Mission Decluttering #4 – Our Living Room & Office

This used to be our office.

No where near clean and organized and this is what it turned into.

This is our living room/office now.  A smooshed up, cluttered mess.

We do EVERYTHING out of this room – have parties here, watch TV, play with Lily, run my husband’s company out of here, play games, read, work, literally everything.  So it’s really no surprise that it is a dumping ground and I hate it!  I have tried everything to keep it clean and organized, but no matter what I do it just doesn’t happen.  My thought is, if I declutter and minimize as much as possible there is a chance that it might just stay clean.  Right?

Here goes nothing, or lots.  Not sure yet.

After two days of decluttering, our living room and office yielded the following:
-          One bin of recycling (including papers that need to be shredded)
-          One photo box of photos that I have sent to be scanned
-          A box of craft supplies that I no longer needed
-          A box of duplicate office supplies that we plan to donate
-          10 CDs that we put onto our computer
-          12 books that we plan to sell
-          A stack of magazines that we took to our gym
-          A bag of garbage (grocery bag)

Almost embarrassing that that amount of ‘stuff’came out of such a small space.I doubt if it will stay clean for long, eight hands in a small space do not a clean space make.

After all of that, this is what it looks like now ...

Can you spot the differences?  I think it looks better and it gives us WAY more space for Lily!  We got rid of the two humungous armchairs and got two small armchairs from IKEA, we moved the couch against the wall and changed the storage bench to an actual coffee table.

It's still a teeny tiny space, but it's a cleaner space!

Next up – Kitchen & Nook!

Destinations - The Dreaming Phase

1 - Destinations
The first step you should always make it to be sure you are ready for a one year trip in an RV with kids. Once you've decided that you are and committed to the planning, it's time to start.  This is definitely the most fun part of the trip planning. It is during this part that you get to leaf through all those magazines you see in line at the grocery store, flip through books in a section you wouldn’t otherwise visit and browse the internet for something other than clothes and electronics and let your imagination go crazy!

Grab a sheet of paper - it’s time to start planning. All those places you’ve always wanted to visit, throw them on the list.  All those places you see on travel shows and your favourite TV shows, throw them on the list.  All those places you’ve heard about from other people who have been there and bragged about it, throw them on the list.  Don’t worry about how far apart they are from one another, or how silly they may seem. Put them on the list anyway - this is your trip after all.  So have fun with it, nothing is too far away, or too impractical!

Discovering New Destinations
Now sit back and revel in your work.  Look at that list, how wonderful does it feel to have taken that first step?  And I will bet you anything that it includes one of the following: Paris, London, Amsterdam?  Or maybe all of them?  Good on you!  There’s a reason those locations are so highly coveted since visiting them is akin to reading the classics.

But what else it out there? We started with books. There’s also the internet, and there is a ton of information and once you’ve written a well organized list the internet is great for researching specific locations. Get a book, lots of books, it will be worth the cost and you won’t be able to put them down.  Trust us!

Take Your RV to Europe
This is the first book we bought and awaited anxiously for it to arrive in the mail.  We had to order it on Amazon but it has quickly become our bible and I’m sure will remain that way for years to come.  The Milavsky’s have detailed pretty much everything you could ask for in this book from readying your American RV for Europe, to shipping, to useful tips in each country they visited.  LOVE!

RV the World
While this book is literally about RVing the World, there is so much information crammed into this book, the Contents pages are enough to start you salivating!

Europe in a Motorhome
This is my current read.  This is a cross between a novel and travel book.  Not much is held back in this book since the Jackson’s traveled with their 13 year old son.  It’s an entertaining and eye-opening read! It also has a great list of European campsites.

Europe by Van and Motorhome
Too much information is never enough and while many of these books contain similar information, each one has provided some new and interesting tips, tricks, lists and stories.
 

Lonely Planet – Mediterranean Europe

Of course what would travel be without Lonely Planet?  While this is the 6^th Edition  and they are currently printing the 10^th Edition we covet this book since it is the second we purchased after making the decision to do this trip.

This is what our initial Destinations Lists looks like:

We are continually updating our Destinations and we will post all of our new updates as we complete a new list.

Next up we will get practical and look at what you need to know before you travel.  As well we will take a look at the often unfortunate aspect of cutting your fantasy travel list down to something practical for you and your family.  Also known as the “Budget”.

Mission Decluttering #3 - Closets

In our teeny tiny home we have GREAT storage closets! A huge linen closet in the girl’s bathroom upstairs, a front hallway closet, a back hallway closet and a closet in the developed basement, it’s great even though none of stuffed to the gills by any means, but it still allows us to store out of season coats, etc. out of the way!  That doesn’t mean however that they don’t need a going over!

For our closets I utilized a little method I picked up from a friend of mine who is super organized and it’s how she does all her organizing (and really how I should be doing all of mine).  She uses the STOP method. S for Sort, T for Toss, O for Organize and P for Put Away.

First stop, the linen closet.

1. Sort – so here I set my watch for 20 minutes and dove right in – Keep, Donate/Sell, Put Away, and Garbage.  Surprisingly, it only took me 20 minutes to sort the entire 4 shelves of my closet, maybe that’s a lot I don’t know, but I was impressed.

2. Toss – anything ripped, ragged or stained should either be tossed or repurposed.

3. Organize - Once the space is clear, clean the entire closet; walls, shelves, doors and floor.  Refold all sheets and towels and stack neatly and return to the shelves.   I use quite a few plastic baskets in my linen closet to sort out all of the other items – toiletries in one, medications on a high shelf out of reach and I hate the plastic used to keep toilet paper and tissue boxes together so I take everything out of those and stack boxes or rolls neatly on a shelf.

4. Put away – anything not belonging back in the closet can be put away in their proper homes around the house.  The Sell/Donate boxes can be taken to storage and then toss the trash.

The rest of our closets contain our seasonal items so I like to do my seasonal sweeps.

 

There are 4 easy-to-follow steps here:

 
1.       Take everything out of the closet. Then, wipe down the shelving, walls and floors, dust and vacuum.
2.       Do a quick purge of anything you're going to donate; separate out anything that needs altering or dry cleaning.
3.       Put everything back in the closet hanging and sorting by color with most-worn items in front.
4.       Donate the remaining items; take alterations and cleaning to tailor and dry cleaner.

Since the closets only took me a grand total of 3 hours I am happy to report that I got rid of the following:

1 bag of donations (7 jackets – 4 of mine, 2 of my husbands, 8 pairs of shoes and boots – all mine!)

4 jackets (and 2 snowsuits) that have been washed and put away for use by Lily at a (much) later date
1 bag of extra hangers (metal ones returned to the drycleaner)
1 bag of garbage and recycling
 
Up next – Our Living Room & Office!

How we Plan to Plan Our Year Long Trip

0 -Contents
This guide is created to help you plan your very own year long trip. It will offer you travel packing tips, travel planning hints and other such suggestions. Use it as an independent guide, or with other resources. We used SO many resources it would be hard to include them all, but when we found something that was outstanding we included it!

Introduction
So you’re thinking of going on a one year trip – with kids? First of all – you are CRAZY. Secondly - sounds like a great plan – go for it! But what do you need to know before you head out? First off know that it’s not impossible. More than likely it is very well within your means. It will just take a lot of planning, saving and a TON your time. This guide is designed to help inform you of everything you need to know to plan your trip.

Best of luck, and good planning – it may just be the most fun you’ve ever had.

Index:

0 - Contents
This is what you’re looking at: A breakdown of everything to come, and briefly what information you can expect to find there.

1 - Destinations
How we chose our destinations and what your first steps towards planning a year-long RV trip (with kids) should be. Obviously there are so many places you’d love to see – but you might be surprised what’s out there, beyond your realm of knowledge and things that would never think of!

2 – Budget
This is the BIG ONE. Everything becomes reality here. You will explore your list of possible destinations and it will be culled down to something much more practical. Issues of money, how much will you need – and what you will need it for – are discussed in this section.

3 –Research

You need to a whole lot of research before you head out if you want to make the most of your journey. Where should you go? What should you do? And what should you look for? All these answers and more and explored and answered here.

4 - Traveling With Kids is Possible!

We could go on and on in this section, but this will give you a very good idea of what to expect, how much it will cost, education issues on the road, being prepared for (almost) everything and as many tips, tricks, issues and resources as we possibly can.

5 - RV – Purchasing and Renovating

All of the information you could possibly need to research, purchase, renovate and ship your RV to Europe or anywhere else you may want to go.

6 - The Important (and Some Not So Important) Travel Gear
So you think you’re all ready to hit the road? Have you made sure to get all the gear you need? All the gear you will ever need is detailed here, as well as some links to where you can get it. You may be surprised by just how little or how much you need. That depends on how many of you there are!

7 - Medical Requirements & Travel Insurance
You and your family are the most important thing you’re taking with you on this adventure. Make sure you are up to date on all of the various diseases, viruses and other nasties that may be floating around outside all around you and your loved ones. Find a travel doctor, talk to them about risks, and get all your immunizations and medications needed. The importance of good travel insurance is also discussed in this part.

8 - Saying Goodbye & Staying in Touch
Just because your grand adventure is taking you in one direction, it doesn’t mean other peoples’ lives stop and wait for you to return (as much as you would like to think it does). There are a number of ways to say goodbye and a number of ways to keep in touch while you’re away. They are all discussed in this section.

9 - Have No Fear …
Everyone runs into the unexpected, but that shouldn’t ruin your adventure and why you shouldn’t feel bad if it should happen to you along the way.

Things you may Overlook – Our well researched “Travel Tips and Tricks”
People have been travelling for years, and each trip brings them new tips, and tricks that they’d not known about on previous journeys. Learn from past experience, and if you’ve got a good secret that might help your fellow travelers, why not post it here?

10 - Our International Move

All of the tips and information you could want or need related to moving your life from one country to another – practical information such as legal information, banking, work, housing and education. A whole lot on decluttering and minimizing your stuff, packing, storage and shipping and even a little on settling in and culture shock.

Mission Decluttering #2 – The Girl’s Rooms

I love my girls but their stuff can be overwhelming at times, OK, all the time.  I have never understood, in all my five years of being a parent, how children accumulate so much stuff in such a short period of time.  And it doesn’t seem to matter what room of the house they are in at the time but their stuff ends up in it, drives me insane!

But how do you declutter their rooms?  I decided that they should be involved, it is their things after all and they should have a say in what happens to it.  It is a good thing that ‘Spring Cleaning’ meant fun times ahead for the girls – otherwise I’d be hooped!

We started out tidying up their room, everything out from under the beds, clothes hung up properly in their closet and folded properly in their dressers, beds made.  At least that gave us a little room to start – but where to start?

Clothes:  In principle I used the same three questions that I used for myself.  However, when it came to does it need work done to be wearable – they’re 5, so it doesn’t really apply, I switched that for can Lily wear it later on?

We had three piles: Donate, Garbage and For Lily.

It was a long and tiring process.  Hard decisions were made, there were a few tears and a few arguments, but we wound up with one bag for donation, a half bag for Lily and a half bag (more or less) that was ready for the bin.

Next up was books, toys and assorted other things.

We finished up their room with a box of donations containing about two dozen books, 8 stuffies and a grocery bag of miscellaneous toys.  This part was WAY easier than the clothes – typical girls!  I did discover in this process that Isabel has a little bit of a hoarder mindset, she tends to want to hold on to everything, whether it has meaning or not.  She still is very good at the donating part, but each item needed a discussion or explanation as to why it should or had to go.

Feeling good about the last few hours having removed what feels like 500 pounds of ‘stuff’ from the twins room, I move on to Lily’s room.  You wouldn’t think that at 4 months old she would need a decluttering of her room, however a baby that grows fast gathers much clutter in a very short period of time.

Her room provided two boxes of clothing we lovingly gave to wonderful friends of ours who recently had a baby girl, a box of stuffies which we thought Lily would love (but what does an infant know?), and a box of miscellaneous décor items which seemed like a wonderful idea when we were decorating her room but just became clutter once we were done and happy with the clean look of her room.

Not bad for a days decluttering!

Up next – Closets!

Our Year Long Trip

How we are Dreaming, Planning and Going to Travel Europe

How it all began –

It started as a thought and a fleeting one at that.  But it kept creeping back into my mind and soon became an idea, one that I was sure Mario would never go for.  Then that idea popped out as a question, posed more as a rhetorical one.  And then the thought that became an idea, the idea that became an idea that became a question now had an answer. “Why would you think that I wouldn’t like to do something like that? I can’t believe you thought I wouldn’t do something like that!” he said as we drove the highway from Salmon Arm back to the cabin in Sicamous.

It was the week of Mother’s Day and we had planned a few days at the cabin to get away from everything and that weekend became one full of research, conversations and what-if’s, how’s and why not’s!  Instantly we had started taking notes, looking at the calendar and going to RV and Trailer lots to see what we would need.  We were a family of 4 and never thought that in a year from then we would be expecting family member #5!  Soon all of our dates, plans and research came to a grinding halt – the reality of having another baby 5 years after the first two put a whole new spin on these big plans!  We couldn’t take a baby on the road, what would we do in a small space with a newborn – were we nuts?

Then, after the fog cleared and we were sleeping more than 3 hours at a time we realized that indeed we could still plan our trip, we would just have to delay it a little, as in a couple of years.  Our intended departure date of March 2012 changed in an instant to March 2014!  Two years of planning ahead of us.  Was that going to be enough?

 
We decided one night after all three girls were soundly asleep that if we didn’t start to plan now, we may never do it.  We may be like all those other people who dream about doing something like this but that is as far as it ever goes.  We were determined not to be ‘those’ people, so we forged ahead and began planning – for the five of us!

Let the Planning Begin!

We took to the Internet to see how many other people there were like us or if we had completely lost it!  To our surprise there were many others who wanted to shed the chains of materialism and ‘keeping up with the Jones’ and took to the open road.  First word – RELIEF!  We weren’t crazy after all!  First question – Where and what do we do now?  How do we plan, where do we start?

We came up with an outline of sorts to organize our thoughts, our plans, our numerous lists, brochures, maps, and everything and anything in between.  We are travelling in an RV that we are purchasing, renovating and shipping over to Europe on a boat so our planning includes a section on all of that.

Now our plans differ from just this outline since our plan is to move to Croatia once our travels are complete.  We have added a section at the end that includes those plans, but more on that later.

 
What follows is what we came up with and we included all of the necessary information we used for research; websites, books, RV purchasing and renovating, you name it we’ve included it.  It won’t work for everyone but it worked for us and we think it is a great place for everyone to start.

Stay tuned ...

Mission Decluttering #1 - Conclusion

Here’s a list of things that I removed from our Master Bedroom (including our closet and ensuite bath):

Donate

4 garbage bags of clothes!

Garage Sale

A ton of jewelry that I forgot I had taken out of my jewelry box ages ago, when I downsized my jewelry box to a jewelry roll (GREAT inventions those jewelry rolls!), book lights, page markers (why do I need page markers when I have an eReader?), 3 purses/handbags

Move to Other Spaces

I had my Nana’s Lane Hope Chest in our Bedroom but I moved it into our crawl space, it just didn’t fit in with our furniture and took up too much space.  It contains A TON of sentimental items that I am going to have to go through at some point – a thought which makes me cringe!

Garbage

This is embarrassing.  I took out an entire trash bag from our Master Bedroom/Closet/Ensuite.  Of course this includes recycling items (empty bottles, tissue boxes, etc.), but still an entire garbage bag!  And I thought I was clean!  Ewwww …

What’s next –

Mission Decluttering #2 – The Girl’s Rooms