I really love my camper. It’s not the biggest or the grandest. A dear friend that travels with us has a huge fifth wheel that is worth ten of my tiny camper and that’s ok. It’s just a little travel trailer. But when I am in my camper with my family, I am happy. We laugh, we relax, we visit new places in our little camper.
Traveling in an RV with a large family, however, presents more than a few challenges. But the biggest challenge is, of course, space! I’m generally not a neat freak at all, I like things clean but not necessarily tidy. However, even I can get a little claustrophobic once everyone in the family piles their stuff into the camper. How can the smallest people in our family need so much stuff?
Anyway, once we get all loaded up and ready to hit the road, my plan of action is to go forth and organize!
- Limit what actually needs to come with you. This is basic but very important. My daughter wants to bring every doll she owns, all her dress up clothes in case she gets the urge to dress like a princess (I mean who doesn’t) and random toys that she hasn’t played with at all in three years. So we limit her to a backpack or a box that can be stored away. This gives her control over what she can bring but helps us keep our sanity so we are not walking on legos and Barbie dolls the whole time we are on vacation. Really as tempting as it is to bring everything in our house because we can, it is worth our peace of mind to scrutinize what we will really need. Whatever comes with us occupies not just our physical space but our mental space. So it is really important to become a little bit of a minimalist when it comes to packing an RV.
- Find a collection and conquer. Wherever there is a pile of stuff, think about where else it can go or how else it can be stored. We had a garbage can but we would end up having a collection of bottles and cans that we wanted to recycle that would clutter up my precious counter space. This drove me crazy. So I purchased two garbage cans with lids and labeled one “recycle” and one “garbage”. For better or worse, everyone in our family has a tablet for homeschooling and playing. But with everything electronic, comes the need for a place to charge them. My husband got a great idea to get a magazine rack and mount it on the side of the kitchen cabinet. This is the one we bought. Then he mounted a receptacle strip under the cabinet as a charging station for everyone’s tablets. This was a great solution for our family.
All our tablets in one place! 
This is the view from underneath the cabinet. - Find new places for storage. You may have already seen this one on Pinterest. This is a wine rack that doubles as a towel holder. I love this idea because if you fold these the normal way and put them in a closet they would take up an enormous amount of space. However, by hanging them on a wall in the bathroom, they are not only easily accessible but leaves the closet available for the plethora of other things our family needs.
I really hope these tips help you get organized in your RV and help you have a fun and relaxing trip!
