Preventing breakage

DMattern

While we await delivery of our T@B 400 we are planning out what we'll need (we are new to RVing). While the cabinets latch we are worried about stuff like dishes, drinking ware, etc. rattling around on the road and breaking. We'd rather not use plastic if we can avoid it. What do people do to prevent or minimize breakage?

CrabTab

We bought enamelware. Golden Rabbit brand (goldenrabbit.com) has many nice designs, albeit expensive. Not a good option if you're using a microwave though...

[Deleted User]

I started out with enamelware 7 years ago used them a few times the first year and found I REALLY hated washing dishes in tiny sink so years 2-6 have been all paper plates and plastic utensils! Bonus....it makes for good fire starter material.   I do still keep three place settings of enamelware and silverware for foods like steak but that's "rare".

Oh and don't forget the red dixie cups! All burns perfectly in fire when you're done!

Binghi

We use melamine dishes and hard plastic glasses. We also use ceramic coffee/tea mugs. If you keep those in the relatively confined cabinet space to the right of the microwave along with non-breakable items, they won’t bounce around enough to break.

One thing to watch out for is the heavy glass microwave dish. If you accidentally leave the microwave door ajar, it can slide out on the road, hit the floor, and break. Even if it doesn’t slide out, it will bang around inside the microwave. Before we take off, we put something under the dish to keep it from sliding. A hot pad works well.

tabiphile

Unless you are backpacking there is no good reason to feel like you are always roughing it or being wasteful, Corelle is a great way to go. The dishes stack really well and are pretty bomb proof. Our coffee mugs and glasses are ceramic and heavy glass. Who wants to drink coffee from a chintzy cup or whiskey from plastic? When you travel a few judiciously placed towels, and some careful placement of the more breakable items does the trick. Always pack the heavier items at the lowest level. There is no reason to obsess over a few pounds of weight.

Denny16

Paper plates and cups can also be composted.  We use a combination of paper ware and use melamine plates under the paper plates, to make them easier to handle.  We have a cup rack installed for ceramic cups, packed with dish towels to prevent rattling.  You can get felt dish and pan protectors/separators to prevent rattling and breakage, which we use with are cooking pans.  We use Tupperware we already had for food storage, along with some silicone containers, that work like Zip Bags, but can be reused.

You can also get marine dishes designed for use on sailboats, which are similar to melamine, and they have non slip bottoms.
Here is another dish storage idea we use, works well:

Cheers 

Mouseketab

Walmart has picnicware plastic dishes 88 cents for four. They have plates, bowls, cups, serving bowls, and serving platters. They are cheap, colorful, and lightweight, we use them in the microwave. They do get scratched up with steak knives, but they are so cheap, we replace them every few years.

Denny16

Be careful, plastic ware will out gas in a microwave.  I do not use the melamine in a microwave either.  We use a glass dish we bring along to use in the Microwave, and the heavy type paper plates work well also.  You can also get some silicone containers that clean easily and can be used in a microwave.

Here is a set of silicone bowls and collapsing silicone tea pot, and nesting bowls that have lids for food storage, we store these bowls in the over head galley locker:

 Cheers 

bergger

We pack our cabinets with breakables and non breakables.  We have a couple of soft accent pillows on our bed that we then put in the cabinets and close the doors on them .  Keeps everything nice and tight and cushioned. Over all the rough roads and general traveling we've never had one thing break.  

Denny16

The positive locking latches on the newer TaBs is nice.  On the 2018 and 2019 TaB400, the latches were household type jam latches, that will come open on rough roads.  This was discovered the our TaBs first trip to Burning Man in the California desert.  The first owners of our TaB who made this trip (then sold the YaB afterwards) added strap latches to keep the cabinets closed.  I forgot to latch one once, and found the flatware holder that was in the top cabinet on the floor.  Here is the strap latch:

This strap keeps the doors closed, and then some…

Cheers