It's that time of year to start loading up the RV and heading out for camping season but before you
start hitting that checkout button on that Amazon cart full of RV accessories you're going to want
to watch this video and that is because after five years of traveling in our RV well we've
learned what we really need and what we don't now I know there are going to be some people
that completely disagree with the list that I'm about to share with things that you don't
really need but this video could just save you big time plus spark some ideas for things that
well might just make RV life and travel easier so you're going to want to stay tuned [Music]
every year we do some spring cleaning of our own when it comes to the RV and it seems that
each year we find we just don't need all the things that are with us in the RV so
let's Jump Right In and talk about 10 things we do not bring with us we ditched them and
why you might want to consider saving your money before you purchase any of these items
the first on the list is non-essential kitchen items now these are things that I like to call
unitaskers meaning they really only to serve one purpose an item like this might be like a
pineapple core or a egg slicer or things like a melon baller where you can really get that same
job done with a knife and a spoon and you don't need all of these little things that just take
up extra space to do one particular purpose we got rid of a lot of those our kitchen is very
very basic with very basic items it saves on space and it just makes things simpler
so next on the list is more food than what we're going to eat in our family
in one week's time this is actually mainly because I realized we were wasting a lot of
food by stocking up on a lot of stuff and then it gets shoved to the back of the cupboard or
shoved to the back of the fridge it goes bad and we're throwing it away plus when
you're in an RV especially depending upon your family size and what type of
storage options you have well storage is at a premium so that trip to Costco may not be the
best idea unless that you know your family is going to go through that in a one week period
next on the list is excess clothing now we kind of have a one in and one out rule when it comes
to clothing in the RV and we just keep the clothing that we do own down to a minimum
if you've seen videos with my husband Ben you'll probably notice he wears a lot of the same shirts
because he really likes those specific shirts and my bet is that you probably have some things that
you realize as your go-to or your favorites and there's probably things that just don't
fit or you don't wear anymore time to clear those out get them donated have enough clothes to last
one to two weeks if you plan on doing a lot of boondocking definitely go on that two-week side
so that you can go without doing laundry for a couple of weeks but getting rid of the excess
realizing you don't need as much as you think that you need when it comes to RV life before
we talk about the rest of the items that we got rid of I wanted to take a minute to share about
a service we will not be getting rid of anytime soon and that is because literally every week RV
viewers are writing to thank for introducing them to RV because of the near impossible
campsite reservations RV is actually booking for them we're also seeing more alert services that
are charging more than RV but only monitor sold out campgrounds I can't tell you how many times
I've used these services in the past getting alert at 2 A.M and by the time I get to my computer to
book the site well somebody else already snagged it this is why we switched to using RV instead
we get more bang for our buck and it includes its full travel agency booking services so if
you're looking to actually camp in one of these near impossible to get campgrounds RV is clearly
Your Best Shot to get the spot we've partnered with RV for a 10 discount for our viewers now
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RV or check out the link in the description below and a huge thanks to RV for sponsoring this video
the next is duplicate items now this is where I have been so guilty of this in a house environment
but things like having multiple frying pans multiple sauce pans or think about this if you
have a coffee pot and you have a French press do you really need two things that do the exact same
job and that is make coffee choose what you really need or what you really want and then get rid of
the rest or better yet don't even buy it this also holds true four more things like clothing
items jackets coats mittens hats how many of those things do you really need at the end of the day
next on the list is things that can't be folded down to make more space one of the big things that
we got rid of was our zero gravity chairs because they were huge and not compact another thing is
an item like a full-size laundry basket versus a collapsible laundry basket we have ditched
items that we were not able to fold down and to create a smaller footprint when it comes to the RV
so next is too many pairs of shoes I'm not really much of a sure connoisseur I
know some people are but we try to have basic shoes for each of us a pair of tennis shoes
hiking boots sandals or flip-flops and keep it to that I really don't need six pairs of
tennis shoes or three pairs of flip-flops or the river sandals and then another type of
sandals we just try to keep it very simple when it comes to shoes make sure everybody
has a basic set maybe a backup if we know we're going to be somewhere where it's muddy
now here's one thing that I think you're probably going to find somewhat controversial you'll
have to let me know in the comments what you think of this but for us,
we ditched the big black stone and opted for the lighter Adventure-ready version instead
without the heavy lid now we found that the big one while it was nice in some scenarios
was super heavy it was super cumbersome it was very much a pain in the butt to set up
and put away all of the time so we actually found ourselves then not using it to cook and
cooking inside or where's yet wanting to just opt for the fast food option and that is because it
was just a ton of work to get out and set up to cook one meal and then put it back away so
going with the lighter Adventure ready version has been perfect it's easy to set up it's easy
to put away and then we use the bamboo table from Lippert to set it on works great not as cumbersome
now here's something else that everybody told us that you're going to need in fact if you scroll
through Instagram right now I bet you will find several different people touting this particular
product and that is a patio or outdoor rug we have one it's still in the RV but I can't tell
you the last time that we actually got it out in fact what we've kind of found is that unless
that you've got maybe really small kiddos that are going to be right outside of the RV
well we kind of found it to be pretty useless especially when you're staying at campgrounds
where the grounds are maintained you're not dealing with tall grass or even if you have
a campsite where it's paved or mostly gravel you really don't need the big huge patio rug
so the next thing that we ditched it's one of those things where it seems like a really good
idea at the time and that is these Touch button lights that we installed in the walls of our RV
when we renovated and we actually replaced these rather ugly sconces that were in the wall with
these button lights instead these have not really been the best idea you don't want light blazing
out from the sides of the walls it just isn't something that we've even used because it's
so hard on the eyes and there's plenty of lighting in the overhead roof we actually
just recently ditched all of those and instead what we installed were some USB Outlets from
e-trailer this has been great because not only are they 12 volt which provides an electrical
savings on that but it's great having extra USB Outlets especially with kids with all of
the devices that are charged or run off of USB these days that has been a much better idea so
save your money don't go for the button lights just trust us on that now the last but not least
thing that we ditched and this is probably going to be somewhat controversial but that is the ice
maker that was inside of our refrigerator freezer unit now we did a whole conversion
on the refrigerator to a different cooling unit and when we did that we removed the ice maker
that was in the freezer because for us the space was way more valuable than having a machine to
make ice and we opted for a counter version of an ice maker instead so that is something that
you might want to consider and we'll have a link in the description below for that because we're
definitely enjoying it so I'm going to leave a link right up here for a video on our top RV
accessories that we have purchased and we still use and love didn't think that they were garbage
if we don't see you out on the road or around the campground we'll see you in the next video