It's tempting to fly through the steps of cutting and assembling materials for that new bed frame or any other build project. This talk is about the how and why of protecting yourself while building.

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12 Volt Refrigerators for Campervans

80/20 Aluminum Extrusion on Amazon

👍 Campervan Storage Ideas and Cleaning Tips

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It's easy to let dirt get out of control in the campervan.

I'll help you make it easy to maintain a clean and tidy living space while out on the road.

Episode Transcript

How do I keep my camper van clean?

I find it a constant struggle to keep loose dirt under control in the van, especially my current mini camper. In some ways that's an advantage.

The bigger the van, the easier it is to lose track of messes.

But it's so easy to allow some dirt to accumulate on the floor, and then pretty soon it's in the bedding and then it winds up in cooking gear or wherever

And so try to be constantly vigilant and at war against little piles of dirt here and there, wherever they may come from.

Typically, it's shoes. It could also be something like mountain bike wheels or beach gear, or whatever your sport is… hiking shoes, hiking boots whatever. I mean, it's so easy to track dirt in.

I have a, a little stunt kite I carry around and that thing will sometimes be half full of sand when I bring it in.

Camper Van Cleaning Super Powers

My superpower tools for keeping dirt under control are

• Whisk broom

• Small dust pan

• Handheld 12 volt vacuum cleaner

I keep a whisk broom and dust pan behind the seat pocket in my van. That means it's always within reach. So, that's nice.

And when I see, oh geez, I tracked something in, I can real quick grab the broom and either just whisk it outside or it has a dust pan with it.

And then of course the vacuum cleaner is just awesome. It's so great. When I see some dirt or even if I don't see it, I'll run the 12 volt rechargeable vacuum cleaner over the floor real quick every once in a while.

You can even run it over your dashboard, door panels and pockets and center console… Through your drawer of cooking gear or whatever… any storage box anywhere, you can run that vacuum cleaner through there and reduce dust and dirt very quickly.

But if that's not charged up, I'll grab the whisk broom or if it's just a small mess.

You can head over to Vansage.com and just use the search function to search for “vacuum” and you'll see some of our recommended products for that.

And I'll put the, a link in show notes to camper van storage ideas, an article we wrote with lots of cool cleaning tips as well.

The Number One cause of dirt in your Camper Van

What else? Shoes. This is the next kind of main point here with regard to loose dirt management: How to deal with shoes.

I actually try not to wear shoes in the van at all, and definitely not in the living area. And I'll wear sandals or slippers up front during a long drive.

You know, shoes nasty. No matter how clean they look, they're down on the ground all the time when you're walking around and they're picking up gawd knows what.

And so I'm really diligent about what I do with my shoes when I come in the van.

I try to take them off and then I put them in some kind of a sealed container. And by sealed I just mean, with a lid or in a plastic bag.

And I actually store all my shoes in a plastic bin. That way they're not banging around on the floor and having dirt knocked off of...

✅ Laveo Dry Flush Toilet Pricing and Product Details

Laveo Dry-Flush Toilet owner Doug Rice interview

What we talked about in this episode:

• Background of Doug Rice in the printing industry
• Doug's acquisition of the Dry Flush Toilet company
• The creation and manufacture of the Dry Flush Toilet
• Dry Flush Toilet diversity and use in a multitude of scenarios and environments

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👉 Take a Vanlife TEST DRIVE! HOW TO RENT a CAMPERVAN

Transcript for Episode #139 of The Campervan Podcast. Interview with Doug Rice of Laveo Dry-Flush Portable Toilets

After a successful career as a groundbreaking entrepreneur in the printing industry, Doug Rice bought a portable toilet company called Laveo Dry Flush, where he continues to exercise his generous, creative approach to business growth.

Please enjoy this candid discussion and glimpse into the methods and experience of a true industry leader and innovator.

James Petersen (author, interviewer): So, Doug Rice! Can we start at the start? You were in the printing business?

Doug Rice, owner of the Laveo Dry-Flush Toilet Company: Yes. In 1979, I graduated from college, went to go to work for my father's packaging company, and he did not have an opening for me and he said, why don't you go start your own company.

Labels like for cupcakes, labels for soup, labels in the grocery stores, shipping labels...

So I basically did that and he thought in one year I'd be broke and I'd come back to him and he'd have an opening.

Well, the interesting thing about the label industry, there's about six label companies on every corner in every city. So I did not realize the competition was so fierce. Very early on, I decided to change the model.

Back then in 1979, 1980, delivery was three weeks minimum. I decided to be five days or less all the time. And everyone thought it would fail. I couldn't maintain that level of service, but I realized I had no plan B, I just couldn't compete with all these people, and not manufacturing labels for the first five years made even more difficult.

So, For 38 years, we ran five days or less, and grew the company exponentially with a plant in Connecticut, plant in North Carolina, shipping cross country.

I traveled all over the country picking up accounts because the onset of club stores made the demand for hurry up and make me some brownies for say, Sam's Club.

The suppliers had a tough time getting labels in time and we always came through including putting a person on an airplane to send 'em across the country with labels just to get them through on time.

We did whatever it took, and it paid off large dividends.

James: Wow, interesting. Briefly, can you give, give us an idea of, of how you overcame that?

Sounds like a longstanding framework that had been place for a long time. There must have been a reason for that. And so how did you kind of beat that problem?

Doug Rice: It's very good analogy, going to the doctor. You're never the only one in the waiting room.

Because doctors like to stack up a waiting room because they don't wanna miss any billing minutes. So conversely, on our label printing operations, no one wants their printing presses to go idle. So they stack up jobs three,...