Motorhomes are a wonderful way to see the world. The confined spaces can make it harder to clean a motorhome—especially if you have pets. Living or travelling a lot in a motorhome means that the mess builds up, and if there’s mess in a small, confined space then it can feel like a lot more mess than in a house. These tips will help keep your motorhome or campervan neat and tidy.
For us, a tidy space = a tidy mind and we think it’s really important to keep our motorhome clean and tidy so that we can enjoy living and travelling full time in our tiny home on wheels.
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How to Clean a Motorhome When You’re on the Road
Like any other house, a motorhome needs cleaning every now and then. But if you’re on the road most of the time, how can you keep things tidy? The secret is to keep up with the basics.
Take care of the things you can do daily and weekly, and you’ll reduce the need to spend hours doing deep cleans, taking away from the time you could be spending outdoors exploring your destination.
Daily: Dust, sweep, and wipe down surfaces. Empty bins regularly to reduce waste odours.
As you’ll know, storage space is at a minimum in a motorhome so take the time to makes sure that everything has its own place. This way, you can put everything away after you’ve used it and reduce the amount of clutter around the motorhome.
Keep on top of washing up your dishes. This way you won’t have lots of dirty dishes all over your surfaces and taking up your sink space.
Weekly: Vacuum the floor and furniture. Wipe down drawers, cabinets, and shelves. Dust those awkward to reach spots.
If you have a bathroom in your motorhome, give that a clean.
Clean mirrors with glass cleaner.
Change sheets and pillowcases every two weeks.
Wash your motorhome’s exterior
You want to make sure your motorhomes exterior is clean.
When you’re travelling a lot, whatever the season, it can be difficult to keep the exterior of your motorhome clean.
In the summer, roads and motorways are dusty.
In the winter, the cold and wet weather can mean that roads are more muddy, meaning it’s easy for your motorhome to get covered in mud.
Use a cleaning solution that’s safe for your motorhome’s exterior, just as you would take care of the paintwork of your car.
You can use a hosepipe and a microfibre sponge.
Follow up with a drying cloth so you don’t leave water streaks behind. You can also take this opportunity to remove any scratches that you may have picked up on your travels with scratch remover and a microfibre cloth.
Also clean your windows, windscreen and wing-mirrors with glass cleaner and a microfibre cloth.
Deep-clean your motorhome’s interior
How to clean a motorhome’s interior depends on its condition.
If you’re deep cleaning it because you’re travelling and want to keep your home tidy, follow these guidelines:
Take out all drawers and cabinets and wipe down their contents.
Vacuum the floor and carpets. I use a hand-held vacuum in our motorhome, and I also use a dustpan and brush to keep on top of the daily sweeping.
If the carpets have stains and marks, then you can a carpet stain remover to keep them clean and you can also use a pressure washer to clean these too.
Dr. Beckmann Carpet Stain Remover
Use a damp cloth and anti-bacterial cleaner to wipe down the surfaces.
Open up the curtains and windows to get fresh air inside.
Clean the bathroom and kitchen with disinfecting products. I use diluted Zoflora to clean the surfaces in our motorhome and I also use Flash Bathroom to clean our bathroom. I then put a cap full of neat Zoflora down the plug holes also. I use the pet friendly Zoflora in our motorhome as we travel with our dog.
Zoflora Fresh Home, Green Valley 500ml, Concentrated Disinfectant
For more information on how to clean your motorhome toilet, check out our more detailed blog post – What Can I Use To Clean My Motorhome Toilet?
Get rid of pet odours in your Motorhome
If you have pets, you know how difficult it is to completely eliminate pet odours in a motorhome.
You can clean the carpets and surfaces, but sometimes the smell will linger.
To get rid of pet odours in your motorhome:
Vacuum your motorhome thoroughly. Throw out or empty the vacuum bag after you’re done.
Place baking soda or activated charcoal in a bowl and leave it in the motorhome for 48 hours to elimintate odours.
Open all the windows to let fresh air flow through.
Use Febreeze Fabric Pet Odour Eliminator on your soft furnishings such as your sofas, blankets, cushion covers and bedding.
Febreze Fabric Freshener Spray Pet 375ML
Wash soft furnishings like blankets, cushion covers, bedding and pet beds regularly.
Use Glade Automatic Spray air fresheners in the motorhome to keep it smelling nice.
Glade Sense & Spray Air Freshener Diffuser & 3 Refills
Get your pet a drying robe to put on them when they come back into the van if they get wet outside. This stops them from getting the smell of wet dog on your soft furnishings.
Also, clean your pet when they come into the motorhome from being outside. Wipe their paws to stop them bringing mud or anything they may have picked up on their paws into your motorhome.
Can you pressure wash a motorhome
You can, but you may not want to.
Most motorhomes have exteriors made from fiberglass. This is a sturdy material, but it is also very porous. Pressure washing it can damage the surface.
You need to assess the condition of your motorhome and what it is made out of before you decide whether you use a pressure washer on it. If you do decide to, then you need to be careful of the seals on the windows and doors as water can come through to the interior of your motorhome.
How to clean a motorhome awning
Depending on the type of awning on your motorhome, you can either clean it with a mild soap and water solution or use a commercial awning cleaner. If you use soap, be sure to rinse it thoroughly to avoid staining and residue build-up. For awning cleaning products, follow the instructions on the packaging.
PROTEX Caravan & Motorhome Awning & Tent Cleaner 500ml
Conclusion
These tips will help you clean a motorhome and keep it clean over time. The key is to clean on a regular basis, so you don’t have to do a major deep cleaning every week. The less time you spend cleaning, the more time you have to explore new places and make new memories.
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I have always wanted to travel and luckily I always got to travel to some amazing countries while I was growing up with my family and this really encouraged me to continue this and get out into the world on my own when I was older.
My goal growing up was really to see as much of the world as I could, but then I started going to work and really concentrating on my career and travel took a back seat. I still tried to get away a few times a year but I always knew there was an end goal which was to travel as much as possible.
So I got my head down and worked as hard as I could as an e-commerce manager. I have always been techy, I love computers and websites, so that’s where it gave me the idea to start this blog and also have my own web design agency. If you want to check it out or need any help then please take a look rrwebdesign.co.uk (shameless plug there)
But after covid, we both knew this was now the right time to take the leap and go and see the world after being trapped inside our house and working from home for a couple of years. We realised more than ever that you only get one life and you really need to make the most of it and do what you love!
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