If you're new to RVing, and using your RV for occasional trips, you may wonder: How can I leave the RV ready to go at a moment's notice? It's not difficult to make sure you leave clothes in the closet and books on the shelf, but the galley is another issue. Can you safely leave food in your RV?
There are several practical considerations in answer to the question. Perishables that require refrigeration are pretty much "out." Despite dire rumors to the contrary, and RV refrigerator can be left on for an extended period of time without damage, PROVIDED the rig is properly leveled. Nevertheless, how long can you leave food in your home refrigerator before it goes South on you? Unless you know you'll be pulling out in just a few days, it's probably better to keep cold food in the house with you.
Still, this point can be made: Be sure to turn your RV refir on at least 24 hours before you head out on the road. This gets everything chilled off inside the box, and ready to receive COLD food. Putting warm stuff in your RV refrigerator is a recipe for problems. We're not talking about a little bit of leftovers, but we have seen folks think nothing of tossing a half-rack of warm beer in the chiller, then wonder why their fridge got so warm the cheese molded.
Plenty of tasty stuff can be stored in your RV. Photo: City of Houston, TX
But what about non-perishables? Canned food is a big thing for some, and it's an easy store, within limits. First, canned food is "good" for longer than the "best by" date printed on the can. It's just that once you're past that date, the food quality may suffer in terms of color and taste. Especially is this so if the temperature in your RV gets hot. What if the can gets rusty--particularly a problem for folks in high humidity environments? The canned food industry says you shouldn't eat food from rusty tins. As a result, we wound up tossing a huge number of what looked to Papa as pretty good food, but Mama (on the other hand) was scared spitless of lurking evils. If high humidity is the norm for where you park your RV, then rotate your canned food.
What about other stuff, like boxed and bagged? Once again, watch your "pull" dates. Be aware that in high moisture areas, boxed foods (like macaroni and cheese) can be compromised if left to open air. You could put these boxed foods inside a suitable air tight plastic storage container. That's probably not a bad idea, not just in terms of keeping it out of moisture's way. Leaving some foods in boxes like crackers and cereal, may be attractive to the noses of critters like mice. The plastic container trick will help keep these guys away.
Finally, what about fresh water? We keep our RV fresh water tanks full when the rigs are standing around waiting. That way, we're not only ready to roll quickly, in case of emergency or a local water "outage," we have a ready supply of water available. Of course, you'll need to take into account ambient temperature--don't risk pipe or tank damage if your weather will head down below the freeze point. As to how long you can safely store water in your tank, we've stored it for a few months without any problems. Since RV water tanks are kept in the dark, you don't need to worry about algae growth.
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