Essentials needed for camping...things that make RV life better!

We started our camping journey in 2021.  We are not full time RV'ers but we are frequent RV luxury campers. Myself and my husband are both doctors and love to travel, but in 2020 how we vacationed changed so dramatically.  We decided to take the leap and we jumped right in and bought our first Class C RV brand new! We purchased the Thor Chateau 27 R for our family of 5.  Over the last 2 years we have gone over 50 adventures with our Class C.  From our very first camping trip to Disney's Fort Wilderness where we broke our awning after 1 day of picking up the RV.... to a 2 week trip from Florida to New Hampshire looking at colleges for our oldest daughter.  We have learned many of the ins and out of RV life (not as a full time RV life but as a fun luxury camping type.) We have learned you need to be handy and be able to problem solve as a camper! But we love to do it in style and comfort!

There is a huge fun side to the RV life and we have decided to share some of our essentials we purchased off of Amazon.  We will give you some of the fun ones and some of the just necessary ones! If you have recently purchased an RV you might find some of these products helpful or just downright necessary! 

Lets start with the basics.  We have 3 children and 2 dogs. Since the Thor Chateau has a lot of cup holders we bought the perfect camping cups for the road.  Before each trip we all fill our camping cups with ice and water.  We bought one in each color so no one confuses their cup!

 I know this sounds corny but this is the first thing I bought for the camper for the family. it just made it feel official that we were a camping family! This is the Amazon link to this type of cup but there are a lot of cute cups for camping. Fun Camping cups! These cups fit great in the holders and so far we have not lost them and the design on the cup is still there after 2 years!

The very next thing I bought was our gates for our dogs.  We have 2 small dogs and the dog gates we use have been terrific.  Easy set up and it is the first thing we set up when we land at our camping destination.  We purchased 4 of the Midwest Homes For Pets Foldable Dog exercise Pen.  We purchased 4 of them which gives our two pups a nice big space to run around when we are sitting outside with them.  This is our dog Lilo enjoying the great outdoors.

The very best purchase I made in the first couple months of camping was the Blackstone Tabletop Griddle Grill Station! We love cooking at the campsite and this has been the best addition for cooking breakfast, lunch or dinner.  We have a convection table top but we rarely use it since we got the Blackstone.  

 

 This is our classic set up for cooking. I like two of the white folding tables side by side with Blackstone as the center of attention. The tables I also bought on Amazon and I bought two of them.  I like having a lot of cooking space but did not want big bulky tables.  These  Adjustable Craft Camping and Utility Tables work great and store easily under the RV.

 

We have visited some sticky places where the mosquitos are bad and for this reason I would recommend the Wenzel Magnetic Screen House.  We do not use this all the time but in Florida camping, we almost always use it. I like this screen room because the size is nice for our family of 5. 

This screen shelter is pretty easy set up and makes sitting outside in the woods so much better. Again you can see our pups in the doggy gates living their best life!

For our Thor Chateau, we felt like we hit the jackpot finding the Camping GA5 Burgundy 8 feet by 12 feet Graphis Mats that match our camper.  We paid around $60 and bought 2 but probably only really need one at most campgrounds.  These mats are particularly useful at campsites that don't have the concrete pad.  Keeps your feet from hitting the little rocks before getting in the camper. 

These mats came in very handy at some campsites that were dirt sites.  Kept the camper from getting all the sand inside!

If you are just joining the RV lifestyle these are our top picks to get started and get on the road with the basics that will improve your camping experience!