It needs to be done by April!

Living in an RV for the summer requires preparation. There are the obvious changes – move the clothes in, put the groceries back in the cupboards, take extras back to storage, etc. – and there are other things not as obvious but just as important.

I have a spring “to do” list. I have been working sporadically since January to complete this list. It goes something like this:

1. Purge the closet. One of the most limited spaces in an RV is the closet. Each season requires a review and a purging of the unnecessary. Did we purchase something new? Then something has to go. Shopping on our September Oregon trip made this a crucial step in preparing for the coming summer.

2. Scan the memories. I have always been a scrapbookker. My bits and pieces go back to high school days – a napkin, a wedding invitation, that tidbit from the paper about a friend, an obituary. I still hang on to those things in a file throughout the summer, but the items are scanned and organized on my computer before heading out for the next season.

3. Clean the files. Anyone who keeps financial records knows how full the files can become from January to December. After the January bills arrive, I review each file in the drawer and clean out the previous year’s information. That way my one drawer has sufficient space for another summer.

4. Complete tax returns. The dreaded income tax forms are easier to deal with while I still have a large table to spread things out and work on them. So I complete them as soon as the T4s have arrived, but I mail them at the end of April!

5. Back up the computer. RVs are vulnerable to more hazards than a traditional house, such as wind, collisions, etc. If tragedy were to strike, I want to have access to everything I need to get us back up and running. I also do not want to lose my pictures in such an occurrence. So I move most of the photos to a small external drive that goes with us, and back everything up to a larger external drive that we keep in our storage unit. Then I save the essentials to a small flash drive to keep in my purse. It’s a two-day operation!

With my five-point list complete, I can now do the final sorting and packing for our return to “home”. The piano was already loaded on Monday while we had available help. The RV also had its maintenance check on Monday. Friday (tomorrow) evening we’ll be camping again!