Snug as a Bug - Keeping Sheets on the Bed in a Camper

Well, it's been awhile since I posted. We just finished a 54 day trip from Texas through Florida up the east coast to Washington DC and back through North Carolina.

I'm going to show you a very simple way to keep your sheets nice and neat and tucked in on your bed.

After kayaking with the manatees, hubby & I headed to the east coast of Florida and kayaked with alligators. Yes, that is a real alligator and yes, we had to kayak right past him and yes, he slid into the water toward us  just as we approached but fortunately  the water is murky and I couldn't see him swimming toward me. If I had, I really would have cried. As it was, I barely maintained my brave kayaker face as I paddled as fast as I could.

 After this , we north to Washington DC and spent a week touring all the Smithsonian museums. It was marvelous! And one of the most marvelous things was all the dangerous animals were taxidermied.  We dry camped for 9 days at Greenbelt Park, a great National Park that is only 12 miles from the national mall. Unfortunately, because it's a national park there are no water or electric hookups. Thank heaven there are now hot showers which is a great improvement from when I came here years ago.

Food trucks on the mall...all serving gyros!!

Anyway, to the point of this post. I think one of the most important things to keep your sanity is to get a good night's sleep. So, we replaced our mattress with a memory foam mattress and a down comforter which is so luxurious to fall into after a long day of hiking through the mountains or through the Museums. Please excuse the pictures, I took them while we were camping with the idea that I would actually get them posted while we were on the road...

Because our mattress is bounded almost completely by walls, it's extremely hard to get the top sheet under the mattress so that it will stay on. Here's an easy fix for any bed that's hard to make up!

Simply make a channel along the bottom at the top sheet and slip a piece 1/2 inch PVC pipe through it. When you tuck this PVC pipe down at the end of the bed, it will hold the sheet securely and keep it from coming loose while you're sleeping.

For a standard queen-size bed, you can use a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" PVC pipe bet

ween 40 and 50 inches long. The measurement doesn't have to be exact, it just needs to be shorter than the width of your bed. Measure your mattress to make sure it's a standard queen size which is 60" x 80". Many RV and camper mattresses are not standard size. If it is not standard size, adjust your pipe to be about 10"-20" shorter than the width of the mattress.

First,  fold up  about 8 to 10 inches  at the foot of the top sheet. Play around to see what length works best for you.  Depends on how high you like to pull the sheet while you sleep. The fold should go  where the sheet hits  the board at the base of the mattress. Sew along the fold about 2 inches from the edge to create a channel. I found it works best to sew from one side of the sheet to the other, even the the PVC pipe is not that long. It makes it a lot easier to fold the sheets.

Next, slip the PVC into the pocket and shove it down at the foot of the bed. There you have it! A snug bed for comfortable sleep.

I did a lot of research to get a camper with a standard bed, so our bottom sheet fits fine. If your camper has a smaller than standard bed, which most of them have, or an oddly-shaped mattress, you can use elastic on the corners to hold the bottom sheet down. You can either sew the elastic on across the corners, or buy elastic clips ready-made.

Now, I need to go look through the camper to find a couple more projects before we leave to head south to the beach!

Life's better outside!

Liz