My wife and I I are currently having a discussion on type of plates etc...breakable vs type that is non breakable..any thoughts? We, as you can tell, are new to this.
Thanks...

I use Corelle, nice looking, thin (takes up little space), and relatively unbreakable. Have not broken one yet and I am not vary cautious with them either. I use no spacers when stacking them. Easy to replace as needed - WalMart...

Another vote for Corelle which we like to buy at Corning/Revere stores in outlet malls. Use mallseeker.com or outletbound.com to find outlet malls and stores. Diane is a ceramic engineer (materials science) and can verify that they can be broken, sometimes.

I've done paper, Corelle, plastic, Melamine and this blog shows you my favorite (and it's CHEAP at Wally World).

http://2takinga5th.blogspot.com/2009/01/beer-great-meal.html


-- Edited by Froggi on Sunday 15th of March 2009 07:43:43 PM

We started out with Corelle and liked it until we had a cabinet open on the road and came in to find about 10,000 slivers of Corelle form ONE plate. We were vacuuming it up for a week. We've been using a Melmac knockoff ever since. Very durable and wears well. Cheap enough to change every few years. We do carry some nice wine and martini glasses and they've moved well as Jo puts them in old sweat socks. I think most people break some stuff when they first go out, but after they learn how to store for moving the breakage stops. At his point I wouldn't hesitate to travel with fine china.

Luvglass wrote:

---

At his point I wouldn't hesitate to travel with fine china.

---

WOW! Now that is one high-class act!!!!
But coming from Fred (I am sure with heavy dose of Jo's loving training) I'd expect no less!

 

-- Edited by RVDude on Sunday 15th of March 2009 08:42:16 PM

We have corelle for fancy dining, but use paper plates 99% of the time to save water (and holding tank space) by not having to wash. If it was up to me (and it's not) I would use paper plates, plastic utensils and microwave meals. However I would BBQ and eat real meat from time to time, just to get the taste of the microwave stuff out of my mouth.

We're still very new at this, but have moved every 1-2 weeks since starting. We had our first 'surprise' after bumping a curb with the trailer wheels. A cabinet in the bedroom had opened and dumped a bin of makeup on the floor. Fortunately, nothing was broken - just a lot of picking up. That was enough to make us serious about buckling down the doors. We have Corelle that is 'break resistent' - Hearthstone, I think it's called. Nicer looking and feels more like a 'real' plate. We use it when we're settled in; use disposable paper plates when we're packing up or just don't feel like washing dishes ;) When we're moving, I pack the cardboard separaters from the original packaging place one of our sofa pillows between the dinnerware and the cabinet door, then use velcro 'ties' to keep the door safely closed. We also travel with our favorite, but very breakable, coffee mugs. Coffee just tastes so much better in a 'real' cup! We take precautions with those when we pack up the coffee pot on 'moving' days. So far, so good!

We have Corelle, none broken yet. We do not use spacers, but have learned to stack the cabinets in a way that things don't shift too much. We use those spring-loaded bars across the front when traveling, but we still open cabinet doors with caution after each trip - stuff still likes to jump out occasionally.

We use Correlle since they don't break that easily and they are lightweight (and we got them for next to nothing at yardsales).  We also have some melamine, but I have moved away from those since my husband occasionally throws one in the microwave by accident (results in melting).  I don't recommend anything that breaks too easily because on a couple of occasions we stopped on the side of the road to prepare lunch and I forgot to secure the cupboards with the mini-bungee cords we have.  As a result, a few dishes ended up falling into the sink and on to the floor.

-Colleen

I agree with Fred, the longer you travel the less stuff gets broken. We've had Correlle for awhile but I don't like how hot it gets in the microwave. I'm in the process of switching to some stoneware and some good china. Good china is really very durable. We put kiddie-locks on all the cabinet doors (Walmart baby dept) so none can come open during travel.

-- Edited by LeslieW on Tuesday 17th of March 2009 12:03:41 AM

-- Edited by LeslieW on Wednesday 18th of March 2009 10:35:37 PM

As Fred said...Correlle when it breaks...look out. We droped one on our quartz counter top and it shattered into slivers you would not believe. We are still getting them off the floor. Sherri went to regular dishes...we don't have that many and the weight is not that much more with fewer plates. No China for me Fred...I drink out of the bottle...HE HE Joe and Sherri

Well Joe, you haven't really lived until you've had a Manhattan or Martini in one of my nice glasses. I'll have to make you one when we meet next. Hope it's soon.

I think some of the issues on breakage relate to how good your rig suspension is. After about 15 months on the road moving every 3-7 days (including the roads to Alaska), we have not broken anything. I don't use plate separators. I did line the cabinets with the non-skid paper. We do have child-proof locks on the cabinet doors to keep them from opening while we're moving. I'm now replacing all that "durable" but unpleasant stuff we packed with the good stuff I prefer. Within the next two months I intend to eliminate all the Corelle, we'll use stoneware (pasta bowls) or china (plates) and real stemmed wine glasses. We figure, this isn't living in a hovel in college, this is our life! (And by the way, we've often commented that we would have loved to have lived somewhere as nice as our NuWa Champagne Hitchhiker when we were in college ... or for many years thereafter....) Yeah, I think this abode is more luxurious than our first 7 years of married life.


Leslie W

We have been fulltiming 9 years. We never "pack" any of the dishes in any fashion....they are stacked just like at home, but the bottom of each shelf is lined with the non-skid. The exception to that statement is that the glass lids for the crock pot is resting on non-skid on top of the crock pot (upside down). Other than that, no special packing. We use Corelle, and some stoneware. We keep several sets of dishes around the country (at relatives, or stored in one of our sheds on our RV lots) and swap out every year or so for variety. We use real juice glasses, and plastic wine glasses - although only Danielle drinks, and not much at that. We will switch to regular wine glasses sometime - the plastic is really not that needed. Just what we do......