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We covered basic motorhome ski essential kit in our blog titled 'Our Zero BS Motorhome Ski Check List' (now renamed 15 Essential Items You Need for Your Motorhome Skiing Trip) which caused consternation with some in the motorhome community. Why? Because we think there are a number of things that people call 'essential kit' that's total nonsense. Our feelings haven't changed on the topic of glue guns and inflatable mattresses and if you want to read about some of the other daft things people think you should take, check it out here. As a follow up from that blog, and inspired by someone more organised than we are (Wandering Bird - follow her), there are a few things that we have on our motorhome ski road trip that might not immediately spring to mind and you may find useful. Some of them we came across purely by accident, some of them were strategic purchases - all of them are invaluable to us - here they are and we've included a few options that were in our short list. Here are our 5 Useful Things You Didn't Know You Needed For Your Motorhome Ski Adventure: Draining Mat Jet Boil Assorted Bungee Chords A Sledge A Bin Draining Mat This was a gift and honestly, the thought of not having it, or one like it, brings us out in a sweat. You do not have enough surface area in your motorhome to drain washing up - fact. Unless you have an RV or staff (and therefore don't care about such domestic nonsense) then you need one of these. You can thank us later. Here's the one Kev and Helen got us as a 'going away present' (they knew we had no idea what we were doing back then) - you can pick it up on Amazon here. Lakeland Drying Mat - Best thing ever Jet Boil Why would we need one of these? We have a three burned hob, a grill and an oven. Trust us. The reality is three burner hobs are useless. You can only ever use two burners at once (ask any motorhomer) and it's great to have another burner if you're making proper meals. Jetboil is also the most efficient way to boil water taking approximately half the time of conventional kettles and if you're travelling and you fancy a cuppa this will be your favourite toy - meaning no need to get out of the motorhome or van to turn the gas on and off. There are a million accessories for the Jetboil system and you run the risk of becoming part of the Jetboil fan-cult but it's a cool place to be. Video below and the Jetboil we rock is: the Flash Jet Boil (we also have the cafetière plunger as an accessory) - check the current price here on Amazon. Assorted Bungee Chords Ok - so you've probably got a few of these doing something in your motorhome but if you're on a motorhome ski adventure you need more. And even then you won't have enough. You need a variety of sizes and lots of the smaller light weight ones. If you can get one like this (click this link or the picture to take you to these ones), you'll save yourself a world of pain trying to untangle the worlds most temper flaring octopus of doom. Binding our electric cables Binding our hose Strapping our ramps together Strapping our screen cover down Binding skis and snowboards to all our other kit Strapping water bowsers to our snowboard-sledge Internal drying line between cupboards A sledge Bear with... We have an old snowboard that does exactly the same job as a sledge but in lieu of one of these you'll be going out and paying well over the odds for one in resort once you see people utilising theirs! Because almost everyone drains their grey water straight out of their motorhome, you have a container to shift. If you don't want to be doing it every time you wash a cup, you need a container too heavy to carry. You can get a fancy grey water tank with wheels but these are a total nightmare when frozen solid and are best left at home. So a sledge is what you need. If you can fit a Bernease mountain dog in your van, get one of these too because they are very good at towing and make marvellous hot water bottles. We use a 'slider' (make sure you get an adult one - this is the only one we could find on Amazon that had a decent diameter) because you can get them with flat bottoms like this one - which makes balancing things far easier and the whole towing activity more successful. They're just a bit more forgiving than a normal sledge. Conventional sledges are fine if you have one but don't forget your bungee chord as you'll need these for strapping stuff in! Sledge is for: Dragging water containers to fill up or empty Dragging your toilet cassette for emptying (you don't want to break the wheels on ice surfaces or potholes) Shopping Getting drunk partners home Mechanics sled A bin Nobody can explain to us why so many motorhomes do not have integrated bins. If you do know, please let us know. Even if you do have some sort of clever bin, you need one of these if you're in the Alps because you have to separate your recycling and the penalty for not doing so is certain death. France in particular is awesome at this. Bravo. We have a 10L Simple Human bin that hooks over one of our doors - if we'd known how brilliant it is, we'd have got 2. Big enough to be useful and small enough to make you get off your bum and take the rubbish out each night meaning no lingering bin smells. You get what you pay for - very robust and cheaper imitations simply aren't anywhere near as good. So there you have it - a list of weird stuff we find useful. But don't go anywhere without a draining mat. If you want to read up on more stuff we think is a game changer - and stuff we just like (or don't!) check out Tested by Winterised where we have separated gear into motorhome specific stuff and then lots of individual reviews you might find interesting if you're looking for specific tried and tested feedback. https://www.winterised.com/tested-by-winterized/ Affiliate Information - stuff we have to tell you. This site is owned and operated by Winterised. Winterised product reviews are unbiased, independent advice you can trust. On some occasions, we earn revenue if you click the links and buy the products, but we never allow this to bias our coverage and it never negatively impacts the price you pay for any product or service. All reviews are compiled through a mix of experience based opinion and real-world testing. 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