Who designed these things anyway?

 (I’m skipping a bunch of stuff that I might write about later like clearing the house and moving into the RV.)

I can’t believe that the RV manufacturers don’t have at least one woman involved in the planning and design of their products.  If they did there would be better organizations options in the storage areas.

My RV has a fairly large amount of storage for the size of it.  But there is nowhere to store anything.  I mean how many items do I have that are 18 inches tall and narrower than 12 inches?  How many of us travel with hanging clothes?  Don’t we mostly wear jeans, shorts, sweats, and t-shirts?  So why do I have two odd shaped “closets” with 14” hanging rods?  Dishes?  Do I stack them 14 inches high?

I have some problems.  Where to put the food and dishes and clothes.

 

Problem 1:  three 18” high, 18” deep and 11” wide areas behind a cupboard door with stuff piled in.  Most of my food was in a plastic bin on the floor or sofa.

Solution:  I wanted to make the shelves adjustable so I could use uprights and shelf brackets but they would be hard to put in without the strong support in the RV structure.  So I decided to use pegboard and pegs.  I started by cutting “sides” out of the pegboard and deciding where I wanted the shelves.  I put 5 pegs across to hold the shelves.  These shelves were Rubbermaid shelves cut to the proper width.  I used different sizes so the shelves could be at different depths for taller items (like the sliding shelf in a refrigerator). Once inside and with the shelves in place the sides stayed up.  But before I could get the shelves in place they would fall over so I put self-stick Velcro of the back and pressed it in place.  Now the cans and packets have a place to reside.  I added button lights to put some light on the

Problem 2: having to use wire stacking units to fit dishes in the cupboard and messy over sink storage. 

Forgot to take a before photo
Trust me it didn't work.

Solution:  Why not do the same thing as inside the “pantry”?  In this case, I didn’t want them to be adjustable so I cut braces to hold the shelves and glued and screwed them in place.  Easy to do for the dishes but the over the sink cabinet was too long and wouldn’t have enough support so I added some cross pieces at the cabinet stiles.  Also, the wide shelf wouldn’t go in because of the close space between the doors and had to be cut so the cross brace holds up the two sections of the bottom shelf.

I had actually removed some items and put them
in the pantry already

Narrow shelf on top so taller items can fit in
front on the middle shelf.  Rarely used items
in the blind corner.

Problem 3:  How to store all the jeans and t-shirts.  Once again pegboard and glued and screwed braces. 

Used hanging "sweater" storage that left the
back third unusable.

Solution:  Since the closets are at the front of the RV they are curved like the front so figuring out the curve was necessary to give the shelves support all the way to the back.  I measured the distance to the back where I wanted the first shelf to be (13” from the top) and the depth was 22”…down 12 inches and the depth was 26”…down another 12 and it was 30 and at the bottom 33”.  It took two runs with the jigsaw to get it right and the left side had to be cut back to account for a ½” support. 

Oh that curve!

I made a boo-boo here by cutting them both right side up instead of back to back so the left side is the back and the right side is the white front.  

I then had to determine the height of each shelf and how many I could put in.  I have some storage “drawers” that are 5” so I made one that height and the others 11”.  There is a 3-inch drop into the closet so I put a shelf at that level and made it split to have “secret” storage.  

I bought a full sheet of melamine and had HD cut it into 14.5” widths that I could cut down to the correct depth.  Since they didn’t have edging on them and the saw left chips in the melamine, I bought white “Duck Tape” and edged them all around to prevent any catching or snagging.  Now I can use the entire closet.  

I need to sort through and take some of the t-shirts out since I only wear the same three or four. 

Cut a few sections off this hanging storage
and put it back in to hold extra clothes.

The second closet I only put one shelf in and use the rest for hanging clothes (I know I said who travels with hanging clothes, but I brought two skirts and nice tops for emergencies).  That one will be used for storing extra linens and off-season clothes since it is so hard to get to and my suitcases live on that side of the bed.

I have some extra materials so I might do some modifications in the bathroom storage which is similar to the pantry but I have baskets in there now that are doing the job just fine.