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Originally Posted by IntuitiveJamie
Pilgrim- Great info thanks! Did I miss your blog somewhere? I would love to keep up with it.
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My blog is private, but I don't mind sending you (or anyone on this thread) an invite. It is actually private because I don't want certain family members to read it. sad, but it is what it is. PM your email addy. Disclaimer - I haven't been keeping up with it these last few months, mainly because DD1 has been sick and on the couch - not much to write about. (she's doing much better these past couple of weeks!) But, the very beginning of the blog would be of interest to anyone just starting out, because I started the blog around the time of our first garage sales!
We most definitely keep our girls buckled while driving. Dahlea - I don't remember seeing anyone say they cook while driving. I do get up to make a "fast grab" of something if my girls have run out of the food/water that we provided before beginning to drive. I think it would be impossible to cook while going down the road! (though we do often have the oven roasting a chicken or something.) I also let my 6yo get up to potty, but only if she asks, and only if we are going down a long stretch of highway with no traffic.
Oh, and Jamie - I never even thought to mention about plastic bins. In my mind, that was just a given! LOL! Definitely don't even think about putting your stuff in cardboard boxes in the underbelly. When you get a water leak for the first time, you will be so happy your stuff is in plastic! (yes, we had our fresh water tank spring a leak, and yes, some of the stuff in cardboard boxes got all moldy. Including some maternity clothes I was going to give to my friend. UGH!) Plus, the visibility and stacking qualities are very helpful. We also have plastic bins inside the RV. Originally, we only had the bins inside until we got to my parents' house, and then we unloaded a bunch of stuff into their attic and were able to put all of our plastic bins in the underbelly. But we soon discovered that we liked having the plastic bins inside because we had (still have) a busy toddler that can get into everything. The bins helped us "babyproof" a bit and provided extra "counter space" to keep things out of her reach.
Pots & pans - we brought a huge cast iron pot that fits in our sink. About 99% of our meals get prepped in that. We also brought a smaller cast iron pan that gets occasional use. We also brought a large, medium, and small (stackable) SS pot set. We never used the medium size pot until we ruined our small one. (DD1 was/is getting salt water steam treatments daily, and the salt water pitted the pot!) But, we used the small pot intensely for reheats. (we don't use the microwave.) We also almost never use our large pot. But, we tend to eat "one course" meals here. If we cook a mess of veggies - that's our meal. If we roast a chicken - that's our meal. I make a huge pot of soup at least weekly (in my big cast iron pot.)
Our meals can look like this (in the big cast iron pot.) AM - cook bacon. Warm up some leftover chicken in the drippings for DD1 who can't eat eggs. Fry up some onions & mushrooms in the grease, scramble some eggs into that. Breakfast is done. Leave the pan on the stove. Lunch: throw more grease in the pan and cook some veggies (I've been loving brussel sprouts or sugar snap peas at the moment or some sauteed spinach at the moment.) Sometime later, use the same pan to reheat soup or make a new pot of soup. Evening, wash the pan so it's ready for breakfast again. Before moving into the RV, it never would have occurred to me to NOT wash the pot in-between all of those meal preps. In fact, I would have used a different pan for each of those various cooking things.
As far as having a washer/dryer or not - I think many people get along just fine without one. Personally, we just can't do that. DD1 and I have serious chemical sensitivities, and the residue from the laundry detergents and dryer sheets that are left in the public laundry machines would make us very sick! As it is, I can strongly smell the scents coming out of the public laundry room and I get nervous! When DD2 was only a year old, I did 2 loads of laundry daily. One load of diapers, one load of either clothes, towels, or sheets. Now, she's just about done with her diapers, so the load of "cloth stuff" gets washed about every 2-3 days. What a relief with the laundry!