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James Thomas, Belen, New Mexico
More Storage From Empty Space
2013 Ford F-350
2020 Northern Lite 10-2 EX LE
We’ve all seen wasted and unused space in our campers. I look at underutilized space as an opportunity to improve our storage and maybe bring more items that we will use on the road.
In a previous TCM mod, we improved our pantry space immensely. We have since gone on to better utilize the space of two of our cabinets in our Northern Lite 10-2EX.
The first cabinet is located in the forward bedroom area; a hanging clothes closet. I sectioned the closet with a 1/2 inch plywood shelf and created a hidden area in the closet bottom where many appliances are stored as well as other items; deep fryer, mixer, crock pot, grill, dog polls, large fry pan with lid, toaster, and a small backpack.
Seventeen inches of the bottom of the closet is now home to a lot of stuff not used often, but occasionally needed and easily accessed. It’s a nice hiding spot, too!
There are two complete rain suits now stored in the upper section of the closet as well as a long basket with stuff behind the rain suits. See the extra space left? That’s room for another shelf, if needed.
The second closet is another closet I sectioned using 1/2 inch plywood. It’s home to cleaning and laundry supplies, barbecue utensils, and more space left over. This was a hang-up clothes closet next to the refrigerator but, the area is better utilized with a small shelf for storage. The closet now has two 24-inch deep shelves.
The new shelves are excellent! The clothing closet repurposing has made two areas of the camper easy to access by just adding an inexpensive shelf.
Appliances, cleaning, and barbecue supplies now have easy access with space left over. We still have two large drawers and many cabinets on both sides of the bed being used for clothing when needed. If we need to use the repurposed closets, they are easily back to the factory set-up by removing the shelves.
All materials were bought at Lowes home improvement store.
Materials Used:
1 each – 2×4 foot piece of plywood for shelves
1 each – 8 foot, 1×2 inch for shelf supports
Two small cans of Minwax stain to mix and match the Northern Lite wood colors.
1 small can of satin polyurethane
18 – 1 3/4 inch screws for shelf supports
It took me six hours over two days including staining/polyurethane of the wood shelves/supports. This mod cost me about $40 total cost with lumber left to add the shelf above the rainsuits if needed.
Disclaimer: The modifications above are submitted by Truck Camper Magazine readers. It is your responsibility to make sure that any do-it-yourself modification project you undertake is safe, effective, and legal for your situation.
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