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| Only 23' 8" And 99" Tall |
My RV is small. 23' 8" to be exact. I am always on the lookout for ways to expand
my ability to store stuff. Yes, I probably carry too much, but I like being prepared! A while back I looked into mountable drawers, the kind that screw in to the underside of a cabinet or table. I ended up with two very low profile ones that are under my main table. They are OK, but very small. Pencils, paper clips, screws and the like fit nicely... maybe the odd utensil or chopsticks. Useful, but bigger is better! While perusing a local liquidator I came across some name brand ones that are much larger...I think I even have an inventive place to mount them. Curious? Read on!
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| New And Shiny! |
Ever look in your wardrobe closet? if yours is anything like mine, it has a rod that goes all the way across to hang clothing. When I first bought my RV I modified my wardrobe to become my main food storage pantry. It still has the ability to store some clothing, but how much hanging clothing do you take on vacation anyway? Over the years, I've found creative ways to add to its usefulness as a pantry. (
Spice racks anyone?) Well the drawers that I found, a great deal at 3.99 each, looked as if they would fit nicely ABOVE the rod and attach to the ceiling nicely. My ceiling is sloped at the back of the closet, so it did not fit properly with the rod in place. I will have to shorten the rod and add a block to attach the smaller section to. Not all that big a deal. It WILL allow me to mount
two of these drawers side by side. Now that's a good result.
Since the drawers actually tilt down when slid open, they are ideal for installing at slightly above eye level. It will be easy to see what's inside when they are open. Installation is simply a matter of finding the correct wood screws to use in the molded in holes. NO screws were provided at all. Not all that big a deal as I have several
assortment packs of screws I can look through for just the right ones. Be careful if you are mounting anything to your ceiling -- make sure there is something to mount it to underneath the ceiling itself. And make sure there are no wires hiding up there. Ceiling vent fans, lights and the like love to hide up in the foam insulation in the ceiling!
All in all, I like these drawers, I will be able to reclaim some of my pantry drawers for better use and won't be losing anything at all. Hopefully they will stay closed when in motion. I may want to add a tiny bungee cord or something similar, unless they are secure against the inside of the closet door itself. We'll see...
Be Seeing You...Down The Road,
Rich "
The Wanderman"
www.thewanderman.com
Our 2001 CrossRoads has four closets with wire shelves for hanging clothes and five OK drawers. I saw a 'Pinterest' idea that out to use. I did some careful measuring of the closet sidewalls, drew the plan into cardboard, cut it out and made sure of the fit. Then traced the template into plywood and added some horizontal shelf supports. I removed the wire shelves from three of the closets, stood up the plywood "walls" and brad-nailed plywood shelves to the supports. No screws into the original closet walls and we have nine more shelves in these three closets for laying our clothes or whatever else we need. One other double-door, hanging clothes closet received a divider and a slim shop vac to help keep the floors clean(er) when the grandkids are with us.
ReplyDeleteUnknown,
DeleteNow that's some decent ingenuity there! I did fail to mention these drawers will work with wire shelving as well.
Rich "The Wanderman"
Good suggestion, Rich. My own 35' trailer had SIX hanging closets when I bought it -- 5 of which have now been modified to shelves and/or drawers with a bit of simple cleat-carpentry. As you say, no one needs that much (any?) hanging space in an RV! I left one for the girl(s) and occasional suit for work trips, but never hang things for vacation trips.
ReplyDeleteWolfe,
DeleteI know...what do they think we do while camping dress up in tuxedos and have multiple night son the town. hey I'm all for a bit of dressing up now and again but SIX hanging closets...!
Rich "The Wanderman"
In fairness, I do use the front hanging closet for a grab-coat. I still insist it was perfectly fine tossed on the sofa, but my resident proofreader informs me it is NOT. She informs me loudly. Just like my jeans were doing FINE on the floor, where I could find them. :-D
DeleteMy shelf conversion in the other front-facing cabinet is semi-permanent because of variable depths, but the other 4 cabinets I only screwed cleats (strips of wood) to the walls, and the shelves/drawers drop on top of them rack-style. Since they're uniform size, I can freely swap positions or usage of drawers/shelves/hanging space by where I insert them. For readers that work with tools in their trailer, this is also how my compact woodshop works -- powertools are screwed into platforms that can store in a rack or securely drop into my work table during use.
Wolfe,
DeleteI agree, the couch is always a great place for items of clothing that get used everyday ;)
I had to reinforce the floor in my pantry after it began to sag with the addition of the drawers and extra "stuff." i wrote a very early article about that.
Rich "The Wanderman"
Where did you find them?
ReplyDeleteUnknown,
DeleteA local liquidator named OLLIE'S.
Rich "The Wanderman"
If you can't find it at Ollie's ("Good Stuff Cheap"), you don't need it!
ReplyDeletePennie,
DeleteI love that place!
Rich "The Wanderman"