Mid-Year Mods
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Before we launched, we did a pretty good job at figuring out what our day-to-day life was going to look like. We spent nearly two months living in our RV at our home base before hitting the road, and during that time we organized our space in a way that we felt would be functional. But, the only real way to learn how to live a life of travel, is to live it. Like all full-timers, we learned that there were some things we thought we'd need that we didn't, things we didn't take with us that we wish we had, and better ways to organize our space that makes sense for us.
We took advantage of our time back in MA and used our first week back as our week to clean and organize. We could do all these things on the road, but having a space to do them is so much easier. We could wash the rig without campground regulations prohibiting it. We could get packages delivered easily. We could move stuff out of our rig and straight into one of our storage bins that we're keeping in my old room. We tackled a lot, as you can see from the list. Our only two remaining tasks are small, and they really can be done anywhere, so we made sure to prioritize the big projects first.
Unlike last winter, we didn't have any pressing repairs. Most of our issues were taken care of at our service appointment in May, and the small things we do need to repair, we're currently waiting on parts, but more on that in a bit. So that left us with the opportunity to tackle a list of "nice to haves" and do a lot of cleaning. There's too much on the list to write about, and let's face it, most of these tasks are boring, but I'll go through a few highlights.
Organizing
Our main areas to organize were the truck bed, outer storage bay, pet cabinet, and under the bed storage. This all makes sense. We didn't really organize the truck and storage bay because we weren't on the road yet, so we didn't know what we wanted where. The pets have switched food regimens since we launched, so we needed a system that would better work with their current foods. Under the bed is a catch-all for lots of items that don't have room in other parts of the rig, but there needed to be a better system, especially because the bed is one repair that needs to happen soon. Our bed platform - the part that lifts up to access the storage - busted several weeks ago. The aluminum pieces weren't welded well, and so the pieces started to separate, causing the platform to buckle on its underside, and exposing the Styrofoam sheet that ATC uses between the platform panels.
The bed comes with hydraulics to help lift the platform when we need to get under it, but the hydraulics are quite weak and were unable to help lift the platform as soon as we put our mattress topper on. So we got rid of the hydraulics, and once the new platform is in, we have stronger hydraulics that will replace the old ones. We are waiting on the new bed platform from ATC, but in the meantime, organizing under the bed was all the more important, because we need easy access to all our belongings, since we're lifting a broken platform with no help from hydraulics. A quick run to Target for some bins, and voila! A well-organized and useful space!
The biggest problem with our truck and outdoor storage bay was the order in which we need things when we're packing up/breaking down our campsites. We wanted to make sure our hitch-related items were in one place, our electric/sewer/water connections were accessible, and that the big, heavy items weren't on top of the smaller items. We were lucky to have incredible weather the week we were in Marshfield, so we unloaded everything from the truck and storage bay, so we could organize and load everything back in. While everything was out of the truck bed, Anthony brought the truck to Cap World because our cap had been leaking. It was a good opportunity to get that taken care of.
The mayhem (+ Lily being our little helper):
The result:
We ended up organizing a lot more spaces than just the pet cabinet, but the pet cabinet is worth mentioning because we found some really cool air-tight containers and stackable storage shelves on Amazon that have been fantastic for holding the pets' cans of food and treats. We keep their dry food in their bags as opposed to using containers because the bags can be squished in as they empty. We also feel it helps to keep less weight in the cabinet. So far, everything has been staying in place during travel, even the stackable shelves!
My personal favorite organization purchases were a roll-out spice rack that we're using for our mugs/cups, and an adhesive corner shelf for the bathroom. We never had a good solution for our mugs/cups and for a while settled on using a lazy susan that we picked up at Wal-Mart, but it didn't fit all our cups, so we'd need to stack them and they'd fall over during travel. The roll-out rack is fantastic. We screwed it to the back of our cabinet and it's been secure ever since. The corner shelves came in a pack of two, so I'm using one in the bathroom and the other next to the roll-out shelf, to hold some of our coffee, tea, and powdered supplements that don't fit in our beverage station. Even not adhered, the L-shape of the shelves is awesome. Looking into the cabinet, it looks like a normal square basket, but it has the L-shaped wiring to help keep the smaller items secure. I'm in the process of buying another set of those same shelves to use in other parts of our kitchen cabinets. As for the wall-mounted shelf in the bathroom, so far so good. Am I waiting for the day it falls? Of course, but it seems really sturdy. You'll also see in the photo that we mounted our tissue box as well. Having the counter free of clutter has been great!
Helping with our organization was our purchase of the Tidy Board. We do a lot of home-cooking, but we don't have a lot of space to prep our ingredients. I saw an online ad for the Tidy Board and asked Anthony what he thought. It's basically a cutting board with a built-in section for containers, so you can cut your food and immediately swipe the pieces into storage containers. And, since the containers fit into the board, they don't take up counter space. We looked up the dimensions and determined that, if the board wasn't a perfect fit into our sink, it would be darn close. There are knock-offs, but the Tidy Board had the closest dimensions we could find, and so we went for it.
We immediately loved the look. Bringing in bits of warm tones with wood has been a nice contrast to the industrial look of the trailer. Unfortunately, the board was just a tad large for our sink. So we made the command decision to sand the edges down until it fit. Now we use the Tidy Board as our sink cover and got rid of the Corian one that came from the manufacturer.
An added plus is that all the containers (and two strainers) are included, and they're all collapsible. We already had some collapsible silicone storage containers, and many of those fit with the Tidy Board too! We know this product isn't for everyone, but so far it's been working well for us.
For a while the trailer looked reminiscent of the chaos of December, but like then, everything found its place.
The mayhem:
The result:
Cleaning/washing
You can see in the above photo the newly cleaned rug and couch, which were big undertakings but well worth it. We used my mom's rug cleaner that has an upholstery attachment. It's crazy how much dirt can accumulate in an RV, but it makes total sense. We have literally planted our home in the middle of every surface of ground you can imagine: dirt, sand, gravel, grass, concrete, and asphalt. We even found a couple of seashells in the crevices of our storage areas!
Rug cleaning before:
Rug cleaning after:
We hadn't washed the rig since we took delivery of it in October, so it was due. For a white exterior, and knowing what it had been through on all its thousands of miles of travel, I actually thought it would look worse, but you couldn't really see the dirt unless looking at it up close. That said, it desperately needed some TLC. The sad part about washing the rig is that it almost immediately gets dirty again, but for a few hours, we got to enjoy the bright white of how our trailer used to look before it started living the rugged life.
It was a lot of work, but we're glad we took advantage of our extra time at home. When living in a small space, it's especially important to try and stay on top of cleaning and organizing, making sure to have a functional space, and only keeping what's being used. We plan to do similar to-do lists at various points throughout our travels, to make sure our space continues to be livable and cozy, just the way we want.