Most Viewed Writer in Clean-up is a bitch. So much so that I am no longer renting an RV. Too much post-burn stress, hard work and rushing around. If you must, here are a few tips from my experience in no particular order:What ever amount of time you think it will take to do clean up the RV prior to return- double it.Go to a truck wash and have the exterior cleaned for you in a facility designed for large vehicles. Avoid self-serve car washes because they are too small, the hose can cause damage as you walk around and spray, and it costs as much in quarters as a professional truck wash. Find/map one prior to leaving.Put cardboard on every floor surface. We spent hours cleaning the linoleum floors. Pay special attention to the entry step leading into the vehicle. It gets very dirty and layered with muck. Consider first placing plastic poly sheeting down first and using Gorilla tape to hold it down.Do not use any kind of adhesive tape on the exterior. The sun bakes it in and it is next to impossible to get all the sticky crap off.

Duct-tape "Man" is not worth the hassle.Bring a big pan to put under the grey/black valve. They always leak and hauling out and disposing of a hundred pounds contaminated playa SUCKS.Section-off the cab from the living compartment with plastic poly sheeting and avoid entering the cab after you park. Saves much clean-up time.Dont forget to vacuums the tracks the windows slide in. Do not let the bike handle bars near the paint job. Carpet Cleaner Rental Baton RougeMake sure your bike rack have enough space between the pedals/handlebars and the paint. Hot Tub Time Machine Cincinnati QuoteThe bikes move around a lot and will cause scratches. Homes For Sale By Owner Philomath OregonMost RV's have a standard hook-up for a trailer hitch.

Wallmart sells a $120 bike rack the slides right in and is easy to assemble. Avoid bungy-ing the bikes to the ladder. Some models of RV's have enough space in the storage compartments for a couple bikes.Some smaller RV companies will screw you. We are getting an attorney involved to try to get our deposit back even though we have the paperwork that shows we brought it back cleaner that we got it. Try to get a reference from someone who has had good luck with a rental company.When you do the walk-around with the rental people prior to leaving the lot, take pictures, pay very close attention, document EVERY small scratch, try EVERY amenity for an extended period of time and do not be afraid to ask questions. Take your time, you will not miss anything.Most RV's come with a roll-out shade. Do not use it. They are a bitch to clean, may rip and really do not help much. If you want shade, got the the Lost Penguins and chill with some amazing burners on the esplanade.Vinegar is your best friend to clean surfaces with.

It breaks down the alkaline. Comercial products leave streaks. Pick-up a big bottle of generic white vinegar. You will get used to the smell during ride back clean-up.Unless you are nested with a bunch of other RV's, your neighbors will not appreciate your generator. Try to use it sparingly; the heat will not kill you. Ask burners around you if they need their camera batteries charged while you run your AC. They will be thankful and patient. Note the orientation of your exhaust relative to others, especially tents.Fuel-up in or just before Gerlach, especially if you are in the midnight line-up to get in and do the exodus madness. You burn more fuel than you think you will with all the start and stop and your generator uses the same fuel. Modern generators will not run your tank dry, but don't count on it leaving enough to get into town.The pillows and linens provided in the hospitality kit are typically gross. Pick up pillows at Walmart.Dont let people climb up on your RV roof. You will regret it if you do.

I found a dent from someones heel on the hood once that luckily slipped by the final inspection.Generators are not 100% fault tolerant. Do not let lack of AC ruin your burn.Get a big door mat with thick pile to clean your shoes with and provide a place to put shoes on an off. Secure with those 8" spikes that look like giant nails in all four corners. Allow for the swing of the door.Bigger is not better. Your are at the burn! Who hangs-out in their RV? Screw all the crazy amenities.Showers are amazing but can make a muddy mess outside the shower when you step out. Dedicate an old towel to the task.Spray-on sun tan lotion makes fire alarms go off.Bring WD40 for the latch leading into the camper. They get clogged with dust, stick and break.That is all I have the strength for now. See you on the Playa in '11. I will be a the cool and relaxed guy in the hexa-yurt. )'(Rob "4Ward" SandbergMost Viewed Writer in Most of the advice already given is spot on. Here's some more random thoughts, which apply mainly to people flying to the West.

I've had very good luck with covering all of the upholstered surfaces (other than the walls/ceiling) to keep the dust off. Early on, I rented an extra personal kit and used the sheets and blankets; eventually we stopped off at a Wal-Mart, bought some of the cheesiest patterned fabric we could find, and fashioned some of it into seat covers (the rest we just lay out over the seats and it looks like a house that's been closed up for a while.)For exterior washing, we always stop in Nixon, where the local people have power washers and do a very good job. I believe there are also washes in Gerlach and/or Empire and also in Fernley, but Nixon is a nice stop. At the last stop for gas coming in, we make sure to fill the tanks completely. We also buy a 5-gallon jerry can and fill that with gas, which we pour into the tank after we get to BRC. Even with moderate generator use, we have enough to get back to the interstate that way. (We end up giving away the jerry can, but, well, that's the least of our worries.)

We limit our use of the toilet, which means if the gray-water tank gets full, we can empty some of it into the black-water tank: take a bucket, empty the gray tank outside, bring the bucket into  the RV and dump it in the toilet. The potties ARE gross, but a black water tank full of black water sitting in the sun for 12 hours a day is also gross, and since you have an RV, you may as well make use of the sinks and shower.RVs don't love those big plastic storage boxes that seem popular in the West. For food and consumable supplies, your'e better off leaving them in their boxes and putting them on the shelves where you can get to what you need easily. Similarly, hard-sided luggage doesn't work well, you're better off with soft stuff that you can just fold up and put under the bed or at the bottom of a closet. And there's always very limited room for hanging stuff up, so plan around that as much as you can. Fridge: You want to fill up your refrigerator on the way in (makes for more efficient cooling) and then as the week progresses, you can put things that are shelf stable until opened in.

So, you're better off with 5 small jars of mayonnaise  than one ginormous one. (Plus you can gift or barter your spares or leave them for DPW). As your freezer empties out, you can freeze small plastic water bottles and then use them to keep a cooler cool instead of buying ice (plus, no drippy mess). You can also buy freezer packs for this purpose, but then you'd have to bring/ship them home, store 'em, or give them away. Shelf-stable milk is an excellent thing to have at Burning Man, especially if you like to cook. Also, freeze a loaf or two of bread for late in the week, it tends to go stale quickly in the desert. Dishes: It used to be that there were big public burn barrels that you could use at the end of the week, so we bring a lot of uncoated paper plates and also disposable wooden cutlery. Even without burning them, you can save a lot of water by using disposables, and you can find compostable products if you look in advance. Cleaning: Nevada is a beautiful, lightly populated state.

We always take a day or two after the Burn to use our RV for camping, and we clean it from stem to stern. The extra day or two of rental more or less equates to the cleaning fee that we never have to pay,  and it's really good to decompress for a few days at a campground or hot springs. In general you clean from top to bottom and from the very front and the very back towards the door. (Top to bottom so that if you shake dirt loose it falls to the floor, towards the door so you push the dirt away from the extremities.).Luggage: You can mail things home from any U.S. Post Offices. Buy some boxes and tape and a marking pen before you go; store the boxes flat under the mattress(es). Showers: You want to take military-style showers to save water and tank space. Rinse off, soap up, rinse off. You can easily shower with 2 quarts of water, and you'll still feel  clean. Garbage: Keep stinky garbage in the outside compartments as much as possible. Also bring some large bags, there are places, especially around Wadsworth, that will take your garbage in exchange for a set price for bag (like $5) regardless of the size of the bag.