Tag: organizing

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RV Living -Month 8: Creativity, Purging, Organizing, Appalachian Trail Prep Dominate!

RV Living -Get Creative

Month eight of RV living has brought out the creativity, especially in Gary.  What about me?  Well as our RV becomes overrun with backpacking gear and Appalachian Trail prep, I couldn’t take it anymore.  Things that have not been used just had to go and our RV, Ruff Road, was in need of some better organizing.

RV Living Yields Creativity- Gary the songwriter!

As you may know, Gary is a musician and a very talented one at that.  He plays the guitar, bass guitar, and piano.  No we don’t have a piano in Ruff Road but we do have multiple guitars.  Comment below if you need or if you have guitar storage ideas!

Creativity!  This month he has been busy writing lyrics and music to songs.  We needed a theme song for our very young YOU TUBE channel.  He has now cranked out three songs and the instrumentals will be used for background music on our channel.  No music copywright issues here!

We will be posting more on our YOU TUBE channel.  Right now, we have a couple dog videos up just as a test plus one campground review.  The dog videos are short and funny.  Our YOU TUBE channel is RUFF ROAD RV LIFE, https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHRpIFHJItKn3X_7DKY77Mw?view_as=subscriber

Having the freedom to be creative through music, writing, singing, and photography has been a bonus of retirement.  We are loving having the time to use our right brains to create.

RV Living Can Lead to Clutter!  Clutter Control-Purging and Organizing

This month’s challenges were  an overstuffed clothes closet, clutter due excess gear clutter on top of the regular clutter and an ineffective dirty clothes receptacle.  They say if you haven’t used it in a year, it has to go.  I think in a small space like an RV you need to assess the clutter more frequently.

Decluttering Clothes Closets

Gary had already gone through his closet and made a donation pile.  He was ahead of me.  I faced my clothes closet- it contained the remnants of my walk in closet from my big house life.  It seemed I was always cramming, and I do mean cramming, my clothes in any nook or cranny I could fit them in because my cute little organizational square clothes totes and other containers were overfilled.  In addition, unstuffed items would fall out when I opened the door.  Now I probably wouldn’t have jumped right into this project just yet but in addition to this I now have backpacking gear taking up space.  This caused me to re-evaluate the other items, especially items that seemed ineffective, unnecessary or unused.

I took everything out of my closet.  Next, I went through each clothes container and pulled out items I haven’t worn or wasn’t planning on wearing.  I did accumulate a small pile to donate along with some of the baskets and an old drawer I was using for storage containers.  They were not the best use of space.  So not only were there too many clothes stuffed in my closet but I did not utilize the space effectively.  In the small space of an RV, optimizing space is a must!

Clost organizing
Closet organized. Seldom used items are easy to find.

Organizing Tip:  Make a diagram of your closet.  This will help to quickly see where infrequently used items are stored.

Making More Floor Space

Next, I looked around my bedroom and the items taking up floor space.  I had tried a tall Thirty-One double hamper for awhile.  It came from the big house but was too big so I gifted it to my daughter.  I then tried a smaller Thirty-One tote I had on hand as a hamper.  It wasn’t working out either because of the location being hard to reach.  I discovered that it was a perfect fit for my closet.  This tote became the holder of my bike shoes and equipment getting them off the floor and out of yet another tote they were housed in.  Now I had the most effective storage in my closet to hold all of my clothes except underwear and work out clothes which are stored above the bed.  As a result of reorganizing this area, we gained some much needed floor space in our bedroom.

Dirty Laundry Solution

What about our laundry though?  We now store our dirty clothes in store recycle bags.  Gary has one in his area.  I have one hanging up on my purse hook.  We have a third one stored in the shower for any nasty laundry.  This is a new system so we’ll let you know how it works out.  So far so good.

Let us know if you have any laundry solutions.  Share on social media and subscribe to follow us on our journey.

Follow Sharon’s Appalachian Trail prep and hike on our Backpacking and Hiking page:  http://ruffroadrvlife.com/appalachian-trail-section-hike/

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Ruff Road RV Life Resources

Our Ruff Road RV Life Resources Page has been updated. Check it out!

http://ruffroadrvlife.com/resources/

You will find a list of items that we purchased or brought from our house to outfit Ruff Road.  Remember, I am an overthinker so all of these items have been researched and pondered before hitting BUY.  We have reflected honestly about them and will update as we add new purchases.  Of course, this list doesn’t reflect all of the items from our hobbies that we had on hand such as guitars, speakers, mini sewing machine, art supplies, backpacking gear, bicycling gear, kayaking gear…but we’ve made room for these and did not include them on our list.

Your list will look different based on your RV, your preferences and needs.  Use this, or any list, as a guide.  It might jog your memory regarding something you may have forgotten about or that you were not aware that you needed.  We looked at multiple lists found on the internet and listened to countless vlogs to help us with our plan to set up Ruff Road.  We then made our own list prioritizing items we would need to purchase first.  We took it step by step, one bite at a time.  Little by little, our RV turned into a home.

We hope you find these resources helpful.  Share some of your helpful resources.  Was there anything that you discovered you needed but didn’t have?  Was there anything you purchased thinking that you needed it only to find out you didn’t afterall?  Comment, subscribe and share.  We are looking forward to building this community.  Thank you to our subscribers.  

 

 

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RV Life – Month 5

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas!

This is our first holiday in Ruff Road.  It was almost one year ago that this dream began.  My Facebook timehop popped up with One Year Ago today…my friend and I were taking pictures of RVs at a local dealership.  This time last year, we had no idea we would be “looking at freedom” everyday.  So here are our tweaks, tips, and trials at Month 5, as well as some general observations.

General Observations:

  • It’s cold even in Florida, but Ruff Road has stayed warm and cozy.  Temps were chilly, but not freezing.  Stay tuned for Month 6 reflection to see how we’ll do in much chillier weather.  However, so far so good.
  • When you retire, you don’t have to be the one to cook and host.  We enjoyed going up to the big house and eating our Thanksgiving feast with my daughter and her family.
  • This leads me to another observation.  We love being with family.  What a difference it makes when the cloud of a stressful job is not hanging over your head and you can enjoy your family mornings, middays or afternoons.  This is something that was difficult for us to find time to do in our past life.  We know not everyone reading this is retired.  We were there.  My advice that I tried to follow while I was working was to work towards a work/ home balance.  It was an ongoing goal.  Sometimes I was really good at it and sometimes work just took over.  However, as long as you set it as a goal, your chance of success are higher than if you don’t.

    • Christmas with the family in St. Augustine, Florida
  • One more observation, a retirement bonus that I noticed.  Christmas shopping and events were so freeing because I didn’t have the work load I did in past years.  My budget was smaller-retirement budget-but we all still had a great Christmas and I loved looking at freedom this time of year.

Tips:

  • Make a plan to balance work and home.  Hang in there and know that the day will come when you can look at freedom everyday.
  • Need space?  Rethink it.  Even though we feel like we have ample room here, the use of space needed to be improved.  I was using the table for an office but that meant it was always cluttered with the computer and papers.  We were also busy digitizing home videos (part of our downsizing process) and the video and second computer were always on our limited counter space along with copied and to copy VHS tapes.  Clutter, everywhere!  We also observed that the passenger chair, when turned around toward the living room served mostly as a catch all as you came through the door- ugh, more clutter.  What was our solution?  We have a very roomy cab area.  There is a small table next to the passenger chair and the dashboard area is quite large.  I already had office supplies and photography equipment stored there, so…naturally this became our office.  We left the passenger chair turned forward and the space is quite roomy to work in.  We were also able to gain some room by moving one of the dog crates to right behind the passenger chair giving a more closed off look to the space.  We like it.  Expect that tweaking space and rearranging will be the norm when you begin RV living.
  • Protect your RV floors.  We made a huge mistake when we moved in.  We were leaving behind ceramic tile floors that seemed to be indestructible no matter what you pushed across them.  Ruff Road has laminate tiles.  We now know, they will scratch easily.  When we moved in we took baskets, boxes, and crates of belongings to Ruff Road and, like an assembly line, shoved them in the door and pushed them inside to add more.  All of this pushing of weighted items put fine scratches all over our floors.  You can’t really tell unless you are on the floor so that’s the good news.  Then I wondered, were they there all along?  No, I think we did it.  To further protect our floors, we stopped sliding things on them.  The dog crates rest on rugs.  In addition, we put felt on the bottom of our ottoman and free standing chair.  Lesson learned.

Tips relating to dogs:

  • Keep nails trimmed.  We should know this but we let it slip.  Our girls’ nails grow long and sharp if not trimmed.  We wish we were part of the group of folks who know how to do this, but we aren’t- yet.  Our dogs’ nail trimmings require a trip to the vet after a calming pill.  They are overdue and our dash paid the price.  We now have one little pinhole from an excited Terra who jumped up before she could be stopped.
  • Set boundaries for pets.  This should go without saying but…sometimes this doesn’t happen.  Our girls are allowed in the driver and passenger chairs, the ottoman, or the floor.  They are not allowed on the couch or the bed.  They also know to “stay” when we are coming and going through the door.  Consistency is the key.  Make sure both pet parents are on the same page.  If one allows a rule to be broken, pets become confused and, like children, will push their limits.
  • Use Velcro to keep covers on furniture.  When we purchased our RV, the coach seats were already starting to flake.  We keep them covered with blankets and that works well.  Our ottoman is looking a little worn as well so it is covered with a quilted piece of fabric.  I used Velcro to attach the fabric to the ottoman.  I plan to use Velcro to help keep blankets on the coach chairs.  I’ll let you know how that works out.  Until then, we will just rearrange them after the pups mess them up.

What are some trials we’ve had this month?

  • Our onboard water tank filled up twice this month.  The first time water was actually leaking out of the fill tank area.  We thought we had the switch flipped over to city water, but it still happened twice.  After draining the tank twice and rechecking, we haven’t had anymore issues.  Maybe it wasn’t all the way over.  It’s still a mystery.
  • This is tragic!  We purchased a Powilling Dehumidifier from Amazon to take care of excess moisture in the air.  It rode on the built in side table next to the couch.  We had no problem in all of our travels.  However, on one fateful day, as we turned into our driveway, it took a tumble and fell to the floor never to work again.  We recommend this unit.  It has worked great for us.

We are just days away from our first full time RV Christmas.  The tree is up.  The lights are hung.  We are warm and cozy and happy.  Peace to everyone.

 

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Yard Sale! Yard Sale Reflection…

Books and Clothes and Shoes, Oh My!

Picture this:  A family of five moves into a house that is already full from 34 years of wonderful living with children, grandchildren, and grandparents.  They bring with them an entire UHaul truck full of their household belongings, including furniture.  All unwanted items from two households are stacked in boxes by the French doors in the dining room and spill out onto the large porch.  If you can picture a maze to get into the house, you got it!  ALL of these boxed up and unwanted items must make it to the yard sale tables ready for eager buyers to descend and purchase these treasures!  I’m not sure this paints a picture of the massive amount of treasures we had to sell, but I hope you get the idea.  We were overwhelmed by the “stuff”.

Yard Sales are not my thing!

I’ll be honest.  I’ve had a couple of yard sales years ago and didn’t make enough money to feel it was worth my time.  We live off of the main road so visibility is one issue.  We live on the quiet side of town and not much traffic here is another issue.   Finally, we live in a neighborhood of working middle class folks, not considered high end which I know many yard salers avoid.  I was hopeful because this time, we had more than ever and some really nice things.  I know that we didn’t have the time to “present” items as we would have liked but they were grouped together in an organized way.

How’d we do?  We had steady traffic on day one and a trickle of traffic on day two of the yard sale.  We made some money and did get rid of some things.  It was fun to see others excited about our treasures.  But…there was ALOT left over.  In fact, it looked like we hadn’t sold anything at all at the end of it.

What do you do with all of the left over stuff?

Well, our clothes and shoes were so nice, barely used we were thinking, my daughter Michelle and I spent the next couple of weekends and hours and hours staging and photographing the clothes and shoes to sell on Facebook Marketplace.  What did we learn from that?  Just go ahead and donate and save yourself the time.  We had to store these items.  It’s Florida in August with rain everyday so we were combating moisture and mildew which decided the fate of many things that were ruined as a result.

More Purging!

So the next couple of weeks, I spent every day going out to the yard sale tables, taking the tarps off and sorting the items to be sold on EBAY or Facebook Marketplace, donate, trash, keep.  I know what you are thinking!  Didn’t we already do this?  We did  but consider this the final purge.  Everyday the amount was less and less.  Rain clouds would form and I’d retarp the area and wait for rain to clear or begin again the next day.  Meanwhile, Gary made trip after trip to the dump and to donate to local charitable organizations.

So how does this make me feel?

I remember the day that the area had returned to its uncluttered state.  That was a happy day!  Inch by inch, anything is a cinch.  Mile by mile, we’ll get there in awhile!  We were making progress.  We had purged our house of 34 years of “stuff”.  We had purged our yard of the leftovers.  We were living happily in our cozy little Ruff Road everyday.  We were blessed to be Grandma/ Grandpa School Transportation to our grandchildren.  We weren’t on the road yet, but we were happy.  Life couldn’t be better!

But there’s more…

We were making progress but there were still two sheds to deal with.  The sheds were the next stop on our to do list.  Inch by inch, this is getting done, too.  Our goal was to be completely done by the end of the year and at this updated writing, we are almost there.  The only things left to do at this point is sell off our EBAY/ Marketplace inventory or donate it and finish the scanning and digitizing of our photos and videos.

Too much stuff!
This is only one third of it!
Ahhh…cleared!

Reflection…

Even though I do not care for yard sales, I liked getting all of the “stuff” out of the house.  Things that seemed so precious in the house lost their appeal on a yard sale table making it easier for me to say goodbye.  We were able to move forward with the final clearing.  It was freeing, just like when we purged the house.  We felt lighter after the house and even lighter after the yard sale purge.

If Gary were doing this on his own, it would be a much quicker process.  He’s not as sentimental or as much of an overthinker as I am.  So if you are like him, you will get done in half the time or less than we did.  However, if you are the least bit sentimental and tend to overthink things, then welcome to my club.  I’m sharing because if I can let go and do it, you can too.  Happy Purging!

If you have some yard sale reflections you would like to share, add them to the comments and share.  🙂

 

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We Bought an RV – Now What?

When we ended up purchasing an RV sooner rather than later, how did we set it up?

Our original plan, of course, was to move from our house to our RV.  However, we fell in love with Ruff Road and ended up with a house and an RV.  So now, we need to set up our RV as our second home since we will be taking some trips in it.  There are many RV lists on the internet to help you in this process and that’s exactly where we went to research what we would need to set up Ruff Road.  Here is the process we followed to outfit Ruff Road and some of the items that we purchased.

Our Moving in Process:  Before Retirement

  1.  We measured every bin and cupboard to find just the right storage containers and baskets.  These measurements were added to rough diagrams I’d drawn of Ruff Road, inside and out.  This helped us to decide what would be stored in each area.  Be flexible- We made changes as we went along.
  2. We watched other RV You Tubers and poured over Pinterest to learn about the best, lightest, most efficient items for our new home.
  3. We made our own list of what we needed.
  4. We took inventory of what we already had on hand.  For example, I had 20 year old plastic baskets from my early days of teaching and they fit perfectly in our cupboards.  No purchase necessary there.  Many items, such as our bedding, pillows, pots and pans, we already had so we used them to stock Ruff Road.  Bonus!
  5. Then we got to shop!  Amazon Prime was our primary source.  Below is a list of the items we purchased.  Coming Soon-Check back to our Resources page for links to these items.
  • Correlle Dinnerwear Dish Set for 4- It’s lightweight and is resistant to chipping and cracking
  • Silverwear and cooking utensils
  • Cotton Bandanas- great for hiking, cleaning, dries quickly
  • Turkish Towels- lightweight, quick drying
  • PetMate Dog Crates- They have since outgrown!
  • Fabric Storage Cubes for storing clothes, they work like drawers in our closets- Walmart, inexpensive
  • Plastic containers for the basement
  • Spill-proof Water Bowl – from Lazy Days Store
  • Pet Food Storage and Feeding Station
  • Pet Playpen Fencing
  • Large RV Mat for the under awning area
  • French Press – fail, we couldn’t get it right
  • Sharp Steamer Mop – we had on hand but ordered extra pads
  • Go Pro Hero 5- Got to take pics!
  • Replaced our cheap toilet seat with a better quality one
  • Water Bandit- excellent little gadget to use when connecting to water at a campground, works on stripped faucets
  • Dehumidifier- listing details here, it worked so good!
    Powilling 1500ML Portable Quiet Dehumidifier for Home, Basement, Bedroom, Bathroom, RV, Garage – For Single Room Approx 300 sq.ft – This worked great for us but just recently took a flying leap from its home and sadly is toast.  Now we have to purchase another one.  We recommend it!
  • Command Hooks, Command Shelves – this is how we personalized our new home and hung pictures.  Be careful of wallpaper but so far we have not had any issues.
  • Rugs- memory foam rugs feel great!
  • Water filter
  • Toilet Sealant
  • Water Hoses- a grey one and a white one at first but then we found easy collapse hoses that saved space
  • Sewer Hoses- a necessity
  • Electric Plug- 30 Amp and 20 Amp adapters, not cheap!
  • Grass Mat for dirty paws!

6  Finally, we organized it all.

This organization was for Ruff Road as our recreational vehicle for trips.  We were pleased with our organization.  On our March trip to north Georgia, in freezing cold weather, we were able to welcome my daughter and her family into Ruff Road for a couple days.  We had four adults, three children/ teenagers, and FIVE dogs!  It worked.

At this time, we were still living in our home.  However, in just a few short months, we would be making the transition from 2,000+ square feet to full time living in our Ruff Road with our dogs!   Follow along and see what our process was to downsize.

Comment to share positive suggestions, experiences, or even lessons learned to help others outfitting their RVs.