9 Hidden Spots in Your RV You Need to Remember to Clean [PDF Checklist]

If you’re like me and your RV cleaning typically looks like a wipe and sweep, then you probably need a good mid season deep clean like we did!

In the chaos of use, unpacking and repacking it’s pretty easy to do that quick wipedown and sort of forget about these other spots! I know I tend to look over things because I’m so used to my cleaning routine that I’m almost on auto! However my husband does have a more keen eye, so we put together a list of spots we wanted to focus on with this “deep cleaning” RV session.

This stuff definitely doesn’t need to be done after every trip, or perhaps only once a season if you don’t have kids! I did want to show you guys some surprising spots that some ickies built up in!

Here we go!

P.S. If you’re here for that spiffy checklist, you can sign up for it at the bottom of this article and I’ll send it on over!

HOW TO CLEAN RV FOR USE WITH PRINTABLE CHECKLIST

Here’s the video of MY camper deep clean for some motivation!!

Under the bench seats (if yours are removable for storage)

I discovered this one by accident while showing my mom where we store some extra things! HOLY COW were there alot of cheerios and other various items! It seems items had been pushed to the edge of the cushion and managed to fall under the piece of wood that the cushion sits on down into the bowels of the camper!

This one is easy enough to do with a vacuum, luckily. I did, however, find a couple of lost crayons so that is a bonus!

how to deep clean a camper
If you have kids, this will make sense to you! If you don’t, you might not even have to clean this spot (I think ALL of these items were kid generated!)

The kitchen stove top vent fan cover

So you probably wiped down the hood over the burners, and maybe even took the the tops off of the burners to get underneath them. But did you look up under the hood and see that sticky vent fan cover?

It’s definitely a place that can trap smells (this is even truer if you tend to cook in your camper!) so take it off and use some powerful grease cutting soap and scrub it all off!

cleaning the kitchen vent cover in an rv
Dawn dish soap and a good scrub brush will get the grease right off your camper stove top fan cover!

The drip pan in your RV refrigerator

Am I the only one who thinks RV refrigerators seem to just hold any and all smells? I definitely make sure that I wipe out the entirety of the fridge with an antibacterial wipe after each trip.

Even if nothing spilled, for whatever reason, mold seems to develop once you turn it off and the tiny particles just sit in there!

HOWEVER, I do think that if you dump and clean your drip pan every time, it can reduce the smelliness of your refrigerator!

I use an antibacterial wipe in a pinch, but it might be beneficial to actually wash this guy in the dishwasher if you have the time (as well as the rest of the items that are removable!)

P.S. if you struggle with your RV fridge still being smelly, you should definitely check out these handy camper fridge deodorizers that take up hardly any space… but work!

smelly rv fridge clean drip pan
Not sure what the brown is, but it certainly came out once I dumped the water and cleaned it out!

Along the edges of the kitchen counter and sink

If you tend to keep a couple of items against the walls in your kitchen (spices, cookware, cords for electronics etc) then you should definitely actually move everything away from the wall to clean behind it!

I also found alot of gunk in between the sink and the faucet – I really thought I was good about reducing any splashing because I’m paranoid about warping the wall or counter, but there was a surprising amount of cleaning to do in the area from splash outs!

cleaning camper kitchen tips
Oh my…. I thought that I atleast had our counter cleanliness situation down!

Under the sink drain strainer

Those things are so small that it’s hard to clean them with even your finger and a paper towel (which is my normal cleaning routine!)

I instead got a Q tip for between the drain “arms” (not sure what the extensions from the middle of the drain to the sides of the drain are called) and a very tiny kids toothbrush to really scrub the sides off!

cleaning rv kitchen sink
EWWW I know! All these pictures are PRE-CLEAN, so don’t worry, I took care of this!

Bottom of the tub (especially if you typically use this as storage!)

Firewood storage, kid toy storage, overflow food storage… all are different things my RV tub has turned into! So you bet that at the bottom of everything there was a bit to clean out!

I always sort of procrastinated cleaning it out because that I meant I would have to take EVERYTHING OUT… and after months and months of use, quite a bit of random stuff had accumulated in it!

cleaning bottom of rv tub
Probably the first time this floor has seen the light of day this season… you guys will be happy to know that a lot of this stuff got removed and DID NOT get put back!

The bathroom vent screen (and fan if needed!)

If yours is caked with dust, then it’s time to clean it! You could definitely take the whole thing off (and then able to access the fan) or simply get a micorfiber cloth!

The best method seems to first wipe off what you can dry, then wet it and get the rest off!

cleaning camper bathroom vent screen
I hope your camper bathroom vent screen is as easy to pop off and clean as ours is!

The AC evaporator coils

You might have a filter on yours that keeps alot of the stuff out (for some reasons our doesn’t!) but it’s good to check these coils! Ours were filthy!

While there are plenty of VERY in depth ways to clean them, the easiest way while still getting a good clean is to get a brush such as a nail cleaning brush or a hair brush (the kind with actual bristles) and brush DOWN with the grain!

This will get alot of the gunk off and might even improve how your AC works!

I’ve included a video of someone using this method below!

Tip: I didn’t have a nail brush, but I did find that a boar bristle brush like this gets the job done fast and doesn’t break the bank!

how to clean ac coils in camper or rv
I kind of hated sacrificing my boar bristle hair brush to clean this, but then again, I hadn’t used the thing in like 5 years anyways!

Against walls where you *think* you have good organization in place!

We use a shoe bin and a shelf near the entrance of our camper. But, unsurprisingly at this point, we found a lot of things that had fallen off the shoes or fell between the wall and the shelf!

I definitely recommend getting a vacuum and then finishing with a wet rag to get everything out! General sweeps aren’t normally good enough to get that dust and crud that’s stuck against the wall!

deep cleaning camper tips
I was looking for this darn hitch pin! Deep cleaning isn’t ALL bad! =P

What was the most surprising hidden dirty spot you found in your camper? Leave it in the comments below!

Let me know, I’d love to add it to the list! This kind of deep clean is really good for prep before storage, or really just mid season if you have been going out camping alot!

Get this RV deep cleaning checklist so that you don’t miss these spots like I did this whole time!

I didn’t even think of some of these spots in the camper, and it honestly does smell alot better now (there seemed to always be a food smell that suck around before!)

Get the checklist with bonus areas to look out for below (don’t worry the watermark will be removed for you guys on my list!)

rv deep clean checklist


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4 thoughts on “9 Hidden Spots in Your RV You Need to Remember to Clean [PDF Checklist]”

  1. I take my vent covers off and wipe out the duct work a couple times a simmer. With them in the floor it gets gross in there. And the filter for the air conditioner as well

    Reply
    • Thank you Christine! Head to the sign up page here to subscribe and then you’ll get the pw to the resource library (where is where the rv deep clean checklist is and lots of other cool camping stuff!)

      Please let me know if you have any other questions. Thank you for reading!! – Stacy

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