Up until this year, I never really thought much about organizing everything in our RV. When packing for a camping trip, I’d just carry out all our food and clothes and start cramming it into all the cabinets. Two kids and a ton of baby gear later, the cabinets and closets in our RV are stuffed and I can never seem to find anything without rifling through every nook and cranny. So after our last crowded camping trip, I pledged to completely organize everything inside our RV and make the little space we have more efficient, streamline packing, and avoid future clutter.

Here’s my approach to organizing our RV, hope it helps you organize and streamline the contents of your own RV.

1. Empty out all your RV cabinets, closets, and compartments. As you pull stuff out, start categorizing it along the way and sort it into piles. For example, a kitchen pile, bathroom pile, linens, games, etc.The messy part: taking everything out and organizing it into piles.
2. If you don’t use it, remove it. Space is too precious to waste on something that’s not needed. In my case, I had a dozen coffee mugs that I ended up donating to the Goodwill. We never used all those coffee mugs. In the end, I kept our three favorite plastic coffee cups.
3. Stock up on plastic bins at the Dollar Store. I ended up using 32 bins of varying sizes. I also bought three small laundry bags that pop open and fit perfectly in our closets. (No more piles of laundry on the floor in the RV!)
4. Now for the “fun” part of putting it all away! I organized my bins so that the items inside correspond to that particular area of the RV. So my son’s bedding bin is located in an overhead cabinet next to where we set up his pack and play crib. The dining kit bin is located above the kitchen table, that sort of thing. Everything is now stored in bins, which prevents items from rolling around while driving.
5. Label your bins. Labeling each bin ensures that everything has a place, and makes it easy for anyone stepping into our RV to open up a cabinet and find a cup or bag of chips.Each bin is labeled, which makes it easy for anyone visiting our RV to find a cup, plate, or snack.

Now that my RV is completely organized, it’s so much faster to get packed and ready for our camping trips. Just bring the empty bins inside and load them up with food, snacks, and clothes. And when you get home from a long trip and you’re exhausted, it’s easy to grab the few “must-have” bins and bring them inside.

And in case you’re wondering, here’s a list of all my bins:

1. Cups
2. Sippy cups
3. Dining kit (This is my favorite little bin, it has everything you need for a meal in one spot: plates, napkins, utensils, bowls.)
4. Coffee pot / kettle
5. Hannah’s bedding
6. Parker’s bedding
7. Dish towels / burp cloths
8. Hannah’s clothes
9. Parker’s clothes
10. Matt’s closet bin
11. Janice’s closet bin
12. Diapers / wipes / baby monitor
13. Chips / snacks
14. Breakfast
15. Seasonal (Halloween decorations, New Year’s party stuff)
16. Coffee / tea / hot cocoa
17. Cooking items (oil, lighter, spices)
18. Cleaning kit (dish soap, sponge, trash bags, cleaning spray)
19. Couch bedding
20. Towels
21. Shower kit (shampoo, conditioner, soap, bath toys for kids)
22. Coloring books / crayons
23. Baby toys
24. Toddler toys
25. Bubbles and misc toys
26. Flashlights / batteries / spare parts
27. Misc. RV parts / sunglasses / bungee cords
28. Dog stuff
29. Unlabeled – for food items above the kitchen sink
30. Unlabeled – for food items above the kitchen sink
31. Unlabeled – for food items above the kitchen sink
32. Unlabeled – for food items above the kitchen sink