Bunk Room for Teens and Kitchen Organization Feb. 19th Updates!!

1.) Bunk Room: Getting ready for teens!! 

This is still a work in progress but it is getting there. I can finally see how the bed is going to work and can picture the storage of their things. 

We have two big teenagers and the bunks are not going to work for them so we decided to stick with our daughter's day bed she has now which has a trundle bed under it. The top bunk above the entertainment center in the bunkroom can hold either one of them but when we add a comfortable mattress to it, (the mattresses they come with are nothing and we can't use them) it leaves very little room from the top to the ceiling so here is our solution: 

Pink and Blue pretty obvious so one for our daughter and one for our son. We raised the day bed since we took a bunk out, we had room to do so. This leaves extra room for the trundle underneath. If our son just wants to sleep as it is under the day bed, he can, he actually tried it out and he said for sleeping it works as is. If he feels he needs more room the trundle bed and slide out either way. It does take up the entire floor when the same direction as the day bed but it can be moved back in when they need the floor space. Across from this bed is the place for the TV/gaming system and the entertainment/dresser system and storage will be on top of that This creates plenty of room for all of their clothes, computers, electronics, everything they need. This part is still a mess with tools everywhere but here is what we do have so far: 

This is actually he ladder which goes to the bigger bunk and it's part of this entertainment/dresser system. We put one of those closet shelve things, here is a link to one like this; we have had it for a long time and I don't think it came from Amazon but I did find one there. 

Hanging Organizer

Paul put his handy skills to use and attached it in there and it works perfectly for shelves in the ladder. 

Beside the ladder is where the TV/gaming system goes and under that is a cabinet with shelves and guess what fits perfectly in this area? These cute boxes so I just got one to try and will be adding three more to finish off that area. To the right is an actual closet with more shelves. Then on top of all this will be storage containers, whatever else we can find to hold even more clothes. I really don't think they are going to fill all of this up. It's funny how minimum we are already; this downsizing is really a lot easier than I first thought! The hardest part is going through everything left in the house!!

Once this area is 100% complete the final pictures will be shared. 

2.) Kitchen Organizing and more organizing!! 

I have been getting all kinds of inspiration for ways to organize things in a tiny space. I guess that is what happens when this has been in the planning stages for several years now. It's funny how prepared we want to be and how over prepared we probably will end up being. So much so that I don't think we are going to fill up all of our spaces either. For everything we want to bring and for everything we think of we think of a solution and a place for it as we are preparing. 

My cabinet for my dishes: plates, cups, bowls is just one big cabinet with two doors. I knew right away it needed some kind of shelf in there to help organize it all. Forgive the variety of unmatching dishes; I've never been one to keep just one matching set of anything! However, we do want to replace the dishes with bamboo ones: they will be sturdy, will hold up and will be light weight. Also will look a lot better when we get those. Here is the shelf for the dishes:

It's a basic wire rack from WalMart, nothing special but I don't have everything everywhere now! 

Other things added: Paul created the wire hanging baskets for fruit. Right now it has Valentine's Day chocolate in it but it's only temporary; will be adding more fruit there. It's out of the way and functional, our favorite thing! 

More pictures:

 The Pantry: I really have a large pantry for a camper. It's larger than I had in my current home: which doesn't even have one! This is also a work in progress but I absolutely love these canisters! They are mostly empty right now but that will change.

I found a hanging pouch for my seasoning packets to hang on the door so will be adding that and also a can organizer!

Hanging Seasoning Packet Organizer

Can Organizer

I wanted the wire rack can organizers; they look a lot better but they are too wide for my pantry!

We have had these containers since after Christmas, they came from Lowe's and are the exact length of the dining seats so they fit perfectly in the storage under the seats. There are two ways to get to the storage, the little doors open up which is shown above and this is how we will use them, just slide the buckets out to get to whatever is in there. I know we will keep games in there but not sure what else? Definitely handy storage area! The seats lift up and they can be accessed that way too but to me that is not the easy way, we like easy and opening the door and sliding the containers out is easy. 

**Note: Videos and YouTube will be more active once we hit the road

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February 10th Updates: Closets and More

Camper Updates: February 10th

1.) Closets!!!! 

This has been one area where we have had the hardest time figuring out what to do, how do we organize these things. I have never been one to own a lot a of clothes so having a huge closet is something I never liked. When I do have one they end up all unorganized with things in there I never use. Downsizing to a camper has been easy as far as stuff goes and it is no different with clothes. I don't like or need a lot of clothes. The two closets on each side of our bed is enough. There are even cabinets above but I really can't think of anything to put in those. The closets are long with one small rack to hang clothes and a small shelve at the top. I don't hang up many clothes, in fact now that I am home all of the time I do not have a need for any type of clothes that needs to be hung up. I will probably keep a couple of things but for the most part, folding them up on a shelve will serve my purpose.

Finally, after searching and searching we found these shelves at Bed, Bath and Beyond and they fit perfectly!

I still have room to hang and still plenty of room for clothes, this above is my side and Paul has the same on his side, except his does not have this extra table/space thing; this is covering some pipes and such and it happens to be on my side. Actually Paul needed something like this on his side for his CPap machine. So he added a little table on his side

2.) CPap!!

 Anyone have to use one of these things? It is amazing how this machine really does help Paul and now that he uses it he really can tell a difference and doesn't sleep well without it. So it will be coming with us.

He had to make something small enough to fit and even has a shelf at the bottom to put whatever he may need there. 

We have been thinking about adding a shelve at the foot of the bed, over the TV/mirror thing but I am not sure that it is really necessary. I feel like I have plenty of room for everything I need. A spot for shoes would be nice but we haven't figured out anything like that yet, except the cabinet under the TV in the living area but I don't like them there. There really is not a good place for shoes in the bedroom but will figure it out eventually. 

3.) Keys!! 

So simple and most effective and this little spot was the perfect place for keys. Nothing worse than not being able to find keys. 

4.) Bunkhouse Progress:

This is probably the most difficult room to figure out because we have two big teenagers coming with us; they want their space. Bunks are ok for the younger kids but teens not so much. Here is what we have so far, we took the smaller bunk that was on top out and have a regular twin bed here for now. 

So, a work in progress but it's a comfy bed so far and he fits so will so how the rest goes. the bunk room does have a slide out, this is in the slide out part so we have to figure out the rest of the room and Shelby's space. 

We have had so much rain lately, it definitely happens the progress some, between that and work but again, slow steady progress is what we are doing and have expected. 

About 3 and 1/2 months left so we are doing well on time! 

**Note: Videos and YouTube will be more active once we hit the road

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Installed Inverter and Hung Some Pictures!!

Little by little, piece by piece, it's the little things that will come together and make everything the best home on the road.

Paul installed this little inverter which fit perfectly in this hole underneath the TV. I think something to cover this hole would be nice but not necessary; maybe something to add in the future at some time. It doesn't look bad it is just a space that I guess they kept opened to allow for some other type of equipment such as a DVD player or video game console. However, the Radio has a built in DVD player and we really don't have anything we want to put there so this little inverter works great here.

Why an Inverter?

This thing hooks directly into the batteries so we can run things like the TV and my laptop without having to be hooked up to full power. The power strip is plugged into the inverter and will be used to plug things into. We will be hooked up to full power probably most of the time but we also feel it is important to get eveything ready for the times when we won't have full hook ups because being on the road every day all the time we know there will be times where we have to rely on this thing all by itself with no hook ups and it needs to be as self contained as possible. This is the goal! We eventually will get solar panels and a generator and those two things will also help provide the power when we need it.

Here is the link to this inverter: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00UFERZKO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_rRHDAbQXVR1SF

Making it a home

As part of our transitioning from a traditional home to one on wheels to travel in, we have to downsize. Deciding what to keep, what to store and what to get rid of is a big chore. We have many things that we would love to bring with us if we have the space for. Pictures are one of those things and even though we don't have a lot of space compared to a house, we do have some space where pictures can hang.

What about going down the road? We don't want the pictures to fall off the walls while traveling so the option we went with was to drill a screw through the frames and screw them into the wall. They are not going anywhere this way! I know other RV'ers use command hooks or velcro for most things and those are good options for the most part. However we have experienced the command strips not working well over a period of time and in temperature changes. Some people never have any problems with them but we like this method and will report if we ever find anything downsides of hanging things this way.

I really like how our Old Tyme Pictures turned out. I can't remember the dates but the top one was when the kids were much younger and the bottom one we decided to re-do it when they were older. We gained a child in the bottom picture as well, a friend of our daughter's came on that trip with us so we grew in size with the bottom picture. The light right above really brings these pictures out. This is on the wall by the bathroom going to the bunkhouse, a big blank wall which was screaming for something!

This next picture is one of our favorites from Disney World. We still have Goofy and Pluto in the bottom picture but think we can add a new picture there from somewhere on our travels. This fit perfectly in this little part of the wall in the slide with the dinette.

This next picture is the most important one yet. We have had our marriage license framed ever since we got married in 1992. This was always hung in every place we have lived. We have lived in a lot of places too! This is the original frame and everything and this little thing has been everywhere with us and through everything. How perfect of a spot is this? It looks like this was made to fit on this wall right in between the dinette and the couch. The frame is even the same colors as the blinds; it's an official home when this is hanging in it!

Another use of a small space, this picture by the couch. It is a small picture and hard to see what it is but it is from 1999 and a picture of me and Paul in a chair lift from Gatlinburg, TN.

We had a hard time figuring out where to put this bear picture. I can't remember where I got this but loved it for Paul and it was just perfect for him. He has loved it ever since. Finally, the door, the perfect place for a sleepy bear! I also added my sign that Abby got me for Christmas this year in that hole with the inverter, it just seems like empty space and needed something. The sign says My greatest teacher is my mom.

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