Cleaning & Cleaning Out – A Week of RV Cleansing!
We’ve been having another busy week here in Santee. “The List” (= the magical list which every RVer owns of “things we must do this winter”) is getting sloooowly shorter. In fact we’ve already sliced 4 massive items off the paper and there’s a faint hope we may actually get at least half of them done before we move on, a very respectable percentage.
Our first and most important item, at least while we were in San Diego was to go through everything in the RV and get rid of everything we haven’t used in the past 2 years. Like all RVers we started out thinking we would need a bunch of stuff which we never actually needed, and have managed to slop around the whole excess for two cross-country trips until we could get back to our storage here in San Diego.
After several weeks of grind and sweat I’m proud to say we’ve completed the task and getting rid of the excess has felt like a great diet ->totally satisfying and soooo much lighter! Back when I first posted about this, blog reader Hector was curious what sort of things we were getting rid of. Obviously this is a very personal thing (every RVer has different things they consider “essential”), but here’s our list of stuff we won’t miss:
- Backpacking gear -> We bought ALL our backpacking gear RVing thinking we might get out while on the road. Well given that we’re pretty much camping everyday and our pets (plus big, comfy bed) are always waiting for us in camp, we’ve just never used it and can’t see that we will.
- Clothing – We’ve gotten rid of another 75% our current clothing. You simply don’t need much on the road, and you need even less than what you think is less. Goodwill got a good deal 🙂
- Books -> We loooove our books and brought along more than we needed on the trip. Since getting the Kindle we’ve been happily reading on that and haven’t felt the need to buy or look at the paper version. The excess has gone into storage and opened up 3 cupboards of space.
- Excess Kitchen Gear -> We do alot of cooking on the road and looove our kitchen gear, but there were a few pieces we weren’t using esp. some pans and one of our three espresso makers (we still have two left, so don’t fret)
- Knick-Knaks -> Other non-used items such as our wet-suits, old files, Paul’s cigar box (he simply doesn’t smoke anymore), an excess suitcase and some old electronics also went the way of the gone.
As well as a material cleaning we’ve done a thorough scrubbing-down of the insides including cleaning the leather furniture (highly recommend Meguiar’s Gold Leather Cleaner which I picked up in Walmart), and deep-cleaning the carpets (nothing beats the deal of renting a Rug Doctor which you can get in just about any hardware or grocery store for ~$25 -> get the “regular” size (not wide) and also the hand-tool attachment). Both the latter have completely renewed the look of our interior. Now we just need a week or so of pet paws and mischief to bring it back to normal 🙂
And last but not least we’ve even managed to finish that mysterious hole I blogged about a few weeks back. Paul is so overjoyed with the results he’s insisted it’s worth it’s own blog post (well actually, he wanted a full-blown 4-part series but I think I’ve managed to bargain him down). The results of his dream are next…..
Thanks Miss Nina! This will be helpful in us not loading some excess to begin with …
Our soon to be home (“Island Girl” … 2004 National RV 39′ diesel) is in the beauty parlor getting an interior makeover. Tiki theme! Looking forward to our loading up for the road … I’m sure we’ll have our own pile of “why did we bring this along?” stuff.
Hector and Brenda (Island Girl #1)
Sooooo…love the Tiki theme! Glad the post was helpful.
Nina
That was our first job here at Mission, AND we threw out anything we haven’t used the last two years also! Doesn’t feel wonderful to be in a clean, uncluttered home! It is like an enema for the MH!
It sure does! Completely with you on that one!
Nina
and then you can do it all again next year….it is never ending….
So true Jil. I’m always amazed that the accumulation never seems to end. Nina
We just got weighed today. All for tires separately and a purging in November has paid off. Under weight all around so I know what you mean.
But I can’t wait to see what happened to the TV hole.
Sherry
http://www.directionofourdreams.blogspot.com
Very nice!! Good job on the positive weigh-in! Nina
…..we are on the edge of our seat bitting our nails to hear about the hole filler:)
Enjoying your journey and are thankful for your sharing …it will prepare us for a more successful launch on the road. Cheers!
All will be revealed soon… 🙂
With us, it’s our attic and veranda back home. I KNOW there are things up there that I simply have to break down and part with. The two backpacks and all the other backpacking paraphernalia come immediately to mind, since it was one of the things you mentioned. I know it’ll be hard to do. Every time I look at my pack, it’s like reminiscing with an old friend. Who can cast aside an old friend? *sigh*
Has to be done though, so we’ll just have to do it!
Thanks for sharing your purge.
Keep it between the ditches.
Now I must be honest and admit that the backpacking gear was put into our storage. It won’t be missed in the RV, but still couldn’t bring myself to chuck it completely. All else was truly purged.
Nina
OK, I know of a Seneca RV in Escondido that badly needs decluttering?? what time will we expect you?
Mike and Dee White
gonerving.blogspot.com
Hehe…I would love to do it, but fancy that I might be a tad on the ruthless side for the poor Seneca. Nina
Good job ! Such a sense of accomplishment huh. I tackled two storage compartments on my rig the other day. Don’t want to overdo it !! LOL Will tackle another one or two next time around.