Full Time RV living - Page 13

[IntuitiveJamie]

Reading and taking it all in still. We are so early in the process I don't have a ton to add/offer right now. Just running through ideas. But love this thread and learning from you all. Thank you!

[IntuitiveJamie]

So I've been thinking and thinking. I'm trying to figure out if there is anything at all you stockpile. I know that RV living is not conducive to this, but even in my head I'm having a hard time letting go of that way of living. I don't mean like 1 years worth of food. I'm talking about canned goods, or toothpaste or anything. I'm used to having staples in my pantry sort of thing. And I imagine I will have to get used to not having any stockpile of anything and therefore running out and therefore having to shop all.the.time. Which doesn't sound very appealing to me. Of course, we'll do what we have to do. Although we drink Almond milk and I will have prob. a whole tub below the RV I'm guessing. I'm not going to assume that I can get that just anywhere and I don't want to run out. Then whereever we go that I can buy some I'll stock up. Anyone drink anything other than milk and have a problem with it?
And I know we've talked about kitchen stuff before, but does this sound like way too much: Blender, Juicer, coffee pot and toaster? It sounds like too much to me. I'm guessing the toaster won't be necessary with a convection oven/microwave.

Anyhow, just as a personal update; our plans are moving foward rapidly. Debt is being paid off at a speedy pace (which is primary for this plan to happen). I'm already starting to get rid of things in the house. We are thinking and talking and planning and doing a little bit everyday to make this happen. We have decided the house goes up for sale in October. And I think dh's brother is going to keep our 2nd car, so that when we land we still have two paid off cars. That makes us very happy!

[nicole_marie]

Originally Posted by IntuitiveJamie

So I've been thinking and thinking. I'm trying to figure out if there is anything at all you stockpile. I know that RV living is not conducive to this, but even in my head I'm having a hard time letting go of that way of living. I don't mean like 1 years worth of food. I'm talking about canned goods, or toothpaste or anything. I'm used to having staples in my pantry sort of thing. And I imagine I will have to get used to not having any stockpile of anything and therefore running out and therefore having to shop all.the.time. Which doesn't sound very appealing to me. Of course, we'll do what we have to do. Although we drink Almond milk and I will have prob. a whole tub below the RV I'm guessing. I'm not going to assume that I can get that just anywhere and I don't want to run out. Then whereever we go that I can buy some I'll stock up. Anyone drink anything other than milk and have a problem with it?
And I know we've talked about kitchen stuff before, but does this sound like way too much: Blender, Juicer, coffee pot and toaster? It sounds like too much to me. I'm guessing the toaster won't be necessary with a convection oven/microwave.

Anyhow, just as a personal update; our plans are moving foward rapidly. Debt is being paid off at a speedy pace (which is primary for this plan to happen). I'm already starting to get rid of things in the house. We are thinking and talking and planning and doing a little bit everyday to make this happen. We have decided the house goes up for sale in October. And I think dh's brother is going to keep our 2nd car, so that when we land we still have two paid off cars. That makes us very happy!

I am having similar thoughts.

We do the almond milk thing too...but I make it in the Vitamix...it literally takes 2 minutes. Almonds take up less storage so I guess that's a bonus!

For appliances we are bringing a juicer, vitamix, toaster & electric teapot, but almost none of our baking pans and one colander vs. 4. For coffee, we have a french press that takes up less space and we can use the hot water from the tea pot. I'm worried a bit about food staples too, although I am going to try and bring them. It's hard to tell what is going to fit vs what will not fit when you are just trying to visualize it. Drinking water is one of my biggest concerns. We have a 5 gallon jug and right now we get water from a local spring. As far as water goes...I have no idea what/where/how while on the road.

I also can't wrap my head around laundry. Where do you store the dirty clothes?

[IntuitiveJamie]

Nicole Marie-All excellent ideas. I hadn't thought about making our own Almond milk. I tried that over a year ago and my oldest didn't like it, so I gave up. However I made it with a steamer thingy. I've never just made it like you are talking about, even though I know you can. That is brilliant and will save a ton of space and won't be so stressful trying to figure out where to get more. Almonds definitely take up less room!
I also love the teapot and french press idea.
Seriously lady, you just solved several of my issues. THANKS!!

I think I found a good spice organizer. Because seriously, I love my spices and I use them all. I think this will work nicely: http://www.lillianvernon.com/catalog...0d520add852314

And the other stuff I think about is homemade chicken stock and all the fruits and veggies for juicing and making green smoothies.

As far as laundry goes, I'm stumped too b/c I have a four sorter laundry system right now. Guess it will get a lot more basic on the RV. I'm still looking for helpful stuff. In the meantime, does anyone have one of these? http://www.campingworld.com/shopping...el-table/22197 I am going to want one. How perfect for an extra book table!

We plan on doing a water filtration system. Hopefully something as simple as the ones you attach to the faucet.

[Pilgrim]

Hey y'all!

So I think a lot of that stuff will work itself out once you are on the road. What *we* buy in bulk and store depends on a variety of things. Is it on sale? Do we have space? What is the purpose? How easy/difficult is it to obtain when we run out? Even in our RV, we have *some* emergency foods (gallon of honey and coconut oil, 10 pounds chia seeds, several cases of sardines, and our fresh water tank is generally full.)

We also go thru phases of what we are eating. We might be really "into" a particular food at some time, so we buy lots of those ingredients. Then that sort of phases out as we get into some other food.

Jamie - we do have a crock pot to make our stock in! We also have a french press, water cooker, and Vita-Mix. We don't make toast, so no toaster, but we do use the convection oven part of the microwave as our oven.

We also bought a nice under-sink water filtration system, which I would not be without.

As for laundry, yes you will want to designate some area inside of a cabinet for that. We have a bucket (maybe about 10 gal?) that is for dirty laundry. We have a tiny washer/dryer in our RV, so I wash lights one day and darks the next. So we can get away with having a tiny area for dirty laundry. So again, you'll have to devise something that works for how *you* are going to do it. Are you going to wash at a laundrymat once/week? Then you'll need a larger area for dirty laundry. For us anyway, it's way too easy to have dirty clothes all over the place if we don't have a definite place to put it, so it was important to me to have a good place for it. (We had a trailer for 10 years and we never did establish a dirty laundry place, and it was always everywhere! But, we only used it for trips and never lived in it.)

[wechoosethis]

This is what we do...
Laundry is kept in a large laundry basket, in our shower. When we showers/baths are happening we just put it out into the living area. But most of the time it is out of sight---SO NICE!
Our basket it kind of like this but with no wheels, I got ours at Target for $10

Spices- are in magnetic tins, that I bought at Bed, Bath & Beyond ( I have also seem them at Cost Plus and online). The magnetic tins are on a metal tray that is secured to the wall. I have found that I don't use as many spices on the road, so this amount works for us. However you could have more or even a larger tray if you wanted.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink
Here is another metal tray I have that we use for grocery lists, notes, some photos and card people send us.
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

[nicole_marie]

Originally Posted by wechoosethis

This is what we do...
Laundry is kept in a large laundry basket, in our shower. When we showers/baths are happening we just put it out into the living area. But most of the time it is out of sight---SO NICE!
feat=directlink[/url]

Great idea, thank you! I found a large, round collapsable tote at Target yesterday in the garden section and I wondered where I could put it. It would work great for holding a LOT of laundry and I think it will fit perfectly in the shower (we don't have a w/d...so we will be doing the laundry mat thing).

[sweetpeppers]

I find it convenient to go shopping often. We tend to drive around a lot so, it's not a big deal to stop at the store and pick up food fresh. We use almond or soy milk and I have found it everywhere, Walmart and every grocery store. I don't use a lot of spices, so I can't weigh in on that. And I don't seperate our laundry, so I can't weigh in on that either. A lot of stuff you won't really figure out a good system until you've been on the road a few months (or years possibly).

[IntuitiveJamie]

Thanks for the laundry in the shower idea. Perfect!
I went and looked at some used Rv's yesterday trying to figure out if it might be plausible for what we want, to do some renovating and putting bunk beds in. I mean, I know it's plausable for the RV, but will it really be right for us. Or do we just need to get one that is already built like that. It was fun to go, as always, and toss some ideas around.

Wechoosethis-I mentioned y'all in my blog today:
http://livinginspiredtour.oxygenaddicts.org/
and several others too.

[CageFreeFamily]

Looks like we're moving back onto the RV.

Over the next 6 weeks (maybe less) I'll be posting about how we decide what to bring, where it all goes, how we handle challenges, etc. It's something I didn't write about the first time, I guess because I felt like I didn't know what I was doing, but I plan to go into detail this time handling everything from the spice cabinet, dog food and rubber bands to setting up solar, fuel efficiency boosts and easing the process of tire pressure checking and air filling.

Oy!

Here we go again!

[IntuitiveJamie]

Cagefreefamily- I'm excited to read all about it. I started following your blog right as you settled down. I also mentioned and linked to you in my blog!

[Pilgrim]

Aimee, I'm so happy for you! I know how much you've missed life on the road!

[IntuitiveJamie]

Do any of you compost on board? I think I found a few alternatives that will work nicely.
I really want to continue using cloth and composting and recyling. Those are the things I really don't want to give up. It's just a matter of finding the ways to make them work in a much smaller space. I have determined that I need a washer/dryer to make the cloth stuff work.

[IntuitiveJamie]

And what about a bread machine? I finally got a really nice one last Xmas and I really enjoy baking my own bread in it. It's huge though and a loaf takes 5-6 hours. I can't imagine that is the way to go on an RV, but I really prefer it over buying and I'm don't have time to do it by hand. Any thoughts?

[CageFreeFamily]

We were never able to find a good way to manage compost and recycleables while we were moving.

We began with Nichola still in cloth diapers, but the cost of going to laundromats every other day was too much. I tried washing them on board, but we didn't have enough water storage to really manage it without having to find a way to refill our tanks so often that it was totally impractical.
We wound up switching to paper diapers, which I still regret.

This time Simone will be in diapers. I refuse to go the disposables route again, don't want the huge laundromat expense and can't store more water than we did before, so we are working on ECing Simone and plan B is to do dipes "hippie style" like we (and everyone else with cloth) did at the Rainbow Gatherings; haul water from a natural source, boil it and wash in a tub.

We much prefer to boondock in remote locations, and I don't suspect that it will be too much trouble if we can cut the diaper use down to nighttime, but we'll see.

The onboard washer/dryer systems are great if you plan to be at an RV park or other site with hook-ups when you do it, otherwise you will be draining your water tank, filling your grey water tank and the electricity will be an issue too. When it comes down to it a $40 stay at a park every time you want to do laundry winds up costing much more than a laundromat.

The bread machine will also require you to hook up regularly, and could be an issue for storage while traveling as well as while you want to use counter space for food prep.

Don't worry too much, it's hard to plan for a thing you've never experienced before. No matter how hard you work at it there will be things that you shouldn't have taken and others that you'll wish you had, but it will all work itself out.

[IntuitiveJamie]

Thanks for the insight. I always appreciate it. I do know that you all are right when you say I can't totally plan for everything. I get it. But I am a planner and organizer and the fact that I have you all going through this,well you have so much insight to share. And I'm very good at learning from others trials and success's and mistakes. So thank you for sharing with me.

I kinda figured the bread machine was out. But had to ask. teehee.

If I do end up on paper products, it will be very hard for me to transition. And I will definitely give the cloth on board a try, and composting, but if it doesn't work out, then it doesn't, yk? Gotta go with the flow, isn't that what RV living is all about?

I found these composters btw:
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/indoor-composter.html
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/bok...mpost-bin.html

Did you have something like this Cagefreefamily? Can you tell me what did not work? Thanks.

[Pilgrim]

When we lived in our house, we were 100% cloth (for everything), composted, and recycled everything! (we saved *all* of our plastic, even the stuff they wouldn't take curbside, to take to the master recycling program.) So we were very green!

When we moved into the RV, we also found it too difficult to recycle much. Most RV parks simply don't take recycles. I was shocked when we were in California and even *those* places didn't recycle! We never did try to compost in the RV. Even if we did compost in the RV, where would we put it (both in the RV and when we were "done" with it?)

We still did cloth diapers, and yes, we have our own washer/dryer. I did a load every day (DD2 was a year old, and even though she was EC'd from day 1, she had totally refused to use the potty for a few months. So she went thru a lot of diapers, plus we included the family cloth in the loads.) And we had the same experience as Aimee - I eventually bought some disposable diapers (natural brand) to use when we were boondocking. It wasn't worth the $40/night RV park fee *just* so we could have hookups to wash diapers.

Incidentally, she did fully potty train at around age 2, but then due to some constipation issues, she is now fully back in diapers. AND, we left our stash of cloth diapers in storage in Portland! I'm just about out of our current pack, and I'm considering purchasing some more cloth for her.

So yes, I agree with Aimee that only so much planning can be done. So be prepared to perhaps buy something again that you already sold or don't have with you, and be prepared to get rid of something you thought you *had* to have, but no longer use. So when it happens, it will be less frustrating.

[MoonStarFalling]

We are back at our home state and expecting another baby! I'm also wondering how cloth diapering would go without a washer. I loathe using a laundry mat, and the one here costs a bundle! We're considering an all in one washer dryer. DD was still in diapers when we got the camper but she was mostly potty trained (she was EC'd too) so it wasn't much. I wouldn't mind doing them w/ hot water in the tub but I found most camps don't allow any line drying.

We're going to rent a stick house for this winter since the baby is due in Dec, I don't want to change states/doctors and our camper is just too drafty for having a newborn in Jan/Feb. I'll just have to wait and see how life is post baby so we're not making plans for 2011.

We are hoping to spend a month in Colorado, Grand Junction/Vale area this year.

[PPK]

Cagefree Mama~ We have the same RV!! At least, given the inside pics on your page its the same, maybe a different year..ours is 1985.

I still look through these pages every so often since I'm prone to wanderlust, but I know that we're landbased for at least a few more years gaining headway financially...we're hoping to go back full-time at some point!

To answer about stockpiling, etc- I agree w/pp's that you'll definatley figure things out as you go!

We honestly just don't have a ton of space to stockpile much. I keep grains of course and dried noodles, some almond milk, and that's about it! Everything else we just stop off to a grocery store every 5-7 days and can make it last. Too much of anything taking up space sort of bugs us both out, so I guess we're minimalists on that front.

We're getting the rig ready for our trip out this summer and will be gone for 6-8 weeks; I'm feeling soooo ready to go, but will probably be here till mid-June...trying to push it up though

[lightinmyhands]

what if?

What if the need to get on the road, the desperate longing.... the call.... is so strong? What if the need to go is greater than the need to stay and get "better prepared"? I don't think I care about paying off debt. Don't think I care about having every little thing I think I need. I just want to go. I want to take part in this juicy adventure I call life. Is it so crazy to free fall into the universe? Is it crazy to trust that life will provide? The whole wide world is calling to me and I feel so stagnant in my current location. Any advice?

Oh, and one more question. When thinking of getting a rig--- I'm considering just getting an SUV and some good camping equipment. Wondering if that won't be enough with 2 little girls and 2 dogs. It would save a ton of money on gas though. And I'm not looking to have the "home" experience on the road necessarily. I want to be close to nature... I want to be simple. But I guess I wonder if trying to be too simple won't wind up complicating things.