10 Essential RV Life Hacks
The Right RV life hacks Make Life on the Road More Efficient
Getting your home into the woods takes some work. Be smart about how you spend your time. The following hacks will give you more time to enjoy your trip. (And if you’re trying to figure out where to go or what to do, check out Outdoorsy for hot spots, incredible RV rentals).
Hack #1
The Shower Saver
This hack is for when you are camping someplace without water hook ups. It’s a standard for RV life. Water is one of those limited commodities you just can’t do without, so once your tanks are dry you need to head into town to fill up.
When camping in a spot with no water hook ups, you’ll likely find yourself trying to save water as much as possible (this also has the environmental benefits of making your camping trip a bit more green).
Save water by turning the water off while you soap up. Turn the water on to get wet. Turn the water off to soap up. Turn it back on to rinse.
This little hack will save you tons of water and extend the amount of time you spend enjoying the woods instead of driving back to town to fill your water tanks.
Hack #2
The Make Your Own Trash Can
Most large supermarkets or Wal-Mart’s sell a plastic container for holding cereal. They are about the size of a box of cereal, and have a small lid on top designed to allow you to pour your cereal without taking the lid off. These little containers are perfect for using as small trash cans. They fit a plastic grocery bag perfectly, so no need to buy trash bags. The small size makes them a perfect fit in any RV or van. A great bonus: their lid is more secure than any garbage can, and your trash won’t bounce out while you travel down the road.
Hack #3
Tortilla Chip Fire Starters
Got a bunch of wood, but can’t get it lit? Try using some tortilla chips to get it going. They burn like crazy and can help you to roaring fire in no time. This will actually work with most fried chips — it’s the oils in the chips that are flammable. Doritos and Fritos seem to work especially well, though you may be a bit worried about eating them once you see just how easily they ignite…
Hack #4
Sage as Mosquito Repellent
Sage smells great, and has some amazing practical uses. One of the best: mosquito repellent. Just pick a few small branches and toss them in the campfire fire to help keep the mosquitoes from bothering you.
Relax and enjoy the fire instead of spending the night swatting at those pesky little blood suckers.
Hack #5
Camp Cleaning Dishes
After finishing a meal take a paper towel and wipe down your plates and utensils. You’ll need much less water to wash our dishes.
Bonus: keep the paper towels in and use them to light a fire later.
Hack #6
Laundry Day
Use this life hack to avoid the laundromat when camping out in the woods.
Take a bucket and a plunger and use it to wash your clothes. Then line dry them in the sun. The bucket and plunger make a great little washing machine. There’s nothing like the smell of clothes line dried in the forest.
Of course, if this sound like a bit too much work here’s another bonus life hack: Most RV parks have great washing facilities. Find a nice RV park. Instead of sitting around a laundry mat, swim in the pool and hang out in camp while you wash your clothes.
Hack #7
Cooler Management
Most RV’s have refrigerators, and these days many have larger and nicer stainless appliances then many homes. Still, it can often be a good idea to bring a cooler to throw a few cold beers in, or even pack a lunch for the day. Nobody likes to open the cooler and find lunch floating around in a sea of mucky cooler water.
Grab a few jugs of drinking water and freeze them. The solid block of ice will last longer then the small ice cubes you buy at the store, there won’t be any gross cooler water making your sandwich soggy.
Added treat: you can drink the ice-cold water as it melts!
Hack #8
Critter Prevention
If you park in a place like Oregon Pipes National Monument, you’ll notice a few things. One, you’ll appreciate the view of the stars and the cool desert air. You might also notice open hoods as you walk around the park.
You’ll often see every car and RV in the camp ground has its hood cracked.
It’s a trick for preventing pack rats from eating the wiring of your vehicle!
Don’t get scared, these are not big gross scary city rats, these are fluffy cute little guys that live in the desert — at least they look cute until they eat the wiring of your car.
Leaving the hood open a crack while camping in the desert can help prevent them for setting up shop in your engine and chomping down on your electrical system.
For bonus points take a bit of Irish Springs bar soap and put chunks of it around the engine compartment. The smell of Irish Springs works great to deter the little critters from moving in.
Some folks with large RV’s will also run small stands of LED lights under the vehicle at night for even greater protection.
Hack #9
The Water Bottle Lamp
This life hack can work just about anywhere you need a little bit more ambient light.
Take your headlamp and strap it around a water bottle, or gallon water jug, with the light facing in towards the water. The water will act to make the light more diffuse, turning your water bottle into a perfect little lamp.
Hack #10
Keep Duct Tape Handy
You’ll probably find that you use duct tape to fix absolutely everything around your RV. What if the duct tape is buried under a pile of stuff? Or if you’re out on a hike and don’t have any? Take duct tape and wrap it around your water bottles. It will turn your water bottles into handy little rolls of duct tape. Since your water bottle is never far away, neither will be your roll of duct tape.
Originally published at www.outdoorsy.com on February 6, 2016.
