One of the aspects of RV life is storage - storage of clothing, kitchen utensils, spices, medicines, cleaning supplies, items for outside set up and items for inside set up. It is possible that I have thought more about storage in the past year than I have my entire life.
And, most of what I thought would work didn’t, and I’ve had to start over.
Because the thing about organizing a camper is that I have to factor in movement. Not only do I need to fit a bunch of stuff in a small space, but I have to consider that these things will be traveling at speeds up to 80 mph (hello, South Dakota highways) and over bumps, railroad tracks and more.
A fellow RV’er once said that every item experiences small earthquakes every time we move to a new location. He was right.
Like most RV families, we have our systems for setting up and breaking down for every time we get to a new place or prepare to leave. The outside list includes things like storing the water hose and filter, un-chocking the wheels, securing our $20 old school Target chairs to the ladder, and more.
Meanwhile, inside the camper, all of the clothing bins come out of the closet (learned that one the hard way), all of the storage bins above the window come down and are placed in the baskets that are usually hanging on doors, but need to be taken down so they don’t scratch the wood.
It’s a process.
We’re getting pretty good at it, and have definitely cut down on our time to set up and break down.
And pretty much everything has its place for when we are stopped and when we are moving. Even Buddha.
We have a small ceramic Buddha statue that sits by the sink in our bathroom when we are parked. It is one of the few decorative pieces we have to make this place feel more like home. And every time we pack up to leave, Buddha is placed on the bin of clothes that stays in the closet. This way he won’t break.
Until now.
When we arrived in Durango, Colorado this past week we found Buddha in the bathroom. Well, his body was in the bathroom but his head was in the living room (the fact that I even use names for rooms in a space that is smaller than my childhood bedroom is hilarious to me).
Buddha lost his head.
He must have bounced enough to open the closet door and fell to the floor - and broke in the process.
I reacted with two main emotions - sadness because this statue is really very sweet and is one of the only pieces we kept with us from our home in Ithaca; and frustration. I was frustrated because for the 50th f****** time the system I had set up for travel days didn’t work.
It was a lesson in accepting that we can plan and plan and plan and things can still go wrong. It was also a lesson in accepting that the super glue I packed to come with us because I knew we would need it at some point was, in fact, a great idea.
So, I took some deep breaths, moved the cushion on the dinette seat, retrieved the bin of command hooks and other sticky stuff from above the bin of cooking oils and under the dog toys, and got the super glue.
Buddha’s head is back on his body, and I now know that I need to come up with a different plan for him when we leave next week.
The entire experience of living in this camper has involved trying an idea out and re-evaluating when it inevitably needs to be changed.
Things I thought I knew before are just not true in camper life, and things I didn’t realize I knew have come to light. And, so many of the things I thought we would need or would use all the time haven’t even seen the light of day.
I imagine it’s similar to being a new parent - buying all of the things on the list only to find that you only use 1/3 of them. Or like when we were registering at Bed Bath and Beyond for our wedding. We did not, in fact, need 16 extra towels like they said we did!
What I’m trying to get at is that you have to find the system that works for you - whether it is in home organization, parenting, work, or whatever other facet of life - if the system isn’t yours it’s not going to work! And, often it takes time to figure it all out - and that’s okay!
The hooks we thought we’d use for jackets are actually used for dog leashes.
The special drawers I bought for the fridge just got in the way.
The dog food has to be locked up (literally with a lock and key), which we’ve never had to consider before!
And, apparently, Buddha needs a seatbelt or carseat.
The process of getting used to camper life has also been a process in getting to know myself and my family better than before. There simply isn’t space for things we don’t like or use. We have to really consider if something is necessary before we buy it or bring it into the camper.
And, the way we react when things break or go wrong (which they have more times than I can count) matters. Because, in the end, they are just things.
I guess it’s like life - we can have an idea of what we will do or where we will go and it can all go in another direction. We can have a system that works really well, until it doesn’t. We can think we know it all until we realize (sometimes the hard way) that we don’t. And, we can try to protect the people and things we love and they might still get hurt. Actually, it is inevitable that they will get hurt.
I suppose the only way to deal with the inevitable suffering and challenges in our lives is to do the best we can with what we have in the moment.
Then, when things go wrong, breathe deeply into the moment and do the next right thing.
You know, Buddha had something like that to say about all of this. I think he was on to something.
This week’s Invitation to Deepening: How do you deal with unexpected change, or when things break? What can you learn about yourself in those moments?
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