Thursday, December 28, 2017

Organizing the T@b, 2017 Edition

Funny as it may seem, I used one of our first camping trips this season to reorganize the camper. We found that as we used it, our needs changed, and reorganization would help us access what we really used, and make better use of space. If you'd like to see the original organization in my blog post, click here.

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Let's start inside and the shower door.


Last year, I had one of these organizers I bought from Amazon hanging on the shower door. It held our towels, but it wasted space towards the bottom of the door. I ordered a second one, and with grommets and zip ties, we attached the two together for a total of 8 pockets that hold towels, rug, and toiletries. It also covers the entire door to add more privacy.

Then there's the front bench area. (Later in the season I add even more storage, but for now, here's what we did.)


Below the bench, Andy and I each have a side, mine on the left, his on the right. Last year we started with plastic shoe boxes that seemed smart at the time, but actually wasted a lot of space. This year we have these gray plastic baskets.


I put sweatshirts, hats, and all my shoes in my baskets, and I am able to put my purse in there while we're camping, which keeps it out of sight, but still accessible. I also have a picnic blanket on my side.


 Andy uses his for extra clothes and all his shoes, and in the shoe boxes was able to store some utilitarian items like batteries, spare fuses, and duct tape on his side as well.

There's also quite a bit of storage space above the bench.


I actually removed some of the items we had stored here last year, because either we didn't need them, or I found a better place for them.


The plastic boxes are Ikea boxes, (in the kids' section) but I purchased them from our local thrift store. I organized them by like items, brought out my trusty label maker, and now we can see exactly what we're looking for. We also stored extra RV toilet tissue up here as it's certainly something you don't want to be without!


As you can see, four boxes fit perfectly in the cabinet. On top of the boxes, I have a small washing board I ordered from Amazon. It's compact and effective for quick laundry needs while camping.

The next bit of organizing are these hanging baskets designed to hang over a cabinet door. Instead of over a cabinet, we hung them over the window valances.


(You can also enjoy my craft project T@B sign with the Heidi Swapp @ symbol!) These baskets are brilliant. We each have one, and store a variety of things. In mine, above, I store tissues, my flashlight, and at night, my glasses and my phone. I know right where to find everything, and it keeps them off the bed and out of the way.


Andy uses his to store his phone, the remotes for TV and sound system, and chargers for various electronics.

Have you noticed how much storage space you really do have in one of these things? Well, we're not done yet!


This cabinet is along the back of the T@b, and can only be accessed from inside, unlike the other two cabinets that pass through to the kitchen. In here, I repurposed two of the shoe boxes from under the front bench to hold first aid items, antibacterial wipes, umbrella and ponchos, and other necessities. In the small basket, I have plenty of sunscreen and bug spray, two things we use every time we camp.

The final space we don't want to ignore is the shelf above the back cabinets.


There is actually a LOT of room up here! I found these packing cubes from Amazon, and since the color was perfect, I figured they were worth a try. :) Andy and I each have 4, and with the exception of heavy clothes like sweatshirts, we can fit an entire day's outfit in one cube. This gives us 3 days worth of clothes and one set of pajamas each. Obviously, this is perfect for a weekend trip!


With all 8 cubes up there, very little space is wasted.

I have even organized my shower area. (Or as we like to call it, the "shoilet.")


Tiny, huh?


With such a small space to work in, organization is key.


We were able to adhere two Command hooks just below the mirror by the sink. These hold our shower scrubbies that are of course, yellow, to match. :)


I bought two small, lightweight plastic organizers with suction cups on the back. The material covering the walls is a little "iffy" about accepting both Command hooks and suction cups, so we attached them to the mirror instead. They hold all the necessary toiletries for showering, tooth brushing, and hand washing.

Moving outside, let's look at the kitchen.


Not much has changed since last year's organization because it worked really well! Lots of plastic containers to organize, ensure freshness and resist rodents and bugs.

Once again, my favorite label maker helps us find what we need quickly. I labeled both sides of the containers so we could see it from both the kitchen and camper interior.


Snacks at the ready!


The cabinet below the silverware drawer is basically the same as last year, too, with plenty of room for dishes and glassware. Plastic glassware. We are camping! We also have our coffee mugs here, and they get wrapped in bubble wrap for safety. So far, no problems!

Below the sink and stove I made a few changes. This area is just so messy!


Under the stove, I use wooden magazine holders to keep some items vertical, like tin foil, baggies, paper towels, etc. This is a great use of space as it takes up very little shelf space, and it utilizes the vertical space that would otherwise be wasted. I also have my cast iron cookware, splatter screen, and collapsible dish tub, which is awesome!

Under the sink is really difficult to find good storage space, and no matter what I do, it looks sloppy. The only complaint I would have about our T@b is how the pipes are run under the sink. There is probably a logical reason why they are all over the place, but to me it wastes perfectly good storage spots! When storing items in this cabinet, you need to be very careful that nothing squishes the Pex pipes or accidentally bumps a valve. Everything needs to be able to work properly! Here's my solution: (I will keep calling it a work in progress.)


Under the sink, I only put very lightweight items, and I slide them vertically in between all the pipes so nothing is in danger. I have dish towels, pot holders, Clorox cleaning wipes, and a plastic dish drainer. These are all logical things to be kept here, and by using large baggies from Ikea, I keep all the towels in one spot and pot holders in another. Organized and protected from lots of things!

Finally, I still had space on the interior of both cabinet doors! I wouldn't want to ignore it, so I added some baskets like the ones inside:


On the right, I have plastic bags for trash, can coozies, and wet wipes.


The basket on the left door holds soap, sponges, and other cleaning items.

Finally, the kitchen counter gets a utensil holder (crafted from an old poporn tin and spray paint) that rides below the sink while we drive, and then remains up on the counter for easy access while we camp.


You'll also notice that I have a small suction cup basket in the sink that holds dish soap and a sponge while we camp. I like to be able to get to what I need without a lot of hunting, but also without adding clutter.

Well, that was round 2 of organizing! I did some updates later in the season that will be in a later blog post, but I know it's always going to need tweaking and changing.

My next post will show you some crafting my friend Michelle and I did to decorate the T@b!

Happy camping!
Peggy

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Gull Point State Park 05.05.17

How is it already MAY, and we've only camped a couple of times? Weather, that's how. It's been cold and uncooperative, but this weekend was absolutely stellar, and we took advantage. We traveled a hop and a skip to Okoboji, and Gull Point State Park. We reserved a lovely site, #52 if anyone is looking for a good one, and we were one of about 7 campers in this huge campground. We almost had the place to ourselves!



The site was almost perfect. It was flat, near the bathrooms that were just up a hill behind us, and protected from too much wind. The only downside was that it was next to the main road of the park, which led to a lodge/event center on the lake. Luckily, it wasn't too busy, so we weren't bothered by it. On a busier weekend, it might be an issue.

Our first order of business after setting up was to take a walk and check out the area. We walked to the lake near the lodge and sat and enjoyed the view for a while.




Like usual, we started a campfire. This trip, we got to try my new homemade fire starters! More about that in a future post, but they are awesome.


Once the campfire was going, we started to get dinner ready. Notice how we were camping on May 5th? Well, what better way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo than with TACOS?! Yeah, there is no better way, so that's exactly what we made.


I mean...yum, right? My method of cooking for camping is to prepare as much food ahead of time as I can. I can precook and season the meat and chop the veggies, so when we arrive, we have much less to do, and can eat sooner. Not only does this satisfy hunger, it's easier to prepare dinner while it's still light.

The next morning, we decided we were far too lazy to cook, so we drove to Perkins and had a delightful breakfast!

Obligatory food pic

After breakfast, we did our usual tour about town, hitting all our favorite stops like West-O Brewery, then back to our campground. Andy decided to go fishing, and I just wanted to play in the camper, so while he was "catching dinner," I decided it was time to reorganize the camper (I'll go into detail in my next blog post) and I enjoyed visits from one human who wanted a tour, but also lots of wildlife who showed no interest in a tour! :) No pic of the human, (though she did take pics of the T@b and had lots of good questions) but I do have some of the wildlife!

Deer, right in the center, one of a herd of about eight.

Turkey, just passing through...

One of TWO turtles! I think they were actually mating as I saw them come together, then go their separate ways. I felt like maybe I should chaperone or something, but I let them do their thing. LOL!

Andy returned without dinner, and we walked to the lake again. This time there was a wedding going on at the lodge, so we gave them space and walked along the lake.


When the weather is this nice, we stay outside as looooong as we possibly can, enjoying late night fireside chats.




Sunday brought yet another beautiful day, so we took one more walk to the lake.


This about sums it up. Gull Point goes on our list of places we'd like to return to, and we hope it's equally as "crowded" as it was this time!

Happy camping!
Peggy





Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Pine Lake State Park 04.14.17

The most difficult part of winter was not being able to camp. We were so excited that Spring was finally here, and we could get out and have some fun. We met up with Jeff and Kathy at Pine Lake State Park, near Eldora, IA, and it was an awesome campground!

Kathy and Jeff had been there before, so she booked our spots, and she (as always) knew what she was doing. Two sites that overlooked a bike/hike trail and the lake! Water views are always my favorite.


Here's our setup. This time we used our very inexpensive pop-up awning from Wal-Mart and used one of the side walls to block the extremely fierce wind coming off the lake. Unfortunately, it meant we couldn't sit and enjoy the view, but fortunately, it meant we could sit outside. Without a wind breaker of some kind, it would have been impossible. As you can see, we turned the T@B so our door faced the lake, and our kitchen faced the Scamp.


Now you can see Jeff and Kathy's cute setup as well. Notice how all the flamingos are enjoying their view?


At some point, our flock grew. We used to just have Fred and Lucy. They were two pink flamingos that became a craft project for me and ended up yellow. However, after a few trips in nature, their original pink was starting to show through, so we solved that problem by renaming them Chip...and Dale. HA! (See what we did there?) Kathy found actual yellow flamingos at Flowerama, so we purchased two and named them Fred and Lucy. Here, all four are gathered around my other art project, a B@r T@b sign.

This is the BEFORE pic, as I purchased it from Dollar General.


AFTER! Just took a little acrylic paint, vinyl, my Silhouette machine, and some poly to waterproof it.

Now it travels with us and the flamingos!


 It's all part of the glamping fun with this cute camper.

Anyway, back to the camping trip. The weather was...well...awful. On Saturday, we took our day trip to explore the area and found a winery!


Eagle City Winery was a great stop for us. Lots of different varietals to try, and a sweet outdoor spot near the vineyard to enjoy a glass...which we did, of course!




Cheers!

This winery is located on a farm, and we got to meet a real life farm animal!
Andy and Kathy petting an ass. :)

Wait. It gets better...

This is a pic of Kathy petting an ass petting an ass! Bwhahaha!



After the winery, Jeff decided he was done and wanted to go back to camp. Kathy, Andy, and I found a microbrewery. It wasn't much more than a small bar, but the beer was delightful!


As we left, we noticed a pretty severe storm rolling in, and we called on Jeff to check on him as it looked like it was near the campsites.



See what I mean? As it turned out, it was indeed directly over the campground, and Jeff was there riding it out. It rained. A LOT. It even hailed, which had all of us quite concerned, but it didn't do any damage to the awnings or campers. Whew!

As luck would have it, the storm kept moving our way, and we drove through some of the worst wind, rain, and hail I've ever navigated. I drove slowly and had my hazard lights flashing to help me be seen by anyone else crazy enough to be out on the road. We made it through, also with no damage, and went back to camp.

It rained on and off, on and off all evening. Our campsite was down a slight hill from Jeff and Kathy's, and the water began puddling behind the kitchen. I grabbed some scrap wood from our burn pile and we stood on it when we needed to be in the kitchen. Other than that, we stayed under the dome if it was raining, or circled around the fire when it would let up. It was a little comical, but I think we were all grateful when we just gave up and went to bed.



Sunday, Easter morning, was GORGEOUS! It was sunny, warm, little to no wind... exactly the kind of weather you want when camping. Some how, the Easter Bunny found us, so we all enjoyed some tasty chocolate treats as we watched fellow campers search for their Easter goodies as well.

We enjoyed the walking trail, the lake view, and each other's company.



Jeff even gave us a lesson in fashion! It wasn't a good lesson in case you didn't notice. LOL!

Our friends had to leave Sunday, but Andy and I were lucky enough to have one more day. After they left, we continued to dry out our belongings and walk the trails. We even encountered some wildlife.

Caught this deer by surprise

On Monday, we packed up and headed home, but were happy to be back out camping, and couldn't wait for the next trip.

Happy camping!
Peggy