Well, we finished our trip last week and came home. When we arrive home we have to take out of the RV the things we brought in and the things we bought on the trip. I have a check list in the house to check after I think I am done. I also remove the stuff to go to the house in a pattern so I, hopefully, don’t forget anything. I have 3 cloth supermarket bags and of course, lots of store plastic shopping bags to use. We leave the RV battery on so I can I can turn on the lights inside..
I start with the logical - I empty the little refrigerator. One of the cloth supermarket bags has a blue handle - I use this one for anything which must go into the house refrigerator right away. During this trip (and many to that area) we bought some sausages at a local butcher shop. They, of course go in this bag. Also if my husband has insulin that has not been opened yet (or else it does not need to be refrigerated) it goes in this bag. He always has insulin which is in use and not refrigerated and I add that into this bag also, just so it gets unpacked right away. Then I add after these items other refrigerator items that are less important to keep cold - soda, juice, frozen plastic ice (they will always refreeze if they defrost), etc. I have to not only deal with the size of the bag, but also not making it too heavy and I try to keep the weight of each bag manageable. When I have a bag ready to go into the house I put it next to the third seat (see last post) and husband will come and take it out. When the refrigerator is empty I turn off the refrigerator. There is a knob inside which turns it on and off, as well as adjusts the temperature in it. We don’t want the refrigerator on when we are charging the battery, etc. between trips.
When I am done with the refrigerator items, I move on to the other food we have left in the RV. The food is all in plastic boxes to prevent the smell of it attracting bugs or rodents. The food is kept in 2 specific shelf sized cabinets and I make sure the 2 are empty even if I only remember putting food in one of them. The other one may have other items - the empty cloth food bags, sweatshirts, empty laundry bag, etc. This will usually fill the other 2 cloth bags when mixed with the refrigerator items which did not go out in the blue handled bag, if there is excess I use the store plastic shopping bags.
Next I add the clothes I used as pjs and the towels we used during the trip to the laundry bag with the dirty laundry to go out and close it. I leave it on the floor in front of the third seat. I pull any sweatshirts or jackets and put them on the third seat to go into the house. I pull out husband’s computer and tablet, my embroidery and other items from a section in a cabinet. They again go on the third seat. Husband runs back and forth between the RV and house bringing all this into the house. I also pull my computers, the “last minute bag” and anything we bought which stored with them under the bed and leave it for him to take. I add to the last minute bag the box I took out at the start of the trip with things we always need on the trip - our medications and such. The rest of the items are generally not always used and are stored in the bag.
I then go to the closet and pull out the clothes we have not worn - we always bring extra clothes for a day or two just in case something happens to what we are wearing or something happens and we have to or decide to stay longer than we planned. This all goes into the second (clean) laundry bag. I make sure to put it to be taken on a different run into the house than the dirty laundry and make sure husband knows which is which. The bag of dirty laundry will be tossed down the basement stairs to where the washing machine is, which the bag of clean clothes will go by the stairs to upstairs to be unpacked. I take the spare shoes out of the cabinet they are in and put them in plastic shopping bags to go into the house.
I then go to the front of the RV - the “van” part. I pull out things we brought in which go in the house or the other cars - spare eyeglasses, store coupons (if we need to buy something while we are away I have them to use), papers from the trip - reservations, directions etc., crackers I keep in the door in case husband has low blood sugar while driving and needs to eat something without pulling over, etc. These go in a store plastic shopping bag and are again put to be taken into the house. I add any magazines we brought or the freebie local ones we picked up on the trip - you know - the ones with local ads, coupons and what there is to see. I also take down the EZPass (this is an electronic device to pay tolls enroute) from the window and put it away.
Some trips I strip the beds and break them back down while unpacking the RV. Most trips I leave the bed made and either take it down a day or so later (we tend to get home very late at night - technically very early the next morning) or if we were on a short trip and going on another short trip within a week or two I leave it made up to use again. (I told you in an earlier post that I HATE dealing with sheets.)
I then walk around the inside of the RV I put my hand on each spot that needs to be empty taking inventory in my head of what was there and “did I take it all out” - sometimes I look in - and go through step by step checking that all has been emptied. I also put a bath towel (saved for this purpose) on the top shelf of the refrigerator so that if there is any ice on its tiny freezer when it melts the towel will catch it and I will not have water in the refrigerator or on the floor of the RV - the door of the refrigerator is left slightly open to avoid odors forming in the RV (and there is also baking soda in it for the same reason).
Meanwhile husband has been running back and forth carrying everything into the house. He is generally exhausted and I keep telling him to leave stuff for me to bring in. After this last trip he also turned on all the air conditioners in the house to try to cool it off. It did not work - it was still too hot in the house when we went to sleep.
I close the curtains in the RV so no one can look in and see what it is. I then turn off the lights in it and in the dark I turn off the battery and check that its red LED is out. I then go out the door.
We then start on the back of the RV. There is a space under the head of the bed which is accessed from the rear doors of the RV(remember it is a van converted to an RV). We have 3 laundry baskets in it to hold stuff and keep it from moving around (remember this is important when one’s “house” is being driven around over bumps and around curves - one does not want anything moving and everything has to be secured in some fashion or at least stay in a very limited area). One basket - the hardest to reach - has items we might need on the trip - air pump, tools, and such. The middle basket has some additional items of such and empty space. The last basket - the one we can most easily reach has some small items for set up at the RV park - and room for purchases during the trip. Anything we bought has to be brought into the house.
When we know that everything is in the house we lock the RV and go into the house.
In the days after the trip I have to empty the clean water tanks by removing a cap from a pipe under the RV - we let it drain and a day or so later I put the cap back on. The cap has a specific place in our side porch to sit until it goes back on. Since this is clean water it can be allowed to just drain out and does not have to be disposed of as does the “used” water (which was dumped out at the RV park before we left it at the end of the trip).
I look at the check list in the house to make sure everything is in and then toss the “stuff to bring and do before the trip/stuff to make sure is in the house after “ list. Then, of course, comes the sorting out and putting away of stuff in the house for a couple of days afterwards. Checking the answering machine messages. Laundry will done in a day or so.
Now even the best laid schemes can go wrong. We arrived home overnight Saturday to Sunday. Monday evening my husband says to me “Where did you put the bag of pretzels I bought on the trip?” (We can’t get these pretzels at home and he will buy a bag - or two - when away to have at home.) I stared at him and tried to get my brain to work. Then I remembered. I had brought a larger plastic food box with us knowing that he was going to buy the pretzels and it did not fit where the food boxes fit due to the fact that it is larger. I put it elsewhere in the RV “kitchen” and since it was not is a spot I usually use or empty - I forgot about it. Out to the RV to get the pretzels.
As of tonight the laundry is done. The clean clothes from the trip and those washed on our return are put away. I have been catching up on mail and such. The water tanks are emptied and the cap put back. Food is still in the boxes, but since they are items we use at home, I am using them from the boxes here to empty the boxes.
Now if only I can find the store loyalty cards which I keep in the RV and we could not find when we went to one of the supermarkets. Husband has me keep them on a key ring so I don’t loose any - so instead ALL of them are missing. Hopefully they were tossed into the drawer in the RV or the map pocket - when the temperature comes down into the 70s later this week I will go in and look. If not, I have duplicates of all of them but one. - And you thought I was going to say that all is done and back to normal!
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