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The Secret To Keeping Your RV Floors Clean

This post was updated on December 4th, 2020

RV Floors
Image source: Wikimedia

The Secret To Keeping Your RV Floors Clean

There’s no reason we can’t attempt to hold onto some semblance of tidiness when camping, and the very best place to start is with the floors.

You see, RV floors are always the first thing to get messy, and as soon as they do, that mess is strewn about the small living space in no time. Sandy or muddy campsites only make the problem worse, and keeping the floors free of these things is an uphill battle, to say the least.

What’s a tidy RVer to do? Well, there are actually a few steps you can take to try to keep your floors looking good. Here are our recommendations.

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Lay down an outdoor rug

First, you’ll want to get your hands on a good outdoor rug. This rug should be large enough to provide you with a decent outdoor living space. It will help keep you and your family from walking in the dirt by providing an alternative walking surface just outside the door.

It’ll also help clean dirty shoes before they reach the front door, meaning this step alone could help your floors tremendously.

Create outdoor shoe storage

Of course, things would be even better if the shoes never make it into the rig at all. Therefore, an outdoor storage solution could be the answer to your prayers. Something as simple as a plastic bin with a lid can serve as your outdoor shoe storage.

If you go this route, shoes such as Crocs are an excellent choice because they can be slipped on and off easily and won’t be harmed if they get rained on.

Strategically place small rugs

The outdoor rug mentioned earlier is the most important step you can take toward clean floors. However, a few smaller rugs can also be extremely helpful. Throw a small rug down at the front door and throughout the RV in high-traffic areas.

Lay down a mat or rug by your RV entrance. Photo via iRV2
Lay down a mat or rug by your RV entrance. Photo via iRV2

These rugs will catch a large amount of dirt and dust, and can then be shaken off outside, reducing the frequency of your sweeping or vacuuming.

Keep pets clean

Of course, pets are just as guilty as humans when it comes to tracking in mud. (Some may even be a bit more guilty.) For this reason, it’s a good idea to make sure your furry friend is clean before allowing them to go inside.

Wipe their paws on the outdoor rug by walking them back and forth a couple of times, and give their fur a quick brush to remove any leaves or twigs that may be hiding in their coat. This will ensure fewer messes are brought in via doggie.

floors
Traveling with pets – Photo via iRV2

Replace RV carpet

Carpet is by far the most difficult type of flooring to keep clean. For this reason, carpeting really shouldn’t ever be found in an RV. Still, we continue to see new RVs come out of the factory with carpet installed.

If your motorhome or trailer has carpeting inside, you may want to consider replacing it entirely. Vinyl flooring is relatively inexpensive, lightweight, and easy to install. Most importantly though, it is easy to clean, making it a clear winner in our book.

…Or invest in a good vacuum

If you do decide to hold onto that carpet, you’re going to want a good vacuum cleaner. After much research, we’ve come to the conclusion that the very best vacuum for an RV is the Dyson V8 Absolute. You can read about our top 5 RV vacuum cleaners here.

Move it outside

The reason the floors become so dirty so quickly when camping is because of the walking in and out that people tend to do.

By moving everything you need outside and making a point of spending the day in the great outdoors, you can reduce the amount of mess being carried into the nice, clean indoors. Then, at the end of the day, you can enjoy heading inside to a lovely, tidy home-on-wheels.

Take it outside - Photo via Paladin27 on Flickr
Take it outside – Photo via Paladin27 on Flickr

Sweep daily

Of course, staying on top of things can help keep the job of cleaning floors quick and easy. Therefore, it is best to sweep at least once a day. Fortunately, this is easy enough to do just before bed as part of your end-of-the-day activities.

With tips like these, you’ll never have to camp with messy floors again. Have something else to add? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below!

You may also like: How To Replace Your RV Carpet With New Vinyl Flooring




4 thoughts on “The Secret To Keeping Your RV Floors Clean”

  1. Shadow netting – on the ground – is a great solution to reduce tracked in dirt. It is cheap and works better than outdoor carpet, since water and much dirt will fall through it. Netting will also not kill the grass (if any) on the camp site.

  2. Sandy, there are many forums consisting of other RV, motorhome etc owners that are so incredibly willing to help. Try searching RV forums and see what comes up. There are also a ton of helpful Facebook groups.

  3. I have 2 older tow campers, the biggest prob. was the dirt tracked inside as I tow them thru the mud just to get there . then live with remote sites . large outdoor rugs are a nightmare ! one high quality shoe cleaning (spiked) rug is much better , one small inside rug to finish the job ,then shoes off , easy ! if coming and going is so frequent then leave shoes on , no one stands in the pouring rain or snow or whatever to take off their shoes or foul weather gear ! they come in . these rugs work well in adverse conditions . large rugs are a joke ! we are not there to carpet the outdoors !

  4. Does anyone anywhere know of a Marlin, Elnagh, slim 2 Motorhome. It is Italien made on a Fiat Decatto chassis.
    The reason for asking is we have owned it now for just over 6 months and it’s great. Dry, and we love it. However although it has all of the electrics both 12v and 250v when we are on a site. We cannot find the lessor battery. We have looked everywhere, even asked Facebook Motorhome sites, to know availe. All of the places told to us and we’ve read about. Nothing. I got onto the web page for the company who built it. Although it’s 15years old they didn’t know and told me to ask a UK sales group of which I can’t find any. We are nearly at our whits end although we haven’t had any problems on the site electrics, the 12v keeps cutting out. I would appreciate any help from anyone. Please
    Sandy. McCulloch

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