5 Tips to Keep your Equipment Clean with Toddlers
The other day, we saw an older gentlemen cleaning his camper and truck at the campground immediately after he arrived. My husband and I looked at each other and laughed - imagining that possibility with toddlers is nearly impossible! But also, how refreshing would that be?! It is so difficult to keep up with anything when you travel full time with toddlers, let alone cleaning your truck and camper. However, here are our tips to keep up with it so it doesn’t get completely out of control!
Perform Maintenance
I’m not talking vehicle maintenance, I’m talking the simple act of removing items from the truck from the day’s adventure including clothing, gear, water bottles, toys, backpacks, and trash. We remove everything (besides the items we always keep in the truck - like toys, diapers, baby wipes, carseat food trays, etc.) every adventure/travel day. If I don’t get to it while my kids are awake, I do it after they go to bed. When you do it daily the task only takes maybe 5-10 minutes.
Spot Clean
For the truck and camper, using a no water cleaning solution goes a looong way. Often times, campgrounds don’t like you washing your vehicles and this helps you get by. We use Wax Wash All, and it’s seriously impressive. Purchase using our referral link for 5% off or use our promo code - realizethatdream - at checkout.
Invest in a Shop Vac
We love our Ridgid ProPack Shop Vac! It is extremely powerful and sucks up all the leftover snacks and crumbs in the carseats and truck. This one is also a wet dry vac which has really come in handy when we’ve had leaks in the camper in the past (yes, these were my fault!). This vacuum folds away neatly (no wheels!) which is a requirement in our camper. We actually store this in a watertight bin in our truck on travel days which are stored under the camper when we are stationary.
Wash Your Truck or Camper at Campground
While many places do not want you to wash your vehicle at the campground for a variety of reasons, some places allow it. We’ve stayed at hipcamps that are very accommodating and often times if you are just cleaning a small area (like the bugs off the front of the camper), campgrounds won’t mind. Getting the bugs off the front of your 5th wheel is not really possible unless you invest in some ‘assistance.’ We purchased a Window Washing Kit and it may be one of my husband’s favorite purchases yet!
Deep Clean at a Self Service Wash
We continue to just use spot cleaner and the window washing kit for our camper because the act of taking it plus the truck through the wash is too much work while our toddlers sit in the vehicle for us. We used to do this all the time when we part time traveled, but being in it full time has made this challenging. We’ve considered one of us taking it while the other entertains the kids at a park or indoor play but so far haven’t found enough time around naps to do so. So in the meantime, this strategy is working for the camper.
For the truck, we love the self service washes. When we team up, it takes my husband and I under 15 minutes (which equates to about $15, generally) and the kids are pretty entertained watching us work and the water splash. Our son was scared the first time, but he has warmed up to it as we’ve made it a happy/smiley/silly place. These self services have bug spray which works wonders, tire washes and all around we are pleased with the outcome. Be sure to bring your own drying towels! While we have found some laser washes that can accommodate a dually (few and far between though), they tend to be about the same price as a self service wash and don’t do as well with the crevices and bugs.
We have also heard that some companies will wash/detail your camper for you if you drop it off, but we haven’t fit that into our time/budget nor have we found a place on our itinerary that has this service available.
Bonus Tip: Purchase Rock Tamers
Rock Tamers are another tool you can use to keep your equipment clean and bonus, they protect your equipment from damage from debris spit up by your tires! While we don’t currently have these because our new truck came with big rear mudflaps, we had rock tamers on our last truck/camper setup and they make such a difference.
Do you have any tips we haven’t thought of?!
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