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Can we talk RV supplies/dishes?


mmasc
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What dishes do you use in your rv? I have our old set of ceramic dishes in there right now, but they are getting chipped from the bumpy drives and are just too bulky. I saw some really pretty melamine dishes at Sams that would work perfect, but is melamine safe? I know it’s not microwave safe, so is it ok as long as you don’t use it in there? If not, what *do* you use in an rv? Mostly I need plates and bowls.

 

We are not full time RVers, but I do need something better than paper plates/disposable!

 

Also, just for fun, feel free to add any other things you find ‘essential’ or helpful to have in your rv. 😊

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I use plastic dishes and metal cutlery. The plastic is light and inexpensive and often takes up very little room. We could go with plastic cutlery if we wanted to be more lightweight, but metal is fine for car camping. And we already have old cutlery to use.

 

We don't have a microwave in our pop-up camper, so no issues there. ;)

 

As far as equipping the RV with "essentials" we gradually got more "great things to have" by looking at things other people had. Stuff like a portable table to put the cooker on, a sunshade, a swing rope for the kids, a portable container with drawers that we put all our dishes and cutlery in, a "fire starting kit with marshmallow roasting sticks" (also contains fire starting mini-bricks, dry kindling and newspaper).  We don't spend much time inside our camper. The camper is for sleeping, changing clothes and storing stuff. 

Edited by wintermom
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We use an old Corelle set along with stainless steel plates we found. Plastic silverware is used for some things along with paper plates ( days that we are too tired to deal with dishes). Behind our couch was just enough to room to hold a folding table ( you will use this more than you know once you have it). We also have an instant pot, electric griddle and pieces of cast iron.

 

One thing I highly recommend is a drying rack for clothes. We have a tall on that folds up and takes up very little room ( works for towels and such). Even better for campgrounds with rules on clothesline on trees or no trees. The best one I use all the time is the octopus style one. The arms comes out and we hang swim suits, dish rags, socks, gloves, etc.

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We have a pop-up which I love. I try to keep the towing weight as low as possible while still equipping it for convenience. We use a set of melamine plates from McDonald's and a set of inexpensive plastic bowls. I have lightweight backpacking pots and one medium sized cast iron pan. We cook on one of DH's vintage Coleman stoves and do not use a microwave so I'm not concerned with microwavability. 

 

My must haves are an electric kettle and a crock pot. Last summer I bought one of those special rugs where the sand falls through so people aren't tracking in dirt. It has been wonderful. I spent less time sweeping the PUP and fussing about the dirt.

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We use our camper at least 1x a month during the Spring/Summer months, PLUS it is a rented out as part of our business income (last year was 6 rentals- minimum 3 nights per trip).  So heavy use, and lots of movement. 

We have Corelle- service for 8. I don't pack it specially and it has sustained many trips-  bowls, large & small plates have been great!  I highly recommend it!!! :) Thin and durable.  I will say the coffee mugs have broken (namely since they don't nest well and literally sometimes fall out of the cabinet if people forget to close it correctly) so I'm on the hunt for better options for this upcoming season.  
 

 

 

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We always used paper and plastic. Now for what we always had on hand in the camper....Tin foil , spatula, tongs, serving spoons, cutting board, a good multi purpose kitchen knife, paper towels, kitchen towels, hand soap, dish soap, multi purpose cleaner, scatter rug or 2, broom, dustpan, hanging garbage bag we saved grocery bags for liners, a few regular g bags, table cloth for camp ground table,

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Oh and, in addition to Correll for our dishes, since we don't use plastic in general we went with stainless steel for our mixing bowls and such in the RV. We have a nested set that are lightweight. For drinkware we have stainless steel tumblers. We also have that non skid rubber mat stuff on the shelves with dishes.

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Why don't you guys like plastic? Our glasses, our dishes and our silverware are all plastic!!! ( In our RV)

For us it's just an environmental thing and although we can't entirely eliminate it we reduce it as much as we can. The movie A Plastic Ocean has some information on it if you are interested. Anyway, since we avoid plastic we use glass at home but in the RV we have been able to find stainless steel alternatives for most things in addition to the Correll dishes.

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We use our camper at least 1x a month during the Spring/Summer months, PLUS it is a rented out as part of our business income (last year was 6 rentals- minimum 3 nights per trip). So heavy use, and lots of movement.

 

We have Corelle- service for 8. I don't pack it specially and it has sustained many trips- bowls, large & small plates have been great! I highly recommend it!!! :) Thin and durable. I will say the coffee mugs have broken (namely since they don't nest well and literally sometimes fall out of the cabinet if people forget to close it correctly) so I'm on the hunt for better options for this upcoming season.

 

In our set of Correll the mugs are ceramic and not made of the same Correll material so likely that's why you've had breakage. We've had good luck with double walled stainless steel mugs.

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In our set of Correll the mugs are ceramic and not made of the same Correll material so likely that's why you've had breakage. We've had good luck with double walled stainless steel mugs.

Yes they are ceramic- thick and unwieldy but feel good in the hands. Totally impractical to keep beverages warm when it’s cold outside 😜

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Wow...such great ideas! Thank you! I never even thought of corelle because of chipping/breakage, but I may take a look. We really don’t use our microwave much, so that’s not a huge factor. I always keep a few paper plates too. I need bowls the most, because the paper version is just not good. 😜

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Wow...such great ideas! Thank you! I never even thought of corelle because of chipping/breakage, but I may take a look. We really don’t use our microwave much, so that’s not a huge factor. I always keep a few paper plates too. I need bowls the most, because the paper version is just not good. 😜

We haven't ever had a Correll dish chip or break they are very durable.

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We use an old Corelle set along with stainless steel plates we found. Plastic silverware is used for some things along with paper plates ( days that we are too tired to deal with dishes). Behind our couch was just enough to room to hold a folding table ( you will use this more than you know once you have it). We also have an instant pot, electric griddle and pieces of cast iron.

 

One thing I highly recommend is a drying rack for clothes. We have a tall on that folds up and takes up very little room ( works for towels and such). Even better for campgrounds with rules on clothesline on trees or no trees. The best one I use all the time is the octopus style one. The arms comes out and we hang swim suits, dish rags, socks, gloves, etc.

A drying rack sounds awesome. Do you have a link to yours? Most of our trips are beach, so lots of wet clothes hanging everywhere. This sounds like a great solution. Do they take up much room, or do you put yours outside?

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We also have corelle.  We have it in a pop-up that gets a lot of rough bouncing due to "off-road" camping and have never had a chip in 14 years.  It is lighter than other "glass" but can have very hot things put on them (hello, tonka pie cooker that melted the one plastic plate we did have....), and they are thin enough that they don't take up a lot of room in the drying rack.  The best part is that I collected them piece by piece from thrift stores with my main criteria being that all dishes should be a different pattern and the tackier, the better.  It is great fun to fight over the various "favorite" plates.

 

Our pop-up gets a lot of road dust/dirt in it because it is old and we take it dirty places.  I have collected a big stack of second-hand pillow cases that I put all dishes and cookware in when we are moving the pop-up.  It keeps the dust off and helps keep things from sliding all around.  We do also have some glass wine glasses and ceramic coffee mugs.  I put those in old clean socks, again, to keep them clean but also to prevent chipping/breakage.  

 

 

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We used to have a set of melamine for camping, but to be honest, we ended up switching to Chinet. We have a small teardrop (plus a tent for the kids) with a propane stove, no real sink or water supply, and I just felt like I was spending too much of my time on camping trips hauling water, heating it up, and washing dishes. The Chinet is sturdy, and I don't feel too bad about using paper since we never use it at home, on while camping (which is my vacation time!) and we tend to use the dirty plates to help get our fire going. 

That said, we do carry around a couple pieces of enamelware like this as backup and it works well for our needs. We don't use a microwave when camping, and these can sit by the edge of a fire without us worrying about them melting!

https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-12-Piece-Enamel-Dinnerware-Set/dp/B0009PUSPS/ref=sr_1_cc_6?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1516647025&sr=1-6-catcorr&keywords=enamel+plate

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We used to have a set of melamine for camping, but to be honest, we ended up switching to Chinet. We have a small teardrop (plus a tent for the kids) with a propane stove, no real sink or water supply, and I just felt like I was spending too much of my time on camping trips hauling water, heating it up, and washing dishes. The Chinet is sturdy, and I don't feel too bad about using paper since we never use it at home, on while camping (which is my vacation time!) and we tend to use the dirty plates to help get our fire going.

 

That said, we do carry around a couple pieces of enamelware like this as backup and it works well for our needs. We don't use a microwave when camping, and these can sit by the edge of a fire without us worrying about them melting!

 

https://www.amazon.com/Coleman-12-Piece-Enamel-Dinnerware-Set/dp/B0009PUSPS/ref=sr_1_cc_6?s=aps&ie=UTF8&qid=1516647025&sr=1-6-catcorr&keywords=enamel+plate

Those were one of the sets I had looked at. Thanks for the input!

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