How necessary is a pantry for fulltiming?

You don't need a space for food storage that was designed for that purpose, even though it is handy. Any area will work...under the sink, in the space under the dinette (if there is one) or even in a bedroom closet. I think you'll find that keeping a ton of staples on board simply isn't necessary. Why carry around hundreds of pounds of groceries when there are stores everywhere?! A week to 10 days worth of staple items is enough.

The only drawback to having a pantry is the girls usually take them over.
Otherwise great for tools boots and the likes.:W

We have a large, full height, 2 door pantry. This was important to me. However, build quality, then floor plan were the most important. Luckily, we were able to have our HitchHiker customized to fit our needs. We opted for the 10 cf fridge so we could have more drawers and counter space around our stove top. If you are going to be fulltiming, you have to decide what you can live with and what you can live without much like if you were purchasing a house. This may mean you order your RV and have changes made that suit you. We made lots of changes to the basic floor plan of our HitchHiker to make it more comfortable for us and ended up with what we think is the perfect full time home.

when we ordered my chieftain there was the option of a pantry plus a smaller refrigerator, or just a 12 cu ft 4 door refrigerator. that 12 cu ft refrigerator with ice maker was very nice. :)
bumpy

Realistically, when you full-time it's not economical to pick up groceries at the camp store or in a small-town grocery, so you'll have a tendency to store more than weekenders do. You don't have to have a pantry but you do need a place to store things. Do a mental picture of your food storage items which are in your home now. Yes, you can eliminate a lot but you'll probably be taking all of your spices, flour, sugar etc. and those take up space. Picture all of it in the RV you're choosing. Where will you put it? Plan out your kitchen before buying the RV. If you don't have room in your kitchen, where will you store those plastic boxes? Does your RV have a lot of basement storage? Room enough for excess kitchen stuff and all the other 'necessities' you'll need to carry for full-timing? You'll also be taking along more kitchen items than weekenders, including appliances. This will be your home so it will all be traveling with you. Good luck in your new lifestyle!

We fulltime and have a nice pantry with two slide out shelves, two stationary. The top shelf is difficult to reach the back of so we store bath towels in front and seldom used beach towels in back. We shop Costco and place cases of can goods in the basement and only bring up what we need for a meal. We can go a good two weeks other than milk and bread without a shopping run.

I do agree. And RV shows seem even worse, because you can never be alone. However, they do give you an idea of what is out there.

Really as far as floor-plans and what will you like or will work for you, there is one sure fire way to get a good, quick feel for a fifth wheel.

Chase the salesman away. Shoo them off.

Then just sit in the fiver you are looking at. All by yourselves. Stay awhile. Sit back, relax and just get a good feeling for the place. Perhaps go through the motions of fixing a dinner, to see how the kitchen arrangement will work for you.

Having a salesman at your elbow just hurries things along too much. Really does not give you the time you need to appreciate or correctly interpret any given floor-plan.

Thank you, UsoutWest! That is the MOST storage I have ever seen!! We are really in the market for something less than 35'...as close to 30' as we can.

Thanks, everyone else, for your input! It is helping me "think outside the box."

A workable floorplan is key to fulltime happiness. While a pantry is nice and convenient, as long as you have adequate storage, the food can go in almost any cabinet. Cabinet interiors can be modified with extra pull-out shelving and you've got a mini-pantry.

We shop once a week and sometimes overbuy. But we raised 6 kids, so it's hard to break the habit.