Airstream Condiment Storage Solution – Why Vinegar is NOT our Favorite Smell

Continuing on our random journey through our Airstream storage solutions we come to condiment storage. Unlike the bar storage in the last post we didn’t hit this storage solution out of the park on the first shot. In fact we had 2 separate moves (remember we’ve only moved a total of 5 times) where we opened the Airstream after unhitching to find a distinct vinegar smell inside. Yum! I guess vinegar isn’t the worst thing to have spill in transit but it’s not the most pleasant either. Today I’ll walk you through what now works and what we tried that didn’t quite work. Learning experiences shared somehow make them more worthwhile and seem less stupid.

Glass is not recommended in RVs. You can probably imagine why. First you have a moving home, bumping and swerving, and then you add glass?! Nope! So we decided when we moved in to switch out all our glass containers. We bought these handy dandy squeeze bottles, like the ones diners use for ketchup and mustard, and we filled them with apple cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, olive oil, sriracha, and soy sauce. These new bottles work great! It’s just a quick squeeze to dispense yumminess! Now there was a catch that we didn’t think of at the time. These squeeze bottles don’t have caps. This oversight would soon haunt us.

Our VERY FIRST move of the Airstream was from our cul-de-sac at the old sticks and bricks down to the KOA (we count this as our first move since we had moved our stuff in). This is where we discovered our mistake of the missing caps. While Steve and his dad setup Charlie for the first time, I opened up the Airstream to find that the apple cider vinegar bottle at fallen over in transit and leaked out of the overhead cabinet onto the dinette and dinette seat. Luckily we move all the computer under the dinette or the damage would have been worse. I scrubbed down the hard surfaces and took the dinette cushion outside to air out. We had so much going on that day that I didn’t sit down and think through the problem that this incident exposed.

So it happened again. This time during our first move on our own into the desert. We arrived to find that the balsamic vinegar had fallen over and spilled down onto the dinette table and cushion. This spill was much stickier than the last and now the already old stained dinette cushion has even more character (not the good kind). This time we vowed to figure out the solution. We still haven’t found caps for those squeeze bottles but we did find this plastic container for a couple of bucks at Target. It’s tall enough that none of the bottles can fall out of it. It has a handle which makes it easy to bring it in and out of the overhead cabinet. It’s easy to clean! It’s perfect.

What this shows is that sometimes it takes time to figure out the right solution to a problem and the solution can happen in stages. We’re sure as we live in the Airstream longer and start our life of full time traveling not all of our current awesome storage solutions will hold up and we’ll have to come up with something new. That’s okay! It’s all part of the adventure. But for now I am happy with our condiment storage solution, and a home that doesn’t reek of vinegar!