When you live in an RV, learning to optimize your space is essential to keeping your hair! (Well, actually, you might pull your hair out anyway, but at least it won’t happen because you can’t walk across your floor without stepping on something…)
Difficulties in Downsizing
Downsizing is a constant struggle for us – just as it is for most families with young children. Our ~400 square foot home amplifies the difficulty. You can’t just throw all the junk into the spare bedroom because there isn’t one. You can’t even stuff it into the spare “nook and cranny” because they are hard to come by too. Eventually, the clutter reaches its critical mass and serious preventative measures must be taken.
Unfortunately, the moment you step aside from everyday chores to tackle some organization, everything begins to fall apart! The dirty dishes pile up and Mount Laundry starts growing at 3x its normal rate – threatening the reputation of Everest. While you are pulling everything out of a closet to find out what is even stored there, the kids follow your example with ALL of their belongings. The process often begins with excitement in the air, but it is not long before madness is afoot and the mess is staggering.
Making It Happen
It’s common sense that the less you have, the less you will have to organize, and, recently, Mount Laundry has been our trouble spot. The kids drawers had become stuffed (again) with clothes that they were rarely using and there was no place to store the clean laundry anymore. Consequently, the other day Liz announced some major clothing rations for the kids and set to making it happen. Their drawers were reduced to three sets of play clothes per child and everything else is going into storage or the nearest Goodwill, Salvation Army, Community Aid, etc… drop-off location. (such a blessing!)
In all truth, the downsizing process is a never ending effort. If it’s not the laundry, then it’s something else that requires some positive human intervention. But for now, this latest de-clutter has been quite relieving and we are just thankful to be able to repurpose our laundry basket as a lazy-boy once again.
What about you? Please leave a comment and share with us your latest downsizing experience!