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When you think of IKEA, you may think of Swedish meatballs and a labyrinth-like store layout that requires an entire afternoon to navigate. However, the store also makes an excellent stop for outfitting your mobile home. These RV IKEA items offer a wide variety of affordable, quality products that can improve your rig. So let’s take a look!
Why Is IKEA Great for RVers?
In many ways, RVs and IKEA are a natural match. The store offers many different solutions for storage, especially in small spaces. This will appeal to RVers looking to maximize their limited storage and living space. Additionally, their products are very affordable! Just about everyone in the RV community wants to save money.
It’s also highly convenient. IKEA has dozens of stores around the country, meaning you can generally find one while on the road. They also offer the convenience of allowing you to pick up a wide variety of things in one place — not to mention grabbing a delicious lunch!
Finally, IKEA cares about sustainability in sourcing its materials and products. Many RVers value protecting the beautiful world around us.
The 5 Best IKEA Products for Your RV
IKEA has thousands of different items, but we sifted through them to find the best choices for RVers and their unique lifestyle and needs.
1. Plastic Bag Dispenser
What Makes it Great for RV Life: If you’re like many people, you may have a stash of plastic bags squirreled away to line small trash bins, transport items, pick up your pet’s waste, or dispose of other mess around the campsite. Rather than stuffing bags in a cabinet or inside another bag and creating a big mess, store them in this nifty dispenser.
Holes throughout the dispenser allow you to grab different bags, even if they’re not close to the top. In addition, its polypropylene plastic makes it easy to clean with a simple wipe.
You can also use this dispenser to store various other items, from toilet paper or paper towel rolls to socks or gloves. IKEA also recommends it for wrapping paper rolls or small umbrellas! At just 6.25 x 5.125 x 17.75 inches, it’s a small but worthwhile and affordable organizational tool.
Where to Use It: This dispenser makes a great RV IKEA item due to its small size. It can mount inside a cabinet for discreet storage or hang on the wall by your door if you need to grab something on the way out.
Price: $2.99
2. Sunnersta Containers
What Makes it Great for RV Life: In an RV, every inch of space counts. The Sunnersta container system multiplies your available space with containers and hooks that easily attach to a wall-mounted rail, getting items off your countertop. Each container has a volume of 25 oz and can hold up to four pounds, while each hook can hold nine pounds. In addition, it’s easy to wipe clean.
Where to Use It: Sunnersta is an excellent RV IKEA product for your kitchen. The baskets and hooks can store many of your frequently used kitchen items, freeing up drawer space and making your cooking a little easier. Plus, fewer items stored on the counter means more food prep space — always a premium in RV kitchens!
Price: $3.99 for a rail with two containers and four hooks. Additional containers are $0.99 per container, and hooks are $0.99 for a five-pack.
3. Snäpp Trash Can
What Makes it Great For RV Life: The small and discreet Snäpp trash can fits perfectly in your limited space while the lid keeps any smells under wraps. The interior container has a handle for easy removal and cleaning. It also allows you to tuck in any plastic bag liners, making them invisible from outside the can. A foot-operated pedal makes it easy to use, and synthetic rubber feet keep it in place while you’re on the go.
Where to Use It: This waste bin is an excellent choice for bathrooms, bedrooms, or even close to your driver’s area.
Price: $9.99
4. Mini Broom and Dustpan
What Makes it Great for RV Life: RVers generally love to get outdoors, and unfortunately, sometimes bring some of the great outdoors back inside with them. The Blaska mini broom and dustpan will help eliminate some of that mess. The small size allows you to get into areas where a full-size broom can’t and stores in a smaller space. The brush fits directly in the dustpan and hangs easily on any hook.
Where to Use It: You can use this versatile little pair just about anywhere inside your RV. For those in smaller rigs, it can replace a standard broom altogether — as long as you don’t mind getting on your hands and knees for cleaning! It’s also an excellent choice for getting the dust or dirt off hard-to-reach spaces like the tops of cabinets. The small footprint and low cost make it a valuable part of your cleaning arsenal.
Price: At just $1.99, it’s the most affordable RV IKEA item on our list.
5. Mini Cutting Boards
What Makes it Great for RV Life: You’ll need cutting boards whether you’re making dinner in a gourmet restaurant or your rig’s kitchen. But they can be large and unwieldy and a pain to store in your limited RV kitchen space. IKEA has a variety of smaller solutions, starting with the IKEA 365+ Chopping Board set. It includes three 8.75 x 6.25 polyethylene cutting boards in multiple colors, which also function as lids for the IKEA 365+ container set. They’re also dishwasher-safe for easy cleanup.
If plastic isn’t your style, IKEA also offers two smaller wooden cutting boards. The Aptitlig is 9.5 x 6 and made of bamboo. This stylish material is durable, easy on your knives, and also looks great as a serving tray. The Proppmätt is slightly larger at 11.75 x 6 but is made of solid beech and designed with an attractive handle, making it equally qualified for food prep or serving.
Where to Use It: All of these cutting boards are perfect in the kitchen. The versatility of the 365+ boards makes them ideal for on-the-go eating or prep as they also function as lids. The Aptitlig and Proppmätt also shine while entertaining, holding appetizers of charcuterie.
Price: $4.99 for the IKEA 365+ set, $2.99 for the Aptitlig, and $4.99 for the Proppmätt.
Upgrade Your RV Organization
These RV IKEA items can provide some significant upgrades to life in your rig, from cooking and cleaning to organization. These affordable and sustainable picks take up less space but offer serious improvements in the basics of daily life. Pick them up, and you may find yourself loving them even more than those delicious Swedish meatballs!
Instead of using cutting boards that need to be washed after each use, especially for any meat or fish products, I look for thick, multi-page magazines that are free. They are everywhere. I make sure I get good clean magazines that are fresh from the printer (printer magazine paper is clean (cleaner than used cutting boards). I tear off the top and bottom pages and then use the magazine as a cutting board. I’m careful to not cut too hard, so I don’t end up with a lot of paper shreds. If I do start to rip up the paper, I simply tear off the pages and toss them in the trash. When I finish cutting up veggies or whatever, I tear off the used pages an put the magazine in a big clean zip lock bag, until the next use. Cutting boards are very difficult to clean in an RV and make a big water splash mess. Using a magazine as a cutting board provides numerous benefits. No waste of water to clean it, no splash mess from washing it, a new clean surface for cutting each time,easy to store the magazine away in a drawer or can be rolled up and popped into two big coffee mugs on the top and bottom for easy storage, also light-weight – and it can be used as a pot trivet to set a hot pot down on it.
I also use the magazine as a surface protector when I mix pancake batter. I mix it in a small disposable soup bowl on top of the magazine. The drips from the wet batter and also pancake powder falls on the magazine page. When I’m done, I just rip off the top page and throw it away with the disposable paper soup bowl. That way I don’t wash any of it down the kitchen sink into the gray tank (reduces potential for accumulation of stuff and smells). I always look for the oversize magazines.