A Few of My Favorite Things

Okay, without very much deep introspection here is my list of my top five favorite aspects of our RV and RV living lifestyle after approximately 35 days in our rig.  You may also see that many of these top five could also double as the bottom five reasons, but read on.

1.  Less space.  So I don’t know how many square feet we have because that would take a tape measure, toddler-free time and a proper to-do list, but I know it’s not 2200 sq feet.  So with less square footage, you have to be choosy and understanding of your smaller stature.  That leads to the ‘less is more’ simple living lifestyle, which if you know me, you know was the real draw moving into an RV.  The less space means less to clean, less to keep track of, less room for being messy, less space in the freezer, fewer seating options, less pantry space, less wall space, you get the idea.  All-in-all I kind of dig that.  Sure sometimes in the grocery store I wonder if the contents of my cart will actually fit into my freezer but I figure I can always take something out, shuffle something around or repackage something to make it work if it comes to it.  But so far I haven’t run into this imagined grocery store haul placement problem that I often envision.

   

   The freezer

   Yes, Levi’s toys do end up all over our living room often and yes it means he has indefinite access to stubborn Bailey who refuses to seek higher ground but there’s always clean up time and well I don’t know really what to do about stubborn Bailey yet.  When we get tired of the inside we go outside to play in our new “sand box” and when we get hot we come inside and enjoy the air conditioning.  When we get stir crazy we run an errand in the truck or go for a local adventure.  It’s basically the same as before we moved into the RV, just regular life with a toddler.

   

   His sandbox

2. A small washer/dryer.  IS this really a pro? Well yes, hang with me.  So I can’t say that laundry is really my most favorite of house chores mainly due to how overwhelming it is to put all that laundry away.  But with the washer the size of a small basket it means you can fit about two days of average clothes use or one day of heavy clothes use in there.  So you put your meager load in the washer for 40 minutes and in the dryer (which is the same machine as the washer) for an hour and 45 minutes. Also, I hang up most of my shirts and shorts to air dry.  Then when the load is done I only have a few of Levi’s things to fold and a few of mine and a few of Geoff’s.  Then it’s all done!

   

   The combo washer dryer is located between our closets

   And I’m within arm’s reach of 2/3rds of all our clothes as I fold and hang things up.  It’s pretty nice.  And it’s short enough of an activity that I can do it most days without Levi really losing it.

   

   Here it is open

   When I get behind in the laundry it does seem daunting to figure out how I’m going to catch up.  You see the washer dryer shakes the WHOLE RV like a mammoth earthquake.  Well, I’ve never been in an earthquake, mammoth or otherwise, but it’s really shaking.  So I think it’s hard to sleep or keep a napping or sleeping baby asleep while it’s doing all that shaking.  So it seems best to do the laundry in the morning and run the dryer soon after or in the afternoon.  It’s also supremely helpful to take the things out of the dryer within an hour of being done so as to minimize the number of wrinkles.  I think this is probably true for big dryers but it’s really true for the little ones.  So the timing of things can sometimes get off and the weekend can sometimes get us off course, so it’s all a balance, but in the end I’m pumped about our small washer dryer.

3. The views. How great is it to fill almost every window of your house with beautiful nature? Well we have a lot of windows and I can tell you, it’s SO great! In Tampa we had the river which was really connected to the bay so there was a tide that came in and out and changed the direction of the water flow throughout the day.  It was just so pretty!  Here in North Carolina, we have some hills, a lake and a small hiking trail around the lake and the woods. Most of the time this RV park is pretty empty so your views of these things are generally unobstructed.  This does bring me to the flip side of this pro- when you have neighbors, especially neighbors who are VERY close due to the size of the RV spaces, your views change and so does your privacy.  This past weekend was Labor Day, in case you hadn’t heard, and the park went from having about 10 of us here to 105 RV’s and every spot filled! It’s nice to see and people watch but it does change the atmosphere and your view a bit, so there’s that.

   

   Our current view in Mt. Airy, NC

4. The counter and the sink covers.  When I was in some grade, like 5th maybe, we had to invent something.  I noticed that our cat and small kitten liked to get into the sink to lick the ice cream bowls so I invented The Kitty Sink Cover.  It fit perfectly on top of the sink (and was covered with fabric that matched the curtains) and kept the cats out of the sink (and was clearly preferred over actually doing the dishes, in my mind).  Well, basically the RV industry has either ripped off this idea or they came up with it first.  (I’m not sure but I’ll defer to them on this one.) So basically you can fill up both sides of your sink with dirty dishes and cover them with the sink covers that are made of the same material as your counter top and you can basically forget you have dirty dishes!! Guys, this is genius! Well, genius right up until you have to do something about those dishes or you need something in the sink.  But still, it seems like a socially acceptable form of what I did in college, which was make a pile of my dirty dishes and leave them on my window sill till I was absolutely forced to clean them.  Don’t worry, Mom and mom-types, we do our dishes every day but it’s nice to still have all that counter space while your sink is full.  Since we don’t have a dishwasher it really makes the whole dish thing bearable.  Well done RV makers!

   

   The counter and sink. The sink is where the little black hole is

5. A reprieve from the heat.  Okay I know I’m not going to be popular in the Tampa Bay markets for this one but, really, its been pretty sweet to not be as hot as we were in Florida.  We’ve spent quite a bit of time outside (for us) in the last 13 days (since leaving Florida) with various temperatures and humidity levels but it’s been an obvious difference from the scorching sun and humidity of Clearwater.  I’m not going to lie, I’m kind of pumped about remember this thing called, Fall.  One of my Florida friends on Instagram used this hashtag #itsfallsomewhere and I love that, it is fall somewhere and we are going to find it! Ready or not, scarf weather, here we come!

He kind of looks like that guy from the Goonies here but he’s is outside playing

 

So that’s where we are at, how about you? What are you enjoying these days?

So long from Mayberry,

Big Rig Rose