RV Accessories – RVer Luxury Items

Not long ago, I posted a list of things you need before RVing. Although this list was pretty comprehensive, there are still some luxury items you’ll want to get. I think of the first list as “must-have” and this one as “nice to have.” They are also things you will likely pick up as the need arises, which is also how we acquired them. Let’s call them RV accessories! This list is ordered the way I see it and will DEFINITELY contain affiliate links! Check out my affiliate disclosure here.

RV ACCESSORIES – OUTDOOR ITEMS

There are a few things you’ll need outside to make life a little easier around camp.

OUTDOOR MAT – Glynn and I bought our first outdoor map that was butt ugly (Is that a southernism?! It just means really ugly!) at Walmart for about $10-15. It was nothing to write home about, but we quickly updated to something prettier. Why do we use them? Well, it keeps us from tracking a bunch of dirt or gravel into the camper and cuts down on the need to sweep inside. Here are a few of Amazon links.

ANTI-GRAVITY CHAIRS WITH TRAYS AND CUPHOLDERS – This is another one of those things that you don’t think you need until you try one! These things are AH-MAZING! (See what I did there?! LOL!) I think it was my brother-in-law who had one first. Glynn and I were hooked when we sat in it! It curves perfectly to your body and once you get past the “OMG…I’m going to meet Jesus” phase (there’s a learning curve to sitting in them), they’re super relaxing to chill in!

We love the little cup holder, too! It’s one less thing we need to think about. Remember, if you are over about 250 lbs, watch the weight ratings. We had to order another one because we didn’t read the weight capacity. The last Amazon link here is an XL chair with a 430 lb. weight capacity.

EXTRA UMBRELLA CHAIRS – As I mentioned, these RV accessories are not “must-haves.” We do, however, like to keep some extra little umbrella chairs on hand for music festivals, or for visitors as we tend to meet people at RV parks. We keep four in our cargo hold. I think everyone has at least one or two of these laying around, but here’s a couple of links just in case. Remember, you can always make a run on your local Walmart for cheaper chairs.

HAMMOCKS/AIR COUCH – I’m going to post several links for these. I like to keep a hammock around because they’re nice to relax in and easy to set up. In reality, I don’t use them often, but I still set them up because…why not?! The kids like ENO brand. Be warned, if you’ve never bought an ENO brand, you’ll need their Slap Straps, and a mosquito net (all sold separately, but I’ll find you a generic link hopefully).

I’ve found a hammock I like that has the mosquito netting built in. Also, if you plan on hammocking in the wilderness, you’ll need to look up a rain fly, too. I’m simply not that fancy! If you REALLY want to be fancy, check out the Amok Draumr! Ahhh…one can dream, right?!

We also like the air couches at the beach or wherever trees aren’t readily available or near enough together or large enough to support a person sleeping in between them. They are a bit cumbersome to air up, but worth it in my book to at least have one around.

ICE CHEST – Whether you have kids or not, an ice chest outside the camper NEVER hurts! We like to keep some water bottles, snacks, and maybe a couple of adult beverages in ours, but whatever works for your family!

OUTDOOR TABLE – We like to set up a little outdoor table right outside of the camper. We keep our ice chest up on it and away from raccoons. We’ve been known to put a coffee maker on it as well as a toaster oven, cases of bottled water, or whatever finds its way on the table. It’s nice to have a flat surface right there when we come outside. Of course, this isn’t a necessity, but we don’t leave home without it. If we don’t set it up, we’ll just slip it under the camper while camping.

ADDRESS SIGN – Ok, don’t laugh at this one, but I like my little sign! Our neighbor brought us one of these when he saw our shiny new camper. He’d bought it for his adult kids and they already had one. I immediately fancied it up and we put it up almost every time we camp. It’s just a little tiny smile in my day! 🙂

Ok…I just found this one on Amazon and had NO IDEA they were that expensive! I’ve gotta thank that neighbor again!

TENT – This one might seem counter-intuitive, but you just never know when you might need one. It might be too much to keep one in a popup camper or one of those micro campers, but most other campers could store one easily. We usually keep one around just in case one of the kids shows up, or for some unforeseen circumstances where we might need alternate lodging! LOL!

Like I said, they don’t take up much room, and you can get small ones pretty cheap. Don’t forget to look at Walmart, too. I think you can get them cheaper there.

RV ACCESSORIES – KITCHEN ITEMS

I recently did a post about organizing your camper, so I won’t go super in depth on this one, but here are a few must-haves for kitchens. When you’re looking for RV accessories, you’ve GOTTA get bins, baskets, etc.

ORGANIZATIONAL ITEMS – I used to work at The Container Store in Little Rock, AR. There really should be a recovery group for former TCS employees. It’s hard to walk away from that discount! If you’ve never been, you should go.

We often had people come in looking to get their RV organized. I even remember a person coming in one day and spending hours taking items out to the camper and back to find just the right things.

Here are some of my favorite TCS things for my camper. Maybe you’ll find them useful, too.

Case of 20 Our Shoe Box – Just go ahead and buy a case of these. You’ll need them for everything…in the camper and at home. We use them for our shower boxes in our camper. We keep shampoo, conditioner, soap, razors, toothbrushes, and toothpaste in ours. Both Glynn and I have one for when we decide to shower at the park instead of in our camper. They’re also everywhere in our house.

Multi-Purpose Bin – I ADORE these and put everything from aluminum foil and Ziplocs in them to all sorts of food, chips, and even plastic cutlery and paper plates. They range from $3.99 to $6.99.

Sterlite White Basket with Handles – It breaks my heart to inform you these are no longer at TCS, BUT…I did find them on Amazon. They come in varying sizes, although this one is a medium…follow the link for dimensions. I use these for everything at home, too. I also have two in the camper. If you’re new to my blog, my camper is TINY, otherwise, they’d be everywhere in it!

Magnetic Spice Rack – These magnetize to your vent hood (or fridge if its metal…not stainless steel). You can check mine out in the previously mentioned organizational post.

TCS also has some magical shelf racks that will allow you to have more shelf space without adding more shelving. I can think of about a thousand things you’ll need eventually from here, but you’re just going to have to check out a store or their website. They often have free shipping promos. Save up until then and get everything you need when the shipping is free.

Container Store is always having some kind of sale. To outfit your camper, I’d keep an eye out for the Customer Favorites Sale, the Office Sale (around April), the Travel Sale (around May) and the Closet Sale (usually late fall to winter).

If all else fails, use Honey on your Chrome browser to save on TONS of stuff!

SAFETY ITEMS – We use these RV accessories for various things around the camper. The bungee keeps our medicine cabinet shut while traveling. Extras stay in our storage cubby for a rainy day.

I’m 5’2″ tall. Step stools are a MUST for me if I want to live in peace with my 6’2″ husband. Plus, since we added a real mattress to our bed, we BOTH need it to get on the bed!

Do I even need to explain the first aid kit? No? Good!

UTENSILS AND UTENSIL HOLDER – You will need both kitchen utensils and silverware. I’m not going to link silverware because you can find plastic cutlery at a big box store as well as real silverware if you want it. You’ll also need a cheap set of plate or paper plates and napkins.

ALL IN ONE POT AND FRYER – If your camper is small like ours, space is at a premium. We opted for one multi-purpose pot. I can make soup in it, or boil pasta, or make tea if needed. It has a built-in strainer, so I’ve eliminated the need for one extra thing.

I also keep one frying pan in the camper. It had to be a multi-functioning pan too. I liked this one because I can brown hamburger meat, or scramble eggs in it.

DISH DRYING MAT – I don’t personally use one of these, but if my camper was bigger, I would. Since our camper is so small, we tend to wash and dry dishes together so we don’t have any laying out. I think we all know what these guys look like, I’ll spare you the link on this one.

COFFEE MAKER – Glynn is the only coffee drinker in our camper. Even when one of the kids joins us. He keeps a small coffee maker (outside on the table as mentioned earlier…I can’t stand the smell of coffee!). If you have enough space, feel free to get a Keurig if that’s what you like.

TOASTER – Are you a pop tart or toast kind of person? We aren’t either, but you really need a toaster or toaster oven to accomplish either. Since Glynn has taken on the starch solution diet, we have cut out most meat (he has anyway). I like to take a toaster oven to make some simple meals that would traditionally be cooked in an oven. Since our camper isn’t big enough for an oven, we take a toaster oven and set it up outside on our table mentioned above.

INSTAPOT AND/OR CROCK POT – My daughter swears by her instapot. I have yet to get one, but a friend of mine recently cooked a meal for me with one, and I must say, I’m impressed. She made a pot of pinto beans in just two hours. If you aren’t a pot of beans type of person, this is nothing short of a miracle. Beans are an all-day ordeal usually.

I’m more of a crockpot girl myself, but either way, you’ll want one for those days you go on long hikes or canoe trips. You can put your food in the instapot or crockpot and set the timer to start whenever. Dinner will be ready when you get home. I always recommend the crockpot with a latching lid. If you knew me…you’d understand. I’m a little accident prone.

SMALL AND LARGE YETI MUGS – These don’t have to be Yeti brand. In fact, we buy ours at Sam’s Club at Christmas time. They come in a two pack for $10-20. They are nice to have because they keep your hot drinks hot and your cold drinks cold regardless of the temperature outside. You can also take them into gas stations along the way and get refills cheaper than most places charge for their styrofoam cups.

As a side note, it’s nice to also have one or two coffee mugs in the camper. You never know when you may need to heat something up in the microwave.

RV ACCESSORIES – ELECTRONICS

COAXIAL CABLE/HDMI CABLE – If you intend to use cable TV provided by the park, you’ll need a coaxial cable…and probably a pretty long one. We don’t use the TV every time we go somewhere, but we do several times per year. I think we bought our cable about 6 months in.

HDMI cable, on the other hand, I never leave home without. I don’t know if I’ve covered this on the blog or not yet, but I’m a fairly techy person and like to have a way to plug my computer into my TV…ya just never know when you’ll need an HDMI cable!

TV/CHROMECAST/DVD PLAYER – Your camper may or may not come with a TV. Ours did not. I promptly went to Facebook Marketplace and found one, then went to Amazon for a mount to support it. I think I actually got the 32″ TV with an 8′ x 10′ rug for my den at home for $150, and they threw in an Apple TV for free. Not a bad deal if you ask me. If you’re on a super tight budget, don’t forget FB marketplace and/or Craigslist. Just remember to be safe when meeting a stranger somewhere.

Chromecast is nice because you don’t have to have dependable wifi, just a good 4G LTE cell signal and an unlimited internet package to bounce a Netflix movie or YouTube video to it.

DVD player…meh. We don’t have one. If you’re a DVD fan, you decide if you need one or not. As mentioned, space is at a premium in our camper. Storing DVDs and a DVD player was not a priority for us.

I also know a lot of RVers use a satellite dish for their camper. We don’t do this, so I won’t recommend it at this time. Our BFFs use one and they say theirs just adds to their bill at home. They had to buy the dish separately, but it seems they get a signal almost anywhere. I won’t recommend one just yet because I’ve never used it and don’t want to steer you wrong.

I’m not going to link a TV or a DVD player either because I’m fairly sure everyone has at least one extra laying around, AND if you don’t I’d bet you know where to look. It would also be almost impossible to link a TV mount since TVs vary so much in size and weight, but you can get them at Walmart. Please pay attention to the size and weight of your TV BEFORE purchasing a mount for it! Chromecast is linked above in case you’re not familiar with what to look for.

EXTRA PHONE CHARGERS – This also seems like a no-brainer to me…but you never know. We try to keep a charger for each of our phones in the camper so we aren’t always toting ours out of the house and into the camper. It’s a nuisance that is easily and inexpensively avoided. I also prefer the 10′ cords…LOVE THEM! I will say though, the 10′ cords give out within a year. I just replace them…it’s worth it to me.

I know OF cell phone boosters, but I have no experience with them AT ALL and would HATE to steer you in a wrong direction, so I won’t recommend one for now. If I ever learn of one, you’ll be the first to know! 🙂

RV ACCESSORIES – BEDROOMS

When you’re looking for RV accessories, don’t forget the bedroom. There’s a good handful of things that you’ll want to be stocked in the camper. We still borrow from the house for some of these, but we’re working our way up to a fully stocked camper.

MATTRESS PAD – You need one…that is all! The mattresses that come with RVs are just sad. I DO think that the more you spend on your camper, the better the mattress, but I still think they are mostly sad afterthoughts by the designers. I’ll add a link to a decent queen sized topper. You can always pick these up at Sams or Bed, Bath & Beyond (and you can use a 20% off coupon there!) cheaper. Amazon has the benefit of coming to your front door.

BEDDING – The bedding that came with our comforter was fine. It keeps us warm on cold nights and somehow isn’t too hot on warm nights. I still want something pretty, but haven’t found what I’m looking for (outside of the $300 comforter at Anthropologie!!! LOL!). Here are a few fun comforters on Amazon.

EXTRA PILLOWS – This is another one I keep forgetting to do but plan on it asap. Last time we went camping, it was raining when I loaded the camper. Guess whose pillow landed face down in the rainy grass? Yep…MINE! Either pillows or a comforter will be my next RV purchase. Sam’s has pretty cheap 2 packs of pillows for $10 – $20 if you’re on a tight budget. We will most likely get one pack of these and one down pillow each because that’s how we roll! No links…pillows are like a religious purchase 🙂

LAUNDRY HAMPER – Container Store has a neat little foldable bag for laundry if space is limited:
Travel Laundry Bag, and it’s super cheap at $4.99. We bought our hamper at Lowes because we were there for remodeling stuff for this post. Make sure your hamper fits the height, width, and depth of the space where it will live. I think you can handle finding a laundry hamper without an Amazon link…I have faith in you! 😀

HANGERS – We opted to change our hanging closet into a 3-shelf closet. BEST DECISION EVER! Glynn and I just and hangable type of folks when camping. It’s more t-shirts and jeans for us. If you DO have hanging space, you’ll want hangers just for your camper. I would rob my closets first, then march my little self right up to Container Store for a box of their tubular hangers or huggable hangers…but that’s just me.

Tubular Hangers & Huggable Suit Hangers (I use the suit ones even on t-shirts…they’re multi-purpose!).

RV ACCESSORIES – BATHROOM NEEDS

RV TOILET PAPER – Did you know RVs need special toilet paper? If you do, you’re one step ahead of me! It’s been said that you can take a piece of any toilet paper and put it in a cup of water. If it dissolves easily, it’s ok to use in the RV. I prefer to just go to the camping section at Walmart and get camping toilet paper. It needs to be able to break up in your black water tank.

SHAMPOO AND CONDITIONER FOR CAMPER – Maybe we’re weird, but we like to keep our shower needs in a shoe box mentioned above. If one of us decides to shower in the bathhouse, we can just grab our box and go. I keep my shampoo and conditioner in TCS’s Soft-Touch Dispenser. I’ve had mine FOREVER…probably 10 years or more. They’ve held up well over the years, and they’re only $1.29 each, so you can’t beat that! I believe they are TSA compliant for liquids, too…I’d look that up before flying with them though.

Soft Touch Dispenser

LINENS – Don’t forget towels and washcloths. If you aren’t super creeped out by used stuff, you can always go to a local Goodwill or second-hand store for these. I just took some old towels we had laying around in the camper. I won’t post links for these because I think everyone has at least a few extra towels.

SHOE BOXES FOR EACH PERSON’S TOILETRIES – Just a little more about our shower boxes. I like to keep shampoo, conditioner, soap, towelettes to wash my face, razor, saline solution, contacts container, toothbrush, and toothpaste in mine…basically everything for a shower/getting ready in the morning. If I shower in the camper, I will leave my shampoo, conditioner, and soap in the camper shower, but put them all back in the shoe box before traveling. It just keeps everything tidy.

CLOTHESLINE – If you do any water activities at all, or shower at all, you’ll need a clothesline. TCS has a great one which I’ll post a link to, but we just use our awning arms. Of course, there’s only two of us, so that’s easy. We do actually have a rope in the cargo area for when we need to hang more clothes out on the line. Any decent quality rope will do.

Clothesline

EXTRAS

I think the best way to do this is to just talk about these things. Maybe no links here. What is it you like to do when camping? Do you bicycle? Bring your bikes. Do you kayak? Bring your kayaks. Do you hike? Bring your hiking shoes.

Extra RV accessories are all up to you and what fits your lifestyle. Glynn and I are pretty chill. I often bring my guitar, but rarely play it…don’t know why, but there it is. We just enjoy the company of friends when camping. We go to hang out with them, so that’s what we do. Here are a few suggestions.

GAMES – Do you play dominos, card games, or dice games? We often bring dominos, cards, and Yahtzee dice. These are super fun and super cheap games. I also keep an adult coloring book in the camper with colored pencils for rainy days.

KAYAKS – We do take our kayaks, but don’t often use them. I want to change that soon. Our friends we met at Crater of Diamonds kayak all over the place and I LOVE the pictures they get! Plus, we could use the exercise.

WATER TOYS – Glynn and I have also been known to bring our rafts. They clip together so we can glare stare dreamily at each other while floating together. I am going to post a link to this raft because we really like ours. We got ours at Walmart, but this link from Amazon is the closest thing I could find on there.

If you don’t have someone to clip to, or would rather not clip to, you can always get a float along ice chest and clip to it.

BASIC TOOLKIT – I can think of about a thousand scenarios where you’ll need tools, but its the ones I can’t think of that worry me! We always have a basic toolkit with us. This isn’t so much RV accessories as much as it is just accessories for your car and life. Normally, we drive cars that are older (read: paid for with cash), so they sometimes need more TLC than others might. You just never know when you’ll need some tools.

That’s about all I can think of…except the kitchen sink! I do have a checklist of things you might want to take with you available for free. You can get that by filling out the form at the bottom of this post.

So how about you, do you have something, not on this list that you like to take camping with you? Please share that in the comments or on my Facebook page! I’d love to hear from you about which RV accessories you like!