The first time we loaded up our fifth wheel for an extended trip, my husband and I spent three days packing. We were meticulous. We had spreadsheets. We watched every YouTube video we could find. We pulled out of the driveway feeling prepared.
We forgot the toilet paper.
Not a little toilet paper. All of it. We had packed the bathroom cabinet so full of things we thought we needed that we’d never checked whether the basics were actually in there. We discovered this at 9pm, thirty miles from the nearest store, with two kids who had opinions about the situation.
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That was five years ago. We’ve since refined our packing system down to something that works for full-time family RV life across every season and terrain — the Southwest desert, Rocky Mountain campgrounds, Gulf Coast beaches, and everything in between. This checklist is what we actually use, annotated with the honest notes I wish someone had given me before that first trip.
In This Article:
- Kitchen and cooking essentials
- Bathroom and personal care
- Bedding and comfort
- Safety and emergency items
- Outdoor living and recreation
- Tech and connectivity
- Kids and family-specific items
- Maintenance and tools
- What I deeply regret packing
- What I wish I’d packed from the start
- The first-timer mistakes that cost people real money
Kitchen and Cooking
The kitchen is where first-timers most dramatically overpack. You do not need your full home kitchen. You need a functional camp kitchen that produces real meals without requiring every pot, pan, and appliance you own.
The non-negotiables:
A quality cast iron skillet — one 10-inch and one 12-inch covers 90% of what you’ll cook. Cast iron handles the stovetop, oven, and campfire equally well and lasts forever. Don’t substitute non-stick pans that will warp in the storage compartment.
A good chef’s knife and a paring knife. One cutting board, plastic not wood — wood absorbs odors and moisture in a way that becomes unpleasant quickly in an RV kitchen.
A medium saucepan and a stock pot that nests inside each other. This is where size discipline matters — nesting cookware takes up fraction of the space.
Instant Pot or a pressure cooker. This is the one appliance worth the counter space. It replaces the slow cooker, the rice cooker, and does things on a camp stove that would take all day over open flame. If you can only bring one appliance, this is it.
A coffee setup that matches how you actually drink coffee. For us that’s an AeroPress and a hand grinder — takes up almost no space, makes genuinely good coffee, and doesn’t require electricity. If you need a drip machine, bring a small one. If you need espresso, a Moka pot works on any burner.
Reusable silicone storage bags and a set of nesting mixing bowls with lids that double as serving bowls.
A dish drying rack that folds flat. Not optional — wet dishes sitting in a cabinet grow mold.
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Paper towels in larger quantity than you think you need. They do more work in an RV kitchen than they do at home.
Dish soap, sponges, and a long-handle brush for washing pots. The long-handle brush is the one thing I didn’t bring on our first trip that I buy in bulk now.
The regret items I packed that first trip:
A full stand mixer. It lived in a storage compartment for three months and came home unused.
Six different spices in full-size containers. Everything in your kitchen should be travel-size or decanted into small jars. I now use a single spice rack with 20 small magnetic containers that stores flat on the inside of a cabinet door.
A full set of plates, bowls, and mugs for eight people. There are four of us. We need four of each. Everything else was dead weight.
An electric can opener. A good manual one takes ten seconds and weighs three ounces.
Bathroom and Personal Care
The non-negotiables:
Toilet paper specifically labeled as RV-safe or septic-safe. This is the item I forgot on our first trip and will never forget again. Regular toilet paper does not break down in RV holding tanks the way it’s supposed to, leading to sensor fouling and clogs. RV toilet paper matters.
Tank treatment for both black and gray tanks. Thetford Aqua-Kem or similar — add it after every dump and every fresh tank fill. The family that skips this discovers why it matters on a hot day in a closed rig.
A portable shower caddy that hangs from the shower head — not a full size shelf that won’t fit the RV shower dimensions.
A squeegee for the shower walls. Use it after every shower, every time, without exception. Mold prevention in an RV shower is behavioral, not chemical.
Quick-dry towels for the whole family. Regular bath towels in an RV bathroom stay damp and musty. Microfiber quick-dry towels solve this problem completely and pack to a fraction of the size.
A hanging toiletry organizer for each family member. Bathroom counter space in an RV is measured in inches, not feet. Hanging organizers use vertical space and keep everyone’s things separate.
A first aid kit that’s actually stocked. Not a decorative tin with two bandaids. Real gauze, medical tape, wound closure strips, antiseptic, tweezers, a SAM splint, and a thermometer. We camp in remote areas — the nearest urgent care is sometimes an hour away.
Prescription medications in quantities larger than your trip length. One week’s extra supply minimum. Pharmacies are not always accessible.
Sunscreen in larger quantities than you think you need. We go through it faster than any other personal care item.
Insect repellent — both spray and the clip-on diffuser type for sitting around a campsite without dousing yourself constantly.
Bedding and Comfort
The non-negotiables:
Sheets that actually fit your RV mattress. RV mattresses are often non-standard sizes — short queens, three-quarter queens — that regular sheet sets don’t fit. Order RV-specific sheets before your first trip, not after you’ve discovered the problem at midnight.
A mattress topper if your rig came with a factory mattress. Most factory RV mattresses are not comfortable for extended sleeping. A two-inch memory foam topper transforms the situation for under $100.
Blankets in layers rather than one heavy comforter. Temperatures vary dramatically in different camping environments and the ability to add or remove layers matters more in an RV than it does in a house with climate control.
Individual pillows for every person in the rig. This seems obvious until you’re in the fifth wheel with a family of four and someone compromised on pillows.
A weighted blanket for kids who have trouble sleeping in new environments. This is the single family-specific item I recommend most strongly to parents of young children making the transition to RV life.
Safety and Emergency Items
The non-negotiables:
A propane and carbon monoxide detector that you test before every trip. Your rig may have come with one — test it anyway, replace the batteries on a schedule, and know what to do when it goes off.
A fire extinguisher rated for ABC fires, mounted within reach of the kitchen and the door. Check the pressure gauge before every trip.
A quality surge protector for shore power hookups. This is the item experienced RVers will tell you about after their first bad campground electrical connection. A Progressive Industries EMS or similar device protects your entire electrical system from power surges and bad campground wiring. It costs $200-$300. An electrical fire or blown inverter costs thousands. Buy it before your first trip.
Wheel chocks. Every time, on every surface, no exceptions. The stories about rigs rolling through campgrounds are all true.
A good flashlight and headlamp for every person in the family. Kids need their own — don’t rely on one shared flashlight in a dark campsite with children.
Roadside emergency kit: jumper cables or a jump starter pack, reflective triangles, a tow strap, and work gloves.
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A paper atlas and printed state maps. GPS fails. Cell service disappears. Know where you are on paper.
Emergency contact cards for every family member with medical information, insurance details, and out-of-state contact numbers. Laminate them. Keep one in the cab and one in the coach.
Outdoor Living and Recreation
The non-negotiables:
A quality outdoor mat that rolls up easily. This defines your outdoor living space, keeps dirt out of the rig, and makes the area around the door genuinely comfortable. Camco and Prest-O-Fit both make good RV-specific mats.
A portable folding table and four good camp chairs. Not the $12 bag chairs from the discount bin. Chairs that adults actually want to sit in for two hours after dinner. We use Helinox chairs and they have been worth every dollar.
A shade canopy or awning extension system if your rig doesn’t have a good factory awning. Direct sun exposure at a campsite without shade is the thing that makes camping miserable in summer and the thing that makes it perfect when solved.
A headlamp for every person — this belongs in both the safety section and the outdoor section because it’s that important.
A good camp table cover or tablecloth with clips — the wind will take an unclipped tablecloth the moment you turn around.
Bug nets for the door if you’re camping in areas with mosquitoes. A magnetic screen door that attaches over your RV door opening lets air flow while keeping insects out without running the AC constantly.
A clothesline and clips for drying towels, swimsuits, and anything else that needs to air out between uses.
Kids outdoor gear specific to your camping style — we carry two mountain bikes that hang off a hitch rack, a kayak paddle, and a football. What you carry should match what you actually do, not what you think you should do.
Tech and Connectivity
The non-negotiables:
Starlink if you work remotely or need reliable internet. No other connectivity solution comes close for consistent performance across varied camping locations. The initial hardware cost is real but for anyone working from the road it pays for itself immediately.
A cellular signal booster — WeBoost or similar — for areas where cell service is marginal. Starlink handles most connectivity needs but cellular boosters make a real difference for voice calls and as a backup when Starlink is blocked by terrain or trees.
A quality power bank for each family member. One that charges two devices simultaneously and holds at least two full phone charges. This is the tech item I buy as spares and keep in the emergency kit.
A 12V car charger with multiple USB ports for charging while driving between campsites.
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An outdoor Bluetooth speaker that’s genuinely waterproof and loud enough for an open campsite. The $30 portable speakers are fine for a bedroom. At a campsite with wind and ambient noise you need something with real output.
A dashcam for the cab — both for security and for capturing the scenery. The views from the cab of a diesel pickup pulling a fifth wheel through the Rockies deserve to be recorded.
Entertainment for rainy days and driving days. An iPad loaded with downloaded content is the single most effective tool for managing children in a moving RV on a long driving day. Download before you leave cellular coverage.
Kids and Family-Specific Items
If you’re bringing children, these additions matter beyond the general list:
A portable baby gate or child safety barrier if you have young children — the cab entrance step on most RVs is a fall hazard.
A small white noise machine or sleep sound app for kids transitioning to sleeping in a new environment. Campgrounds are not quiet.
A laundry bag system that separates each family member’s clothes from the moment they’re worn. Laundry management in a rig with four people and limited storage is a logistics problem that rewards having a system from day one.
A dedicated toy and activity bag that lives in the cab for driving days — not in storage, in the cab, accessible. A child asking for something in the storage bay while you’re on a highway is not a situation you want.
What I Wish I’d Packed From the Start
Rubber shelf liner for every cabinet and drawer. Everything slides when you’re moving. It costs $15 and saves hours of picking up spilled items and reorganizing.
Command strips and hooks — the removable kind — in large quantities. You will want to hang things on surfaces that weren’t designed to have things hung on them. Command strips make this possible without damaging your rig.
A small portable fan for each sleeping area, even if your rig has AC. The fan is for the nights when the AC would be too much but a ceiling vent isn’t quite enough. Vornado makes a travel-size fan that packs flat and moves significant air.
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A box of disposable gloves for dumping the tanks. This is the one RV task that requires both hands and benefits enormously from not using your bare hands. Buy a large box and keep it in the exterior compartment near the sewer connection.
A label maker. Label every storage compartment on the outside and every drawer and cabinet inside. When you’re in a campground parking lot looking for the sewer hose at dusk, knowing exactly which compartment it’s in without opening all of them is the kind of small thing that makes life much better.
The First-Timer Mistakes That Cost Real Money
Not buying the surge protector. I’ve heard variations of this story from dozens of families — a bad campground electrical connection fries an inverter, a converter, or an appliance. The EMS surge protector is the cheapest expensive thing you can buy.
Packing too heavy. Every RV has a Gross Vehicle Weight Rating and a Cargo Carrying Capacity. Most first-timers don’t weigh their rig before their first trip. Overloaded RVs blow tires, stress suspension components, and handle poorly on highways. Go to a truck stop scale and weigh yours before you leave. If you’re over the GVWR you need to remove things, not rearrange them.
Bringing fragile items without protecting them. Wine glasses, dishes, framed photos, anything made of glass — they will break the first time you’re on a rough road unless they’re wrapped and cushioned. Either leave fragile things home or treat every item of breakable value the way you’d pack something you were shipping across the country.
Forgetting to account for the kids’ shoes. This sounds trivial until you have four people’s outdoor shoes tracking desert sand and mountain mud into 400 square feet of living space. A shoe storage system at the door — a hanging organizer, a tray, anything — is the quality-of-life investment that pays back daily.
This list will evolve the more time you spend in your rig. The first trip teaches you what you forgot. The second trip teaches you what you don’t need. By the third trip, you have a system. Trust the process, keep a running note on your phone of what you wish you had and what you never touched, and refine it trip by trip.
The toilet paper still goes in first.
Jane Thomson full-times in a 2021 Grand Design fifth wheel with her husband and two kids. They winter across the American Southwest and migrate north each summer chasing cooler temperatures and new terrain.
