When you live in a camper, the idea of wasting a square inch of storage space is pretty heartbreaking. But what if I told you that there might be an extra square foot or so in your camper that you don’t even know about? Here’s how we found extra room (which I promptly filled with dishes) in our camper.
It’s no secret that campers and RV’s are not memorials to fine craftsmanship. I guess the manufacturers of campers do not want excess water hoses and messy wiring showing. Ever wonder what is behind that panel under your Dometic Refrigerator? Well, I didn’t. I figured it was some kind of access thingy that Ed would take care of. It is, but there’s enough room down there to comfortably store a tool box as well. We were genuinely surprised that they hadn’t thought to at least put in a drawer or something.
After that discovery, we began to question what was behind every covering. If I opened a cabinet and saw a walled off space, I asked Ed to open it up. Armed with curiosity and a power drill, we have removed three panels and gained at least 2 square feet of storage.
Most of the panels are very thin pieces of lightweight wood, screwed in with short metal screws. If you don’t have a battery operated drill, a screwdriver would do the trick. Remove the panel carefully and don’t throw it away. Oh, and don’t be surprised to find miles of extra hose and wires, sawdust, wood chips, or discarded hardware. On a side note, I would love to hear what you have found behind your camper’s facade of cleanliness. Please leave a comment!
Once you’ve exposed the extra space, and potentially filled it with your favorite cookware, you may not know what to do with the extra panels that you have removed. We are hanging onto ours. Since the lightweight wood is ideal for keeping your camper’s weight down, you can save it and re-use it to build shelves in cabinet and pantry areas. You could also recycle it into a replacement part if a cabinet or drawer gets damaged. Stack them flat against the wall somewhere out of the way, and reuse them later!
I hope this post was helpful to new camper owners, and I would love to hear about your experiences in the comments.
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