Here’s another non-travel-related post, more like an answer to a faq.
Tracy tells me I’m going to run out of topics before this quarantine is over, but truth be told I’ll run out of interesting topics. Consider yourself warned.
In any case, like a lot of people stuck in their homes right now, I’ve been cleaning the hell out of the Airstream.
The benefit of this space is that it’s small—you can clean as you go, or you can do a thorough whole-house clean in about an hour (with husband and dog outside).
The downside is that it’s small—imagine your house’s dirt, the mud you track in, pet hair, food detritus, dust, compacted into a room the size of your bedroom.
The Floor
So, yeah, we have a lot of dirt and dog hair (of course Banjo is a shedder!), and it settles all below your knees. So, every day I use the broom to rustle it up from the carpet and then the sweeper to gather it, and I dump the equivalent of a small dog’s worth of hair and dirt out in the woods. (I store the broom and sweeper against the wall of the bathroom, which I have to admit is clever.)
On warm days I pull up every carpet in the place, plus the two dog beds and the fake fur throws Banjo sleeps on on the couch, and dump them outside, then thoroughly clean the floor, beat the carpets hard, and re-lay them. It makes the Airstream seem like a totally new place.
Sinks
The kitchen sink is a dream—it’s large enough to wash pots and pans in and has a detachable spray nozzle. You guys don’t realize how rare this is in an RV; most sinks are like the one in the bathroom: it’s tiny and shows every bit of water, soap, and toothpaste each time you use it.
Laundry
Laundry is a whole tale to tell (not exciting, but I’m dragging the bottom for content here).
We store the dirty laundry in the shower like a lot of people who live in RVs. But doing laundry …
The plan is, once we’re on the road, Tracy’s going to have laundromat duties. Maybe we’ll find one every two weeks, and he claims there are sometimes breweries next to laundromats, so all power to him.
Until then, we could use the laundry room here in the campground, but it’s a risk with the virus, so we’ve taken advantage of a really fortunate situation. A friend’s house an hour away is vacant and has been since before the virus hit, so twice so far we’ve spent the day there, doing so much more laundry than we’d expected.
With the cold weather we’re wearing more clothes, and with the rain we’re getting muddy, so that’s a lot of laundry to do. And, in this latest round I accidentally left in the Airstream two sweatshirts and one of my (only) two pairs of jeans, all filthy. Looks like we’ll be back at our friend’s house before two weeks are up.
All in all we seem to be the luckiest people I know in this terrible situation. And surly the weather will break and we’ll spend more time outside, identifying birds, getting the kayaks on the lake, and watching the dumpster action.
Until then, you guys take care of each other.
The topic cleaning the hell out of the Airstream I like. Have Tracy tried that cleaning topic or has he run away from it (the Airstream I mean)? I don’t think you ever will run out of topics Shelly, it’s the contrary, topics come to you. Give my best to Tracy, you know (and I guess he too know) that I mean well (just teasing).
Love -Li
We both know your ribbing is always done with a smile! Tracy hasn’t tackled the major cleaning yet, but then I haven’t tackled flushing the two water tanks or even driving the truck, much less towing the Airstream. Right now we’re dividing the tasks but one day we’ll both be proficient in it all. One day later 🙂
Good to know that Tracy is aware of me and my strange ways of turning things around. And right now I’m giving it another try to get my picture (twelve years younger of course) into your blog comment fields, too. Hope it will work this time.
Love -Li
I see your beautiful face!
You fold laundry so well! I’m loving this blog…I keep telling myself that no, I don’t have to read it THE MOMENT I see it’s up, and then immediately click through to see what you’re up to. (Even when the photo doesn’t feature my house! BTW, that green cupboard has a very special place in my heart, so it’s good to see it here.)
I love that cupboard! Tell me the story sometime.
We really can’t thank you enough for giving us a safe place to do laundry. Plus I get to keep up on my yard work skills 😉
your blogs are my reward when my work is done.Love the cleaning stories!My quarantine life is all about having an at home office window that looks out at my neighbors houses , so I can follow their life events.I watched one of my neighbors in the process of moving this week. Similar to our “truncated” goodbye, it felt so strange to not give her a hug goodbye or even offer to help due to virus fears.On a brighter note, I get to watch the birds visit my front yard tree every morning.
I agree with the statement above, I doubt very seriously that you will ever run out of topics. You are too clever and observant for that. <3 I am loving reading your blog posts. Hugs!
Aww, I miss you, Traci! Please tell everyone there I love them.
Does anyone else worry that Shelly will edit and correct their posts?
I’m so tempted to edit this! >:) LOL I am shocked that I could do that, plus all the other info I can get about people reading this blog. I’m more like the wizard behind the curtain than ever, feels like.