How to Secure Items in Your RV Before Moving Day

The easiest way to secure items in RV fridges and cabinets is to stop things from sliding in the first place. We use cheap tension rods across the shelves, bins that fit front to back, and a simple rule: anything breakable rides on the bottom. That’s it, and it has saved us from a lot of messes.

Village Welcome! We’re Jimmy and Lisa with FindUsCamping. Someone asked us how we keep stuff still on bumpy roads, so Lisa opened up the fridge and cabinets to show you. It may not be the right way or your way, but it works for us.

Why do things fall out in an RV on travel days?

Because everything shifts while you drive. It’s like an airplane: things shift in flight, and in an RV, things shift on the drive.

We learned this the hard way. Have you ever picked a whole dozen eggs up off the floor? How about a jug of margaritas spilled all over the bottom of the fridge and the floor? We have. So now we secure items in our RV before every single drive, and those disasters don’t happen anymore.

How do you secure items in your RV fridge?

Use bins that fill the shelf front to back, then add a tension rod to block anything that can slide out. Put eggs and other breakables on the bottom shelf.

A friend gave Lisa some little containers from Lidl, and they fit our RV fridge perfectly front to back. Because our shelves have a little lip at the front, the bins can’t slide off. Four of them fit across, plus a small Tupperware pickle keeper in between.

Then Lisa groups everything, and yes, she admits it’s a little OCD. For example:

• Pickles and relish share one bin.
• Deli meat and cheese get their own bin.
• Sauces and salad dressings go in a third bin.
• Loose items, like bacon and sour cream, sit behind a tension rod.
• Eggs always go on the bottom shelf, where they have nowhere to fall.

You can find similar containers at Lidl or any store that sells fridge organizers. Just measure your shelf depth first.

Do you need special RV fridge bars?

No. Lisa uses plain spring tension rods, the kind you’d buy to hang a curtain at home. They come short, long and even longer, so you can find one for almost any spot.

Years ago, our travel trailer had a small fridge and a set of RV fridge bars. Now we have a double fridge, so those short bars were clearly not long enough. At first, nobody made them long enough, so she switched to curtain rods. You just squeeze them in place.

One of ours is metal, so it’s starting to rust a little. Still, it keeps working, and it’ll keep working in our fridge for a while. Most of the time, we just leave the rods in place.

How do you secure items in RV cabinets so they don’t spill?

Put a short tension rod across the front of the shelf, right in front of the taller stuff. That way, nothing falls on you when you open the door at the next campground.

Our pantry cabinets have one shelf at the top and one at the bottom. So sometimes Lisa has to stack cans two high. The rod keeps that stack from tipping over, and it’s the simplest way we know to secure items in an RV pantry. For the most part, pantry stuff stays still, but not all the time, and the rod covers the rest.

How do you keep spices in place in an RV?

Spices are some of the trickiest items to secure in an RV, because there are so many little jars. We use a long tension rod in our wide spice cabinet, plus a tiered spice rack that sits taller in the back. The rod goes right across the front, and we rarely take it out.

Since we cook with a lot of spices and seasonings, Lisa also ordered a magnetic spice set off Amazon. It’s a stainless steel sheet with little stainless containers that stick to it. But she worried they’d jump off the wall going down the road. So she mounted the sheet inside the spice cabinet instead. If one ever falls, at least it’ll be a controlled mess.

So how many have we lost? Just one keeps falling, because she filled it too full. Even then, it never popped open. Once we used it down to the right amount, it stayed put.

Our checklist to secure items in RV kitchens before moving day

1. Group fridge items into bins that fit front to back.
2. Put eggs and anything breakable on the bottom shelf.
3. Add a tension rod in front of loose fridge items.
4. Put short rods across the front of pantry shelves.
5. Keep a long rod across the spice cabinet.
6. Mount magnetic spice tins inside a cabinet, not on an open wall.
7. Don’t overfill containers that ride on a wall.

Getting the whole rig ready for a travel day takes more than a tidy fridge. So also check our post on whether to turn off your RV water pump when traveling. And if you’re shopping for a new rig, here are the RV must-have features we’d never skip again.

Quick answers

What is the cheapest way to secure items in an RV? Spring tension rods from a home store work great across fridge shelves, pantry shelves and spice cabinets.

Where should you keep eggs in an RV fridge? Keep them on the bottom shelf so they have nowhere to fall.

Do RV fridge bars work in a double fridge? Many older bars are too short, so measure first or use a longer curtain tension rod.

Are magnetic spice racks safe in an RV? They held up well for us, but we mounted ours inside a cabinet just in case.

Should you leave tension rods in all the time? We usually do, because it saves a step on moving day.

Come join the village

We love sharing what works for us after all these years on the road. So pull up a chair! Join the FindUsCamping Villagers group on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube channel, and come camp with us at a FindUsCamping campout. Then tell us your best trick for keeping things still on travel days. Safe travels, everyone!