Tips for decluttering a tiny space

When we moved from our sticks and bricks home in to a home on wheels, we told each other to expect the unexpected.  For those of you who DON’T live full time in an RV, imagine the house you live in, with dishes in the cupboards, pictures on the walls, food in the fridge, etc. and now imagine that on 4 wheels traveling down the interstate at 70 mph! 

Things rumble, things fumble, things shake and things break!  It is just part of RV living! 

Some of those things can be obvious and you see and deal with them right away.  Others, can take time, and hopefully you catch them before any serious damage occurs! 

For us, yesterday was one of those days.  We had a plan to paint portions of our kitchen island as part of our spring cleaning and RV refresh.  The paint, was way in the back of our storage department under the RV.  When my husband cleared out the items in storage, he noticed a box that had a damp bottom!  Not good! 

So we immediately pulled everything out and found the culprit.  A broken valve on the hot water heater with a slow drip.  Ironically this was an item that we discussed just two weeks ago with a fellow full time RVer.  They asked if we had any issues with it.  At the time… NOPE!  Luckily we found it early enough and cleaned up the water and we were able to dry what little areas were wet. 

If we had not decided to start our spring refresh and paint our kitchen island yesterday… we might not have found that leak for several more days or who knows how long.  Luckily a $10 fix and the RV Service Center near us had the part we needed.  But this was a lucky experience for us.  Others have not been so fortunate. 

So for us, we take this in stride, and we move on to the next step of our planned spring cleaning and refresh of the RV. Things that we are working on in the next week...

Decluttering: 

• Clean closets- take EVERYTHING out of the closest/drawers. I use the same method as when we were moving from our home to the RV. You can read that here. I then make a list of everything that the kids are in need of for clothes and take photos of the bottoms/tops so I can coordinate the items with what they have. 
• Toys- Get out all the toys and give the kids some time to play with them. If the toys are missing pieces or don't work then they are thrown out. Toys that the kids don't play with anymore or are no longer interested in- donate. 
• Drawers/cabinets: I like to start with the areas that are on my mind. Maybe there is a drawer that's unorganized or frustrates you. Get everything out and assess the situation. If we have not used it, I consider if we TRULY NEED it? When we were in our home and decluttering, I got rid of all things that were double. We don't need two spatulas in less than 400 square feet. 
• I also like to go through products. Are there condiments that are expired? Dry goods that you have not used? Medicines that are expired? Beauty products that I bought and never used or didn't like? Things that you don't see or use all the time but are just taking up space (and weight).  

RV Maintenance:

• Flush clean the Hot Water Heater
• Replace the Filters in our ClearSource Water Filters
• Check the Air Conditioners and Clean the Filters
• Check the Roof for any damage or holes, fill with self-leveling dicor
• Grease the axle suspensions
• Check fire alarms
• Touch up paint
• Clean all vents/screens

In addition to these items, I also plan to evaluate the current set up and organization. We recently added drawers to the kids closet. When we started traveling, we hung all the kids' clothes, however their clothes are so much bigger/longer and hanging them no longer worked. We installed 4 drawers that are more effective now.