Together again! I’m home after 600 Appalachian Trail miles. I have 278 miles to complete the entire trail. It’s been a great journey but I really missed Gary, the pups, family, and my cozy Ruff Road bed. It’s good to be home. If you want to check out my Appalachian Trail Journey, go to Trail Gator Trail Tales on YOU TUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDhM9jZwVlQ
Together again- What are we doing?
We have a list as we begin our plans to officially hit the road. We have been living in Ruff Road for a year and three months now. Our plan was to be on the road by now but with my hiking, hiking injury delay and other obligations we are still living at home base in Florida. We will be wintering here as we complete final tasks necessary before hitting the road. We will be sharing our prep list in the next post since it will include things we’ve done to date to prepare and our final TO DOs.
Our major TO DO for this week was to purge and reorganize inside cabinets and outside storage bays. My post from April stated: “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.” This is definitely true since we have had more than one purge and organize in a year’s time. This time was more thorough for cabinets in the front of the coach. since kitchen and bedroom areas have been thoroughly reworked in recent months.
How much did we purge?
We threw away five bags of trash- mostly from the inside of the RV which included outdated and unnecessary paperwork. I know that’s a lot! I couldn’t believe it myself but when we moved in it was quick so some notebooks or folders were stored without a close review of contents. For example, our notebook containing product manuals contained a few manuals of items we no longer owned. Our outside purge yielded one large trash bag full of items not suitable for donation. In addition, we filled one tote of items for donation. This included those items that we thought we needed but never used.
Our Biggest Accomplishment
The biggest accomplishment from our reorganizing this time was better utilization of space. For example, when we moved in we planned to group like items together. When that space was filled, we plugged in excess items as logical as we could but still had like items in two places. Also, we have learned over the course of a year, which items we used most frequently and moved them to the easiest accessible bay. We started out with what we “thought” would be important in grouping items and what to keep. However, as we put that into practice we learned that changes were necessary based on day to day reality. We realize that as time goes by, we will revisit our newly reorganized areas and go through the process again…and again…and again. That’s ok. That’s RV living.
Purging is like losing weight. It can be hard to do. It is easy to creep back on you. However, when you lose it or purge it, you do feel better.
Upcoming Posts:
TO DOs for Hitting the Road
What did Gary do while I was away for months hiking the Appalachian Trail and hanging out in Colorado?