Since moving into our bus, we’ve been reacquainting ourselves with the joys of kitchen gadgets. In our previous super tiny trailers, we didn’t have much room for such things.
With a little bit more space, we’ve been enjoying picking things out that match our lifestyle and serve meaningful functions in our household.
All of the below items are products we’ve purchased and are loving. And we consider them all ideal for RVing life – whether it be for how they save power, maximize storage space or just add to our mobile joy!
So we now present you the kitchen gadgets we love that you, or the RVer in your life, might like to add to a holiday wish list.
And oh heck, they’ll probably all work in stationary homes too.
Household
Amazon.com – BLACK DECKER Pivot Vacuum
This rechargeable vacuum SUCKS! Very compact and awesome. We got it for the Travato, but it always ends up coming with us as move between the boat and bus too.
Amazon.com : Cabinet Mount Trashcan
These small trashcans are great for small spaces – we use them on our boat for used bath tissue.
Amazon.com : Dyson AM05 Hot Cool Fan Heater
We bought one of these at Costco (cheaper!) .. takes up little space, great fan and great space heater.
Amazon.com : Fan-Tastic Vent Endless Breeze 12V Fan
This 12v is extremely power efficient, quiet and moves a lot of air. Perfect for keeping cool while boondocking.
Amazon.com : Frostfire Solar Ice Rocks
These solar LED rechargeable outdoor lights are great.. small, great light and no annoying stakes that break!
Amazon.com : LIFX WiFi Enabled Multicolor Dimmable LED Light Bulb
These bulbs screw into traditional ‘Edison’ fixtures (like lamps), and are smartphone controllable over WiFi. Dimmable, color changeable and super geeky.
Amazon.com : mDesign Wall Mount Towel Holder
We have limited linen closet storage – so we use this holder for storing fresh towels in our boat’s bathroom.
Amazon.com : New Wave Enviro Premium 10 Stage Water Filter System
We installed this 10-stage water filter system under cabinet in our sink for our drinking water. We also have a dual canister total bus filter system.
Amazon.com : Oxygenic Body Spa Shower Head
Want to converse water while still having an amazing shower? This is our shower head of choice. Great luxurious pressure while using little water.
Amazon.com : Rubbermaid Wastebasket
This wastebasket fits perfectly under our sink, and is designed to use grocery store plastic bags. Perfect for our RVing!
Amazon.com : RV Queen Size Microfiber Sheets
We loved these sheets from the Denver Mattress RV Collection so much (first set given to us), that we also bought a set for our boat. So soft!!
Amazon.com : SentrySafe Fire-Safe
This is the fire safe we use to store our important documents.
Amazon.com : Thin-Lite (DIST-LED116P) 15 Watt Surface Mount LED Light
Our bus conversion came with a couple of Thin-Lite Fluorescent fixtures with the wood trim. These LED fixtures are drop in replacements.
Amazon.com : Thomas Payne 68" Jackknife Sofa
Lippert Components has sent us this jackknife sofa to replace our goucho couch – we shall see how it works out for us.
Amazon.com : Three Chamber Shower Dispenser
We love having a dispenser for our shower gels, helps keep bathroom clutter down – and no worry about bottle falling while underway.
Amazon.com : Vornado iControl Whole Room Vortex Heater
When we have power hook-ups, this space heater is awesome. Quiet, keeps cool to the touch and heats quickly.
Amazon.com: Dura Faucet with Shower Hose Diverter
Replacement faucet for the forward shower in a Bayliner 4788 (hard to find one with the shower hose diverter!)
Amazon.com: Fury Handheld Shower
Oxygenics sent us this when it first came out in 2015.. we installed it on our boat. We love the adjustments over the basic Oxygenics, but still love the original.
Amazon.com: Powerful Vacuum Suction Cup Hook Holder
We have a couple of these – turns windows into coat and hat hooks where we need them.
Bestten Multi Outlet Wall Adapter Surge Protector
Who doesn’t need more outlets?? Converts standard two outlets into USB ports, outlets and surge protection. We have these all over the boat and RV.
Dorcy Floating Waterproof LED Flashlight
We’ve tried all sorts of pricey flashlights… and these, these work well. They’re cheap, waterproof and great! Just wish they were rechargeable.
Helix Mattress
Current Mattress we’re trying (Aug 2016): Custom made by Helix Sleep with a 100-day trial. Save $50 with this link.
Higher Hangers
We love these hangers – they hang higher than traditional hangers, so great for a smaller space like a RV or Boat, allowing us to store more in our closets!\
Large Insulated Thermal Cooler Tote
We use this insulated bag for grocery store runs and dinghy picnics.
Pressa Hanging Dryer with 16 Clothes Clips
The latest in solar & wind technology – how we dry our laundry on deck. It’s cute and functional.
Splendide 7100XC Ventless Combo Washer/Dryer
We replaced our 20-year old combo W/D on our boat with this one after it went out.
Kitchen Gadgets
Amazon.com : 6 Cup Rice Cooker
We have two of these – one for the RV, one for the boat. Love that it’s NOT lined with teflon.
Amazon.com : Bar10der Blue
The Swiss-Army Knife of Bartending Tools! Gives us everything we need to mix up cocktails, without taking up lots of space.
Amazon.com : Corelle Dishes Set
Corelle dishes are fantastic for a mobile life – we use a set on both the RV and boat. Lightweight, come in many fun patterns, pretty indestructible and microwave safe.
Amazon.com : Dometic (DCMC11B.F) Convection Microwave Oven
We’ve been using this since April 2014 on our bus, and love it!
Amazon.com : DUXTOP Induction Cooktop
This is the single burner induction portable stovetop we use in our bus – we love induction cooking, it’s all we have!
Amazon.com : Instant Pot IP-Smart Bluetooth Pressure Cooker
Just got this pressure cooker (Feb 2015) as an upgrade to our rice cooker for more functionality. Did we *need* Bluetooth? Probably not. But we found a great deal on it pre-launch.
Amazon.com : Over the Sink Roll Up Drying Rack
Instant Love, and perfect for a RV kitchen. Rolls up for storage, converts sink to a drying rack or extra food prep area.
Amazon.com : Sil-EcoNon-Stick Silicone Baking Liner
Great baking liner – we put this on the tray that came with our convection oven to bake cookies, tofu, etc.
Amazon.com : SodaStream
We love fizzy water and use our SodaStream on a daily basis. We save money, bottles and waste. We have two – one on the boat and one in the RV.
Amazon.com : Spice Stack
Perfect solution for the cabinets in our bus for organizing spices. Fits perfectly in our overhead cabinet for easy access. The shelving keeps the spices safe and non-rolling while we’re underway.
Amazon.com : Storvino Nero 6 Bottle Wine Storage
We used one of these to convert a cabinet into a wine cellar.
Amazon.com : Tervis Shaker Lid Set For 16oz Tumblers
Turns any 16oz Tervis Tumbler Cup into a Boston Shaker for mixing cocktails. Great re-purposing!
Amazon.com : True Induction Inset Double Burner Induction Cooktop
This double burner induction cooktop runs on regular 110v electric, and can function on top of a counter or inset. This is what we selected for our boat.
Amazon.com : Umbra Cove Corner Shelf
This corner holder fits perfectly in our boat’s sink – fantastic for organizing our dish washing stuff.
Amazon.com : Umbra Udry Drying Mat with Rack
Umbra has sent us this dish drying mat to test out on our boat.
Amazon.com : Vacu Vin Easy Stack
This is a perfect accessory for smaller than average RV refrigerators where you might not have shelves tall enough to store bottle upright. We use this for organizing beer bottles and cans.
Amazon.com: 3Qt Instant Pot
Perfect size for fitting in the cabinet under the sink of the Travato, and allows us to create one-pot meals.
Amazon.com: Coleman Fold N Go Propane Grill
We love this little grill.. super small, super efficient (and pretty cute!) Great for the small space of a van.
Amazon.com: Cork Pops Legacy Wine Bottle Opener
We love this wine bottle opener. It uses compressed air to pop the cork right out. Quick, easy and quite snazzy!
Amazon.com: Dometic CFX3 100L 3-Way Freezer/Cooler
Dometic sent us their CFX3 Series in spring 2020 to replace our previous CFX which had failed twice in 2 years. We keep this on the boat’s flybridge for extra provisioning.
Amazon.com: Glotoch Kitchen Collapsible Colander
This over the sink colander fits perfectly in our RV and boat sink.. and it collapses for easy storage.
Amazon.com: Premium Pizza Cutter Wheel
We love this pizza cutter and it’s built in blade guard.
Amazon.com: Stainless Wine Glasses
Perfect wine glasses for outdoor use!
Hamilton Beach 2 Slice Metal Toaster
A great little 2-slice toaster – ideal size for smaller kitchens.
InterDesign Forma Over Cabinet 9" Towel Bar
Easy way to hang hand towels in the kitchen.
mDesign Over-The-Cabinet Grocery Bag Holder
When we’re not using our trash compactor, we use this for easy trash bags out of grocery bags.
Beverages
SodaStream Soda Maker
We love our soda maker for making our own fizzy water. Perfect for RVs – needs no power, saves money and saves storage space for big bottles. And now that Bed, Bath & Beyond carries the carburetors & soda mixes, so much easier to restock as we tra
Eric Hansen says
One thing I can’t live without is my Aeropress coffee maker. Perfect for making just a cup or 2 at a time. I like it so much better than a French Press
Nina says
Forgot to comment on this post. Lots of EXCELLENT christmas ideas here. Another kitchen gadget we love (altho’ it’s more of an old-time thing) is the Wok. Use it for everything from soups to curries.
Nina
Cherie Ve Ard says
I love cooking in a wok too! I need to remember to add an induction capable one to my own holiday wish list! They are so incredibly versatile.
Blars says
Interesting list. I think we cook and eat differently. One thing I abandoned when I went on the road was a small rice cooker, even if I wind up buying another there are other things I’ll regret loosing more. One thing that might sound good until you see it is colapsable measuring cups — they don’t stack, so use more room than a stack of cheap measuring cups.
Cherie Ve Ard says
When I first hit the road, I too gave up my rice cooker… and really hadn’t give it much thought. When we were in the USVI over this past winter tho, we ran out of propane for our stove and it took weeks to get re-filled… leaving us with no way to heat food up. But I was able to Prime over a small rice-cooker on Amazon as an alternative way to cook. It was a nice reminder of just how versatile they are. We’ve used them for making soups, steaming veggies, sautÁ©ing potatoes & onions, etc.
Huh, measuring cups. Haven’t had a set of those in years. I honestly haven’t needed to measure anything, I cook by intuition 🙂
Our kitchen is primarily vegetarian and gluten-free, so our eating/cooking style is not exactly what is considered ‘normal’.
Akila says
Great list of gadgets! One that I would definitely suggest is our Progressive Collapsible Tupperware. These things are genius: http://www.amazon.com/Progressive-International-Collapsible-Prep-White/dp/B001ESAIIQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1322395501&sr=8-1
Glynis says
Have you tried Thermos Shuttle Chef? They are quite expensive here in Aussie and no good if you don’t like meals consisting of high levels of liquid – eg stews, curries etc but after five mins on the stove top the food cooks in its own heat over 5-8 hours so effectively during the day if you’re on the road. A potential saving on gas or other fuels. X
Becky says
I’m going to miss having a rice cooker when I go RVing. Sadly it belongs to the roommate – not that I’ll have much room anyway since I’ll be in one of those tiny trailers. 😉
With the SodaStream what brand of soda mixes do you like? I had a home made soda at a party once and the flavor was pretty bad, it was suppose to be cola, had a weird aftertaste. I’m not sure what the brand had been but I’m thinking they’re not all created equal. 🙂
Cherie Ve Ard says
We’ve tried out a few of the SodaStream brand soda mixes.. but we’re honestly not much of soda people. We drink it straight up or with a little bit of fruit juice. But we do like their energy drink, and use that quite a bit.
If we had stayed in the Oliver, we would have made room for a rice cooker. When we had ours built – we left out the microwave to get extra storage. We also carried a SodaStream in the trailer too 🙂 You’ll be amazed with how much space a Casita will give you, they’re really well designed.
barak says
the plasic glass is the most practical way to bring wine glasses with you on a trip. they always get lost or brake!
its also good to use them indoor, when there is hyperactive children around you
Cherie Ve Ard says
Hah.. if we have hyperactive kids around us, we’re totally in the wrong place.
Suzie says
Try this in your rice cooker:
Hoppin’ John
1 can black eyed peas (rinsed)
1 can Rotel (drained slightly)
1/2 cup rice
1-1/2 cups water
4 veggie sausage links, cooked and crumbled
1 Tbsp Tony Chachere’s Cajun Seasoning (or to taste)
1 each tsp garlic powder and onion powder
1/2 tsp each hot sauce and celery flakes (optional)
Put rice in the bottom of cooker and cover with the water. Set rice cooker and walk away. About half way through the rice cooking time, dump in everything else and stir well to combine. Serves 4-6.
Davy says
The induction cooktop is cool. I saw the video early of the cook off. That was neat too. Four adults watching water boil and getting a kick out of it…
Davy
Cherie Ve Ard says
Yup.. us geeks are strange that way 🙂
Lynne says
Wow, my Amazon Wish List is getting bigger now! That Ninja blender and Induction Cooktop look especially neat. I’m a SodaStream addict too and posted it as one of my RVing “Favorite Things” a few weeks ago. One of my other favorite kitchen items is my $7 Crock Pot. Not high-tech at all, but great to fill the rig on a cold winter day with smells of a delicious dinner cookin’!
Cherie Ve Ard says
We are absolutely loving the induction cooktop. Not only is it quicker to cook … we get more control over temperature changes, and it adds no heat to the interior of the coach (great in the summer!).
Here’s a video we & some friends did comparing an induction cooktop to a regular electric cook-top: