Full-Time RV Move-In Day

On August 19th  I moved out of the hotel where I had been staying since I sold my condo in July. That same day I moved into my RV. Throughout the day, I caught myself thinking of the move as vacation packing. Then it would hit me; this RV is now my HOME and I am going to be living in it full-time. I also quickly realized that as proud as I was of all the downsizing and minimizing I had done since March, there was still too much stuff to put into the RV. As you can see there was stuff all over the place. Books, dishes, computers, office supplies, and random decorations. Now if the RV was going to be just sitting in one place this wouldn't be too much of a problem, but since everything moves when you drive down the road all of this stuff was going to have to go inside a cabinet or under the motorhome in what I now call my basement.


Pinterest became my new obsession and I created a board to collect ideas on how to organize my stuff better https://www.pinterest.com/caminoturtle2016/rv-decor-ideas/
For example, did you know that a lot of RV owners use tension curtain rods in their fridge to keep stuff from falling out when they open the door after driving for a while? The curtain rods work great. Now if only I could find a way to make the fridge bigger. At 6 cubic feet, it doesn't hold more than about a week's worth of food. I can also see that I am going to have to buy smaller condiment jars and beer in cans since there is only one shelf on the door with enough room for bottles. Ah, the sacrifices one has to make for the freedom of the road.  Hopefully over the next month or so, I will perfect the art of packing the RV fridge.

YouTube is also a new favorite research location on all things RV and organizing. Because things tend to slide around and fall down inside the cabinets when I am driving the RV, it really helps to organize everything in bins and boxes. I got ideas about how to set up some of my cabinets from "Becky's Feathered Nest" and from "Do It on a Dime". While these ladies aren't actually full-time RV owners, I liked their ideas for affordable ways to get things organized.  This set of cabinets are above the dining table. The Young Living box has been set up with divided sections using cardboard and it houses my coffee mugs. The clear plastic box holds my steel thermos and mason jars and the sock/tie organizer box holds glasses. The plastic shoe boxes from Walmart hold spices and my essential oils. Everything snugs in tight and nothing moves when I drive.

Note: it is a little over a week later, August 27th, and today I got the last of the things that were stored at my niece's house. So now everything I own is with me. Having lived in my motorhome for a week, I can honestly say that some of these things just don't make sense to me in a home on wheels that requires that everything is packed up when you drive it. Yet, there are other things like my nice real silverware that fit nicely in their new home next to the motor home's sink. My hope is that in the next week I will be able to sort out what stays and what goes to Good Will before I head out again on my next RV trip. I am sure that this is only the first of many decisions to continue to minimize my possessions to those that are both useful and beautiful.