Best Kitchen Design for Full-Time Foodies

[Diwizi]

When my slide is in, i cannot open the frig door all of the way, but i have earned where to put items to get to them, but my pantry is a not at all.... So if i think i might need something i put it out.... Only took one night to discover that tip..... If i think of other things, i will add them, i have rearranged cabinets at least three times, and will most likely continue to do so.... Have only taken two trips for a total of 5 weeks....

[greyt-parent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ExcitedToRv I had not even considered access challenges that would occur if we were unable to use a slide-out ... a very important consideration!

That reminds me of one of the shortcomings of the kitchen island layout. When the slides are in, some components of the kitchen are not accessible. In our layout, when the slides are in for travel, we cannot get to most parts of the kitchen, as the galley slide comes in almost to the island counter. Also note that when the living room slide is in, the dining table may block access to the fridge from the other side, depending on which way you have set up the table/chairs arrangement.
We get around that by putting our prepared lunch and drinks in a cooler and place in by the door before we set off. I should say that you only need to move one of the slides out by 6" or so, to be able to get to the fridge.
We have not yet tried boondocking at a Walmart of Flying J, but obviously we will need to park in such a way that we can partially let the slides out on both sides.

[dale60]

We have a NH with a rear kitchen. There is lots of preparation space and lots of storage space. We have not had any problems with breakage when travelling either.

[mwilliams]

Being able to have unobstructed access to the refrig, stove, pantry while being on the road was a significant aspect of our design. Many times we will stop for lunch prepared in the unit while we are parked in a rest area. Very convenient.

[ExcitedToRv]

A question regarding prioritizing what kitchen “stuff” and/or other “stuff” you choose to bring with you full-time RVing. Although I will definitely look to contrast the available cabinet/drawer/closet dimensions to determine what “stuff” will fit – I am also concerned about overall weight, because we will likely sell our home, donate items and put some items into storage before we purchase/pick-up our RV. This means we will either wish we did not donate something/put something into storage (although not that likely) or end up having a potentially overweight vehicle with all the stuff I prioritize that we cannot be without (much more likely)). I would like to control, or ideally eliminate, the later scenario.

Since we will be new to RVing when we start full-timing, I would welcome any approaches (or lessons learned) that other would be willing to share. Given we are “foodies” we will likely have a little more inside and outside kitchen “stuff” than might be typical, but I want to make sure we are realistic in our overall approach to donating/storing/packing “stuff” for the RV. My initially thought, beyond knowing what will physically fit within the available cabinets/drawers/closets, is to contrast the “stuffs” actually weight against NH’s approximate weight of personal cargo to help me directionally correct what we plan to bring with us versus what we donate/put into storage. For example, NH’s website shares that a full-timer might carry: “Dishes, silverware, glassware, and pans 150 lbs,” “Toaster and coffee maker 8 lbs,” “Books and magazines 50 lbs,” and “Miscellaneous 500 lbs.” Well first, thank goodness, we have Kindles so we can borrow the majority of the books and magazines 50 lbs for kitchen stuff as well as some of the miscellaneous – but given the amount of “stuff” we have, it may still be a little tricky.

Other than just winging-it, what approaches have others taken that they would or would not recommend.

Thank you again for any insights you can share!

[chaunclm]

For us the final arbiter of what we carry is storage space. My theory of RVing is that every storage space will ultimately be filled with stuff.

We were fortunate in that we traveled for a couple of years in our trailer and still had our home. So we were able to sort of grow into our needs before full timing with just the rig. After two years of full time living here is a summary of what we haul around.

Kitchen appliances:
Four slice toaster (Cuisinart)
Bread Maker two pound (Cuisinart)
Slow/Pressure Cooker (Fagor Multi-Cooker)
Hand Mixer
Ten Cup Coffee Maker
All of these items are stored in four very large drawers.

Our kitchen incorporates a convection microwave, a three burner cook top, a large residential size single basin sink and a 10 cu ft refrigerator. We also use a 3.5 cubic foot stand alone freezer. With the slide in we can access the stove, microwave, and refrigerator, and one half of the sink, and the freezer.

We carry two large skillets, a large Pyrex covered bowl, pizza stone, and various covered stainless pots. We have a four place stainless flatware set, and use three Cutco knives and two Melmak style plates. In addition we use several specialty cooking utensils for pies and cakes. We eat off of paper plates. Our cats also eat out of paper bowls.

We cook outside some and have two Dutch ovens, a Weber Charcoal grill, a small Coleman gasoline stove, and a stand alone rotisserie. We carry two card table size tables, and four chairs to facilitate our out side activities. In addition we use an Igloo ice maker and a small and large ice chest.

For entertainment our rig is equipped with a Weingard Sat TV antenna and a 37 inch Samsung HD TV, and a DVD/VHS player/Recorder. We use Kindle Fires for our library, and an HP 17 inch computer paired with an HP printer/scanner. For communication we use two cell phones and a 3G Verizon Air Card.

Our trailer is equipped with two small A/C units and a furnace. One of AC units is a heat pump. We also use a Mr. Buddy Catalytic Heater, and a small Pelonis Ceramic Heater. Our generator is a very quiet Yamaha 6500 watt pure sine wave unit plus we have 200 watts of solar panels with a 2000 watt inverter and 400 amp hours of AGM Batteries.

All in all our rig is very comfortable for two people. We can seat three people comfortably and have seats for four.

[greyt-parent]

We have been on the road now since September/2011. We went through the same process that you are planning to, sell the house and get rid of most everything. For us, the limiting factor was what could be packed into the U-haul trailer and the pickup, in order to go from Boston to Junction City. After a few weeks on the road; to and from Junction City and a visit to the weigh scales, we ended up renting a small storage locker in Junction City to store things that we decided that we could do without, and the plan is once we have a better idea of life on the road, on our next visit to JC, trade things out. The renting of a locker was always 'Plan B' as a solution to the 'extra storage' and 'too much weight' problems. We have no family in the US with whom we could store 'stuff', so having a storage locker in JC was the next logical step , as it is the one place that we figured we would be going the most often through the years (that initial supposition may change as we are contemplating becoming 'Winter Texans' and may move the locker's location down there).
In our rig, the most common answers to "Where is 'x' " is, "it's in Junction City" or "we sold it". We have ended up replacing a number of items that we sold, that we should have kept and kept things that ultimately we decided that we would never use and sold them. Don't expect to get things right from the start and make allowances for change. The cooking items that you will need on the road is very much a matter of your cooking style and how that style changes with your new RV lifestyle.

[Yonderin']

Replying to ExcitedToRv, my pet peeve re: NH kitchen design is that they gave me three (3) large drawers, one above the other, between stove & sink, each drawer being 6" deep. Load them up, and they're so full that nothing can be found. They should have used the available space to provide 4 drawers each 4" deep as in a conventional kitchen.
Had they provided me with what might be called "face-on" drawings of each side of the RV before starting construction, I might have detected this fault.
Hope you will be sure to inspect the number and sizing of your kitchen drawers.
And good luck on the road!

[firedoc]

Fleetwood went one better in our Bounder DP. We only got two 6 inch drawers. This has been my DW primary bitch since we started FT. Today finally eliminated the problem. Made 4 drawers out of the two. She's now happy as a clam. Also ordered a residential refrigerator to replace the Norcold. Can provide pics if anybody is interested. Just be advised I am not a wood worker.

[dale60]

Like Lynn and Stuart, we packed up a u-haul trailer and loaded up in Junction City. I had been downsizing our kitchen stuff for at least a year before. We got new cookware that stacks, silicone items that fold flat, etc. One thing we have found is that it would have been better for us to have some very deep drawers (for pots and pans) rather than the cabinet we do have. One appliance we like is an electric skillet. We do not have an oven; rather we have a convection/microwave and we are about to inherit a small toaster oven. Agree with poster above - a heads on picture will help tremendously. Since we do have a rear kitchen, we do have a lot of extra internal storage. When we designed our rig, we made sure that we could access bathroom, fridge and panty if we were not going to be opening up and when we are going to travel straight like that, we prepare a small bag of items for just in case: extra silverware, cutting knife, etc.

[greyt-parent]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yonderin' Replying to ExcitedToRv, my pet peeve re: NH kitchen design is that they gave me three (3) large drawers, one above the other, between stove & sink, each drawer being 6" deep. Load them up, and they're so full that nothing can be found. They should have used the available space to provide 4 drawers each 4" deep as in a conventional kitchen.

To each his own; we have two 5" drawers (cutlery, utensils) and 1 deeper drawer, in which the salad spinner just fits, although I can't remember if that was 'stock' or 'our request'. Again, it boils down to your own cooking style and what type of storage you will need; how tall are you pots? pans? when stacked? any tall utensils (like a salad spinner)? Wide, like cutting boards? Special needs, like the dog's food bin? (we had the narrow drawers at the end of the sink changed to one tall cabinet for dog food, cookie sheets, etc.). The nice thing about NH is that they will customize the cabinetry to your requirements. A tall full height cabinet at the end of the island counter for the garbage bin. The really tall pots (stock pot, slow cooker, etc) go in the deep cupboard over the pantry. We call this the Jolly Green Giant cupboard. My one peeve is that this should have come with a high weight capacity sliding shelf, a problem which I will probably rectify this winter.
My one suggestion would be to order more sliding shelves in the pantry. It comes with 4 and after a week of trying to organize the kitchen, ordered 3 more. I placed label holders '2" X 6" Self Adhesive Backed HOL-DEX Label Holders' (see link below) on the shelf face with a list of what was in that shelf, which makes in much easier to find things. It is amazing how much you can fit into one of these shelves.

(Amazon.com: 2" X 6" Self Adhesive Backed HOL-DEX Label Holders (Lot of 12): Home Improvement)

[ExcitedToRv]

If you think of any other great suggestions/insights, please continue to share!

chaunclm – Thank you so much for all the information and insights you shared. Although we will not have the benefit of owning our trailer/5th wheel prior to selling our home – your list of kitchen and other features/options you choose to incorporate will help us prioritize. Similarly, we will likely use RV storage space measurements as our final arbiter (i.e., particularly within the kitchen, space will likely be more of a challenge than actual weight.)

Yonderin' and firedoc – Thank you, we will definitely consider how we will use the different drawers and cabinets and there optimal heights. That will certainly maximize our usage of the available storage spaces as well as make it simpler to find items. I reached out to NH to identify the dimension of the standard cabinets/drawers/storage spaces, to help prioritize “stuff” as well as identify potential customizations.

dale60 – Thank you, I think we will take a similar approach to downsizing kitchen stuff prior to Full-Timing. Additionally, in our current kitchen we have pullout shelves that we use with many of our pots and pans, so it would certainly make sense to have a few deep drawers for pots and pans in our RV.

greyt-parent – Thank you. Appreciate your “ "Where is 'x' " is, "it's in Junction City" or "we sold it" “ insights as well as information about your drawer heights, number of pantry shelves and high weight capacity sliding shelf. To help minimize our “where is ‘x’” when we start Full-Time RVing, I think we will start thinning out the kitchen as well as packing the must-keep items for a future stick and brick house as well as create our donation boxes – BUT before storing/donating – start solely using the thinned/RV items, to proactively identify potential changes we would like to make. Although everyone’s cooking style is different, what were some of the items you stored/donated/sold that you wish you initially packed for the RV and/or items that ultimately decided were not needed?

[dooks@verizon.net]

Might I add another item to look closely at - shelves in the cabinets, particularly the upper cabinets. In our first NH the upper cabinets had only one shelf added. Not only could I not reach that shelf easily, but it limited the amount I could in the cabinet. Problem was solved when we added another shelf between the floor of the cabinet and the installed shelf. Then onto our 2nd NH. This time I showed them what we had done and when we picked up our new unit, there were two shelves added to the cabinet. However, they were equally spaced and meant I could barely reach the second shelf. We kind of solved the problem by having the trim at the front of the shelf that is meant to keep things from sliding out of the cabinet cut down to be flush with the shelf. Since I only use this for light weight items this is not a problem. But realize that these shelves must be fixed shelves for the integrity of the cabinets - and NH does to not skimp on the structure. Depending on your height and the height of the cabinets, try to estimate the level you would prefer for any shelves and make sure your specifications are included in your work plan. Also having a step stool and tall husband help greatly!

We also have a linen closet accessible from inside the toilet room. This has four doors - 2 over 2. Again think about shelving. Our first unit had two shelves in the upper portion and one in the lower portion. Our second unit arrived with only one shelf in the upper and one in the lower. It is not a problem since we are only stacking towels, etc. in the upper half, but two shelves would have made it easier to sort things. The bottom half only needed one full shelf since we had a laundry chute to the basement in half of the floor of the lower cabinet. However we did add a second half shelf next to the laundry chute. Again it is how you utilize space...

Good luck and hope to see you at the rally next spring.

[ExcitedToRv]

dooks@verizon dot net. Thank you for the insights about the shelves! It is good to know, for structural reasons, that the upper shelves are not easy to change afterwards-- so preplanning will certainly assist to identify any customizations that might make sense for us.

Regarding the NH Rally in the Spring 2013 ... looking forward to attending, meeting individuals who participate in iRV2 as well as other NH owners. We will watch for the date, location and registration announcement.

If you think of anything else in the interim, please feel free to share.