Organization Freak-Yes, I Alphabetize My Spices Also

Yes, I am pretty much an organization freak! I hate disorder and congestion in the rig. You know, when you live in such a small space anything out of place makes everything look messy. I'm not a clean freak except for the restroom - I don't spend a lot of time dusting and vacuuming - but I do like things in their place.

Once a year Jim and I go through everything in the rig to reevaluate everything we are carrying. It is surprising how much you accumulate in a year. And we have found our taste changes during the year. And for me my hobbies have changed.

I have been a dedicated quilter for some 14 years - always having a quilt project in progress. I brought my sewing machine with me when we went fulltime along with a selected amount of fabric and quilting supplies. But I no long feel the "pull" to quilt and now have the "knitting" bug. Jim was very surprised when I chose to go to a yarn store instead of a quilt shop. Part of the reason is that quilting on the road is difficult if you aren't in an rv park with a club house or something so you can spread out and quilt a top. I have sewn a quilt project in the rig, but all cooking and cleaning has to stop until I finish the project because it takes over the rig. You know, you've seen my photos of when I am making a quilt in the rig. My design wall is a flannel sheet hooked over the door of the freezer; the ironing board is laid onto of the stove and my kitchen island becomes my cutting board. It's a mess for a couple of days until I finish; then you have to put everything away. It's not like when we were in our "sticks and bricks" when I had my own sewing room and I could leave things out and just close the door till the next day.

So today I went through all my fabric- stored under the bed-and brought some of it to our local quilt shop to give to the quilt guild to use for charity quilts. I'll package up most of the rest of the fabric into packets for auction for C.A.R.E. that the Boomers will hold at the Balloon Fiesta.

Yesterday I finished up reorganizing all our cabinets. With our rig it works best to have all our canned foods, baking items, etc. put in plastic bins on the shelves. They don't slide and move around so much when we are driving. And since I have been known to buy too much tuna and diced green chiles because I can't remember if I have any, I made a list of each cabinet contents so I can see what I DO have....I'll mark it off as I use it. Here's what it looks like now.

I also went through the kitchen utensils and got rid of about half of what I had. I didn't need two pie pans or three bread pans; or that silicon tart and cake pan I bought with Lesle in Florida last winter. Only used that mini food processor once when Norah gave me her recipe for hummus...I buy it prepared now. But I did keep my yogurt maker because I like fresh yogurt a lot. It felt so good to have room available in the drawers and cabinets again.

Today I defrosted the freezer and cleaned the refrigerator; am taking all the scatter rugs to the laundromat tomorrow while Jim shampoos the carpet. Then we are through with the sorting, discarding, reorganizing and repacking the rig. That will give us a couple of days to just relax and read before we go back to South Fork to help Rich and Terri close down their campground and we all head for Albuquerque.

Oh, and yes, I do alphabetize my spices - sick isn't it?

Remember you are loved.