Tips for winter in a caravan

[MulticolouredSloth]

We’ve moved into a couple of static caravans to hopefully start our build in the spring.
Any tips for caravan living in the winter?

Get a load of straw bales delivered and put them underneath, all the way around. And build a porch on it for wet and muddy boots, building sites get so muddy. Preferably a porch that links the two of them if you can.

Always have two gas bottles with an automatic change over thingy. As soon as one runs out - get it replaced. It gets very cold in your caravan when you've run out of gas and can't put the heating on...

Get oil filled radiators. They can be moved around and are really good to zap rooms quickly to warm them up. Likewise hot water bottles for everyone, and sofa blankets (which can also double up as bed blankets).

Work out where your washing machine and tumble dryer will go outside / in your build - you do not want to have loads of washing hung up to dry inside your static - you won't have space.

Look at the size of your fridge and plan your food shopping accordingly. The oven / hob will be fairly basic so adapt your menus - our oven just about managed pizza, but we didn't have any home made cake or roast dinner whilst we were in the caravan!

We got some carpet offcuts from a carpet shop and used them as 'rugs' in the hall way - that way we didn't worry too much about getting mud everywhere as we could always change the carpet.

Be aware when it gets very cold your water supply may freeze - that was great fun when it happened to us! If it does get cold make sure you have filled up some water containers just in case.

I always felt the cold coming up through the floor so would definitely insulate below the caravan better if I was in it for another winter.

I bought a heated airer to dry clothes but found it also helped to take the chill off on the cold mornings when I had it on overnight.

Other than that, my hot water bottle was filled up regularly during winter!

Thanks everyone, a few of those things we’ve done or got but some good tips to work on!

A dehumidifier is useful. We have a static and use the slow cooker a lot.

Build a porch for boots, wet coats, etc.
Try and get as much hard standing around as possible, including a path to access. The mud is so depressing.
For the next year you really need minimal possessions - really, really minimize it. Everything in a caravan gets mouldy/ dusty/ is always in the way. Pack & store off site, makes moving into your house much more exciting. Eg one cereal bowl each, forget complex kitchen gadgets but get a toasted sandwich maker.
If you are not planning to resell the caravans, rearrange and rip out stuff. We had two awful tourers with a shed in between, one for sleeping, one for work/relaxing. Set up a kitchen & shower room in a patched up stable. We ripped out a bathroom from a tourer and the bench seats, put a tiny, comfy sofa in. I felt utter joy setting fire to the bastard trailers once we were out

Picnic table/ bench outside, the joyous but was how much time you spend outside on lovely winter days.

I had a homebirth in our awful caravan arrangement, my midwife was amazing.

How's it going @MulticolouredSloth survived the storms?

Sorry I’ve only just seen your message.

We’ve been ok in the storms so far, touch wood!

We’ve struggled a bit with damp in the bedrooms but have a new dehumidifier which seems to have helped.

It’s costing us an arm and a leg in gas bottles though!

I took a many of tips as I could from this thread and it’s been ok so far!

Get infra red heaters instead of heating the space, much cheaper

Keep on keeping on @MulticolouredSloth , it's an investment for the future and the days are getting longer (grasping at small things there)

Just joining in to say I'm also in a static! Had the water pipe freeze a few weeks ago which is probably the worst part of it. Our build started in autumn so about the worst time but we should be back in by spring.