Travels With Miranda

Ah, this is the kind of travel day that would be normal for me if I was an American and could just travel at a leisurely pace all the time.

After an incredibly lazy morning, I got packing just before noon, when the temps hit +5C and the wind had died down a little. It was chilly, but tolerable, for dumping and hooking up the toad.

I pulled out at about 12:05 and drove to Shelby, where I had identified through Google Maps a gas station that would be an easier in and out than the ones I’d pass before. I took on 47 gallons of gas, so I was definitely running on fumes! That put my MPG for the trip from Wichita at 5.8. OUCH!!!

My GPS is useless for finding campgrounds, so I just left it on map to show me upcoming roads, and I navigated with a Post-It that indicated my turns. I’m glad I only had an hour to drive because it was incredibly windy and I could only move at a snail’s pace. The only good thing about driving in such conditions is that my biceps get quite a workout.

I had absolutely no trouble finding the Loup Park campground. I haven’t quite figured out this place. It’s carved into a hill and power posts appear to be scattered willy nilly. I’m much too long for any of the obvious sites, so I parallel parked along a secondary loop. If it was summer and busy, I would have likely tried somewhere else as I feel a little in the way, even though the road is clear, but for two nights in early May, I am fine. Getting myself leveled was a bit of work, but I finally managed it. Oh, I just saw the sheriff go by and he ignored me, so I’m obviously not blocking anyone.

I need to show off my latest MAJOR, life-changing improvement to my RV. TAH-DAH!

The cubbies traveled that way, rather than turned to the wall to keep the drawers from moving. I can do that now because the drawers are finally secured! It was one of my neighbours at Hidden Valley who came up with the solution in mere seconds when everyone else had failed!

The answer was… Velcro!

The beige blobs are dried Gorilla glue that I used to adhere the Velcro to the surfaces. I knew that the stuff really expands, so I put just a drop, but it was still too much. In other words, I had to pry my drawers open once everything was dry. Go easy on the Gorilla glue, folks!

I’m off to find the movie theatre. I just realised it’s Saturday afternoon, so I’d better arrive early. There is a 3D showing at 3:30 and a 2D one at 4:00, so I should be able to squeeze into one or the other. I can’t believe I saw Iron Man 2 in Dawson City!

And finally, OMG IT’S %%@#$%&@)( COLD HERE!

This morning, I invited longdog2 to come visit before I left. This afternoon worked best for her and she arrived around 3 and left at about 6:30. I had fun showing her  the rig, then we went for a walk around the RV park.

I’m really enjoying having a home that I can keep almost ‘company ready’ all the time so that when I get company with a few hours’ notice, there is no panic involved.

That’s definitely the best benefit of being organized and decluttered at long last; it’s easy to stay on top of the housekeeping.

Last night, I had a particularly vivid waking dream in which I was on a ferry with every single RVer I know both virtually and offline. We were on the passenger deck and our rigs were below. The ferry was sinking slowly. Our rigs were goners.

I floated amongst the group listening to everyone’s reactions. Most of the part-timers were fairly nonchalant about the whole thing since they had insurance. The full-timers, one in particular, were hysterical that their entire lives were about to disappear into a watery abyss, yelling at the part-timers that they just didn’t understand what our rigs mean to us.

It was fascinating.

I stayed out of it until we were given permission to go down to our rigs one last time for about 10 minutes and take what we could carry only.

I go through that exercise in my mind frequently and it was interesting to actually do it.

I put together the cat carriers, wrangled the babies in them, and put the phone, iPad and iPod in my purse with their cables. I still had five minutes left, so I grabbed a backpack and put my computer, chargers, and hard drives in it, cushioned with some clothes. I made sure to switch to practical shoes, added a layer, wrapped a scarf around my neck, heaved the backpack on, put the purse strap around my shoulders,  grabbed a carrier in each hand, and walked out of my beloved home forever.

I awoke wondering yet again about how much ‘stuff’ I really need. Yes, five years later, I’m still Sorting It Out.

Compared to a lot of people, I’m practically a minimalist (but I would never consider myself one!) and compared to others, I’m a hoarder. These comparisons are, of course, pointless, but do reveal that since I am still struggling with my possessions, my decluttering journey is not over.

Right now, I have the perfect amount of stuff to fill this RV in such a way that all the storage space is utilized, but it is not all overflowing and everything is easily reached. I’m organized!

I’ve reached the stage of decluttering where the exercise seems almost pointless. I use everything I own, I have space to store everything I own, I can easily access everything I own, and I know where everything I own is. Why do I still get the urge to keep downsizing?

This answer is that the life I’m currently living won’t be my last. Even before I started RVing, I knew what the next stage would be, and that would be an extremely minimalist existence traveling around the world with just a bag. The idea of being free of the endless cycle of domesticity will be a reward after a long journey of mostly conventional living.

Right now, my cats require me to have a stable home base. It makes sense that, in the twilight of their years, I continue to indulge my nesting instincts and get the idea of ‘home’ right for once so that I can move on and follow other dreams later. But I can’t lose sight of the vision I have for my post-RVing years.

So I keep decluttering, simplifying, reducing. When the day comes that I find myself alone, I won’t need to waste time getting ready for the next phase of my life.

But there’s no need to rush there. I’m enjoying this life, cluttered as is it, too much.

Okay, so I sort of lied this morning in that I am thinking about departure, but not in an, “OMG THERE’S SO MUCH TO DO!” mode, rather in a “Let’s see if I can make this departure thing even easier” mode.

I’m going around the rig and putting things where they belong. Whatever else is out is stuff that I would put on the bed in the back or in one of the sinks when I travel. I eliminated the sink storage by adding storage near the bathroom vanity and with a new kitchen cabinet.

The study isn’t too bad, really. I rearranged my overhead cabinets (AGAIN) to eliminate the basket on the desk and the computers go into their cases and storage place on travel day. All that was left were the keyboard, which is destined to always travel on the bed, and the garbage bucket, which fits neatly on one corner of the desk and usually remains there during travel:

Why bother coming up with a way to secure it? It’s light, so if it moves, no big deal, it won’t damage anything. But what if I forget to empty it before I take off? Why not eliminate having to think about it?

All it took was a cup hook:

Incidentally, this garbage bucket is a good example of a multi-use item since I use it to hold my cleaning solution when I wash the cabinets or the floors.

Getting the inside ready for departure is at most a 10-minute deal now and I think I can cut that down even further with added tweaks.

The next challenge is the kitchen cubbies. I put some non-skid material under them, but still have to figure out a way to keep the drawers from opening without running the unit or making it fiddly. At this point, I’m thinking bungee cords, which is not ideal, but I’m tired of having to turn the unit around to face the wall when I travel, especially since I usually forget to do that and have a mess on my hands when I arrive. I tried to eliminate them from the kitchen, but they are just too useful and so I am left with finding a better way to make them work in travel mode.

A good home is never done…

When people ask him about organizing a home, I tell them that the ubiquitous ‘junk drawer’ has to go. If you have a junk drawer, then you are not organized.

They say confession is good for the soul; right? Well, this week I had to concede that I have a junk drawer:

This drawer is right below my wardrobe in the dressing room.

I’ve always struggled with what to use it for. This week, I finally got the answer. I should be using it for what I’ve been using it for, as a place to store the tools and supplies that I grab the most. Why are they in this drawer instead of where the belong? Because most of my tools live in the basement and most of the supplies live in the study and those locations aren’t practical for those items.

I emptied the drawer contents onto the bed in the back and did a quick sort.

There was a lot of trash and a few things that really did belong in the bins in the study.

I didn’t realise that drawer is so big!

Finally, I sorted like with like and containerized:

I even brought the knife and staple gun bin from the study and put it in this drawer (it’s the big white one).

Now, I can grab my electrical supplies all at once. No more buying fuses or ring terminals because I can’t remember where I last dropped them!

I still have work to do. There is a lot of stuff in the battery compartment that is going to end up in this drawer. I also want to move most of the screwdrivers into the drawer as well. Thankfully, there is lots of room left in the drawer!

The funniest item I found in the cleanup was this 2009 receipt for the Whitehorse Walmart:

When I finish with the drawer, I will be moving on to the cabinet below it. It’s a shame that it’s not doing more than it is.