Use These Pool Noodle Hacks For A Successful RV Adventure

According to an RV Industry Association (RVIA) survey, around 45 million Americans planned a summer RV trip in 2024. Pair that with the many explorers who have chosen to live on the road full time and those who prefer to travel in the off-season, and you've got a lot of RV campers across the country. It feels like more folks are learning clever ways to make their life on wheels easier and safer. And believe it or not, using pool noodles is a creative tip to make your RV feel more like home.

From safety tricks that prevent accidental injuries to nifty hacks that can preserve the longevity of your vehicle or camper itself, pool noodles are surprisingly versatile and serve many different purposes aside from being fun in the water. With some simple upcycling — like cutting the noodle into smaller sections or opening it up — it can make your RV or van life all the better, solving common problems you may encounter on the road. These pool noodle hacks will make your road trip so much easier and free up your mind to enjoy the scenery and your time out on the open road.

The great thing about RV living is that everything is compact and engineered to fold up and away. But when you unfurl your awnings and open your storage doors, you may notice that there are a number of hard edges that you — or worse, a child — can bump into. From sharp corners to hard, metal poles, a camper or RV is riddled with potential accident spots, but pool noodles' soft material and bright colors can help prevent injury. It gives a visual cue to folks around the space to avoid those areas and give it a wide berth, and if for some reason someone still misses the noodle as a warning, it provides a cushion when contact is made.

To make good use of that noodle, cut along the length of it and wrap it around the edges of sharp door edges and window corners. That's it — an easy buffer! If you have a particularly prominent corner that people are running into though, then consider crafting a custom corner bumper out of a noodle as well. Following Youtuber, Downsizing Makes Cents' tutorial, cut a V-shaped incision in the middle of a large pool noodle and fold the noodle into itself so it creates the perfect corner shape. Glue it closed and tape it for good measure to finish off a nifty bumper you can use over and over again.

Surprisingly pool noodles can help increase the longevity of your camper if you think creatively about how to use them. For example, if you plan on parking your RV for an extended period of time, whether it be for storage or to live in while staying in one place, consider wrapping some noodles around your windshield wiper blades to give them a little extra support. Your wipers can get quite brittle or damaged over time, especially if the RV is parked in the sun or has to withstand harsh weather. The noodles act as little environmental protection sleeves for the wipers to make them last.

You can also use these vibrant water toys as protective covers for some of the most important mechanisms in your RV — the pipes. Cut the noodles down to size, and then add an incision lengthwise down the fitted piece. Open the noodle, then wrap it around those exposed pipes and water lines under your camper. This keeps them a bit more insulated to prevent freezing, but also adds a little more protection from other factors, like damage due to rodents.

Tiktoker @fullyremotelifestyle has another big hack for noodles on exterior parts of your camper: Add a brightly colored noodle over the tow hitch. Sticking straight up past your rear window, it gives you an easy visual cue of exactly where the hitch is while reversing. With a bright noodle marking the spot, alignment will be so much easier. 

There may be nothing more annoying on a long road trip than the persistent sound of rattling coming from the back of the RV. That's a fatal design flaw of some RV campers designed without that practicality in mind. So while on the road, you may hear shower doors sliding, shelves rattling, or even the glass plate in the microwave shaking. However, pool noodles can save your loose bits and baubles (and your sanity) with some easy hacks. First, You can use pool noodles to secure your rattling microwave plate and absorb some of that noise. Cut a piece of noodle down to size to fit your microwave either by width or height. Wedge the noodle in whichever orientation you choose in order to secure the plate in place under the noodle. 

A similar strategy can be used for any items that shake on shelves while on the road. Cut the pool noodle up in smaller chunks, and then use those pieces to wedge between items on shelves. If most of the rattling is coming from your fridge, grab a pool noodle for your RV's refrigerator and wedge those smaller pieces between things like soda cans and jars so that it secures those rattlers in place.

The shower door is another culprit that can be loud when in when transit, and if it slams particularly hard, it can be a frightening thing to hear on the road! Secure your shower door open for your drives by wedging a pool noodle between the door and the wall. The noodle acts like a bumper stop for the door, keeping it in place until you're driving.

Sometimes, you'll notice your RV has a bit of a design flaw when it comes to layout and use. For instance, when you're folding the bed down or when you open doors, your cabinet handles may be getting battered accidentally in the process since there's not enough clearance. Add a little extra protection with a pool noodle over the handle when your cabinet handles are getting more wear than you'd like. 

For this simple pool noodle hack, cut the noodle to size, and slice vertically so that it can be opened up to fit around a handle. Cut some additional perpendicular notches in the back to match where the handle is attached to the door for the best fit. Not only does this trick work to prevent things from bumping into the handles and damaging them, it can actually also prevent the handles from rattling while out on the road, not unlike how you can use the noodles to stop your microwave plate from shaking. In some cases, the pool noodles can help wedge your cabinet doors closed too, so they won't accidentally fly open during turns or acceleration, and you don't have to worry about things falling out of your cabinets.

Fishing is one of the most popular activities you can do while RV camping. However, fishing rods can be quite fragile and break in transit or storage (true story, it's happened to us). Pool noodles, though, can act as a nice sleeve over these fishing poles, serving as a protective makeshift case for your equipment.

Insert the pole into the center cavity of the noodle carefully (emphasis on the carefully), and lay them down gently in your storage compartment. Not only do the pool noodles provide a buffer between the pole and the storage area, it's also an easy way to color coat which rod is which when you pull them out. It's also very simple to transport your gear down to the river or lake as well, since you can more easily hold your pool noodle case with one hand or under your arm, particularly if your hands are full with other gear. 

This trick will likely only work on fresh water fishing gear, though, since these rods are often much smaller and shorter than their salt water counterparts. And as is best practice, remember to dry off your fishing rods to prevent corrosion before placing them inside the pool noodle, particularly because the noodles' material holds moisture and can potentially house the fishing rod in a damp environment if the noodle gets wet. When done correctly, your fishing gear will be nicely protected in the RV between uses.