Storage Hints

[Carol]

Hi!

We load the wardrobe full of clothes and keep the clothes in there. I don't see why the clothes have to be removed from the wardrobe to put it in its traveling position. We don't have any extra room on the sofa, anyway.

We did put a piece of foam pipe insulation over the rod to allow a better grip on the hangers. This was a tip I picked up somewhere - can't remember the source now. If the wardrobe weren't full, I would put the hangers all to the one side and put some pillows or blankets in there to keep movement down.

We also have a 3 drawer see thru plastic cabinet (from K-Mart) that fits perfectly in the space next to the wardrobe. It is short enough to fit in the aisle when the TM is closed. We use this for extra clothes that don't fit in either the lower drawers or the wardrobe. A second one of these could be stacked on top of the one we have, but we're OK with that amount of storage for now, especially since I hang most of my clothes up in the wardrobe.

For long trips (like the 6 week one we took last fall) we also pack suitcases full of more clothes and leave them in the back of the truck - in this case, our cold weather clothes. We were glad to have them when the temperatiures went down to the lower 20's in Sept. in the Big Horns.

The hanging kitchen cabinet has only light weight paper items in it, so it doesn't get too heavy to lift. I do keep 2 Corelle ware plates in there between paper plates as well. I also keep spices in there. The paper towels get stored in there for travelling and then put in their holder on the side of the cabinet once we are set up.

We put our small microwave, the TV, the air cleaner, and the kitchen overhead cabinet in front of the couch when traveling. The portable boom box and the bedroll goes on the couch as well as the bed pillows. We leave a foam topper, matress pad and bottom sheet on the rear bed while traveling.

The awning rod and other long items (curtain rods that are used to hang up wet stuff in the bathroom, a clip-on umbrella for shading the refrigerator vent, etc.) are put on the sofa before the bedroll and pillows go on there. We used to put the long stuff in the open spot behind the couch back, but sometimes it would fall down and get caught when pushing the slide-in couch in.

If you are getting the a slideout with the big blue chair, make sure you lay it down on its back before closing the unit down. It will be easier to close as the chair height sometimes causes trouble. Maybe, if you found the sweet spot to set it in, it wouldn't be a problem. Someone suggested this a while ago and we started doing that.

We also store stuff in the bottom of the chair. There is a velcro panel on the front in case you haven't noticed it yet. I have a portable leg rest that is stored in there and miscellaneous other stuff.

We put food in boxes in the storage area under the rear bed so they can be pulled out individually. Pots and pans are stored in the oven and below the oven in the cabinets. We have a rack to hold bags, tin foil and plastic wrap that fits nicely in one of the lower cabinets.

Once you get familiar with all the nooks and crannies inside the TM, you'll find lots of storage possibilities.

Have a Great Time with your new TM!

Carol

[Frenchy]

Carol,

Have you weighed your TM after loading up? Sounds like you have a lot of stuff packed in it. I'm just curious since we can't load near that much in ours without exceeding the weight limit.

[Carol]

No, we haven't weighed it fully loaded. That is probably something we should do.

We do start out with the 20 gal fresh water tank full and the toilet charged. We always dump the gray tank and black tanks before going on our way. We keep the heaviest stuff in the truck bed.

We do keep the tires fully inflated at 50 PSI and we haven't had any problems to date.

Carol

Eleanor,

You have some great suggestions for storage from lots of members. We keep our wardrobe fully loaded, and have had little problem with wrinkling. We are camping, after all!


Our microwave, TV, and other bags of stuff like swimming gear, basketballs, etc. are stored on the floor between the couches in the front. We try to put as much there and over the wheels as possible. We also will store our folding chairs and our daughter's small bike there since it isn't big enough to fit on the bike rack. Trash cans go in the bathroom and bathtub, and eveything else stays in the cabinets, though we wrap the coffee carafe in a towel and take other measures to prevent fragile things being broken.

[shunter917]

We installed shelves in our closet and store blankets, towels, etc. there. Our clothes go in 2 drawers beneath the closet (cutlery goes in the top drawer). If we are taking more clothes (because of an extended trip), we put those in a soft suitcase or duffel bag or something and store those on the front bed during the day.