinets as well so these cabinets here i've got these expandable racks and you can get these on amazon i'll put a link in the description below but what this does is it gives me more use of my overhead cabinet space so i can put things in bins down here i've got this here this sets up here it just gives you much more use of that overhead space in there and then in our kitchen area i've got something very similar going on in here where these are like actual dish racks and i will put a link in the description below for these on amazon also but what this does is it gives you more use of that space so i have plates here cups bowls things like that i can still set things in front here so the coffee mugs in here we use paper a lot while we're out so paper bowls here got some paper plates down here but utilizing as much space here as you possibly can and then over in these cupboards very similar where i've got this wire shelf i've actually found that for us this works better to put our silverware up in here because our drawers which i'll show you here in a minute are not very long so we actually keep these in cabinets up here having one of these tension style rods that can go across the cabinets and i'll put a link in the description below for this on amazon as well but what this does is it really helps to keep things in place on those travel days so that after those travel days and you go to open this cabinet you're not like having to dodge and duck and do this number because things are falling out and it just keeps things nice and secure as you're traveling on those travel days our drawers down here like i was telling you they're not very long and so to be able to keep an actual like silverware drawer in here doesn't work well so i do use these types of bins these particular types of bins are actually from the dollar tree so i can use those to kind of separate things to keep things somewhat organized this drawer i have things that are at an angle because again these drawers aren't super long and so i have to try to put things in there the way that they're going to fit here is a great tip for these types of drawers if you take things like towels or washcloths and you actually roll them instead of folding them you can fit a ton more in this type of space than if you just have them folded and if i had them folded too there's a good chance that they would get caught up in here and then i'd be losing them back behind and having to fish them out so when they're rolled up tight as well they sit in there nice and tight next to each other and i don't have to worry about them falling out so in this cabinet down here we've got a similar thing going on with this type of rack so i've i've divided this out i'm able to keep canned goods and things like that down onto the bottom i have the rack here and then i can keep other things on top so here i have all of like our flour and our sugar for baking all of those types of items down here a bottle of oil i've got more oils and things like that that can fit in this bin right here and then that way they're not falling out on travel days that's the big thing that we always want to look at and what we always make to try is using these types of bins for your storage and organization help to keep things from falling out on those travel days when you go to reopen those particular cupboards and cabinets so those are definitely a plus and i'll put a link in the description below for some of those on amazon as well so one of the upgrades that we made that gave us a ton more storage is actually our booth dinette from rec pro so we had the traditional dinette that had the pull out drawers we replaced that with this dinette booth from rec pro and we actually have a link that will give you five percent off if you are interested in upgrading any of your rv furniture from rec pro so that will be below but check this out because i love that this is like this so this cushion comes off the back and then these benches actually lift up and you have a ton of storage that is underneath here versus the traditional where you pull out the drawer it really limits you as far as how much you can stack in that drawer and you lose a ton of option for storage now here is a tip too if you purchase kind of the smaller miniature versions of things like i have a smaller version of the instant pot for the rv and a smaller kind of personal size blender then you have room for kind of everything that you want to have by just purchasing those types of appliances in a smaller travel size type of version so we've got all of those types of kitchen appliances that we need to use or could maybe want to use and we keep a lot of them stored right here under the dinette bench so the next place we're going to talk about storage is in the bedroom because there's a lot of cool things that you can do with rv bedrooms when it comes to storage and organization so let's head back to the bedroom and talk about what we've got going on back there so one thing that we have back in this bedroom that i use all of the time are command hooks so i've got command hooks here just to hang up pajamas at the end of the day i have command hooks over here for all of my hats so those are all nice and organized on command hooks and it opens up more space for other things so utilizing as much wall space as you can really then opens up things like cabinets or drawers for other types of items so here above the sink i've got things that are in these bamboo boxes and i've used nanotape to put these against the wall nanotape is like my new best friend for rv storage and organization so i will put a link in the description below for that but i've used that to nano tape these to the wall it stores things up out of the way and then that also helps with our pack down process on those travel days so anything that you can do to utilize the wall space that you have really helps with storage i also have these boxes from hobby lobby that i've nano taped to the wall to be able to store things that you would normally maybe set on top of like a nightstand so i've got those as well to just get things up and out of the way but use that wall space so use the wall space so the next thing that we have got going on is in the closet area now this was not a good day when we started traveling again this year and we moved out of our house into our rv so when we travel we travel full-time we move out of our home base so that is opened up for guests to be able to stay in and we move in so everything that we own comes with us so i had hung up all of the clothes in the closet and that was a little too much and at the end of that very first travel day the rack in the closet had ripped out of the walls and was laying on the floor and it was a royal royal mess so we had to come up with a idea on the fly to reorganize all of our closet space so here is what we did and it has been working out great so a couple of things that we do still have that are hanging in here we've got these hanging types of racks and you can pick these up in a lot of places i'll put a link in the description below for some of these on amazon but shoes and then i have a few of the old style towels but we switched mostly over to these travel style towels from venture forth which we love so have that there a few clothes that are hanging here then what we did is a few more clothes hanging here but the majority of the clothes now are in these drawers so i've just folded all of these clothes kind of like konmari style if you've seen any of marine condo stuff so i picked these up on the fly at walmart you can also find them on amazon and i'll put a link in the description below for that too but what this does is it stores all of them our shirts and our pants and our shorts and pretty much everything that doesn't really need to go on a hanger is not on a hanger and then that takes weight off of this so we've not had this fall down on us again and then we just put things up here that are a little bit more on the lightweight side so one more thing that i think is important to note for us because we do have a diesel pusher and so what that means is if there is something that happens where we would need to access the engine area it has to be accessed through the closet so anything we put back here has to be able to be removed easily which means putting things in here that are more semi-permanent like a real heavy dresser or something like that is just not feasible because if this needs to be accessed this stuff needs to be able to be removed easily so everything we have back here could be removed fairly easily it's fairly lightweight in the event that we would need to gain access or a mechanic would need to gain access to the engine through this particular closet floor so another area that most rvs have storage is under the bed ours is a little bit different because of the fact that it is a diesel pusher we have a lot of engine things that are back in this area which limits the amount of storage that you can have under the bed for this particular model of rv but there is a little bit of storage and so i'm super excited about some of the things that we've got underneath here because our ikea finds were awesome so interestingly enough the printer paper fits here perfectly this is actually a zippered storage bag that we found at ikea and i will put a link above for our video on shopping at ikea for rv storage and organization but this zips shut and then i've got extra blankets and things like that that are in here but i like having the zipper on it because especially traveling with pets we don't have pet hair or dust or anything like that and then we have some other items that we keep here this is actually a fire proof bag and so instead of having like an actual fireproof safe we have a fireproof bag then that we can put things like our hard drives in or just anything that obviously if we had a fire it would be very difficult to replace so we use that fireproof bag and i'll put a link in the description below because that came from amazon as well and so that sits underneath here as well and that's all we have because everything else is taken up by electronics for the inverter or different controls that are needed for the electrical so we get just this little little space here but we're making the most of the space that we have by organizing it well and gets things up and out of the way so let's check out the bathroom and we're going to look at some of the storage options that we're using in here because this is where i'm really digging some of the storage options that we have got so probably one of my favorite things that we've gotten here is this particular setup from ikea so this is just one of the straight bars with the buckets and this hugely helps for packing up on travel days because we really don't have much sitting on the counter anymore and so during those travel days instead of trying to pick everything up off the counter and put it away or just trying to maneuver washing hands or whatever where you have a bunch of things cluttered on the counter it gets it up and out of the way and so that has hugely helped with organization and then the other thing is is there was this towel bar that hangs up above kind of the toilet and i don't really want my towels above the toilet so i've actually used a couple of carabiners from the dollar tree and a couple of these kind of hanging buckets and they're empty right now but usually what i do is i put extra toilet paper in there or some of my cleaning wipes that can go in there and that gets it up off of the floor and i'm utilizing the space well but i'm not hanging a towel behind the toilet i just i don't understand like why would you put a towel behind the toilet it just feels so unsanitary to me so anyway we're making the best use of that space that way and then of course command hooks so i've got command hooks on the back of the store to just hang any other extra towels or things like clothing pajamas swimsuits if need be command hooks are totally your friend with rv life because it just really helps you utilize the space as much as possible and then one more thing is this is actually a over-the-door hanger from dollar tree so this was a dollar and we use this to hang up all of our microfiber towels and love these towels because they dry so quickly so i'll have a link in the description below for these too but this was a buck at dollar tree so what are some of the hacks you have for rv storage and organization you'll have to let me know in the comments below i always love hearing and reading what other rvers are doing plus it just helps all of us in the rv community better store and organize all of those things that we have to take with us one thing we didn't even touch today was things that go underneath the rv in those storage compartments that go underneath so be looking for a future video coming out on that as well if you would like to see more videos with rv organization and storage hacks you can check those out right over here and if you would like to see more videos about fun places to travel in your rv and some tips along the way on campgrounds and things like that you can check those out right over here make sure you click the subscribe and until next time we'll see you on the road

Channel: Grateful Glamper

Views: 16,584

Rating: 4.9312038 out of 5

Keywords: rvlife, rvliving, gratefulglamper, rv life, rv living, grateful glamper, RVstorage, rv storage ideas, rv storage ideas interior, rv storage ideas ikea, rv under bed storage ideas, rv storage organization ideas, rv closet storage ideas, rv living full time with kids, rv living for beginners, rv living with kids, rv living tips, rv lifestyle, rv upgrades and mods, rv storage, rv storage solutions, rv storage tips, rv organization hacks, rv organization tips, rv tips and tricks, rv

Id: 0Ja9Qm6i-XU

Length: 24min 51sec (1491 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 11 2021