Sheets, Steps, Closets and a View of My Kitchen

If you have an RV with bunks, you know that regular sheets will not fit well on the bunks. They are 9" narrower than regular twin beds. I originally planned to sew a seam down the middle of the sheets to take in the excess, but then I remembered the sheet straps I'd seen at Dollar Tree.

Sure enough, they did the trick. This is how the sheets look with these straps in place:

You can see they work very well! I'm thinking about making my own version of these with metal "teeth" grips to keep the comforters in place, too. I'll post more about it once I get it worked out.

The next improvement we made was to cut a traditional rubbery mat (with "teeth" to clean your shoes) in half and bungee-strap it to our fold-out steps. I got the idea from Pinterest, and it works very well. I didn't realize I was going to need a second mat, so the middle step is waiting on that. This works well to keep mud out of the trailer and should keep our carpeting nicer for a longer time.

Our smaller wardrobe closets needed some form of shelving to be most useful to us, but they're a weird size. I stumbled upon these plastic shelves at Aldi for $10, and they fit perfectly. I didn't use the rollers on the bottom, so they should stay in place nicely while we travel. I may add a non-slip liner to the bottom of the closet just to be safe.

There is enough space at the top for another shelf, and we're seriously considering buying another 3-shelf unit to add a shelf to each set.

One caveat if you need a similar shelving unit: Because of the size of these, you have to put them together inside the closet. It's not the easiest thing you'll ever do, but it's certainly not the hardest, either. If you need to remove them in the future, you'll need to take them apart inside the closet so they'll come back out.

Lastly, here's a picture of my kitchen area in action. We had just hooked up our hot water heater, so please excuse the dirty dishes in the sink.

We start homeschooling next week, and I'll try to keep you posted about changes we make and how things are working for us.

Oh, and in case you remember the last post about our power converter not working, it happened again. :( We're going to have to replace it.

We're (almost) moved in!

We moved out of our traditional home last Wednesday and started moving into our travel trailer. The transition has not been a completely smooth one. We discovered what we thought was a bad power converter (no overhead lights, no a/c, but the outlets worked). It took us nearly a week to find the power converter in the trailer (hiding behind the kitchen drawers, not anywhere near the fuse box where it usually is), only to discover that it was working fine. I'm not complaining, mind you. The part alone is around $300; labor to install it is extra.

In this whole process, we brainstormed with knowledgeable RV owners and thought to check the battery. Sure enough, it was deader than a doornail, as they say. We bought a new one, hooked it up on Monday, and it seems to have fixed the problem.

Since I wasn't sure if we would need to tow the trailer to a mechanic, I didn't move a lot of things in at first. I wasn't sure what the protocol was for how much you leave in your trailer when you take it in for repairs, especially when you're living in it full-time. Thank goodness our trailer is parked in my parents' backyard! We've been using their facilities and eating with them for a week, not to mention all the boxes of our stuff that are temporarily sitting in their extra bedroom.

I'm looking forward to getting water and sewer hooked up today, and then we can eat, shower, and actually live in the trailer properly.

Lest you think that it's been a completely and totally frustrating week, here's the view out my screen door:

When things got overwhelming, I'd just sit down on the couch, take a deep breath, and enjoy the scenery.

I did manage to get a few organizational things accomplished, and I thought I'd share them with you.

First of all, I had to maximize my kitchen cabinet space. We have an impressive amount of kitchen cabinetry for a travel trailer, but I was used to a lot of cabinets in our previous house. My parents had these plastic-coated wire shelves sitting around and offered them to me.

I didn't think to take a picture once I put our things in, but you wouldn't have been able to see the shelf at that point anyway.

I added non-slip shelf liner beneath them and on top of them. According to a fellow RVer, it should work. The weight of the items on the shelf will help to keep them firmly "attached" to the nonslip liner. We'll find out when we tow it to get it inspected. I hope she's right! :)

The other challenge is dresser space. All four of us had a dresser to ourselves in our previous house. Now we have two drawers of dedicated dresser space for all of us combined. I'm still working on some of it, but here's what I have so far ...

I discovered that these white baskets from Dollar Tree fit over the sides of the drawer, but not too snugly to close the drawer. It's almost like they're on a track.

I put pajamas on the bottom and added underwear to the baskets on top. It works perfectly!

This is how I'm organizing the space above our queen bed - squarish plastic baskets from Dollar Tree, turned on their sides. These slide along like they're on a track, too. I just left a little bit of space at each end so we could get to all of them. We were able to fit four of them in there, and it should easily accommodate the things we need to store there.

Lastly (for now), I'm cutting apart this shoe organizer to fit inside each of the smaller wardrobe compartments. Between the two of these, we should be able to store all of our dressy shoes (basic black for the guys; a pair of white and black for us girls). The casual shoes will most likely be used on a regular basis, and I anticipate those being stored by the door. (One pair each isn't too overwhelming.)

I hope you've enjoyed the peek into our week. I'll keep you posted on new solutions as I come up with them.

Our tow vehicle

We began the search for our tow vehicle by looking at trucks. That's all we had ever seen pulling campers, so we thought you had to have a truck. But if you've priced extended-cab trucks capable of pulling a camper recently, you might understand the sticker shock we got.

A knowledgeable family friend finally thought to ask why we wanted a truck. I'm sure the look on our faces said it all - Didn't we need a truck to pull a camper?? He informed us that a Suburban was every bit as capable, if you got the right one. And so the search began.

A few weeks later we bought our Suburban 2500 from John the Baptist. (I'm only partly joking. The man's first name was John, and he is a Baptist. You just have to understand pastor humor around here.) ;)

It's a well-kept beauty that was within our price range. In short, it was nothing short of a miracle! And my dream of purchasing our next vehicle with cash came true. YAY!!

Let me show you our "new" home!

I thought I'd introduce you to our travel trailer.

Here's what she looks like outside with the slide out:

This is a good, concise view of most of the inside, which I showed you in my last post:

That's the master bedroom you see at the end. There is a folding partition for privacy at night, but it unfolds in the daytime to make a LOT more visual space in the trailer. Little things can make a BIG difference!

Here are the bunks you can't see in that picture (because they're behind the camera):

These bunks are the same length as twin-sized beds, but 9" narrower in the width. Both of my kids are thin, so I don't anticipate this being a problem. There is another folding partition here, if we want to section it off from the living area at night or before the kids get up in the morning ... or just to extend the size of the bathroom area when no one is sleeping.

As you come in the door, the couch is right in front of you. The upholstery doesn't look like anything special in the pictures, but it is in brand-new condition, so I'm not planning to re-upholster anytime soon.

The seat part flips up to store things underneath. Those throw pillows are gone.

Next to the couch is the built-in dinette. These are both part of the super slide.

There is storage space under each of the booth seats, too.

The kitchen area is on the other side of the trailer by the couch and dinette.

For a travel trailer this size, the kitchen area is impressive!

 In the back of the travel trailer, there are the bunks (already shown) and a small but serviceable bathroom:

The shower is about half as long as a traditional shower, but we're not large people so it shouldn't be an issue.

No, that's not my husband in the mirror. These pictures were taken by the people who were selling it. :)

Not shown: a wardrobe closet next to the refrigerator/freezer. We were really excited about that since we will have to have our dressy clothes as well as our casual clothes.

I hope you've enjoyed a little peek at our new home!

What has been keeping me busy lately?

Lest you think I've died or quit crafting, I guess I better post an update and explain what has been occupying my mental and physical energy of late.

This is a view of the inside of our travel trailer.

To put it simply, my family and I are transitioning from being a full-time pastor's family to being a full-time, living-in-an-RV evangelist's family. Yes, we are moving four people from a two-story, five-bedroom house to a 32-foot travel trailer. No, we are not renting another house or huge storage unit. Yes, we are getting rid of at least 90% of our possessions. No, we are not crazy.

Like many people I've been reading after lately, I've been suffocating under the load of too much stuff. I long for a simpler, more manageable life. When my husband told me that he felt it was time for us to enter full-time evangelism, I knew our time had come to act on those longings. It is time to downsize to what we can reasonably manage and use.

I'm sure some people think we've lost our minds. After all, who in America understands that a 32-foot travel trailer with a slide-out is really more than adequate living space for a family of four? If you asked people in many other countries, they would be envious of the beautiful, cozy place we will have all to ourselves. It's all a matter of perspective. And faced with the choice of living out of people's guest rooms and suitcases or living out of a 32-foot travel trailer, I would pick the travel trailer every time. (You probably would, too.) :)

This is our travel trailer and Suburban, parked and waiting for us.

As of this writing, we have about another two months to finish the transition. We have our Suburban and travel trailer already purchased and waiting for us. We're simply trying to figure out what we really need in order to live simply and how to get rid of what we don't need (without just donating it all to Goodwill). There are days when I'm optimistic that we're doing great and then there are days when I don't think we're going to get it all done in time. I'd guess that's pretty normal.

My husband suggested I start another blog called "Wilderness Wanderings" to document our experiences living in the travel trailer. (Our travel trailer is a Wilderness brand, and my husband is a Bible scholar. He gets a kick out of the whole "wandering for 40 years in the wilderness" irony, especially since we'll be traveling around the country preaching and singing.)

Instead, I think I'll incorporate it into this blog, since I don't expect to be blogging entirely about RV life for years on end. I'm sure I'll be featuring my crafting projects along the way, and I really don't need two blogs to manage. After all, I'm simplifying, right?? And I'm sure I've featured some of my home projects on this blog before. My home will just have drastically changed size, that's all.

I'll try to keep you updated on how things are going, but if I go MIA for awhile just understand that I've probably gotten overwhelmed and don't have time to keep you up-to-date because I have to make the most of every minute I have to get things done in time. I'll be back. I promise!