Packing the kitchen

One late suggestion here. Get a set of silicon lids. Camping world used to sell a 3 piece set that was put out by Rachael Ray. Haven't seen them lately but maybe Amazon has them. Make sure they are for cooking and not for storage.

I pitched all of the lids that go to all of my pots and pans. They take up a ton of room and the silicon lids are wonderful.

We have been full time for 18 months now. We primarily use paper plates for our meals. Much easier on the wash up and Costco/Sam's club prices are great. Some may not agree on this but it fits us.

Something to think about when deciding which pots/pans to take, you can always cook an egg in a larger sauce pan, but a very small pan isn't good for making a batch of meat sauce.

When I was new to this whole thigh ( I have never full timed it ) I would fill up my fridge. Then I realized when I was traveling across the country I probably drove past almost 100 supermarkets every day. I would not pack more that a few days worth of refrigerated food while moving around, and a couple weeks worth in dry goods and caned goods. If you plan on staying someplace for a long time then it is OK to stock up. I often travel alone and I have health problems. I like to keep enough food in the RV to have something to eat if I am too ill to drive. About 5 years ago I was in a truck camper and got ill, I parked at a truck stop some place in PA or VA and lived on canned goods till I fetlt well enough to drive. If you have any kind of health issues with no way of driving to a food market you may want to consider keeping enough food to survive till you are well enough to drive. a few years a got I was driving a Penske rental moving truck and got sick. I lived on potato chips sand cookies from the snack machine till I was well enough to drive.

You should base your decision on many things, room to store food, health issues and if you are ill can you have someone drive to a food mart to buy food if you run out. After you spend time on the road you will know what your requirements are.

Thank you everyone. Confirms that I likely have set aside way too much to pack.

..sdianel..I would start off with

"less is best"

plan and you can always add more items as you see you need them. Dollar stores are great for picking up storage items.

Ditto X 2!

Took me all of 2 months on the road full-time to realize I had WAAY too much stuff. That I would never use. I took it 'all' out and put it in a CG rec. room marked for 'Free'!

This is all I have, and all I ever use.:C

1 Frying Pan
1 Stock Pot

2 heavy drinking glasses and 2 good sturdy coffee cups, coffee maker.
2 forks, 2 spoons, 2 knives-one butter and one steak

Box of plastic utensils, stack of good heavy Dixie paper plates and bowls. For guest and when I don't feel like washing dishes.

2 flat folding easily stored and quick to use cooking stoves.
One for grilling and one for using the stock pot to make homemade soups and stews for freezing for quick healthy meals on the road.


The KISS theory will catch up to you the longer you are on the road.:C


BTW, JMHO: :W
Crook pot- sucks after awhile, everything tastes like mushy stew. And I don't want to wait 10 hours to eat anything after pulling into a CG after a long day of driving. And no, I will not run the gen just for a crock pot while driving.

Correlle dishes? - all you have to do is drop one of those ONCE and you won't ever own it again. They 'shatter' into a million slivers of glass.

We also live in our camper full time from May to September. We are a family of 4 with a 14 and 12 year old. We have a 32' Class C with 2 slides. We do not have a pantry either, but we do have a fair amount of cabinet space in the kitchen. We use shelf helpers like these which adds a lot of usable space to the cabinets.

We use our oven all the time, probably 3 to 4 times a week, some times more. We have a small cookie sheet from the dollar store that we line with parchment. We have a small 3 pot camping set (from our tent camping days) which comes with an 8 quart stockpot, a 3 quart sauce pan and a 10" Fry Pan. I also have a Calphalon 10" omelette pan that is used a lot, not just for omelettes. We also have a 4 quart pot used only for popping pop corn, which we eat a few times a week (cooked outside). And we have a 6 quart (I think) Crock Pot. In the summer months that is used outside as well. Heats the camper up too much.

Our outside camp kitchen consists of a portable propane grill, 2 burner stove and a charcoal grill with firebox for smoking (if we have company and grill, we'll usually use the smoker as a charcoal grill). We use a 20lb propane tank with a tree extender to power the stove and portable grill.

I think 2gypsies suggestion of a test drive is a good idea. It might not be a bad idea before you go full time to go camping for a couple weeks. Bring everything you have and decide what you need to keep. We have been RVing for 10 years, but it wasn't until we started camping for more than a week or two at a time that we really figured out what we needed.

-Michael

Large pot, small pot, large skillet, small skillet. Corelle wear I would start with 2 plates, 2 cups and 2 bowls. 2 Plastic "glasses". Measuring cup. Silverwear (2 of each. We mostly use paper plates and paper bowls so we don't have to wash lots of dishes. Things to cook with if you need to: can opener (not electric), wine cork remover if you drink wine, spatula, large spoon, large fork. Good small knife and larger knife, cutting board. Storage will be important. Take what you have and make sure it fits. Put all dry food in plastic bags or sealed containers. Have gallon and quart zip lock bags handy. Have enough plastic storage containers for leftovers. We cook lots of things in the microwave or on a gas BBQ grill. You might want a small crock pot for soups and chili, or chicken breast with cream soup. If you like rice a small rice cooker is handy. I bought a pasta cooker "as seen on TV" that cooks pasta in the microwave. Love it! I hardly ever use the oven part of the convection oven but I did keep one square pan in case I needed it. If you get pyrex you can use it in the microwave or the oven. I would start off with "less is best" plan and you can always add more items as you see you need them. Dollar stores are great for picking up storage items.

Do a test-drive at home. Take a one-month period or whatever timeframe you have before taking off and keep all dishes/pots, etc. on the counter that you've used in that one month's time. That will give you a feel of how YOU cook and use your kitchen.

Corelle is highly recommended. Keep in mind that you just might have visitors at some time so plan for perhaps 4 people. A 2 qt. casserole dish would work for potlucks if you're invited to one. It can also be used to cook a roast or chicken, etc. We loved our convection oven and it will cook anything just like a regular oven so experiment with it. I'd take a 9x13 and 8" square baking pan for desserts, brownies. A cookie sheet, too - even for a treat of a warm fresh chocolate chip cookie made from a refrigerated dept. Pillsbury cookie dough. You'd impress a guest! Extra silverware doesn't take up much room otherwise you'll find yourself always washing dishes and using that precious water if you dry camp. If you have the room a hand mixer, toaster, coffee pot and crockpot would be the only appliances you'd really need.

Again, you'll just have to tailor it according to YOUR needs and how YOU cook. Everyone is different.

What are your go-to pots/pans at home? When you do cook yourself something, what pot/pan do you automatically reach for. That's what you want to take with you. It may be just one like DutchmenSport or one pan and one pot. But going with what you currently use is the most practical. You can always pick up another later on if you decide you want to do more.

If you have an oven in the RV, bring one cookie sheet. It's really nice to be able to have one of those cookie dough rolls and make 6 cookies in the evening to snack on (put the rest of the dough roll into a ziplock baggie so it stays fresh for another night's snack). You can also use the sheet for fixing a small size pizza, biscuit (again, the refrigerated rolls of dough), etc.

I find a 4-place setting set of corelle dishes works great. I have extra dishes if someone joins me for a meal - when I'm solo, I simply rotate them, putting the freshly washed at the bottom each time. And with corelle, they don't take much room (4 corelle dishes take up no more room than 1 stoneware dish). If you choose to only keep 1 place setting of dishes, do keep at least 2 each of cups and mugs - it's nice to be able to as least be able to offer someone a drink if they come for a visit.

Basic utensils for cooking (spatula, stir spoon, tongs) and however many place settings of silverware that you have dishes (if you're going to have 4 place settings of dishes, then you might as well be able to feed 4 people at the same time).

As you go and you get used to living in the RV, then you can consider other options as you decide how much you want to cook. You might prefer to grill or bbq rather than using the stove or oven.

We full-time and the DW tries to have items that serve multiple purposes. We rarely use the stove top, but use an electric skillet, griddle and crock pot. Between those, a few other pots/pans, and cooking on the grill, 80% of our cooking is done on those. She saved a couple of cookie sheets and muffin tins for when she decides to bake. We also use a "if we've not used it for a few months, it's out" philosophy, as well as "add something - lose something" so we don't allow our ownership of stuff to grow.

Have fun and good luck!