Streamlining Van Kitchen After Water Damage: What to Keep or Toss?

[Vanbrat]

Life got really crazy a few years ago and my poor van got....., well let's just say it was way down there on the list of to-dos.

Small leak and the whole back of the kitchen was soggy. I have mostly fixed the leak, but the damage was done. I built the kitchen myself and I am NOT wood worker, so it was well a bit wonkery anyway. It all was moldy and squishy. so out it went now I am rebuilding a big part of it. New counter new space for a bigger ice chest and new PLASTIC shelf instead of a old chipboard thing so no more soggy, saggy shelf.

Also a good time for me to reevaluate what I want to repack into the van. So far the plastic plates are out the BBQ will wait in the garage until needed and the butane stove my son insisted, we have to carry but never used is put away. ! not 2 water jugs. The big box of camp pots and pans are gone never even took them out of the box another gift. the thermos I forgot we had. The picnic bag D-I-L gave me and never used is gone. As well. The extra shovel and the extra bucket for hauling firewood is gone hubby never used it.

If you got/had to what would you lose or gain?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Just look at all the items you haven't used in the last couple years and ask yourself if you really need them. I would still keep a few such things - sometimes there is just no substitute or "do without", but for the most part they can go.

 

[TheBar]

It mainly depends on whether you are a weekend camper or camp for a week or longer. Even though I'm retired we only stay a couple nights at a time. Paper and plastic plates, bowls, cups, and utensils eliminate doing dishes. We don't eat breakfast at home or on the road and charcoal every lunch and dinner. We don't even camp when rain is predicted.

Why do we still have pots, pans, plates, glasses packed in the RV for the past 40 years? Just because, but we really need to purge all that stuff. Just like we still have 100+ DVDs in the closet but no DVD player in the past 10 years.

Once the propane tank went empty 10 years ago I never filled it because we only stay at campgrounds with full hookups so who needs propane?

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Good point about weekender vs longer terms. Shorter stays have fewer variables - you know the season, the locale where you will be staying, whether you will have water & electric, etc. And if you lack something, you will be inconvenienced only a day or two. Probably the same for a 1-2 week vacation. But as the length of the stay and the number of locations to be visited increases, there are more "what ifs" that can occur. Murphy has many more opportunities to make your day more interesting.

 

[Firstime RVer]

We actually had two conversion vans that I outfitted. The first one worked pretty well, but we learned from it and when it died, the new one was outfitted based on what we learned from the first one.
We typically camped over long weekends, but sometimes took long trips (NJ to Disney world and others) for over a week or two.
My advice is to take your time and try out what works for you on a temporary basis. After that you can make more permanent changes to accomodate your style of camping.
safe travels and all the best.