Toilet Paper and Other Practical Matters

[Parmela]

I hope this is the right place to post these questions. I'm going out on a limb here to expose just how ignorant I am when it comes to camping.

What brand of toilet paper is best for use in an RV?

If you want to stock your freezer for a week on the road.....what will REALLY fit in it?

How do you keep the things in your refrigerator from bouncing around while one the road?

And in the the cabinets for that matter?

Where do you store your dirty laundry?

Any other advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

[ependydad]

Toilet paper- just use what you use at home and that your bum prefers. Just make sure that everyone is using enough water when TP is involved. (Or, there are a select few that put their TP in the trash- but most of us think that's just eww!)

The freezer- it depends on what you're putting up there, but with some of our longer trips, we've really packed it in!

For travel and things- there are a few tricks. First, use space appropriately; for things that are prone to falling over, the door is your friend. After that, we tend to not worry much and pack it where it's organized to use and makes sense (ok, that only happens when SHE loads the fridge- I just look for empty spaces!).

For plates, bowls, cups, etc. For the most part things stay stacked. BUT, for our tall Tervis-like cups and we found these super-awesome separator at The Container Store (so they aren't cheap, but we've only used about 3 sets).


We also have various shelf risers and random stuff. It helps keep things in their place for travel but also for getting to stuff when camped.

For laundry- that's usually model-specific. Many fifth wheels have big closets in the front and that's what we use. We literally use a laundry basic in its space.

[ependydad]

We do have the spring loaded bars across out medicine cabinets. We found that they dumped their contents after each road trip since there wasn't much of a lip.

[ChrisAndGarren]

Regular TP is what we use, from Costco. Never had a problem, use plenty of water and black tank flush when done camping for the weekend.

Our cups and bowls stay pretty well - we've used those air pillows you get in mail-order shipments when the cabinet is not very full. They work well.

Laundry - we have a folding laundry hamper we purchased at Ikea, I actually keep it in the shower when we aren't actively showering - it's a great place, out of the way, and the hamper is easy to move when I want to take a shower.

Can't answer the freezer question - we have a residential fridge, so I can take pretty much anything I want.

Garren

[Wiscampsin]

Been using Angel soft for years with no problems. Pool noodles work well for keeping stuff in place when travelling.

[Shinny]

We use whatever paper is sewage system friendly and soft. I love John Wayne, but not his paper
For laundry, we have a backwards 5'er so wee use one of the drawers in the bedroom.
The freezer will hold more than you think. We packed ours for a week in Myrtle Beach and it surprised me how much we stuffed in there.
And for the stuff bouncing in the fridge-watch your feet when you first open it . Our last trip, for some reason, I put a few cans of soda in the indoor fridge and when I opened it, well I spent a few minutes wiping the inside of the living room down.
You're not ignorant about camping, you just haven't experienced the 'fun' yet

[WFD]

Originally Posted by Parmela

I hope this is the right place to post these questions. I'm going out on a limb here to expose just how ignorant I am when it comes to camping.

What brand of toilet paper is best for use in an RV?

If you want to stock your freezer for a week on the road.....what will REALLY fit in it?

How do you keep the things in your refrigerator from bouncing around while one the road?

And in the the cabinets for that matter?

Where do you store your dirty laundry?

Any other advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

Parmela...if you do a search from within the forum here, you will find many answers on some of these topics that have discussed to the Nth degree in previous posts....especially toilet paper....man can you find a ton of verbal diarrhea on that topic!!!

[rwtdct]

TP: Costco-Kirkland
Freezer: We pack what we can. More will fit than what you think. I always have an ice chest with me also.
Bouncing fridg. I have never notice anything bounce in the fridg. (and I have a toy hauler) Cabinets a different story. We use Plastic (plates & cups) also paper plates.
Laundry in a hamper

[Sharon455]

We'll use the RV specific TP until it runs out, then like others, will switch to our house brand. We use tension bars in the fridge and one cabinet to keep shelf contents intact. I've overloaded the freezer only once, moved my FoodSaver bag down to the fridge area where it helped keep things cooler than normal while thawing.


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[merrykalia]

We typically use Angel Soft tp in the 5er and at home.

I use lots of the stackable storage containers and put my freezer stuff in them. I stuff them full of whatever was in bags or other containers. On our way somewhere, the freezer and fridge are usually full, so we don't worry too much about stuff moving around. On the way home, I make sure our spring-loaded fridge rods are in place and push everything toward the back. It has worked, so far, with no dumps.

Laundry: I purchased two (there are 4 of us) hanging canvas bags from Walmart, that hang from the dresser pull in both our bedroom and the girls bunk room. It is easy to lift off to get into the drawer and each one will hold two loads of laundry, but I normally don't let them get that full if we have w/d access.

We have a few plates, cups and glass bowls, but we use a lot of paper products because they are handy. My plates are melamine, most of my cups are ceramic or plastic and I will use our napkins to place around them to keep them from moving around. The glass bowls are heavy and I stack them. In over 8,000 miles, we have not had one of them broken by bouncing. Well, I will rephrase that, not from bouncing in the cabinet. They DO break if you bounce them on the floor! (DD dropped two on our last trip.)

This is the place to find out all of that newbie stuff, but to keep from feeling like you are ignorant, learn how to search the threads. It is amazing what you can learn.

[donniedu]

Originally Posted by Parmela

I hope this is the right place to post these questions. I'm going out on a limb here to expose just how ignorant I am when it comes to camping.

What brand of toilet paper is best for use in an RV?any septic safemis fine. Costco Kirkland brand is a popular choice

If you want to stock your freezer for a week on the road.....what will REALLY fit in it? DW can fit about a week and a half in pkus ice cream

How do you keep the things in your refrigerator from bouncing around while one the road? never had a problem. Pack right and things just dont move around

And in the the cabinets for that matter? same as anove

Where do you store your dirty laundry? we have a washer, so we just do a load every day or so

Any other advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

All good questions

[Randy and Diane]

To keep dishes and such from moving around we used pieces of rubbery plastic shelf/drawer liner material. It looks a bit like a soft plastic webbing material that comes in rolls of various colours. The stuff available at dollar stores works fine.
Laying a stripe inside each cupboard keeps dishes, pots and pans from sliding easily. Cutting a few 4" square pieces to be placed between each stacked plate or bowl keeps them from rattling and moving around. Travel Safe

[AquaMan]

One of the best purchases I have made is a portable freezer that runs on ac/dc. I typically travel with a "clan" and the extra freezer space is golden. I have a Wynter 85qt portable freezer I got from HD and it's worth it's weight in gold. Especially when you have $500-$600 worth of meat in it and it keeps it frozen down to -8F. It is also great as a portable fridge, as the temp can be set to any temp. I've had this in 90F temps and it held temps at -5. As for TP, we use Angel Soft and have never had a problem.

[rlchall]

New to camping myself and Dollar Tree was one of my first stops. Curtain rods across your refrigerator shelves work well. I also purchased baskets for each cabinet and labeled them. For clothes, dirty and clean, we use regular laundry baskets.
I load the laundry baskets w clean clothes for a trip. Fill up the empty ones on trip. Wash in house and store in basket for next trip (especially sheets and towels)
Amazon Prime is my newest friend.

[RamblerGuy]

Originally Posted by Randy and Diane

To keep dishes and such from moving around we used pieces of rubbery plastic shelf/drawer liner material. It looks a bit like a soft plastic webbing material that comes in rolls of various colours. The stuff available at dollar stores works fine.
Laying a stripe inside each cupboard keeps dishes, pots and pans from sliding easily. Cutting a few 4" square pieces to be placed between each stacked plate or bowl keeps them from rattling and moving around. Travel Safe

We also put the rubbery shelf liner on all our shelves and drawers. Maybe the liner that Randy and Diane used sticks better, but ours tended to slide when we put items on a shelf. I put a strip of double-sided foam tape across the front and back of each shelf and drawer. That holds the rubbery shelf liner in place. We completely covered the shelves and drawers.

We have a Sunseeker 3100 Class C, and we don't hear much banging around. We use Corelle ware plates and bowls and don't put anything between them. It's surprising how well items like coffee cups stay in place considering the turns, dips and bumps that we encounter.

We do put dish towels between pots, pans and lids. We are concerned that one sitting in another would beat up the non-stick coating.

[RamblerGuy]

For laundry, we have two laundry bags. They take up no space when empty. We stuff the one we're using in a bedroom wardrobe. When one is full I put it in an outside compartment. There are two of us, we are retired, and mostly make trips of three weeks to three months, staying in one place three or four days. We stop at a Laundromat about every ten days. We load as many washing machines as we need at once, and in two hours we're done.