When going from a traditional home to a home-on-wheels, one of the most significant adjustments might be the limited storage space. Your bedroom closet will probably fit fewer hangers, your bathroom cabinet might not be able to accommodate your extensive collection of toiletries, and your kitchen will likely have less food storage capacity.
While you could swap out the RV refrigerator for a residential one, chances are you are dealing with a smaller fridge than in your sticks and bricks home. And as for panty room, that is most likely limited as well.
Just because you have less food storage space in your RV doesn’t mean you are going to need to run to the grocery store every day or rely on eating out. There are several ways to conserve space and make room for the food that you need. Here are three tips for conserving RV food storage space.
1. Ditch the packaging
Food packaging can get bulky. If an item uses a cardboard box, usually there is a plastic bag inside that cardboard box. By simply removing the bag from that box you are saving a ton of wasted space. This is super helpful when it comes to coveted RV fridge and freezer space!
In the pantry, remove cereal and crackers from their cardboard boxes. Just keep these items in their plastic bags or use reusable food storage containers to stay extra organized. In the freezer, nothing will take up more space than a frozen pizza box. If your oven is large enough to cook it, your freezer should be large enough to store it! But chances are, it’ll be tough with that cardboard box. As for the fridge, remove the bladder from the box of wine to save more room for beer!
2. Break up pantry shelves
Have you ever noticed the size of pantry cabinets in an RV? Or any of the cabinets inside an RV for that matter? They are either extra short making it hard to fit items, or they are extra tall leaving unused space towards the top.
In order to get more use out of those tall pantry shelves, break them up with shelf organizers. These expandable and stackable organizers will double how much you can get out of the storage space.
3. Meal plannings
When you go to the store without a plan in place, you are more likely to purchase items you don’t need or will necessarily use. Not only does this lead to wasted food, but it also leads to less room in your RV fridge, freezer, and pantry.
Sitting down and planning out your meals before an RV trip, or once a week if you RV fulltime, is a great way to conserve food storage space. You are only bringing into the RV what you intend on eating.
Of course, the inevitable impulse buy does make its way home from the grocery store from time to time, so periodically go through your pantry and get rid of anything that is never going to be eaten and is just taking up space.
Also, do you want to know the best part about meal planning? Not only will it save space in your kitchen, it means you only have to think about what’s for dinner one day a week vs. seven.
Adjusting to a smaller kitchen with less storage doesn’t have to be challenging. Whether you are a solo adventurer or a family of five, there is enough room in your RV pantry, freezer, and refrigerator to hold all of the necessities and then some.
Are there ways you get more out of your food storage space? Share your tips in the comments below!
