7 Practical RV Pantry Organization Tips

RV pantry organization can be tricky. You often work with a very small space, so ensuring everything is well organized is super important!

Today I want to share 7 tips for RV kitchen pantry organization with you to help make your life easier! Whether you have an actual pantry as we do or just keep your food in cabinets, these tips should apply.

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Use storage bins in your RV pantry to keep things organized

Using storage bins can help you keep things organized, and it also helps you know exactly where to look to find something! This is probably one of my favorite RV pantry organization tips and has been a big game-changer for me.

I got cheap $1 folding fabric storage bins at Dollar Tree, but these storage bins would also work. You can also opt for plastic or wire storage but I like the flexibility of fabric bins.

My pantry shelves are the perfect size to fit 3 fabric bins. I organize the contents to be similar items, making it easy to find things in my pantry storage quickly.

For instance, all of my dry goods (extra flour, sugar, pancake mix, etc.) go into one bin. Whenever I need one of those items, I know exactly where to find it.

Read next >>> 5 Simple Ways to Make Your RV Kitchen More Functional

Repackage items to save space

This is one of my favorite organization hacks for RVs with smaller pantry storage space. Whenever we find something that we really like and know isn’t readily available in most places, we like to stock up on it.

My husband is gluten-free, and often it’s hard to find GF mixes in many of the places we travel to. Aldi is one of our favorite grocery shopping places, and they have a great gluten-free selection! The last time we were at Aldi, we stocked up on several GF pancake mixes so that we wouldn’t run out before finding an Aldi again.

Rather than have a bunch of boxes taking up space, we put all the pancake mix bags in one-gallon ziplock bags. You can do this with a lot of different things! Just make sure to cut the recipe off one of the boxes and save it, so you know how to make it later.

Use command hooks to hang things on the inside of your pantry door

Storage space in an RV is valuable, so using every spare inch is important! We added two command hooks on the inside of our pantry door.

There are a ton of things that you could keep here based on your individual needs. Anything that is not thick (like a broom or dusting wand) could be kept here, depending on how much spare room you have.

We keep an apron and fly swatters inside our RV pantry door. We also keep the broom in the pantry tucked inside the far left side.

I have also seen other RVers add command hooks inside of a cabinet door in their kitchen to store

other hanging items.

Read next >>> 21 Beautiful RV Kitchen Renovations

Build extra shelves in your RV pantry

Why does it seem like RVs always have so much wasted space?! We originally only had three RV pantry shelves in our RV, but my husband built extra shelves, and now we have double the RV pantry shelving we had before!

We left a lot of space above our top shelf to store tall kitchen items here if we ever need to. But the rest of the pantry has much more manageable shelving heights to accommodate the items we need for camping in our RV home.

Keep in mind that not all of the shelves have to be an even height. We have one quite a bit shorter than the others we use for canned goods and bread storage. Another shelf is just the perfect height for boxed mixes. Just measure the items you have and build your extra shelves accordingly!

We chose to also add a lip to the front of our new shelves to keep things from falling off of the shelves. If you don’t want to add a front lip, you can use tension rods to keep food from shifting and falling during travel days.

You could also add a wire rack as extra shelving if you don’t want to use wood. This would give you additional space to store hanging things from as well.

If you have very deep shelves in a cabinet that you are using for pantry storage, adding a lazy susan can be helpful to be able to get to everything you need easily. You could also consider adding RV pantry slide-out shelves if you need to.

Read Next >>> Our RV Kitchen Remodel: Lessons Learned and Tips

Put frequently used recipes on containers

Is there a recipe that you find yourself constantly looking up? Save yourself some time and add it to the outside of a container!

I used to spend forever looking for my favorite Jasmine rice recipe, so I finally wisened up and wrote it on a sticky note one day and taped it to the rice container! Now I never have to look it up again.

I also added the pasta instructions from the bag onto the pasta container. I just cut it out and taped it on. Fast and simple!

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Use air-tight storage containers

I use these storage containers to store RV pantry staples like rice, pasta, etc. We got a 10-piece set for a wedding gift, and I love them!

They keep things fresh and also free up extra space. I often use my rice and spaghetti noodle containers, but we also keep things in them like tea bags, chocolate chips, and slivered almonds. They come in multiple sizes, and quite a few brands exist. Ours are OXO brand.

I like to use these glass kitchen canisters for my RV pantry staples like flour and sugar. The lids clamp closed very tightly, which gives me peace of mind that we won’t get bugs in our food, and they also won’t accidentally come open while we’re traveling and make a huge mess.

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Use labels in your RV pantry

One of the most helpful RV pantry storage ideas is labeling everything in your camper pantry.

Not only does labeling things make it easier to find specific things, but also keeps you from accidentally using the wrong thing. You wouldn’t want to accidentally use powdered sugar instead of flour, haha!

I found some pantry organization labels that I used. These are cute! For things that are just in baggies, I usually mark them with a sharpie.

How I organize my RV pantry

Watch the video on our YouTube channel below to see exactly how I organize my RV pantry.

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Which of these RV pantry organization ideas did you find the most helpful? Let me know in the comments below!

Looking for even more RV storage ideas? Check out these blog posts next.

>>> 5 Simple Ways to Make Your RV Kitchen More Functional

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>>> 10 Ingenious RV Shoe Storage Ideas

What RV kitchen storage ideas should I write about next?