Thursday, November 19, 2015

Do We Have the Right Stuff?

Doing a quick almost-six-months-as-fulltimers assessment I feel like we were pretty realistic in what we brought with us, and what we didn't.

The biggest change when we leave Santa Clarita this time will the absence of the trikes. We enjoyed them living in town with lots of easy access bike paths, but have only ridden them twice in the months we've been on the road. There have been limited options from the campgrounds without spending more money to upgrade our tires. Loading them on, and unloading them from, the Jeep wasn't a huge issue, but it was still a lot of work for something we weren't using. Tessa never got comfortable with the trailer - a larger one would probably work better, but again we didn't want to put out more money. I'm looking forward to easier access to the back of the Jeep, and one less thing to make sure is secured in our travels.

Otherwise, we haven't found anything else we're ready to toss. Since we have empty space inside and out, there's no urgency to unload.

We've managed to stick with our "one in, one out" commitment for clothes and shoes. I do admit I have added "extra" fun socks, but so far they haven't invaded "non-sock" storage space :-)  Our closet still has room for more clothes, but we have plenty. Have only wanted to wear jewelry a couple times, but the very few pieces I brought take up little space, and I expect to wear them all eventually.

The printer/scanner doesn't take up a lot of space, and although we've only used it a few times, those times have made us very glad we brought it with us! 

Mail? Absolutely no issues with not "receiving" a single piece. 98% of everything we ever handled through the mail, we now do online. Our "address friends" screen what still arrives in the box, texting us a pic of the item (DMV, toll road charges, etc) and we take care of it without ever touching it. Not changing a thing!

We bought a clear elbow and additional sewer hose after a couple weeks, and still want to get an additional length of water hose. There has only been one stop where the distance to the hookups was an issue, but it's unrealistic to think there won't be more. The TST toilet chemical is what we started with and have been very happy with how it works. Adding a little Happy Camper occasionally has kept everything odorless.

I continue to be amazed at the efficiency of a really small kitchen. There are a couple pans and utensils I haven't used, but they fit nicely in the space we have, and as I get more comfortable with the convection oven I'm thinking they'll be useful. The Keurig is still a favorite, even though it is the one thing that will cause a power fault when we're on 30 amp :-(  I turn off other things to ensure we have our coffee!

There are several things we haven't used at all. Some, like tools, we hope we never do. Others are seasonal so we'll see if the colder temps bring them out. 

There are four options already in the rig that I considered "whatever" items I could do without if we didn't have them. Instead, I love all of them: stacking washer and dryer, TV over the windshield (in addition to the larger one across the room), water and ice in the frig door, and the outside TV. Who knew? Apparently Thor did.......

I'm looking forward to pulling out the Christmas decorations in a couple weeks - I'm sure I'll be happy I brought everything in that box! 



26 comments:

  1. Sounds like your planning was totally realistic - nice going!

    We seldom use our bikes but know there are times when they are really handy, fortunately they are not really in the way on the back of the RV...I can see how frustrating they would be on the Jeep!

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    1. If we could have stowed them differently we might have waited to see if we got more use, but they are just too big :-(

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  2. Although my closets are over full I probably carry more jewelry than clothing. You did good with all your preplanning and learning from others mistakes.

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    1. Love that :-) It definitely helped that we had a couple years to research what others did!

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  3. It was so much fun seeing you! I hope you will be able to come visit us in Utah. I'll make sure the house is big enough for your rig. Lol.. Happy travels and see you again soon. Xoxox

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    1. Loved seeing you too! And yes, we will definitely come see the new place in Utah (even if we can't park there).

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  4. That was the exact reason we sold the motorcycle and trailer! We were hauling it around, it was inconvenient when we would park, and we weren't using it. Why carry what you don't need! I do need to do a clothing overhaul. There are items I have placed under the bed that need to go to Goodwill. I just can't bring myself to waste time dealing with it. Someday, maybe it will rain, and then I'll deal with it:)

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    1. It already feels better knowing we won't have that extra few "steps" for setting up and breaking down :-) There's a couple heavy coats under the bed I have mixed "hopes" of using :-))))

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  5. I bought a bike thinking it would add to my fitness, and find I don't ride it like I thought I would. Guess I'm just more of a walker.

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    1. We thought the same thing and the recumbent trikes are so comfortable to ride - but we find walking is so much easier when we're out exploring.

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  6. You guys did an excellent job of packing! We too used to haul along a bicycle--that didn't last long!

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    1. Reading about others' purging and packing for so long gave us a lot of help as we were preparing for this life. Also knowing that we could pick up things we might need later helped with letting go of some of it.

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  7. Guess we're the odd ones out. Very glad we brought both our bikes (but they are treks with wider than street tires) and our hard sided kayaks even though they have to be loaded and unloaded. Since we stay a minimum of 2 weeks nearly everywhere we stop and often more, it's less of an issue for us. We did get rid of the sea eagle we bought to see if we'd rather have it. We found it to be more trouble to set up and take down than the hard sided ones and especially in Florida there are too many places you can't go for fear of damage to it. The guy who bought it was ecstatic at the great deal. I remember your pre planning blogs and thought you were very well prepared. So I'm not surprised you brought the right stuff.

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    1. Thanks Sherry :-) We do a lot of prepping! You guys definitely use your "toys" and I know we'll wish we had the trikes at some places we go. I wish regular bikes worked for us, they seem easier to "attach" to the rig :-)

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  8. We hauled our 2 mountain bikes on the back of the rig for our first 2 Snow Birding years. Like you, we seldom used them & it was always a hassle having them hanging on the back of the rig. Leaving those bikes at home in Bayfield definitely made our travels easier & we have never regretted not carrying our bicycles.

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    1. I'm sure hoping that's the case with ours. I figure just not worrying about them hanging on the Jeep will make the decision a good one though.

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  9. Joe and I have a rule...if something goes in, something comes out. Works good for me as I have a tendency to not get rid of items. We have the same issue about bikes as well. Carried them on the back of our jeep until a few months ago. Joe bought a new carrier that works on the back of the MH so we do not have to unload them unless we intend to ride them...he LOVES it!

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    1. We love that rule as well, one in, one out, works great! I wish the trikes were small enough to load on the rig, but with the engine heat on the DP I'm not sure it would have worked for us even in that case. Glad you found a solution for yours!!

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  10. It's great that you are happy with what you figured out in the first place. We tend to pick up new stuff and drop off old stuff on a regular basis.

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    1. We know we're still newbies, but are pretty pleased with not having any regrets so far!

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  11. Oh, man...I was hoping for a 'Tour de Trike' meetup with you two! I do agree if you aren't going to use something, it's best to not carry it. Are you going to keep them for he future?

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    1. Thought of you two when making this decision - since you have found some great places to ride yours! We have them to our boys here in Santa Clarita. If they don't end up using them we could probably "get them back later", but for now we aren't planning for that.

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  12. You did an amazing job of planning! We love having our bikes and kayak and use them often -- but it also helps that we can carry all of our "toys" on top of our truck. It would definitely be more problematic if they were in the way. We have the same commitment of "one thing comes in, one thing goes out" -- but I'm better at that than Eric is. In fact, I think I'm going to go take a look at his closet right now -- he had a little shopping spree at the Eddie Bauer outlet in Santa Fe last week….

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    1. Oh man, don't let him know I sparked your interest in his closet!!

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  13. I've started my mental list of what to bring in our RV. It's great to learn from others who've gone ahead of us :-) Why reinvent the wheel, right??!!

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    1. Definitely! We were so much better prepared from having learned from others. I started putting things on an Amazon wish list for Christmas and birthdays, getting only what we wanted to take with us for the last couple years :-)))

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