I have friends that full-time in under 20' trailers. I have friends that full-time in over 40' motorhomes and 5th wheels. No matter the size, you manage to fill it the space. Those that don't full-time seem to leave a little more room open for items.
We have a 41' fifth wheel but 10' of that is garage so while we have some garage storage, we live in a 31' space. One of the log home vendors at the Log and Timber Home Show remarked that a 1000 sf cabin would feel huge to us, and it would!
Living in small quarters does have its limitations...everything has to have its own place. Unfortunately sometimes you can't remember where that is...LOL! It gets worse when we go on an organizational tear...that means we move things from their old place to a new place (hopefully a better place). That also means we won't remember where we moved it to!
Some storage places are designed for that purpose. Some are more innovative spots. Some are make-shift. We use all three. We have the traditional drawers, cabinets, underbed area and closets. We use the inside of our built-in dishwasher (that we never use) for stuff that used to be on the kitchen counter. We store things behind the sofa (paper towels, tissue boxes, paper plates...all the bulky paper products we buy in bulk).
Stu loves to tease me about how much "stuff" I have...I in turn get to tease him about his "tools" (oh wait, you NEVER tease a man about TOOLS....LOL!). We do work on enforcing the one in - one out rule. That means when we buy something new (a pair of shoes, a t-shirt), an old one has to go out. We do pretty good on this one except for Stu's Harley-Davidson t-shirt collection. He's working on getting one from each of the 50 states. Hmmmm......
Right now we are also storing some collectibles for our future sticks 'n bricks home, be it a cabin, modular or even part of our pole barn. Antique looking signs, diner mugs
, pint glasses
, growlers
, old state license plates and now McNicol china/pottery pieces. They will go into whatever storage unit we put on our property in TN.So how's YOUR storage?
Till next time - keep on rollin',
Donna and Stu
Stu and Donna
I have to say that although we now have more square footage than we did in the 5er, we have less storage space. RVs are certainly well laid out!
ReplyDeleteI can truly understand about losing things in a RV I have recently hurt my knee pretty bad from riding my horse and I can't for the life of me find the pain killers my doctor gave me. lol. Everyone say there is a black hole in here somewhere. I love your blog and hope to meet you two one of these days down the road.
ReplyDeleteBrenda Brown (John and Brenda's Incredible Journey)
We have been living in our motor home for over 4 years now. We are alway cleaning out the basement and the cupboards and closets. It's easy just to shove new stuff in and forget about looking for things.
ReplyDeleteWe live in a 975-sq. foot cabin - which to a lot of our friends, is small. But compared to our 28-foot trailer, it's huge. The kitchen is huge, the living room is huge, and we have 2 bedrooms. I lose things in that house all the time!
ReplyDeleteWe now tow a 26' utility trailer behind our 35' motorhome. We have a canoe on the roof, inside the car goes in. Bob has to exit like the race car drivers thru a window. There are 2 kayaks and all the gear for kayaking. 2 bikes, a workshop complete with drill press. Lots of chemical type stuff (cleaner, oil). Then there is wood leveling boards our lawn furniture and lots of other STUFF. We are 65' long so we have to watch and plan where we can park as we don't like to disconnect to often. Besides than the STUFF wouldn't be handy. LOL
ReplyDeleteWe live in a 25' trailer with no basement. It is a true challenge to limit oneself. My wife is a collector, too. Junk seems to attach itself to me by magnetic attraction. And no, we NEVER discuss tools.
ReplyDeleteAfter a year or two of winter travel, we decided we didn't need some of the stuff we take...Gas Grill was the first to go...and an electric skillet took it's place..That gas grill never seemed to stay lit in the wind...and we mostly use our Smokey Joe...AND..we have a Lodge Dutch Oven...
ReplyDeleteSo...now we have plenty of room for beer and wine....teehee.
So, is that a picture of your 10' garage?? :)
ReplyDeleteOh, Donna, this just made me laugh. My biggest problem is trying to remember from trip to trip what is in the big house and what is still in the MoHo. One of the DISadvantages of part time over full time, except I have a place to store all my collected rocks. They might weigh a motorhome down a bit...aka the long long trailer! LOL
ReplyDeleteSince my younger daughter is buying our 2,700 sf house, lots of furniture I will want some day, is still there and being gently used. Family antiques and heirlooms I insisted my two girls divide between them - they did. Hubby (Leonard) had a few family things we gave to his 3 kids.
ReplyDeleteWe find we can live with very little. But just like when we were in the house we put things "Where we won't forget them" We always do.
Some furniture (that which we want to keep and daughter did not want to use) we loaded into a utility trailer along with Len's tools. We keep that at his sons in Alabama.
We have enough storage in our fiver. As I said, we can live with very little when it comes down to it. This is good because when we see things we MIGHT want, we know we have no room. Makes decision easy, doesn't it?