As I consider the possibility of full-timing, I have a lot of questions that come up. Would love to hear from you full-timers on how you deal with these things.1. How do you deal with those tiny sinks on a full-time basis? I am so used to the large residential sinks that I wonder...2. How do you feel about washing dishes by hand forever after you have been used to a dishwasher in the house?3. Does anyone have an extra freezer in their rig or in the basement? Because we live in a very rural area, we make monthly trips to buy our meats in bulk at Whole Foods and I realized that we could never store that food in the tiny freezers in the RVs. If we are on the road, the WFs are few and far between, so we would need to buy in bulk...not for one month, but at least for a couple of weeks. Or is there another way to deal with shopping for healthy and organic foods?Thanks in advance!

MookieKat wrote:As I consider the possibility of full-timing, I have a lot of questions that come up. Would love to hear from you full-timers on how you deal with these things.1. How do you deal with those tiny sinks on a full-time basis? I am so used to the large residential sinks that I wonder...Smaller plates and pans2. How do you feel about washing dishes by hand forever after you have been used to a dishwasher in the house?Don't miss dishwasher......I cook and GF does dishes 3. Does anyone have an extra freezer in their rig or in the basement? (Have seen some with small freezers...especially when salmon is involved.We were surprised at how much meat we could get in our rv freezer. As for produce etc. we buy from farm stands when possible. And we just shop at local grocery stores weekly or when we need something. Because we live in a very rural area, we make monthly trips to buy our meats in bulk at Whole Foods and I realized that we could never store that food in the tiny freezers in the RVs. If we are on the road, the WFs are few and far between, so we would need to buy in bulk...not for one month, but at least for a couple of weeks. Or is there another way to deal with shopping for healthy and organic foods?Thanks in advance!

Tiny sinks? What rig are you in?? I'm in a Winnebago Adventurer and my side by side sinks are normal sized. They are not the deep gourmet sinks but they hold a regular sized dish pan on one side and I put a shoe box in the other so I can pour liquids down along side it.Big Freezer... You might want to buy a 2nd freezer and fit it in a pull out below the floor in the bay area. I know some that do that. It's not going to hold 1/2 a cow but should give you two weeks worth of meat.Dishwasher? I wash the dishes and let them air dry. I have way too many dishes. I only use four cereal bowls and four plates in a day. But you will learn to cook and eat in a smaller area inside. Outside is more fun and you'll be amazed how few pots and pans you use when you grill.

MookieKat wrote:As I consider the possibility of full-timing, I have a lot of questions that come up. Would love to hear from you full-timers on how you deal with these things.1. How do you deal with those tiny sinks on a full-time basis? I am so used to the large residential sinks that I wonder...Adapt..make due with what you have. My RV sink is an acrylic 2 bowl, one med, one very small. I put soapy water in the small one and wash, moving larger items to the larger one as needed and rinse in the larger sink. I put a small drainer in a dish pan beside the sink to let dishes dry which leaves all sinks open for use. It all worked so well I had no trouble adapting.2. How do you feel about washing dishes by hand forever after you have been used to a dishwasher in the house? I used to have a dishwasher, did for decades but in the MH do not and in our new barn home did not get one. I do not miss a dishwasher. The main issue...a DW in the MH takes up a lot of space I want for other items.3. Does anyone have an extra freezer in their rig or in the basement? I hear some do but we found the RV freezer held a lot of frozen food, enough we did not even consider a second freezer. If you are traveling you will most likely not shop the same as you do at home. Shop for what you have room for. It's been our experience that an RV freezer will hold enough meat and other frozen goods for at least 2 weeks. Because we live in a very rural area, we make monthly trips to buy our meats in bulk at Whole Foods and I realized that we could never store that food in the tiny freezers in the RVs. If we are on the road, the WFs are few and far between, so we would need to buy in bulk...not for one month, but at least for a couple of weeks. Or is there another way to deal with shopping for healthy and organic foods?Thanks in advance!I'm sorry I did not know how to change the text color of my added comments.Fulltiming or even weekend trips in a MH or any type of RV with a smaller kitchen is a matter of getting used to it and learning to be more efficient in the kitchen. Some motorhomes do indeed have weird sinks and my pet peeve is to have a larger stainless steel sink. I do all my food prep 1st before I get out any pans or begin cooking therefore I leave one sink open and put the cover on the second for more space. Then I can begin cooking. The second big tip is to clean up as you go. I wash and let my dishes air dry always. The most important thing is to "keep things simple" and "less is best"! I found I didn't need a whole kitchen full of appliances, pans, casseroles, bakeware and dishes. Take bare essentials. Even though most rigs will hold a ton of stuff if you take too much in time you'll regret it.

We live fulltime in our Newmar Dutch Star and cook about 90% of our meals inside. I use a huge pasta pot, full sized skillet, etc., and wash all in the RV sink. Works just fine. I have a mixing bowl that I bought at a restaurant supply place that is HUGE (can mix a weeks worth of meals in it) and I wash that in the RV sink as well. Have never had a problem!

Our sink is about the same size as our house sink was, so a non-issue.Dishwashing is a pain but it's worth the tradeoff.You have more time, go shopping a couple times a week. We can along for a couple weeks on the standard fridge.

Full-time kitchen questions | Good Sam Community

Old-Biscuit
Explorer III
Sep 29, 2013
MookieKat wrote:
As I consider the possibility of full-timing, I have a lot of questions that come up. Would love to hear from you full-timers on how you deal with these things.

1. How do you deal with those tiny sinks on a full-time basis? I am so used to the large residential sinks that I wonder...Smaller plates and pans

2. How do you feel about washing dishes by hand forever after you have been used to a dishwasher in the house?Don't miss dishwasher......I cook and GF does dishes

3. Does anyone have an extra freezer in their rig or in the basement? (Have seen some with small freezers...especially when salmon is involved.
We were surprised at how much meat we could get in our rv freezer. As for produce etc. we buy from farm stands when possible. And we just shop at local grocery stores weekly or when we need something.

Because we live in a very rural area, we make monthly trips to buy our meats in bulk at Whole Foods and I realized that we could never store that food in the tiny freezers in the RVs. If we are on the road, the WFs are few and far between, so we would need to buy in bulk...not for one month, but at least for a couple of weeks. Or is there another way to deal with shopping for healthy and organic foods?

Thanks in advance!
louiskathy
Explorer
Sep 29, 2013
Tiny sinks? What rig are you in?? I'm in a Winnebago Adventurer and my side by side sinks are normal sized. They are not the deep gourmet sinks but they hold a regular sized dish pan on one side and I put a shoe box in the other so I can pour liquids down along side it.

Big Freezer... You might want to buy a 2nd freezer and fit it in a pull out below the floor in the bay area. I know some that do that. It's not going to hold 1/2 a cow but should give you two weeks worth of meat.

Dishwasher? I wash the dishes and let them air dry. I have way too many dishes. I only use four cereal bowls and four plates in a day. But you will learn to cook and eat in a smaller area inside. Outside is more fun and you'll be amazed how few pots and pans you use when you grill.
sowego
Explorer
Sep 29, 2013
MookieKat wrote:
As I consider the possibility of full-timing, I have a lot of questions that come up. Would love to hear from you full-timers on how you deal with these things.

1. How do you deal with those tiny sinks on a full-time basis? I am so used to the large residential sinks that I wonder...Adapt..make due with what you have. My RV sink is an acrylic 2 bowl, one med, one very small. I put soapy water in the small one and wash, moving larger items to the larger one as needed and rinse in the larger sink. I put a small drainer in a dish pan beside the sink to let dishes dry which leaves all sinks open for use. It all worked so well I had no trouble adapting.

2. How do you feel about washing dishes by hand forever after you have been used to a dishwasher in the house? I used to have a dishwasher, did for decades but in the MH do not and in our new barn home did not get one. I do not miss a dishwasher. The main issue...a DW in the MH takes up a lot of space I want for other items.

3. Does anyone have an extra freezer in their rig or in the basement? I hear some do but we found the RV freezer held a lot of frozen food, enough we did not even consider a second freezer. If you are traveling you will most likely not shop the same as you do at home. Shop for what you have room for. It's been our experience that an RV freezer will hold enough meat and other frozen goods for at least 2 weeks.

Because we live in a very rural area, we make monthly trips to buy our meats in bulk at Whole Foods and I realized that we could never store that food in the tiny freezers in the RVs. If we are on the road, the WFs are few and far between, so we would need to buy in bulk...not for one month, but at least for a couple of weeks. Or is there another way to deal with shopping for healthy and organic foods?

Thanks in advance!

I'm sorry I did not know how to change the text color of my added comments.

Fulltiming or even weekend trips in a MH or any type of RV with a smaller kitchen is a matter of getting used to it and learning to be more efficient in the kitchen.

Some motorhomes do indeed have weird sinks and my pet peeve is to have a larger stainless steel sink.

I do all my food prep 1st before I get out any pans or begin cooking therefore I leave one sink open and put the cover on the second for more space. Then I can begin cooking. The second big tip is to clean up as you go. I wash and let my dishes air dry always. The most important thing is to "keep things simple" and "less is best"! I found I didn't need a whole kitchen full of appliances, pans, casseroles, bakeware and dishes. Take bare essentials. Even though most rigs will hold a ton of stuff if you take too much in time you'll regret it.
Devonm2012
Explorer
Sep 29, 2013
We live fulltime in our Newmar Dutch Star and cook about 90% of our meals inside. I use a huge pasta pot, full sized skillet, etc., and wash all in the RV sink. Works just fine. I have a mixing bowl that I bought at a restaurant supply place that is HUGE (can mix a weeks worth of meals in it) and I wash that in the RV sink as well. Have never had a problem!
valhalla360
Navigator
Sep 29, 2013
Our sink is about the same size as our house sink was, so a non-issue.

Dishwashing is a pain but it's worth the tradeoff.

You have more time, go shopping a couple times a week. We can along for a couple weeks on the standard fridge.
Rob_Fla
Explorer
Sep 29, 2013
MookieKat wrote:
As I consider the possibility of full-timing, I have a lot of questions that come up. Would love to hear from you full-timers on how you deal with these things.

1. How do you deal with those tiny sinks on a full-time basis? I am so used to the large residential sinks that I wonder...
Like others have said, Tiny Sinks? our 5th Wheel has nice sized / deep Stainless Steel sinks. We wash standard plates and pots and pans in the sink with no problems.

2. How do you feel about washing dishes by hand forever after you have been used to a dishwasher in the house?
No problem washing dishes, we use paper plates quite often but when we were in our S&B we had washed dishes by hand quite often. Keeps your hands nice and soft. :)

3. Does anyone have an extra freezer in their rig or in the basement?
We do not have a extra freezer but we are usually near a grocery store and able to shop every week or 10 days and have no problem with not having enough refrigerator / freezer storage.

Because we live in a very rural area, we make monthly trips to buy our meats in bulk at Whole Foods and I realized that we could never store that food in the tiny freezers in the RVs. If we are on the road, the WFs are few and far between, so we would need to buy in bulk...not for one month, but at least for a couple of weeks. Or is there another way to deal with shopping for healthy and organic foods?

Thanks in advance!
YC_1
Nomad
Sep 29, 2013
We use mostly paper plates, bowls, and utensils. We have a large RV with plenty of room but prefer to not do dishes. I have no idea why the wife has a large set of dishes and glasses in the cabinets. She does not use them. I guess it gives her some comfort and ties to the old sticks and bricks.
photonut4
Explorer
Sep 29, 2013
Our kitchen sink is very deep and the left side of it is large. The right side is smaller, but I use that side to rinse the dishes. No problem. I have always hated to wash dishes by hand, but have adapted. My husband and I do them together, I wash and he dries. It goes very quick.

We also like several items from WF, but like you said they are very difficult to find around the country. So we shop more often in the local stores. When we buy our meat we immediately separate it into single serving sizes and store in freezer (he eats a lot of seafood and I don't), and it is amazing how much we can fit into our freezer.

We have a large wrap around kitchen counter so there is plenty of room to cook, and we use an induction cooktop that I purchased online. Love it! We never use our propane stovetop.
jnharley
Explorer
Sep 29, 2013
We have 2 regular sized sinks and lots of counter space. I opted for just a convection/microwave and eliminated the oven so I have lots of room to store pots and pans. I even have room for kitchen gadgets like a stand mixer and a food processor, things that others would think we are nuts for carrying. We have an Engel freezer on a slide out tray in the basement that works both on ac/dc and greatly increases the amount of frozen food we can carry. We are full timers and find all these things worthwhile. We eat most of our meals at the RV and find that the food we cook is better than 99% of the restaurants we have tried. And we like to eat off of regular dishes and I do not mind dish washing by hand. Let's face it, washing dishes is not all that time consuming. This works for us and each of us must find what works in their RV.
accsys
Explorer
Sep 29, 2013
A 45 foot DP with dishwasher and residential refrigerator will just about take care of all your problems!! :B

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