Tips and Tricks

Baby Locks for Drawers and Cabinets

If you are traveling by RV you have probably already realized that the doors and drawers will regularly open and dump stuff all over. Our medicine cabinet in the bathroom, our refrigerator and the drawer under the TV were our worst criminals! They would all open and dump everything all over. You can imagine the mess if your refrigerator opens enroute and the little elastic band the manufacturer put at the top wasn't sufficient! The drawer under the TV slid out and actually broke it's slides loose so we found that dumped all over the back of the RV and had to repair it.

Our solution is simple - baby locks! We bought some strap type baby locks and added some 3M velcro style tape on the end caps so we can lock the strap in the open position also. The straps length are adjustable and we cut them to the necessary length. We haven't had any of those areas open again while enroute! It also does double duty when the Grandkids visit!

Drawer Bottoms Blowing Out!

Another issue we had on the road was the bottom of some drawers blew out. I suppose you could say we had too much weight in there but come on, they should handle a pan or two going down the road!

The drawer's in our Reflections RV have a bottom that is very thin. The sides slide into notches in the sides of the drawer frame but the front and back are merely stapled. Going down the road the staples pulled out and the drawer bowed enough to fall out of the notches along the side.

We used some quarter round molding along the front and back inside the drawer to beef up the support for the bottom. I used small 3/4 inch nails from the inside angled down into the front and back walls and short screws up through the bottom into the molding. That should provide a LOT more strength going down the road and prevent the bottoms from falling out. I preemptively did several of the drawers and hope to do the rest before long.