Getting ready for our 1-month shake-down trip
Having mostly settled into the Madison rental house, we’re embarking right away on trying to find homes for our belongings in the RV in anticipation of the mid-June through mid-July window when we will need to vacate the rental, owing to the landlord’s prior commitment to another tenant. We knew about this rental hiatus before we signed the lease and although initially it sounded a bit inconvenient, it will turn out to give us a wonderful chance to see how everything works for us in the RV for an extended period prior to being on the road. After the month, we’ll come back to the house rental and make RV adjustments based on our experience.
For now though, we’re just starting to figure out how all the items we moved to Madison might fit into the rig.
We have unpacked our basic items into the house for everyday use, but because the home is a short-term vacation rental, it is already entirely furnished & equipped, so there are many things we will need in the RV that we don’t need to unpack into the house.
Despite that we downsized dramatically from our house back in Minnesota, it seems clear that we still have too much stuff! Some of the unnecessary items are ones that were brought to Madison with an understandable idea of “We need this thing and we don’t remember whether we already have one with the RV kitchen stuff, so let’s bring it & we’ll figure it out.” But there’s also quite a lot of stuff I’m realizing I personally brought to Madison that just needs to be cut down yet further, such as clothing. But I suppose that’s that this phase of the journey is about…making those final cuts to all of our stuff.
Overall, it has felt really good to be downsizing, so hopefully that emotion will continue.
5/8 Update
More to come as I put together a few posts on RV organization, but while we did bring too many items to Madison, the elimination decisions have been pretty straightforward and the items that remain seem (knock on wood) to be fitting into place rather well.
It’s still a little early to know for sure, but it looks like we will have some room to spare, which makes me hopeful for being within our weight requirements.
