Wet camping - how to keep it clean inside?

[TheRealRoland]

Probably part of winter camping as well - what to do when it rains / snows outside, and keeping the floor dry on the inside.

We spent a weekend in SW WI last weekend, and let's just say it was wet

Our camping spot was just graded, did not have any gravel yet. The car almost got stuck in the mud, was able to slip and slide up/down-hill on the grass; walking in that gloop was even worse

What stuff do you guys keep at / near the door opening to keep the entryway clean of mud, water and other outside debris?

R.

 

[TheRealRoland]

ideas we came up with:
- get a couple of bags of cheap mulch and spread around the stairs into the trailer. Would help drainage
- get some rubber/plastic pavers - helps around the trailer getting some ground to step on and not sink into the mud
- boot tray? however, the trays seen so far are pretty big, and would crowd the 2610ml's entry way
- at the bottom of the stairs, perhaps a boot brush/cleaner? but need to somehow stick it into the ground somewhere
- enough towels that can get dirty, especially to clean off the power cord after some rain, in the mud

 

[Second Chance]

We keep an outside mat at the bottom of the stairs that has the stiffer-than-AstroTurf kind of bristles. We also have a stiff brush (kinda shaped like a clothes iron with the handle on top) on the stairs or in the basement nearby. Just inside the door, there's another "inside" doormat that can be washed. We sometimes cover that with an old towel if things are really bad. We step in the door and immediately take off our shoes and put them in the cubby under the stairs to the bedroom. We haven't needed to do this last thing, yet, but there's a water outlet right by the front door made to accept the flex hose and a spray nozzle. If it's above freezing, we could leave that hooked up to spray off the bottoms of our shoes and clean the outside mat. Of course, that would just add to the wetness. We're often in places that get snow, but we've found that snow and ice aren't nearly as messy... until it starts to melt.

Rob

 

[geotex1]

We have a thick, perforated rubber mat at the bottom of our stairs at all times. If really muddy,, we stand on it and use the spray port hose and jet the mud off before climbing the stairs. Before the luxury of a spray port, just used a trough with water and a long handled scrub brush. Just inside the door we have a rubber-backed carpet mat. This is where shoes come off and get placed in a boot tray. Our tray is 28"x14". We are a family of no shoes in the house whether sticks and bricks or camper. If we camp with snow, I carry a 36" square plastic ribbed shipping pallet, which is super light, 5" tall, and the ribs capture the snow and slop and melt down and drain from the perforations. As for power cord and hose, wipe while reeling or winding. If it's really pouring and muddy, I just toss them in the bed of the truck and clean and stow when home or next stop.

 

[D2Reid]

Floors clean and dry? You aren't camping if you don't have dirty floors. Just kidding. It's always a struggle. Sooo - we have one of those big plastic fold out things from camping world to put down, stops some of the dirt. Then there is the astro turf like rug at the bottom of the stairs. There is a broom on a clip just inside of the door. We have a little shoe rack over a boot tray for summer, and two boot trays for winter.

We buy cheap rugs at wally world, one a 2x3 at the door, and runner that goes down the kitchen (near the entry) to collect stuff. We replace them about 4 times a year. We have a central vac system that is pretty useless but it does have the little sweep into me gate next to the front door under the stairs. It's always amusing when guests step on the boot tray and it lifts up the gate on the vacuum and makes a big motor/sucking sound that scare the crap out of them, of course we know what it is and it doesn't phase us at all...

And we kick our shoes off.

Other than, embrace the dirt, it means you are doing something....

 

[eodenc]

Some of this depends on if we can keep the awning out or not. If out we have a shoe/boot brush and a shoe tray outside and a mat just inside. If awning is in the brush stays out but the tray is just inside the door. We also have a second shoe tray inside the rig as well. We have all this wet or dry since many camp sites have gravel/dirt/sand. And two dogs into the equation and we have towels by the door that we use on them and hang in the shower.

 

[OurNewEra]

We had a similar experience in Ohio earlier this summer and did not have what we needed. After that trip I built a small 'pallet' to out at the bottom of the stairs as a platform up out of the wet/mud.

I did build it out of actual pallet wood so if it gets too wet I can toss it with no loss