Where do YOU put it?

[Gastrolith]

A couple things... We have the 19' Bambi, 2007. We are a family of three, wife, 7 y/o daughter, and me.

We are wondering where you put your towels to dry. The first morning we hung them outside (under the awning) and it rained so hard, they were drenched through.

Also, where do you put trash? We bought an aluminum trash can, but it's always in the way. It won't fit between the bench and the counter. How do experienced ASers deal with their trash? Plastic shopping bag?

Where do you put your shoes when inside? Or do you leave them outside, under the belly? We tried putting them in the bottom shelf under the pantry. I think that place is intended for wine bottles. Kinda worried about where I'll but my wine.

I guess these are silly questions, but I am looking for a better way of dealing with this.

Thanks for your kindness,
gastrolith (it means, "stomach rock")

[ROBERTSUNRUS]

Originally Posted by Gastrolith

A couple things... We have the 19' Bambi, 2007. We are a family of three, wife, 7 y/o daughter, and me.

We are wondering where you put your towels to dry. The first morning we hung them outside (under the awning) and it rained so hard, they were drenched through.

Also, where do you put trash? We bought an aluminum trash can, but it's always in the way. It won't fit between the bench and the counter. How do experienced ASers deal with their trash? Plastic shopping bag?

Where do you put your shoes when inside? Or do you leave them outside, under the belly? We tried putting them in the bottom shelf under the pantry. I think that place is intended for wine bottles. Kinda worried about where I'll but my wine.

I guess these are silly questions, but I am looking for a better way of dealing with this.

Thanks for your kindness,
gastrolith (it means, "stomach rock")

Hi, although there is only two of us, in a larger trailer, I will try to answer your questions.

(1.) We leave one towel on the towel rack in the bathroom and the other one over the top of the shower curtain bar to dry.

(2.) We bought a chromed wire trash bag holder [shaped like a little trash can] and use plastic shopping bags in it. We hang it on the edge of the kitchen counter extension.

(3.) We either leave our shoes, just inside of the entrance door, or on top of the plastic containers under the Love Seat or Gaucho.

These are real common concerns, not silly questions, that we spent a lot of time trying to figuer out. I hope my solutions help you somehow figuer out how to do these in your trailer and I'm sure others will chime in with suggestions that works for them.

[Maryw164]

We use a trash can that takes the bags you get at the retail stores with handles. Bought it at Kmart. It has slits in the ends to put the handles into. We keep in under the galley sink. As far as our shoes, we use a few of the bins under the twin beds for that.

Mary

[Steve & Susan]

Not silly questions at all ---

1. For towels, we bought one of those collapsible drying racks made of dowel rods. Just before bed, we set it up and hang the wet towels on it. If the weather is cool, the furnace vent blows on it and dries them. If the weather is warm, we aim a small fan at them. If the weather is nice, we put the rack outside in the sun.

2. My wife is the goddess of collecting those plastic shopping bags. We have a small plastic waste basket that fits behind the dinette seat and se line them with those bags.

3. We slide shoes under the dinette seat when indoors - but I am looking for a cloth shoe rack to hang over the back of the dinette with pockets for shoes.

Hope this helps - if you have better ideas, please post them!

[Wingeezer]

We just went on our first long AS trip last winter an so we are still sorting out ways to do things that work best for us.

Initially, we kept garbage under the sink - but that takes up useful storage space.

Then my better half started hanging plastic bags of garbage on an open door edge so as not to take up space in the cupboards- I didn't like that at all!

So what I did was to buy a fairly large plastic flip top kitchen waste container and I keep it in the shower!

We normaly only use the trailer shower if teh camground showers keave something to be desired so it isn't really a problem. Easy enough just to temporarily remove the waste can from the shower anyway if you do want to use it.

For some reason we have never had trouble getting towels to dry in the trailer - just hang them on the towel racks. Maybe it is because our bathroom layout is the through passage style with sliding doors at each end. Since the doors are open most of the time, air circulation may be better.

Brian.

[LuvDSun]

I bought over the door hooks and hang it over the bathroom door. The one that I bought holds four towel. When we are traveling I remove it and store it so it doesn't damage the door.
Nancy

[RLS]

We have a plastic trash container (holds 10 gal. bags) that just squeezes in under the kitchen sink between the drain and wall (had to cut the side extensions off for it to fit), and another very small one in the bathroom under the sink. Towels are dried in the bathroom as others have stated or if a sunny day outside on the clothes hanger that some parks have. Shoes go in the closet in one of those hanging shoe, bin holders that go from the clothes rod to the floor. All paper towels and toilet paper go either inside the closet under the floor or in back of the shelves under the kitchen sink or bathroom sink.

Bob

[Isadora]

We have a medium-size step-on trash can that sits on the floor in front of the broom closet door, next to the fridge. Handy there as it is close to everything in the kitchen and the broom closet is usually only opened once a day, easy to push out of the way with your foot but out of the way. Extra plastic bags go in the "broom" closet in a bag holder. (Look out--those plastic grocery bags will soon be gone from existance in another couple of years!) Bathroom trash goes in a small wastebasket that sits in the shower.

Shoes go under the bed, or under the dinette on top of the fresh water tank cover. Shoes not being currently worn go in the closet in one of those cloth over-the-rod shoe holders or on the floor of the closet. We also keep some of them hiking boots, etc) in one of the drawer cubbies under the bed (where the bin is gone).

Towels go over the shower rod or on the extra towel rod we have installed in the shower. Or outside on a clothesline if it is a sunny day, we have one of those retractable clotheslines that can attach to the awning. (If you are in an rv park with a laundry, just toss them in the dryer.) Dirty clothes go in a clothesbasket on one of the shelves that the bathroom closet is fitted out with.

Wine either goes in the fridge or in one of the bins under the dinette seat. We are planning a special pull-out wine and liquor "closet" behind the curb-side dinette seat.

These things work for our Argosy 24, tho I can understand the Bambi may have other space challenges.

[Janet H]

Consider investing in some high tech towels - back pack pack towels made of microfiber. They take up much less space and dry about 5 times as fast. They also have a snap release hanging strap at one corner - you can snap them around the shower curtain rod with ease.

REI MultiTowel Lite Large Towel - 37" x 23.5" at REI.com

[BDandTTs]

Our 22' has a wet bath, and although we added a 2nd towel bar in the bathroom, ventilation is poor unless the door is open. To solve the problem we mounted 4 long bars above the doors to the overhead CCD storage cabinets. The bars are each about 30" long and were intended to be used for hanging kitchen utensils. We dry towels on these bars when we're out sightseeing and while traveling.

We keep a small trashcan just inside the bathroom door, and empty it frequently.

[FreshAir]

Most of the time it's just the 2 of us. Sometimes daughter and family join us with their family size tent. Towels go either on an over door towel holder (bi-fold door, rear bath) or draped over open bath wardrobe doors. Shoes are placed in plastic grocery shopping bags and placed on the floor of the wardrobes. The trash can is still kicked around and now we have to place the can on a counter at night to keep Lizzy (mini-pin) honest and loved.
Neil.

[Johnco]

In our 19 footer we hang one towel over the towel rack and one over the shower door bar. We have also tucked one over the upper screen door guard on the inside (this allows the air from the furnace to dry the towel overnight).
We use a large collapsable trash can outside and a small fold-up can that holds a grocery bag for inside the trailer. The small can fits nicely between the sink and the bench. We have over-the-door hangers on the kitchen cabinet and the bathroom door that handle dish towels, and an over the door paper towel holder that works great on the closet door.
We seen to do well with stacking our shoes in the space between the door side bench and the wall. Shower shoes and crocs stay outside under the step.

[HiHoAgRV]

I added a retractable cord in the shower to hang towels. The cord is normally retracted into its base that is mounted on one wall of the shower. It has a bracket on the opposite wall to hook the end of the cord, forming a tight rope across the shower stall. We retract the cord when its shower time.

Our trailer has a garbage can built into a door below the sink. the door swings open bringing the container with it. A standard kitchen sized garbage bag fits nicely.

As far as shoes, most of the time when camping we wear flip flops that stay outside

[AirsDream]

Great questions, and I'm loving the various answers - and am getting ideas! For me, it's like this:

towels: one of the biggest nuisances. I hang 'em (including microfiber ones) on towel bars, on shower slider-door upper track, or outside on awning arms, depending upon weather, whether moving or stationary, etc. I don't like to dry them indoors, especially in cooler weather because of the added condensation.

garbage: small container next to under-sink cabinets - it takes grocery store plastic bags, and I stuff extras into crannies under the sink. Being small, this gets emptied often, so "aromas" don't get time to develop!

shoes: usually wear slip-ons such as sandals or Merrills, and most often leave them outside. At night or in rain when they come in, the live on an old piece of carpeting just inside the door and "never" (well almost never) go elsewhere in the coach. Extras, etc. live in one of the under-sofa bins. And if I'm hauling big, dirty ones like work boots, wading shoes, hiking boots, they tend to live in more of those grocery store food / garbage bags, open at the top, in the truck bed whenever they're not on my feet.

[emdubyadee]

We put hooks on our closet doors like the one pictured for our wet towels. Our trailer model features a space for shoes just inside the door which works well for two pair of shoes.

[RangerJay]

Dry towels are hung on a rack we purchsed for the door.

Wet towels are hung outside on a either a clothesline or the awning supports for drying unless it is raining - then one will be hung inside on the track for the folding screen and, if needed, one will be hung on the shower door track - the bath mat is hung in its normal spot on the towel bar behind the toilet.

Usually when camping we are in water saver mode so we will change our daily shower cycle to a two day cycle - but we will shower on alternate days - leaving only towels for a single shower to be dried each day (did I say this right?).

This works comfortably - an easy routine - but I don't know what we'd do if there were a 3rd in the trailer .....

Wastebasket is a wicker basket sized to hold plastic grocery bags - it sits out of the way under the overhang in front of the beds.



Jay

[ROBERT CROSS]

Towels...these work well for us, hanging in the shower.

Work well for clothes also.


Suction Cup Hook - Suction Cup - Tower Hook - Suction Hook - Towel Hook

[Triple M]

We also have a 19 foot Bambi and it took a bit to find places for things. In fact it’s an ongoing process. For shoes we put them under the dinette bench by the door. You also can put the trash there.
If it’s not going to rain I will leave shoes under the belly.
For towels we put hook in the bathroom to hang them.
As time goes on you will find ways to make it work better.
Hope this helps.
Mike

[Lily&Me]

We have not solved either the towel-drying or trash-can issues in 2 years in our Interstate. We use suction hooks in the bathroom for towels, hang them outside over the bikes or whatever if it is sunny and we are stationary. We hate heading for the next shower with damp towels, but it happens. We have an over-door hook on a lower cabinet for grocery-store bags for trash, there is simply nowhere to put a trash can in the interior. We do use a stainless/black bag holder mounted horizontally on the lower inside of the closet door, holds an amazing number of bags and doesn't interfere with clothing, etc. Extra shoes go into clear ziplock bags under one of the benches, keeps things clean and you can quickly find what you want.

[Caryl]

In our closet, I hung from the rod, a single stack canvas shoe rack that holds shoes as well as other sundries. It is narrow and leaves a room for hanging clothes. Incredibly useful. We have installed hooks (stainless) inside the bathroom door and on various wooden walls. On the aluminum walls, we installed those 3M white hooks that you can get any place that stick on the wall and are easily removed.

We have microfiber towels that, after showering, hang outside when parked and over the room divider rod as we travel. Paper towels are on a holder installed vertically on the side of the overhead galley bin.

I have found that the Container Store is a good place to browse for storage ideas.

The trash can--always a challenge in a Bambi. Ours is a skinny, tall, Sterlite one that hangs out by the door. It uses bags larger than grocery bags and hangs out in the shower when on the road.

All the best,
Caryl