Making Our RV Feel Like Home!

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Having an RV (recreational vehicle) is awesome! It gives us the freedom to be able to travel and always have a comfortable place to sleep with no worries. It is also super convenient to just pull onto the side of the road if  you have to go to the bathroom! No more painful waits for the next rest area or searching for a gas station with a working bathroom.  Maybe that's just me. Either way having an RV with all the comforts of home and stocked with just about everything  you need for traveling makes traveling simply delightful!

​However, our RV, being inexpensive and small, did not come with most of the comforts we wanted nor did it have a lot of space for all of the above, so here is what we did to make it like home for us.

1. The Bed
We chose an RV that had a bed that never needed to be 'broken down.' In other words, in many smaller RV's the bed is also the kitchen table and benches.  We made sure this was not the case for us so even though our RV is small (18') it has a permanent bed. The bed also had to be a decent size. Our RV is a queen size bed and this was very important to us. 

• ​To make it more homey we made our own custom headboard. Note that the bed was meant to be slept in with our heads at the other end, but we couldn't cover up the emergency escape window so we covered the window at the other end instead. To make it we simply cut a piece of Luan to size, covered it with a foam, and then stretched material over it using staples to hold it all down. Now we have a soft back to sit against while in bed. Note that because it shows through the window we also covered the back to look nice! Here is a great DIY of how to make a foam headboard, but note that we used 1" velcro to hold it to the wall instead and had to make a few customizations so that it would fit our trailer bed instead (we left the bottom part off).
• Next we improved upon the mattress.  The mattress it came with is thin and uncomfortable so we purchased a 3" foam mattress topper with gel cooling. It makes the bed so amazingly comfortable we don't even want to get out!
• Last but not least, we purchased a nice matching comforter set and some extra decorative pillows. I don't know, it just looks nice and is easy to 'make' on the fly (check out my post on Ways to Simplify Your Life Now).

2. The Entertainment Center
OK, I know it is not camping if you have an entertainment center, but really. It's not exactly camping to stay in a nice trailer with the comforts of home anyway!  At our age, we just don't care. We want to travel all around the country and at the end of the day we like to relax and watch some TV. Even if it is just a DVD, we don't care. It is relaxing. So Since our RV didn't come with an entertainment center we had to make our own!

• First we purchased a TV/DVD combination unit because it would take up less space. It is a great little unit but the sound could be better. 
• Next we purchased a TV wall mount. We mounted it to the side of the kitchen cabinet which is very secure and the TV can be moved so that we can comfortably watch it from the bed or the kitchen area.
• Lastly we purchased a pre-stained wall shelf that matched the stained wood in the trailer. We had to custom cut it to fit between the kitchen cabinet and the cabinet holding the air conditioner. We used metal L brackets to mount it to the cabinets on each side. We avoided putting anything into any of the outside walls.
• For 'looks' was purchased an extension cord and a special wire channel to hide the cord under down the wall to the outlet. This was so that we could plug the TV cord into the end of the extension cord under the shelf and out of the way and not visibly see any wires.
• Lastly, we contacted the RV dealer and purchased matching wall paper to cover the channel with. It matches the walls perfectly!

3. The Bathroom
I don't know about you, but this room is pretty important to me! In a small trailer you get a small bathroom. In our case it is really, really small. In fact, it only came with a tiny shower, a toilet, and a mirror on the wall! Nothing else but a door!   

• I have no idea why it didn't come with a towel bar or toilet paper holder, but these are the first two things we added. They were easy to install on the wall between the bathroom and the closet, that just happens to be on the right side of the toilet. It makes sense to have them there so I am not sure why the trailer didn't come with them in the first place!
• A small caddy with a handle to hold soaps and shampoos is all that was needed in the shower. It can be hung on one of the hooks on the back of the door when not being used.
• A nice soft brown toilet shaped rug fits nicely on the floor (after we custom cut one corner) and is great for keeping your feet warm and absorbing water when getting out of the shower.
• Lastly, we just added metal over the door hooks. This is simply to hang our wet towels on after getting out of the shower.  

4. The Kitchen
Of course this is really part of the bedroom, the living room, and the dining room! Ha Ha. But who cares? It's still my kitchen and I knew I could improve upon it!

• Added a magnetic bar to the stove to hang our knives on. Despite how many bumps we have hit a knife has never, ever fallen off!
• Hung a paper towel bar the upper cabinets over the counter.
• Bought a small electric coffee maker with a metal pot that can't break, but also keeps the coffee warm!
• We have a bamboo utensil and napkin caddy for all our silverware! It's easy to use in the trailer, or to take outside if we are barbecuing.
• Bought simple matching dishes and cups to always keep in the trailer. The dishes are kept on a plate cradle in the cabinet to save on storage.
• Theres no oven so we purchased a small simple toaster oven. 
• We hung acabinet kitchen towel bar on the pantry door.
• We added sticky tape hooks to the inside of the pantry door to hang all the cooking utensils.
• We stocked the kitchen will all the basic needs: pots, pans, knives, silverware, potholders, utensils, towels, matches (to light the stove with), dish soap, sponges, napkins, and more!​

5. Key Holder

•  We added a key holder basket to the side of the cabinet so as soon as we walk in the door we can hang our keys or find a small flashlight quickly!

Now our trailer is always organized, ready, and feels like home no matter where we go!
Happy Travels!