Gnomadic Gipsy: Cleaning Out the Bus!

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Cleaning Out the Bus!

We took the load of garbage that was in the bus to the dump and cleaned out the garage with the bus. We put 5 months insurance on the bus and it cost us $130 in total.

After getting rid of the garbage in the bus, we swept and mopped it out. I got the lovely job of sweeping and mopping out the bus (with a baby on my back). Someone told the kids to take bags of dog poop and put them inside the bus. Which was fine in the winter but after the crap thawed that made for a smelly nasty mess! This was what I got to mop up...UGH!!! But the floor is clean now!

We marked out the floor with spray paint. Now we can see what the floor plan is going to look like and we can imagine how much space we're going to have.

We are leaving on Tuesday for my Dad's place. While we're there we're going to be building the interior of the bus and painting the exterior of the bus. Getting it ready for camping and all our other adventures with the bus this summer!

So I am busily packing up what we will need for the summer. Each child gets a plastic 3 drawer unit to put their everyday clothes into. They will pack their camping gear in a backpack that will get stored out of the way until we go camping. I made a list of what we need to bring with us...but I'm almost certain that something will get forgotten at home!

We're all pretty excited about the start of our big adventure! I called and had all the utilities suspended until September. This means that we won't have any utility bills to pay while we are gone with the exception of our satelite internet. Because we're on a contract with them we are commited to paying the minimum of $24/month for that, but everything else is covered!

I've been jotting down info about different places that we plan on stopping at during the summer. Prices for attractions, addresses, hours of opperation etc. Nothing is set in stone as to dates with the exception of a few music concerts and our music festival and other festivals that we want to take in. Those are because they run on someone else's schedule!

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Boondocking

Boondocking is when a rig is parked and not able to use power and sewer services because they aren't available. Boondocking does require some preparation! We have lots of push button battery opperated lights that are inside the cupboards, beside the beds etc. These help when there is no power after the sun goes down. I do have a AA battery charger and extra batteries for it. When batteries get low, we can put them in the charger and they are charged for the next use. We keep the charged batteries in a bag in a kitchen drawer. We do have a generator but we don't often use it. We use it if we are parked at one place for a while but not if we are just parked at a Walmart for a night!

Storage on the Road

We use plastic totes for some storage. All the shoes and boots are in one bin. We keep it under the bus when we're parked. Everyone puts there shoes into the bin and the lid gets put on and they are dry from the weather and not taking up space in the bus! We use 3 drawer plastic units for the kids clothes and also for our crafting supplies. We also use plastic wash basins from the dollar store to store stuff in. The wash basins are the perfect size for fitting into the cupboards. They make sure that stuff isn't just shifting around loosley in the cupboards. I know that when I open a cupboard, what I'm looking for is going to be there! Stuff that we aren't using daily is kept in plastic totes and stored under the bus when we're parked. This clears up floor space and leaves us more living space! I store bedding (we have one extra set of sheets and pillow cases per bed) under the foot of the mattress. It is handy when making the bed but out of the way when we don't need it. It also means that they aren't taking up cupboard space either. We have all stacking dishes and pots and pans. Anything that is space saving I'm buying! We have a collander that folds flat that I love. I also have the Tupperware flat folding bowls that I love!

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