We love sharing our best RV tips and fixes with the world, but here’s something that we need your help figuring out. Can you fix our messy RV closet?
This Messy RV Closet is Getting Old
I have a feeling this problem is specific to fifth wheel owners with closets in the back of their rigs. If this is you, read on.
Do your clothes end up on the bottom of your closet after driving? Ours do. And over in the bathroom, our towels fly off the tension rod we installed over the bathtub.
This never happened in our other awesome Arctic Fox 245N fifth wheel. Even though it was smaller, that rig had a big wardrobe closet and bathroom. Both were placed directly over the RV axles, which I think is the reason things on hangars stayed put.
Our current Arctic Fox 275B has one small closet placed against the back wall of the RV, and the bathroom is back there too. Both are located far from the axles, in the bounciest part of the rig. And after four years of living with this mess that greets us every time we roll to a stop, I still haven’t been able to find a good solution to prevent it.
My current hack solution is to use bungee cords to tie down the hangars. I also tried using Velcro tie-down strips. But both improvisations are a tedious hassle whenever we need to get a jacket or use the shower. Every time I put them up or take them down, I find myself saying “There’s got to be a better way!”
Dear reader with the bouncy closet and bath, do you know of a better way to handle our messy RV closet? If so I’d love to know about your RV closet organization ideas!
Our previous home had a closet in the very back and we had the same problem. Hanging the hangers backwards pretty much eliminated the problem. Only really rough roads caused a few things to fall. We also installed an 1 1/2” wooden dowel for a new hanger rod with heavy duty hardware. It was much stronger with less bounce than original RV closet parts. We used it that way for 6+ years with no problem.
Great idea, thanks! Hope you guys are well…
Seems like I read somewhere that if the hangers are hung back to front they won’t jump off..never tried it as ours never drop but maybe it’s worth a try.
Now that’s a new one Marilyn, thanks! I like the fastest and least expensive method to try first, we’ll give it a go when we leave here. I’ll report back!
We use a support post used for hanging sheetrock. It was put under the middle of the rod in the closet and tightened. Works great. We bought at amazon.
I’d love to see a link for that one Cyndee, I’m not finding anything like it. Sounds super promising, thanks!
When you pack up to leave, place a tension rod directly over pole that the hangers are are hanging on. If the tension rod is strong enough, the hangers won’t be able to jump off. When you arrive at your destination, remove the tension rod for your normal use of the hangers.
Now that is a great idea for the bathroom. Thanks! Any thoughts about our small closet? I’m wondering if I can find one small enough to fit in there. Hmmm.
I haven’t had the issue with hangers falling down but towels were an issue. I sewed a short piece of elastic halfway down side of the towels. Then I hang them on deep hooks. That seems to have solved the problem.
I hope this helps.
Oh that’s a cute idea Patti! Thanks.
Howdy, here are a few suggestions. We do not have the same model, our AF has the closet in front, BUT we broke the rod a few times, then the shelf, too, so I have some experience with finding my clothes and stuff all over the floor. First, keeping clothes on hangers: use the Joy Manjano (sp?) huggable hangers to keep the clothes on. Then, could you mount a tension rod over the front side of the pole to hold the hangars in place? If not then you might need to mount some pieces of wood to hang down from the top to create the pressure spots you need for the tension bar(s) so that they have a place to hold into. Finally, for our towels, we don’t use a bar to hang them, we ended up getting some command hooks, the nice metal decorative kind and hang our towels from them, or a hook rack mounted on the bathroom door and hang towels over that. If you want I have pictures of both options. Good luck!!
Hey Laura, I think that you and Lauren are onto something with the tension rod concept, thank you, that is something that I can see working in our closet, as long as I can find a tension rod small enough to fit. I’ve never heard of those hangars but I’ve sure seen the knock-offs, thanks for the tip. And yeah I’d love to see photos. If you want, just post a link to the pics in a comment, or you can email them to me when you get a chance.