The majority of RVs, especially campers and fifth wheels are
built with a weight consideration in mind. Our White Hawk has a very nice
interior, however the top cabinets of my 24 RKS galley are fastened only with
screws to the thin plywood (no glue between) of the outside walls. That plywood
is bonded to an insulation layer of Styrofoam, which itself is bonded to the
fiberglass of the outside walls. So I will not test their weight capacity by filling them
with heavy items especially while traveling. Looking at the space available to
store our dishes and glassware I have been concerned about their safekeeping and
clattering should we bounce around lets say meeting unexpected potholes or
uneven roads.
When I outfitted our camper, the Corelle dishes appealed to
me. Corelle is a brand of dishware made of Vitrelle, which are tempered layers
of glass developed by Corning Glass Works (Corning, NY) in 1970. They are
lighter than China dishes and extreme shatterproof and break resistant. I happened
to like the square forms so they do not fit the plastic molds for dishes that
are available at some RV outfitters. These
Corelle dishes come in good-looking décor and different shapes. To keep the
plates and bowels secure during travel days I made inserts out of anti-slip
material to insert between every item.
This practice served us well on our yachts during our travel
years on the oceans, where the motion got pretty rough during some passages and
the technic is used by most blue water yachties, which sail off the beaten
path.
I also found that if I place a mat on the shelves in the
fridge it helps the food to stay put and not to slide around while traveling. Of course I also lined the shelves in the
lower cabinets with the anti-slip material to prevent other items to move
around.
The anti-slip material I got at the Dollar store where they
sell it in rolls of 5 feet, but there are several similar products available in
other stores as well they come in a variety of colors. The coated fabric is easily cut with a pair
of scissors and the shapes can be traced with a pen around an object placed on
the mat.
We like to drink wine from real glass stemware and for the
camper I found some inexpensive glasses at the IKEA store that I liked. To simplify their storage solution in the
camper I kept them in the box they came in.
Had I not had this container, I could have perhaps used a box for
bottles from the liquor store cut down to size with a box cutter. Those boxes
by the way I find handy to store our stash of liquor and wine in the camper
too.
Your experience while Yachting will truly help you while RVing. Having a vivid resourceful imagination is also very handy. You are off to a wonderful start.
ReplyDeleteBe Safe and Enjoy!
It's about time.