RV Kitchen Essentials

There are Many Things to Consider When Stocking Your RV/Camper Kitchen

There are many things to consider when stocking your RV/camper kitchen with the RV kitchen essentials. In fact, it has taken our family several years to narrow down the most important essentials to fit our family’s needs. Some of the things to consider are: What size RV or camper will you be traveling with, where your power is coming from: electric, generator or solar? Amps? how long will you be in the RV–are you a fulltime or parttime camper? What season or seasons will you be in your RV? And Lastly, what type of food does your family prefer. At the end of this post I have a list of essentials that we find the most useful and links to help you along the way.

Size Does Matter

While stocking your RV kitchen essentials, you must consider the size and storage space of your RV or camper. You may have to make some tough decisions. If you’re a coffee lover but you have no room for a coffee maker don’t despair! There are other ways of making your warm, elixer of life, and best of all, some are as small as a glass. If I were starting this process over, I would make a list of items I use in the kitchen and narrow it down to which appliances have multiple cooking abilities and how often I would need them. There is also cookware, bakeware, and many kitchen essentials that are manufactured for easier storage. These are all listed down below.

Where is Your Power Coming From?

For our family we are predominantly enjoying campgrounds where we have an ability to plug our motorhome into an electric box to power our rig. With our motorhome we plug into 50 amps, and with that we are able to run two AC units, two dehumidifiers, microwave/convection oven combo, washer/dryer combo unit by Spendide, and other small electric devices. We can run all those items with our Onan 5500 generator as well.

In our Motorhome using 30 amps we are able to power two AC units at the same time, but if I needed to use the convection oven or instant pot I learned I would need to turn off one AC unit while in use. There have been a handful of times where we have checked into a campground and the only spots available were 30 amp spots.

Now lets talk about solar. Our family really enjoys the amenities campgrounds can offer, but there is something to be said about the spectacular views and peace & quiet one can get while boondocking in secluded areas. After 5 years of living in our RV we bought our first solar panel. It’s a 200 watt Renogy that we talked about in our “Preparing to RV to Alaska” post. It’s portable, easily stored, (as it is flat), and gets the job done. This panel is able to give us lights and run some small appliances as well as help to power our StarLink. However, we do need to turn the generator on to run the ACs and/or the microwave/convection oven. We are able to set up our generator to automatically come on at a certain voltage on our batteries also. That allows us to maximize our solar time without ruining our batteries by letting them get too low.

Using our solar panel we have boondocked with friends in multiple places in the North and have been quite comfortable. With that being said, there is absolutely no way we would be able to handle the heat with only 200 watts of solar. We would probably need somewhere around 3000 watts and an upgrade to lithium batteries if running the two ACs was priority.

Will You be a Fulltime or Partime Camper?

Our family is enjoying fulltime living in our RV and have been since 2018. With that said, our family obviously requires certain kitchen items that we wouldn’t want to give up on a fulltime basis. If we were only looking to enjoy this lifestyle for a short trip or a few months out of the year there might be a few items I would trim off the list. I’ll let you decide on those.

Don’t Cook Yourself Inside Your Camper!

The season and temperature are very important factors to consider when outfitting your rig with your RV kitchen essentials. You might find items used to prepare your food in the summer differ considerably in the winter. In the summer our family tries to do most of our cooking in the outdoors as weather allows. This is to give more opportunity to enjoy our surroundings as well as keeping our RV cooler. In the summertime, depending on location, it can get quite warm in the RV. To keep the temperature agreeable in the RV we will cook outside, over open fire, with cast iron, our blackstone, or instant pot. If it’s hot outside and rainy, I usually opt for the instant pot. With that appliance I can cook inside without making our living space feel like an oven. These items have become so invaluable to us with this lifestyle. The cast iron pots and pans are very versitile. We are able to use them outside as well as inside on our gas stove or oven. The blackstone is small and therefore be easily stored. We use this appliance on many things from pancakes to steaks. Nothing beats the taste of a freshly grilled steak! The instant pot is also an amazing addition to our small kitchen. It has many features and allows us to cook a variety of food items. It can quickly tackle grains, meat, soup, hardboiled eggs, various cakes and desserts, even yogurt. The instant pot is able to saute, steam, slow cook, and pressure cook with this one appliance! I have taken a whole frozen chicken and cooked it to “falling off the bone” in 1-1.5 hours with this appliance. If you had the additional airfryer lid you could even air fry your meal to perfection. It is our most versatile item we keep in the kitchen and has replaced our rice cooker and crockpot. Nothing beats coming home from a long hike with the kids and being greeted by the most divine smell of a perfectly cooked roast in the instant pot.

Hopefully this has answered some of your questions about stocking your RV kitchen essentials, or tiny home kitchen. Below you will find a list of essential items we have in our kitchen and links to purchase.

1. Collapsible Colander
2. Collapsible Water Bottles
3. Collapsible Food Storage Containers
4. Collapsible Measuring Cups and Spoons
5. Lightweight plates
6. French Press
7. Tea Kettle
8. Instant Pot and Airfryer lid
9. Cast Iron Pans
10. Blackstone
11. Stock Pot
12. Environmentally Conscious Soaps
13. Scrub Daddy
14. Magnetic Spice Containers
15. Hand Towels and Oven Mitts
16. Lightweight Cutting Boards
17. Multi-plug outlet
18. Knife Set
19. Stackable Cookware with removable handles

Disclaimer: Some links are affiliate links. These links will not charge you anything additional for the items purchased but will provide our family with a small commission