It’s an rv life.

OK folks! RV life is different. I thought I would make a post right away about some rv living tips. We have been in our RV for a few weeks now and already had some adventures. Being in a rv is small. You have to be patient with each other if you are not living alone in it. It takes a moment for them to move so you can move to get to that certain cabinet or to the bedroom. We almost got stuck between the shower door and bathroom door once! It was like a tiny puzzle to get out. ha! Small also means less stuff. We downsized and put some stuff in storage. I am shocked tho, we have some empty cabinets in our rv and I don’t have anything to put in them! I mean several cabinets! But, I did use some space saving ideas like putting little racks inside the cabinets doors to hold small items like spice jars, etc. I bought these at Hobby Lobby and hung them with removable hooks.

I added a rod and hanger to the shower so we don’t have to worry about things falling during travel. You can find these on Amazon.

I added some storage to the tiny closet to maximize space. Also purchased from Amazon, just be sure you measure your closet first and buy the one that will fit inside. 😉

And, I used hooks and velcro to hang baskets and pictures instead of making holes in the walls.

Now we (my mom is sewing them for me) are working on recovering the cushions and making curtains to give the place a personal touch instead of the brown hotel feel. Once that is all in place I will post some before and after shots.

There are also some mechanical things to learn when living in a rv.

Tip #1: When your refrigerator seems to not be working all of the sudden, don’t freak out, it may just be in defrost mode. You can imagine the panic when all of the sudden I realized the fridge was not cooling and the ice cream had melted. This leads me to another tip.

Tip #2: The owner’s manual will become your most used tool. Although it will not explain things as clearly as a person and you may still have to call the rv place for advice but, it will give you an idea of what may be going on.

Tip #3: You cannot run the furnace all night without being plugged into electricity or running the generator. Your storage battery is NOT enough and you will be wakened at 7am with the fridge beeping because it has no battery power. You will NOT be able to start the generator because although the generator is what gives your storage battery juice it also uses that juice to start the generator, like a happy little circle of life. The only way to get your power back on is plug in or drive. And when I say drive, I mean on the interstate for an hour. Yay! Not good when you are not planning on going anywhere that day.

Tip #4: Have extra keys made and purchase a couple of extra adapters for your plug. It was no fun in 30 degree weather with sleet falling when we were trying to plug in for the night and our storage compartment door key got twisted and broke off in the lock. Once we got into the compartment we were trying to get the very tight fitting adapter on the plug and the grounding prong broke off. So we threw everything back into the storage compartment and gps’d our way to Lowe’s, which was about to close in 20 minutes! To our surprise Lowe’s has a small rv section! Yay! We stocked up on a new adapter plus a couple of extras (just in case) and made a couple of copies of the one compartment door key that we had left. So, I recommend to new rver’s, extra adapters and extra keys to save yourself a late night adventure like we had.

Tip #5: (and last learning curve tip for the day) If any water is leaking anywhere your water pump is gaining air and will not pump up enough water for you to shower with. We currently have a tiny but steady drip on the outside shower valve which is causing us to lose fresh water and is allowing air into the system to keep anything more than a trickle from pumping into the shower. We have ordered the part and are waiting to replace it. The owner’s manual hinted that this may be the problem with the water pump and the rv place said most likely is the problem. (See what I mean about the owner’s manual.)

This brings me to a shout out to our rv place. We were blessed to find them. Arrowhead RV in Mayfield, KY. Family owned and operated for 45 years. They gave us a great deal on the rv we bought, 30 days for free repairs if we found anything wrong with it, they gave us a free $50 waste hose when ours busted on the first use, and have been super nice every time I have called and asked for advice. I think this would have all been hard if they weren’t so nice. Never underestimate how important it is to be nice and good to others!

Stay tuned for more RV tips, tricks and adventures on future blogs!!