The Organizing Reveal

For those of you who have been following along on our new adventure you know that I recently joined CountryBoy out west where we are living full-time in our 5th wheel with two cats and a dog while he works at restoring an old mine.  Along with me joining him came a lot of stuff that we packed into the cargo trailer.  Kitchen stuff, craft stuff, pantry stuff, shipping stuff, animal stuff, sewing table & chair, cat box, etc.

What you may not know is how much CountryBoy was concerned about all that stuff and where it would go in the 5th wheel without being cluttered and crowded.

Oh he of little faith!

So last Friday morning, after lots of coffee, I began the process of finding places to put all the stuff.

First up, I had to move the cargo trailer up a few inches.  Unfortunately, when the trailer was backed into place, I failed to make sure the power cord would reach the power box on the other side of the 5th wheel.    It lacked less than two inches.  Sigh.  Luckily, it's been really cold here so we did not need power to keep the contents of the freezer and small fridge that is in the trailer cold.

I wanted to get the trailer in place, plugged in and stabilized before I was going to be in and out of it all day.

I backed the Jeep up and was ready to hook it up when I realized that previously we had to take the tire off the back in order to hook the trailer up.  So, I pulled the Jeep up and proceeded to take the tire off and tried again.  I pulled the trailer up about a foot, got out to make sure the power cord would reach and then unhooked the trailer, pulled up and then put the tire back on.  Then I put the jacks under the back of the trailer and now we were good to go!

Next up, the cabinets.  Here's what we had in there before all the stuff arrived...

Notice the very few pots and pans!  Needless to say, it's been interesting trying to cook with what I had.  We had originally set the 5th wheel up for camping where we mainly cooked over a fire or on the grill.

Anyhoo, here's the after...

Plenty of pots and pans and baking dishes, yay!

Keep in mind, that the 5th wheel is currently set up to stay in one location for a while.  When it comes time for us to move on I will have to pack the glassware up to put in the cargo trailer while traveling.

Only a few things were changed on the counter tops...

Before

I added the toaster oven...

 and my chicken teakettle...

I may not have the real thing anymore but at least I can still enjoy my chicken stuff!

The dining table...

... used to eat at and is also where I sit when I'm on the computer.  (Notice the blue cable.  This was our connection to the online world.  And I mean literal connection.  We physically had to move this cable to whatever device we wanted to get online with whether it was the computer, Xbox, Netfilx, etc.  It was a pain in the neck.  More on that later.)

Now...

A relaxing space to eat or peruse the online world!  (Notice the blue cable is GONE, woot!)

CountryBoy's biggest concern was the sewing table and chair that I wanted to add to this corner...

Originally, I wasn't sure if we would be able to keep the recliner once the table and chair were in place but I hated to lose the seating space.  I moved the chair closer to the couch but the portable gas heater has to stay where it's at and ended up being in the walkway.  I, then, moved the chair back over almost to where it was before but more in front of the pantry door (you can see the open door at the left of the above photo.  It has to stay open as long as we're using the portable heater because that's where the gas line comes out.  Don't ask.  It was that way when we bought the camper.  I would have put it somewhere else or at least scooted the line over so that the pantry door could at least be partially closed.)  I did have to lose the end table though.  I found places for everything that was on it and even hung a small rack by the door to hang our keys on that were originally just tossed onto this end table.

This is what I ended up with...

I like it.  The cat box is sandwiched between the leg of the sewing table and the pantry wall, out of the way.  There is plenty of room for the chair to swivel or lean back in any direction.  And the portable heater can stay where it needs to stay.  Win!

Here is the view that CountryBoy came home to that evening...

(only I was sitting on the couch crocheting!)  His words when he walked in, "Oh wow!  It looks so homy!  And, it's still not crowded."

Yes!  Mission accomplished!

It was a lot of work and took me all day but I thoroughly enjoyed doing it and CountryBoy's reaction and approval was the icing on the cake.

It's been several days with this arrangement and it is proving to be working really well.

One thing I've found when living in a small space is it's best to put things away immediately and not let things get piled  up.  Then you avoid messes and clutter that can quickly make a space seem smaller and much less inviting.

Till next time,