This week’s Camper Diaries is a lot about what we’ve prepared and learned on this first week of our 24-day camping trip. Living in about 400 square feet as a family of four means we’re always learning, and, honestly, that’s one of the things I love most about it. This is something that requires us to use our imagination, problem-solve and have a sense of adventure. These are all things I love, even when it’s a little difficult. Because, like all things, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows.
Preparations After Our Last Trip in This Camper
We went to South Dakota for a week in May which was the longest camper trip we’d taken since upgrading campers last year. and we discovered a handful of things that we wanted to update or needed to fix. The most urgent thing was getting our camper into the shop because our refrigerator frustratingly stopped working en route to South Dakota, ruining almost an entire week’s worth of groceries and causing us to have to drive in and out of Grand Rapids. So, we were sure to get that taken care of, but it ended up being a full replacement which took time. This meant we didn’t quite get to do what we wanted before leaving.
Even so, Matt was able to build this shoe rack that we’ve been lightly discussing for almost a year, but after so many consecutive days in the camper, he realized it would be really handy to have for the 24-day-trip we were about to embark upon. He got the basic plan for it cranked out and showed me how it looked in the camper and I asked him to add a little shelf to the top and he even got it painted! It has truly been a game-changer for the space in our camper.
Updates, Big and Small, We Made While Camping in Ouray, CO
I feel like we constantly are finding things that make our space more efficient, make living in the camper easier and help us stay on the road longer. These are some of the updates we made to do just that!
Installing Starlink: Let me start by saying, the last thing I want to do is give Elon Musk money, but this is truly the only option for us to have consistent, reliable wifi, which is the only way we can travel for weeks at a time. But this definitely involved some inventive thinking on Matt’s part. We didn’t want to drill a hole in our camper to install it and we didn’t want to feed it through our slide either because it did create a gap in the seal and it felt off to do anything that involves the slide. So, Matt crawled up on the top of the camper to plan it out, really look at where our solar panels are and we decided the best course of action was to cut a hole in the screen of our rooftop fan (which we’ve never used) and feed the cord through. We got it all settled in and now we have wifi on the go! Charleigh even helped Matt tape up the finishing touches. I’ll have Matt write a more in-depth post on this soon.
We Put in More Towel Hooks: We are a family of four sharing a very small bathroom. Our bathroom is decently spacious for a 36-foot camper, but there are only two hooks in it to hang towels from. We had a little coat rack of hooks by the door that we were using, but it still wasn’t super practical. So, Matt installed two more hooks in the kids’ room, so that their towels could dry in there.
We Put Hooks in Our Room to Hang our Bike Helmets: This is the first trip we’ve taken our bikes and our Burley Bee bike trailer on. So, we quickly learned that we needed a place to put our helmets, so they were out of our way, but easy to access. So, Matt came up with the idea to put hooks over his window in our bedroom and it’s so perfect!
Matt “Updated” Our Bedside Closets: Matt was tired of our closets being essentially unusable because of the placement of the bars and shelf. So, he unscrewed the bars, put them a better location and lowered the shelf so that our shirts could easily and conveniently hang. Genius!
I Made Space for My Hobbies: I love to crochet, bullet journal and read. So, this go-around, I dedicated space to doing this and made a shelf in my closet dedicated to this. It’s good for my mental health to do these hobbies and I love that I was able to make space for it in a way that is organized.
Things We Learned Camping This Week
As I mentioned, it’s always a learning curve. Here are things we definitely learned from on this adventure.
We Packed Way Too Many Clothes: In my head, we would do laundry once a week at minimum, possibly every 10 days or so. But we had to do laundry on day 5 because we were out of storage for our dirty clothes. While we do think we could get a second hamper to help with this, we also realized that we packed waaaaay too much. In our defense, we thought it was going to be/feel much cooler in the mountains, so we packed for two different weather situations.
Keep the Space Clean: This sounds like such a duh thing, but it’s also so easy to go to bed with messes. But when you’re four people living in about 400 square feet, a little clutter makes a big mess. So, each night before going to bed, I’ve been straightening up. Plus, throughout the day, I’m trying to cleanup after myself and have the kids clean up after themselves as well. Which is going beautifully.
We Were Better About Being More Mindful of What Toys We Brought: I brought Liam’s car track rug and put it down in their room. It takes up all their floor space, but creates a softer surface and they both love using the little track. We also brought things that require a lot of creativity: block sets, coloring pages, alphabet work and loads & loads of books! We also only bring a few of the toys that are in the truck at a time.
Keep the Space Organized: We learned a lot about the way we organize things here too! I have moved things around to where they make the most sense. Especially the kids’ things. I’ve really organized their space to keep it clean and practical. The kitchen is another place that needed to be rearranged, and those changes have been working beautifully as well.
Our 24-day camping trip is off to a truly beautiful start! Now, we’re off to Moab for the second leg of our adventure. 10 days into this adventure has me feeling so lucky, so grateful and so inspired.
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