Mastering Holiday Storage in an RV for the holiday season can present unique challenges. Imagine the winter holidays with the family, good food, laughter, and an abundance of leftovers, but with limited space to store it all. Join us for a special conversation with Robin, a seasoned RV dweller and storage guru, as we exchange experiences and strategies for overcoming these hurdles.
If you've ever wondered how to manage a small kitchen space or store seasonal decor in an RV, this episode is for you. We shed light on pre-cooking meals, using specific appliances to save space, and creating a rotation for using burners. Robin also shares her ingenious solutions to the perennial problem of limited storage, including the use of airtight bags and under-couch storage. She shares her tips on decorations during the festive season, emphasizing that a minimalist approach is key to fully enjoying your RV LIFE.
Lastly, we take on the topic of the holiday season itself. We exchange favorite holiday dishes, traditions, and stress-free cooking solutions to ensure the holiday spirit is high, even in a tiny kitchen. We also discuss the importance of adaptability in your RV LIFE, sharing anecdotes of how going with the flow has led to resilience and incredible connections within the RV community. So, whether you’re a full-time RVer or just considering it, tune in for a wealth of practical tips from Robin and us, seasoned RV dwellers. The journey may have challenges, but the rewards are truly priceless. Don't miss out!
Learn more incredible tips by going to Robin's blog at https://bgbarnstormer.com/
Holiday give ideas for your favorite RV or for yourself....
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Mastering Holiday Storage in an RV for the holiday season can present unique challenges. Imagine the winter holidays with the family, good food, laughter, and an abundance of leftovers, but with limited space to store it all. Join us for a special conversation with Robin, a seasoned RV dweller and storage guru, as we exchange experiences and strategies for overcoming these hurdles.
If you've ever wondered how to manage a small kitchen space or store seasonal decor in an RV, this episode is for you. We shed light on pre-cooking meals, using specific appliances to save space, and creating a rotation for using burners. Robin also shares her ingenious solutions to the perennial problem of limited storage, including the use of airtight bags and under-couch storage. She shares her tips on decorations during the festive season, emphasizing that a minimalist approach is key to fully enjoying your RV LIFE.
Lastly, we take on the topic of the holiday season itself. We exchange favorite holiday dishes, traditions, and stress-free cooking solutions to ensure the holiday spirit is high, even in a tiny kitchen. We also discuss the importance of adaptability in your RV LIFE, sharing anecdotes of how going with the flow has led to resilience and incredible connections within the RV community. So, whether you’re a full-time RVer or just considering it, tune in for a wealth of practical tips from Robin and us, seasoned RV dwellers. The journey may have challenges, but the rewards are truly priceless. Don't miss out!
Learn more incredible tips by going to Robin's blog at https://bgbarnstormer.com/
Holiday give ideas for your favorite RV or for yourself....
Special Discounts Codes: Click Link & Use Code
• Motorhome Tires: $50 discount FIND MY INSTALLER
•Thousand Trail Membership Call/Text Membership Specialist Warren & Sharon Lewis 804-366-0798
•CLEAR2O
• Open Road Fuel Card save on Diesel Fuel
•Open Roads Innovative Tolling Solutions
Toll pass, all 48 state & customer support
• Open Road Resorts Mention RV LIFE Podcast
• Harvest Hosts • Boondockers Welcome
Code: HUNT20 for 20% off
• AirSkirts
Receive $100 off any kit purchase. Use Discount Code: RVPOD
Sponsors
• National Indoor RV Centers
Are you cooking a holiday dinner in your RV? This is the RV live podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my incredible wife, patty Hunt, and we are in, believe it or not, louisiana. I guess we're gonna have some Gators for Christmas this year. Okay, will there be room For the best part, the leftovers? Our guest today is an expert in storage and she Is here today to show you how to put everything away, so I can have it tomorrow.
Speaker 3:That is your favorite part is the leftovers, and for a lot of us, we love leftovers, but those of us who live in an RV whether you're just traveling in an RV for the holidays or you're like Dan and I we live in our RV Full-time. This is our third holiday season and we're looking forward to learning about how to store those leftovers, because I haven't done great at it, I will say. But Dan and I do travel full-time and we have been across the country Three times four times, five times, I don't even know.
Speaker 3:You lose count after a while. We have spent holidays in several places. This year we're gonna be on the road in the RV, so we're gonna need all the tips that we are getting today. And, like you said, here we are in Louisiana the first time in this state, and that's you know so far. It's cool. We're going to dinner tonight at a seafood place.
Speaker 1:Well, I'm gonna say that that we have upgraded our RV so we now have a residential refrigerator. As a matter of fact, this refrigerator is bigger than the last house that we had, the refrigerator we had in that last house, so I'm not real concerned anymore.
Speaker 1:But for those of you that still have the RV refrigerators the kind of run-on propane or electric or whatever you got I Gotta tell you if I still had that original refrigerator we had in this RV, I don't know how we would put away what I want to cook for this holiday season.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I guess the last few years we just planned around the small refrigerator so we'll see what kind of food if you're on the road where we are, or maybe you need to stop by and eat some of that stuff.
Speaker 1:Well, our guest today is gonna show us how to do it most efficiently, and I have got to say, before we get started, this woman has changed our life. There is not and I'm dead serious when I say there's not a day, that goes by, not one day, that we don't do something in our RV, and she hasn't been a part of telling us how to do it or where to do it, or what to do. I so miss the time that we have out on the road where we were able to spend the you know a few days together and let's get on with the next part of our show. That sound means it's time for today's fun fact. Now our fun fact segment is brought to you by open road resorts, with four great locations in Montana, idaho and, yes, texas. We were just there last week and, man, it was beautiful. Sunsets there were absolutely breathtaking. We loved the camp. We loved the people at that campground.
Speaker 3:Yes, and we got to meet the owner. Chase becker is one of the owners of the Dallas Northeast campground and is Dan said there are four of them and this is just a fantastic location. The spots in this place are awesome. We happen to be on a cement pad which was huge like huge, if that are 40 foot. It fit the car and we could have put another small trailer on it.
Speaker 1:And it was a pull-through, we came in. Yes, this is the first time in two and a half years that we showed up to a campground After dark we did and we were exhausted and we pulled in.
Speaker 3:We were totally level. When does that ever happen? I mean, we were level, didn't even unhook the car. We hooked up the electric, didn't hook up the water, anything. We just got better one to sleep and it was wonderful to be able to pull into this place. They have activities there. The grounds are manicured beautifully picnic tables, fire. It was a fire cauldron type thing. It wasn't a ring, it was like a cauldron, I'm gonna call it. It's just an amazing place To stay and if you are looking for a place in the Dallas area, it's right outside Dallas. This is the place you want to go and it's called Dallas Northeast. But let's get, I know you're looking.
Speaker 1:We love this place. As you could tell, we have a 60-second commercial for the sponsorship of this and we just did two minutes on the the advertiser.
Speaker 3:So that advertising. I mean they are part of our family.
Speaker 1:They're part of the RV life family. They are just great people, the kind of people that you want to do business with and the kind of people, when you go on your vacation, you want to stay with.
Speaker 3:Yes, Absolutely so. Now let's get to the fun fact. This is an amazing fact in the US. The US grows 1.5 billion billion with a bee Pounds 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkins each year. That just blew me away. That's a fun fact. That's just mind-blowing. That's a lot of pumpkin. I like pumpkin seeds, but I don't like pumpkin anything else I know a lot of pumpkin pie, not one of my favorites no. Pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice, pumpkin lattes no, thank you.
Speaker 1:Well, those things are all very, very popular. Yes, and I'm sure with 1.5 billion pounds of pumpkin pies out there, there's gonna be a lot of those left over. Yes, now, when I was young, when I was just a little boy, my grandfather and grandmother had this pie thing that you would put a pie into it and then you put the top on and then you clamp it down and you could even take that pie to somebody's house because that handle on top. So I will bet you know we're staying here at our friend Elizabeth McKenzie's house. I'll bet you that if I go out in that kitchen I'll find one of those pie carry.
Speaker 3:Yep, we'll have to check it out and if we find one, we will post it on social media. Okay, I'm excited. I want to hear what our guest has to say, so we could cook our food and leave our leftovers, and I can't wait, I'm getting excited.
Speaker 1:Our guest today, and her family lives on the road for a little over three years. She's a mom and, yes, she's a storage expert who pins the block BG barnstormer, where there's a wealth of information about making the best of your space, even if it's in an RV, but it works in a house that everything else to. She has changed my life. Every day when I shower, I thank her. I'm like Robin. Thank you for suggesting this, because it's so easy to take a shower that's little teensy, tiny RV shower these days. Robin, welcome to the show. We're having a little bit of a technically difficultly, but hopefully you're still there.
Speaker 5:Yep, I'm still here.
Speaker 3:Thanks all for having me. You are welcome, so let's jump in now. You were, let's get your background story, because Dan kind of gave it, and and let's just fill in. We met you on the road in Las Vegas, probably two years ago. It's been wow, tell us, and quite a while, uh-huh. And so we met you and your kids and we did meet your husband. We did meet him for a few minutes as he was passing in and out. Um, yeah, so tell us about RV life. Three years full time on the road. Tell us about it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so my husband is a commercial airline pilot and he worked for one of the major airlines, and so when we hit the road it was strictly because we weren't sure where we're gonna live and at the time we lived in Virginia and we weren't sure what airline he was gonna work for or where our base would be. And for anybody who's not familiar with aviation, airline pilots don't always live in base, but if you do, it makes family life a little bit more convenient. So that's why my husband would come drop the rig, get us that up in what I call princess parking, which is an RV park with full hookups if possible, and then he'd go out on a three or four day trip, and so I think you saw him getting back, if I remember right in Vegas he got to meet him right before we had to leave, and so you're like it's because he kind of comes and goes.
Speaker 5:Now we have switched to part-time travel. We have a kiddo who has some therapy needs and so we are in the Colorado area and my husband's job has switched to a simulator instructor and so we get to see him quite a bit more and next time, you guys that we connect, he will be with us, because now our RV travels, he doesn't have to leave, which is fantastic, that's awesome.
Speaker 3:So you're now part-time, so part-time in the house, part-time in the RV. That transition had to be crazy. I want to start with it. Yes, it was yeah, bet. And and I want to start with Dan said there's not a day that he walks by, that he doesn't think of you and he thinks about you in the shower. So I just want to get this clear with our audience before we move forward. When we met you, you came into the RV and you helped us with some storage Issues, including in the shower. So can you just tell people a little bit about that, because I think so many people struggle with that.
Speaker 5:Sure, we have three kittas that we travel with, and All of the kids are different heights, different sizes. Some of them can reach the top shelf, some of them can't reach any shelves, and so when I talk about storage in the shower, a lot of times people are like you know, the shampoo, which is what Dan always talked about. The shampoo is always falling on my foot. So we gave you this basket and we had ordered it, and when you're on the road it's not as easy to know exactly what's gonna fit in your rig. So I had ordered a bunch of things.
Speaker 5:This one didn't seem to work in our rig that we had at the time, and so I said well, hey, you guys want it, go ahead. And it sticks up to the wall of the shower and it's just a little basket. Your shampoo bottles and everything fit in it. So and Dan says he thinks about me every day in the shower. It's because I make him not have a shampoo bottle. So I'm just but and so, dan, you are welcome. I am grateful that not only have I changed your life, but you're also not having any more injuries with shampoo bottles.
Speaker 3:Yes, absolutely. And it is this, this mesh. It's like mesh. So you put your bottles in, the water flows through and I'm the wet worry about puddling. I'll take a picture of it. I'll put it on our social media. It has been a lifesaver.
Speaker 1:It really, really has been. And you know you also, not only the shower I don't just think of you in the shower, although it's my favorite place to think of you but Above my computer, above my desk, like every RV in the world, there's all these compartments and they were a mess. I mean there's no two ways. They just had junk coming out of. Every time you opened up it was like that worst closet nightmare. There are things just compiling down on your face. Well, you figure it out a way to organize that section that you know. We went to what? Tj Maxx or something like that and bought those plastic bends. So now I have a plastic bend for the DJI drone and so all the stuff for the drone is in that one spot and all the stuff for the, the GoPro cameras, is in one spot, and it's very easy to see and it's so organized and I just go oh, yeah, and and Dan's talking about it.
Speaker 3:What was the saying? Because you know, I think very logically about where things go and it's sometimes difficult in an RV. But what you, what you're saying about keeping friends together, the stuff in the RV together, what's it saying?
Speaker 5:Yeah, so I say you know like things or friends should go together.
Speaker 5:So, for example, your coffee mugs should go near your coffee pot, which should go near the coffee filters, which should probably go near anything else coffee related, and so you're not running around your RV.
Speaker 5:So, in Dan's case, with all of his computer and you know Other things that he uses for business, then you get the tub down, you get what you need and then you can put the tub back up, and that's really helpful, especially for kids and teaching them how to get things organized. Or you know how to make sure everything has a home and also to make sure that every time you move your RV Not everything is getting shuffled. It's like a literally a live earthquake every time you move. So if it's in a tub or a bin, it's so much easier because then, once you get parked and set up, you're not like, oh my gosh, everything fell over, it's already in the tub, in the bin, and it didn't get mixed up with the other cords right and it's been such a help, such a big help finding things now you know, robin, in our notes here we call you an expert, but in my opinion we need to read w as the organization God.
Speaker 3:Because I got it, it's got us. Yeah, guys.
Speaker 1:It's just so incredible. You know a lot of people would say I don't need to have an organizing person come into my RV and tell me what to do, and my answer to that is yes, you do, because you have no idea what life looks like before and after an organizing person comes and talks to you. So if you ever, if you have an RV and you get the opportunity to a read Robin's blog or B, have her in to do an evaluation. Oh my god Changed our lives it truly did.
Speaker 3:And I got to say again, robin was on almost a year ago. I'll post the episode because she gave so many great Organizing tips. But it was something simple. You came in, robin, and I have a huge drawer for silverware I know not a lot of people could say that, but it's, you know, a huge drawer for the silverware and the flippers of the spatula and all that. But within the drawer is the Organizer thing for those, you know, knives, forks, spoons. But it was pushed to the back of the drawer, or it was pushed forward in the back of the drawers now now not being used. So Robin just took this organizer and turned it around and pushed it to the back and so I could grab the fork, knife, spoon but still have room in the front. And if people can't visualize that, I will put pictures in. But again, life changing. We live in these tight small spaces and every RVer has this struggle. So now, robin, we're gonna, we're gonna get you in. Talking about storage for the holidays, most of us are planning all different types of holidays.
Speaker 1:Whatever the holiday is, damn once he's got cooking a 50 pound turkey and I have mashed potatoes and green bean casserole and Marshmallow covered yams. I'm telling you I'm gonna do the whole line yards 10 pounds of corn. We're gonna, we're gonna do it all. Where do what do I do after I cook all this stuff?
Speaker 5:Absolutely Well, the biggest thing is is number one. Talking about storage, we had our very first RV, had one of those little refrigerators. Our second RV had you know more like you guys have the residential side, and then now our current RV. We're back to the small fridge. So, absolutely, storage can be tricky.
Speaker 5:My biggest tip with that is to find storage containers that fit in your fridge. For example, they should stack. In my opinion, squares or rectangles are the best because they're gonna fit well in your fridge and they're gonna use up that space very economically for your fridge, because if you have circles You're kind of wasting some space in the back and so if you're making a whole bunch of mashed potatoes having nesting glass storage containers, my personal favorite is Pyrex. I've bought them for the rig, I have them for my home and they stack in different sizes. So like, maybe your mashed potatoes, you have a whole bunch of leftover and then your smaller container, maybe you have a little bit of green bean kestrel and then another smaller one and they're gonna fit on different shelves in different spaces, and so that way not only are you using your fridge space effectively, but you're also able to stack your fridge well and also see what's in it, because, let's be real, how many times have you? Oh, I forgot that was in the back and I couldn't see it, so that's.
Speaker 5:Another tip is have a glass or clear, see-through container that you can use. Now I know some people really like to use, like plastic bags or zip lock beds or freezer bags, and those can be helpful as well, depending on what storage space you have in your fridge. But also just thinking about you know, making sure you're ready to put those leftovers and something, because a lot of times people Don't think about it and then they're like, oh, I don't know what I'm gonna put it in. And that's also just being prepared to make sure you have the right containers to put it in your fridge and use that space well.
Speaker 1:Now Patty has been complaining over the last couple of weeks that she wants to find plastic containers. You talked about glass. We have a set of glass. They're big and they're heavy and they're bulky. Every time she goes into the closet that these things are in, she's moving this around to get to this or moving that around to get to that. Is there a plastic sealable solution that's affordable?
Speaker 5:There probably are some different brands. I don't have any on the top of my head specifically because it kind of depends on what you want for quality. I mentioned glass because the Pyrex ones that I have I have. It's like an 11 cup, a 6 cup and a 3 cup storage container. The reason I like glass specifically is because then I can put them in the toaster oven or in your RV oven and I don't have to transfer it to something else to warm it up. If you have a plastic container that you want to do, of course they've got, like you know, the block and other brands are ever made and you know, with different stores.
Speaker 5:The trouble that I find personally with those is that sometimes they're not always well shaped. A lot of times they're circle or they kind of taper in at the bottom and then don't use up the fridge space really well, versus the glass ones that are pretty symmetrical and go vertical and use that space well. Another thing people will use are reusable bags. I know Patty and I previously talked about them and some people really like them, some people don't. My only suggestion on bags is pay attention to what you're putting in them and how you're storing them, especially like soups and liquids, because I have been guilty of thinking that oh, that bag sealed and then it didn't, and now I have a mess all over my fridge. So that's something to kind of consider as well. But as far as plastics go, I just think that a lot of them will feel really well. I just tend to find for me and my family. I don't want to have to transfer it to something else to warm up, especially for the oven.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:And I have put to Robin's point these are the new thing out there. I put stuff in there and then, I'll be honest, it was in the back of the refrigerator. I forgot about it. I can't see through them and I couldn't get the smell out of them. So now I'm spending, you know, in an RV all this water and rinsing and trying to get this soap and the smell out. So I don't know that I'm convinced I've got it. We've got a couple more and we'll try them maybe for some other things.
Speaker 3:But I do want to go back to the glass. Now that you're saying it and you're saying square and not round. I think my problem and like you said, we don't want to heat up stuff in a plastic container. It's not the best thing to do in a microwave. So maybe I need to downsize and get rid of some of the other, because I have so many different storage things. I've round ones of every size, I've square, I've plastic, I have glass rectangle. We've got a little bit of everything, probably too many, probably part of the problem.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so one thing that I would recommend, and we are a family of five and my kids are ages nine, 11 and 13. And I love to cook, I love to eat, I love to bake. I don't even actually have a pie pan and I only make brownies and pie pans traditionally Like. That's my favorite way to make brownies, because I don't like the edge pieces and then I have less edge pieces. So there's little protips for you.
Speaker 1:Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hold on, I can't let that just go by. You don't like the edge of a brownie? That's un-American girl.
Speaker 5:No, I'm the Julie Center. Well, you know, then I guess I'm un-American, but you know, I like to do the middles, and so I'm the person that's cutting the edges off the brownie and I just like eat the middle. So you know what, dan? Actually this is great we can eat brownies together because you can eat the edges and then I can eat the middle.
Speaker 3:So this is actually perfect.
Speaker 5:Yeah, anyway, but with the containers. So when I have these, for example, pyrex is the brand that I had down at the store when I was looking I actually have their rectangle and, like I said, there's three in the set. Usually, or maybe different places have different sizes, but I had a set of three and now in our rig I actually have two sets. Just because of our storage space that we have, I have room for them. But then I had like a nine by 13 and then I had whatever the next size down is. So I have like a big nine by 13, a smaller one that fits inside of it, and they both have lids, and then the smaller, like this nesting Pyrex, and then that's it.
Speaker 5:I don't have a lot of pans because I find that, having the extra, I'm just not using them. I don't bake a lot of cakes, I don't do a lot of cupcakes and even so, like with cupcakes, I got the silicone like those paper cups that they have, but I got a silicone stack of them and I can put those on a pan like a cookie sheet and then I have like my little pan that goes in my oven. I can do like a three by four, and then I can make my cupcakes or muffins or whatever for the kids, and then I don't actually have a muffin pan in my rig, and so that's. Another tip is just to think about, like, what are you using? How often do you use it? How does it stack? If it doesn't stack, you may or may not want to keep it.
Speaker 5:It just kind of depends on what you do for your family. And that muffin tin trick is one that I found on accident, because my kids are like mom, I want a muffin tin. I was like well, I don't have room for one, so how can we still get something that is going to work, that I literally don't have room for a muffin tin, so so yeah, so I think it kind of depends on what you're using and just remembering, like, if you have, you know, maybe something in a nine by 13 dish, once you make it can you transfer it to something smaller or are you going to use all of it, because that may or may not fit in your fridge well either. So sometimes having you know multiple smaller dishes might actually be better for an RV than some larger ones.
Speaker 3:Okay, this is great information. I'm so excited. A lot of what I just heard is I really need to go in that cabinet, take everything out, make sure it's nesting, make sure I'm using it, make sure it's needed and really downsizing. But we do need to go to break and after the break, we're going to talk more about downsizing, finding the things that really work, we're going to talk about storing holiday decorations and we're going to talk about cooking in a small kitchen and so much more right after this break.
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Speaker 1:National indoor RV centers. With over 1000 motor homes available across multiple locations, national indoor RV centers continues to provide an outstanding, hassle free motor home ownership experience. National indoor is the number one new more dealer in the nation and also features brands like Integra, winnebago and much more. Visit NIRVCcom and become a part of the National indoor RV centers family. We are so happy that we've been accepted into the RV family of NIRVC because we love these guys and we were able to spend a few hours with Brett last week Brett Davis, who is the owner of NIRVC. We spent a couple hours with him. We went to their Dallas facility. I have never seen a dealership facility this large, this big, this under control. It's just amazing.
Speaker 3:Truly, is amazing, and what is more important to us than anything else is the leadership and the integrity. And Brett Davis is just a real person, an amazing person. I would have him for Thanksgiving dinner if he wanted to come. Just that kind of person, and they're the type of people we surround ourselves with, like Robin. So now getting back to it, because I'm getting excited about this big Thanksgiving dinner that you want to do and I'm a little concerned about all the leftovers. And you know, holiday, when Dan makes mashed potatoes, it doesn't matter how many people Robin, maybe you could relate it doesn't matter how many people he's cooking for. He makes like three or four pounds of it. So, as you can imagine, we're going to have a lot of leftovers and we are going to talk a little bit. Well, let's start now. Let's talk a little bit about some freezer solutions, because I'm not going to be able to keep all of that mashed potatoes in the fridge. I'm going to have some freezer solutions for us.
Speaker 5:Yeah. So, first of all, knowing number one, how long, how many people you're cooking for and if there's anything in advance that you can Make ahead. So, for example, in my experience, potatoes aren't really something that I can make ahead and freeze, but if I have like a soup or something that I want to make ahead, that is a really great thing to make ahead and freeze. And Basically, what I'll do with something for the freezer is all like again, make a batch of soup, put it in like a ziploc bag, lay that bag on a cookie sheet and then put the cookie sheet in my freezer laying flat. So what's gonna happen is you're able to have that you know, space it's, it's a flat area and then once it freezes, then it's gonna fit in your freezer better.
Speaker 5:And as far as like mashed potatoes, for example, you want to make sure that you're gonna make as many as you want, not only for the meal, but have a few leftover and then also realize that you're probably gonna be traveling and or not be able to eat mashed potatoes, so five days straight. So just remember not to waste the food. You want to be able to make sure that you can use it up. So just being cognizant about not only how much you make, but also, like you said, where you're gonna store it, what are you gonna do with it. And so just really thinking about that before you go through the trouble to make it all, so that you're not having to waste food later.
Speaker 1:I Will never waste mashed potatoes because I can make a mashed potato pancake out of the Leftover mashed potatoes. I can have them for lunch, I can have them for dinner and I can have them for that late night snack I just love your case?
Speaker 5:Yeah, you're not gonna worry about it. Then, dan, you're not gonna have leftovers for very long. So in your case, I mean, I think you could have an entire nine by 13. Wow, let's.
Speaker 3:I could cry it away here, robin. Robin said, I could yeah, that's what I'm gonna have to hear. I, I do. I definitely like that idea of the Ziploc bags, because then it is flat instead of trying to put a container in there.
Speaker 1:I know you guys keep talking about flat, flat, yeah Well, you're leaving out the whole airstream part of the world. Nothing is flat and an airstream is all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, that might be a whole another type of story, for you know a whole another show. I don't know much about airstreams, so let's also talk now about okay, we have small kitchen space. Are their storage and Solutions for working in that small space? Well, we talked about like the soup could be pre-cooked there. Any other solutions for this Small kitchen cook?
Speaker 5:yeah, I'm gonna call it for sure, I think the biggest thing about holiday cooking to consider is you know Not only how many people are cooking for, but what is your menu? Is there anything that you can cook in the insta pot or in your foodie or in your oven so you can kind of free up the burners and our RV? We have three burners and you can't always sit the right size pan on the burners with all of the other pans always, and so one way to make it a little bit easier is we actually have a Induction like a cooktop, like one of those little plates that you can plug in, and so what we'll do is like, for example, say, I'm gonna boil a pot of water, so let's put the pot on pot of water on the boil, set it to the side, and then I'll put something else on the burner, and so, as I'm getting my meal ready, that I can kind of rotate through what needs to be done. The other thing is is like if you have an insta pot, if you have never made mashed potatoes in a spot down, wink, wink, you might give it a try. You literally plug it in, put your potatoes in there. You could like even half them, you don't even have to, like, chop them, which is fabulous. And then it's like, I think, 20 minutes and then they're done. It's amazing.
Speaker 5:So then that kind of eases that eases up the burner uses as well, because then it's, you know, giving the stove some more room so you can plug in, walk away from potatoes, go back to the stove, you know, make your stuffing or whatever.
Speaker 5:Another thing that I've found is really easy, as I have not made homemade stuffing in years and so we just grab a box of top, boil the water, set it to the side and then in the last couple minutes then I can pour that stove top box in there and then whip it up, and so it's not something that's taking room up on the stove, and so you're kind of playing the shuffle all the time. It's like, okay, I got to start here and I got him in this and then put the whatever in the oven, but like really being intentional about what you're making, how long the things take to cook, then you can have food come out hot at the same time without having to feel like, oh my gosh, I haven't made the mashed potatoes and the turkey is almost done. So that kind of helps to kind of even out the playing field of food that you're cooking is to kind of try to diversify what you're cooking with and how it's gonna get made and hot on the table.
Speaker 3:That sounds like a great plan and that has always been one of my things. First of all, I don't like to cook. When we talk about cooking, dan's always done these big meals and he would make a list even in our kitchen at Home, like when he had to put the turkey in when the mash would be.
Speaker 1:It used to make me crazy, honestly, but that was mostly for New Year's though because our family tradition before we went on the road is New Year's Eve, I would cook a big-time meal, usually with Beef Wellington.
Speaker 3:Because now I'm gonna want it, I know.
Speaker 1:You know, I would make all kinds of homemade stuff and if you want them all to come out Properly you have to plan it.
Speaker 3:I see that now. Yeah, I know that now.
Speaker 1:I would just, thanksgiving is a little different.
Speaker 5:Yeah, you still have the, you still have to plan it, you still have to do some well, and one thing that we did on the road is we said what do we really like to eat? What are we nostalgic for? What are the most important things? My kids don't love green beans I do, so I made a small, you know little container of it and that was kind of like the last minute thing to get warmed up and I think the biggest things like my kids, like the turkey, they like mashed potatoes and a version of pie. You know what our chocolate or chip, you know apple or pumpkin or whatever, and homey whipped cream. So for us it was a lot more about honing in on one of the most important things that we want to cook. And also, what does mommy want to eat leftover? Because I always love green bean casserole.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the mashed potatoes. You both have mashed potatoes. No, thank you, but the green bean casserole I have. Now I have actually put it in containers that people can't see what's in there to hide it from them Listeners who, you know, eat that meal and want to hide that you know, costco has ruined the world, and when it comes to apple pies, I mean they make that holiday apple pie.
Speaker 1:It's really thick, it's really big, it's really expensive, it's not no, it's not big for big apple pie. Okay, whatever, but it's really good. It is, I mean really.
Speaker 5:I think that's a really great point is like, how much do you personally have to make Versus go buy something up? So like, for example, this year we're gonna be traveling and we're taking the RV, gonna go visit family and I'm responsible for desserts because I know I can pick up a pumpkin pie and apple pie and I'm gonna make a chocolate pie, so I'm not actually having to make the thing. Now, some people love to make all the pies. That's great. This year we have changed our V's because our last one was totaled in a health storm and it was in parking. So don't worry, we're fine. Just our beloved RV is not fine, and so we had to get a new one, and I Haven't mastered cooking in this oven yet and all the temperatures, and so I don't want to have that stress, and so I just said you know what? I'm gonna just buy the pies from the store, and so there's no shame in that game they on, especially if you're buying casco apple pie. I might be right there joining you.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they do a good job. Now let's talk about something and again, none of this is scripted, but I'm gonna talk about it. Unexpected, the poop hits the fan. I guess I could say that on here, right? You know, it's the same. We call them situations Awesome, and I'm not even gonna try and say that that's perfect, robin. So now here people are Planning the holiday dinner, the birthday dinner, special anniversary dinner. You're in an RV. It's way more complicated, you know. You really have to be able to go with the flow. Just deal with these situations that come up, right, like that's part of life, right, yeah?
Speaker 5:cooking. In our new rig or new to us rig the yeah smoke alarm keeps going off when I literally cook anything, so sometimes you just have to take the batteries out. Other times it's like realizing that maybe you need to cook something outside or find another way to cook something when you realize your Propane is out and it's a holiday and you can't get any more propane. Sometimes you go meet a neighbor and borrow something from them. So being able to roll with the pens is, I think, is, one of the best things about being in our years. You become resilient and learn how to think and be creative to solve problems, and it's a great way to meet neighbors when you're like hey, I didn't realize that is that a cocaine, so could I please Come and cook on your grill for tonight? Yeah, you really need to.
Speaker 3:And I'd love that we all have to have that mentality, that mindset.
Speaker 1:And make sure that you camp near a Costco At that time of year right, because worse comes to worse.
Speaker 3:If you said, hey, I had to go buy the pie or the mashed potato, go. I guess, too. One of the messages here is go easier in yourself. I think the holiday tends to be stressful, and if we're in an RV do we make it more stressful? So go easy on yourself. I guess it's what I want to tell our listeners.
Speaker 1:Right, go easy on yourself and, and I want to take a little survey. So if you would run over to our Facebook page and just say, yes, I have mine, or no, I got rid of it. I'm talking about that KitchenAid mixer. Oh God, that does the mashed potatoes, you know, everybody has one, grandma had one, and that is the one thing that I just couldn't give up. That's the one thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, well, one of the things. So I'll tell you guys.
Speaker 5:I'm on the KitchenAid train or the kitchen mixer train myself I that was one thing I debated on taken in the rig and we like with the mashed potatoes and the hand mixers. For me Didn't quite do it, so we kept ours and we are very happy we did you're not.
Speaker 3:You're not helping Robin because I was hoping you Talk some sense to him and say, look it's big, it's heavy. Thankfully in our Monaco we have lots of cabinet space. I mean this thing has lots of cabinet space. But any new RV that we buy, robin, you're just gonna have to fly out when we buy a new. Help us organize, yeah.
Speaker 5:Well, and the reality is, if you're using it, then there's no shame in keeping it, but if you're not using it I think that's the biggest challenge is it's time to let it go to a good home.
Speaker 3:Yeah, oh, he uses it, he does use it.
Speaker 1:I say that about her and shoes and clothes. It's like it's time for them to go to a new home.
Speaker 3:There you go and then I wear them. So we're all good, okay, but let's talk about something else. Now we're getting into the holidays. Whatever holiday people celebrate, with holidays comes a lot of decorations, a lot of times. First of all, talk a little bit about the people who lived in a house. We lived in a house. We celebrate different holidays. We had tubs and tubs of stuff, ornaments and Candle, all kind you, you name it now.
Speaker 1:We're a little ahead of you. Our kids are grown up and have families of their own, but our kids didn't want any of these older decorations.
Speaker 3:No, they really Some of them, but so let's first talk about the people who are looking to go from the home to the RV and Downsizing the stuff. How do you even like when it comes to the holidays, how do you even tackle that?
Speaker 5:That's a great question. On my blog I had written to about downsizing specifically. It's called downsizing 101. I have a category that talks about organization so it's really easy to find on my bgbarnstormercom. If you have a moment you might pop over there. A couple of quick tips here. I have a 321 done.
Speaker 5:Make three piles. Like it, love it, leave it. If you like it, great. If you love it, great. If you don't like it or love it, leave it, Get rid of it. You don't need it.
Speaker 5:I have even some favorite sentimental things that I was like. You know I'm not ready to get rid of this, and so it went in a tub, and so then I limited myself to like a tub or two for sentimentals that I was going to keep or whatnot. My second thing it's so that's three piles. Two is too many. I don't need, you know, two different types of bulbs or whatever for the tree or for the decorating or whatever.
Speaker 5:So you want to get rid of duplicates. I think that's the biggest thing. Is people like oh, I need all these things. Well, do you really want all of them or are you just like some of them? So kind of deciding, like how many you actually want and getting rid of everything that is a duplicate. And then the other thing is like one area at a time.
Speaker 5:So for me, when I was downsizing from a house to get ready to go into the RV, I knew I really didn't want a Christmas tree. I have some suggestions on trees in a second for the rig, but specifically like I didn't have room for all the decor. So really the like the decorations that we took was our stockings and we said we'd figure out a Christmas tree, which we did, and then I said anything else like we're just going to get. So we got rid of all the yard decor, all the extra lights, all the things, because we really just didn't need it.
Speaker 5:I think the other thing about downsizing from a house is like limit yourself to what you want to store. If you want one or two tubs, great. If you want three tubs, great. But in my opinion a lot of times people don't want to set it all up and tear it all down and lug it up the stairs, and so you can have kind of like that less is more mentality. One thing that we did in the rig is we got a like a banner that said like happy holidays, and we put that up with a little bit of garland and it was very festive and super easy to take down. And then for us we stored ours in as a few of the block bags and, patty, I sent you some pictures of some decor that we had that you might share, and I'd love to talk about trees a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you know, trees, trees, trees, trees. I love a Christmas tree. I used to get, you know these 15 foot Christmas trees and 12 foot ceiling. It's like I loved my Christmas tree. And you know, the other day we were at a Costco somewhere. I have no idea where we were, I think we were near Dallas. I went over and I got one of their folding chairs and I took it over to the tree aisle and I sat down for a few minutes because I just none of them seem to work.
Speaker 1:I don't know where we would put a tree in our rig.
Speaker 3:The tree would be put in the event center at the campground that we're staying at. That's where the tree would be. So I'm going to say to you the trouble, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 5:So I have, I have some things for you down. So there's this thing called a pencil tree and I sent Patty a link, or maybe I haven't sent it. I will send it. I think I did send it.
Speaker 5:But you can find them at a variety of stores. One of them I specifically found it was like on Amazon and it literally would fit in a very small like I don't know if it was a Ziploc or a very small space, and it's literally a pop-up tree and it is one of my friends had them and they're beautiful. You can put lights on them and you can pick your color if you want to have light green or if you want to have white, or I'm sure there's lots of colors, and so that's a really great solution for people who really, really, really want to have that Christmas tree. So look for a pencil tree.
Speaker 5:The other thing and I sent Patty a picture of this one already is every year, like my kids. You know, my kids were pretty low, so they're like mommy, we want a tree, and I'm like literally there's no room for a tree. And so what we did is we put our tree on a vertical surface. So the first rug, we put it on a wall by our refrigerator. Our second rug, we put it on a door and I got garland and I just taped it to the door with painter's tape and made it in the shape of a tree. And then we use painter's tape to tape up our ornaments to it. Now we don't have like glass ball ornaments, we have like flat ornaments, and so you know, some people have a variety of ornaments, but we taped up the ones that were flat and then other ornaments that were sentimental. We could find a place around the home to kind of make it look holiday like.
Speaker 5:But that was a really great, easy thing to do for a tree, especially for people who are thinking where is it going to store? How much room is it going to take up? Which kind of brings me to my acronym for you and since I know, dan, you love like quick tips here, my acronym for holiday decor storage is actually the word tree, which stands for kind of three things to consider R is for reusable Do you want to reuse it or do you want to donate it and get something new next year? So like you might want to go to the store and get a cute little tree at, you know, the local grocery store, and then just donate it to somebody so you, dan, can have that real tree in your home. It's like a little mini version.
Speaker 5:The E the first E is for easy. What's easy for you? Like I said, do you want garland, do you want lights, do you just want a door breeze, or do you want a banner? And then the last one is evaporate. Where's it going to go when the season is over? So three things Is it reusable, make it easy, make it evaporate.
Speaker 3:So I love that. That is awesome, and I think that when people think about it and that's why we wanted to do this podcast with you this time of year is, I'm sure people are starting to think about it, whether you're new or whether you drag stuff out and put it back and it's still a hassle. It's a lot of good stuff that you're talking about to take into consideration.
Speaker 5:We found that really less is more. We don't enjoy having to take it all back down. So for us, you know, whether it's a strand of lights or garland or a simple tree, like we, just really like the simple and we enjoy spending the time together and, you know, making hot chocolate and looking at lights or trees.
Speaker 3:So yeah, just keep it simple. That sounds great to me.
Speaker 1:You're killing me, Robin. You're killing me.
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Speaker 1:I got an idea listening to that commercial. I got an idea. We got lots of storage room inside the tires of the RV. There's lots of storage room. It's just air in there. No, oh, come on, guys, you know.
Speaker 5:I neglected to mention something you got me thinking about this commercial break that you know I didn't mention. You can also use storage under your couch or under your bed, and one thing, if you must have a Million holiday decor decorations, is that you can get some of those under bed or under couch storage solutions as well. So I suppose if you've got room under the couch, you might be able to sneak a few more decorations in there.
Speaker 1:Our space under the couch is already full and under the bed with equipment.
Speaker 3:Yeah, all that cabinet space. You'd have to give up your mixer if you want extra. But it really goes back to what's the most important things and prioritizing from there. It's not going out buying or taking with you three tubs of stuff and then stressing oh, no, stress.
Speaker 5:Maybe it's just donating it every year, and I think that's kind of the thrill in the hunt. For me, if I'm going to a secondhand store is like, what decorations can you find that are fun for this year? And then maybe you just donate them at the end of the season.
Speaker 3:Yep, absolutely, and that's another great solution. But we're the ending part of our show and we want to ask you, robin, if you'll stay with us to help us with our Question of the week.
Speaker 1:Absolutely great, that's great. This sound means it's time for today's question of the week. Brought to you by clear 2o, your RV water solution and their brand new product tank fresh. I love that new product.
Speaker 3:They just came out with it at Hershey and it is Incredible it's incredible because one of the big reasons is, dan knows I am so sensitive to taste and smells I'm I guess I'm like a bloodhound. Okay, yeah, I said that. So when we thought about having our tanks Cleaned with a cleaning company, they said they put bleach in it and they leave it there for eight or ten hours. I was like no way, I can't do it. I can't have that smell bleach. I can't leave the RV for that long. And then I know I'm gonna be Tasting it and smelling it every time I turn the water on. Just doesn't work for me. And then there we were in Hershey and Keith, the owner, and he and his wife Barb again, wonderful people, this is what we kind of people we like to connect with and he said no, use tank fresh and you put it in the tank. It takes about two hours, all natural. No smell rinses out and I was very, very happy. I'm a very happy person.
Speaker 3:But let's get to the question of the week, and we sort of covered it. But we're gonna take this question of the week, which is from Josie, and she is from Nebraska I think they're part-time on the road and she wants to know about Storing things like those clothes that are a different season. And again, robin, we asked you to stay and we're putting you on the spot, but this is the question. So I hope you have an answer. Donate them absolutely.
Speaker 5:And that's for sure. I do know people actually that literally shop seasonally. Personally, I don't do that. That doesn't really work for me. I don't love shopping and so for me, my biggest suggestion is have Truly only what you need. For our family, we tended to have roughly a week's worth of clothes and we would have, you know, long-sleeve, short sleeve To layer up in the winter time. We would have a vest and then like a long-sleeve jacket and another long-sleeve thing. But if you have truly only what you need and you're trying to figure out where to store the things, the best solution that I have personally Found is we use, like I said, talked about before, those under couch or under bed storage things. You can also use those. The plot or not, the block, the, you know those bags that take the air out of your thing. I don't know what they're called.
Speaker 3:There are some I saw that has a little thing that comes with it that sucks the air out. I've also found this rolling the air out, but I mean, and then do, then zip at the top, yeah and so some people like.
Speaker 5:For us, we actually had our very first winter in 2021. It was February 21 in Texas. We called it snow vid because it literally snowed during the code and Everything shut down and we actually carried rain boots with us because we didn't have snow boots and they served the roughly the same purpose. So a creative solution we had is we put the kids socks on, put like a Walmart sack or Dylan's sack or whatever on the kids foot, put their foot in the rain boot and then we now had a roughly somewhat good snow boot so they can go and get wet. But then we didn't have an additional pair of boots and so just kind of getting a little creative and some of your solutions might help you get rid of some of those extra things that you Don't have want, need, like love to store.
Speaker 5:Another thing to think about is like if you're in a place that it does get cold and then it does get really warm and you do have to have the extra snow gear like this you know, the ski gloves, the extra puffy coats finding a way to have a tub or something that you can access, that you can put away, and just dedicating that space to it is really helpful and, specifically, that I would probably put it like under a bed, because you're not going to need access to it every single day, but when you need it, you need it, so you have to have it accessible. So that's my biggest suggestion is today's face and the items that you need, but also finding a way to, like you said, store it, like whether that's a sucking air out of it or putting it under a bed or something you know, trying to narrow down what you need and then making room for that under us storage space.
Speaker 1:You know, my favorite, favorite jacket in the entire world Is a jacket that I got when I was working on a movie and it's a really big puffy.
Speaker 1:Really big really because it's the warmest jacket you'd ever ever want to put on. Yeah, it's a movie tradition that every time you do a movie the whole crew gets a jacket. And you know we get it on the last day usually, which didn't really make a lot of sense because we froze our hats Is off while we were shooting the darn movie. You know that jacket is so big it literally takes up the space of probably four jackets in the closet. But I could not give that jacket up. I had to have it. So we have that stuffed somewhere. But if I really really needed it, there's no way I could ever find it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but yes, vacuum sealer sounds like a great idea for a lot of our RV listeners and in two weeks or so, right around Black Friday, we're gonna do our holiday gift idea show for our veers. So we're gonna come up and give you some discount codes and some coupons all About the stuff that RVers really need and not stuff that they don't need at all.
Speaker 5:When it comes down to gifts and stuff, that's a great time to upgrade to something a really great quality, or things like your fabulous coat that you love but like, maybe it takes up you know a lot of room, so you can find something that's great quality that takes up Maybe less space, or just invest in that vacuum sealer.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there you go vacuum sealer Is on our way Now. We are so excited to announce another thing that's on its way is our new advertising partner, now this company. We have used this company's product From day one. We actually got this product before we got our RV and when we put that first tank of gas in it we used the open roads Fuel cart. At the time it was called something else TSD and they're they're going through some rebranding and stuff right now. But just recently in Hershey, at the Hershey RV show, we had the opportunity to meet the leadership team of this company and we just clicked with them Like we've known them for a hundred years. Just love these people, love their spouses. I mean, we had some great time at that horror souls party with Gina's husband. Now we're speaking about the open roads fuel program and their new prop product called the toll pass for the entire Country yes.
Speaker 3:So tolls, like when you go through tolls for us on the east coast we have easy pass and easy pass covers the east coast. You're in Texas, it doesn't cover it. So we were recently in Texas. This is funny, timing is everything. We met Gina and other people from open roads and we are literally driving on a Texas toll road and we don't have a pass and I'm reading how much it's costing and so we are looking and like if it's a dollar fifty, if it's a seventy five cent toll, that they're not having a pass is over a dollar, it's like a dollar fifty. So I get, we get to where we're going and Gina calls and she said we've got this new program with toll, a toll pass that covers the whole country. And I'm like how great is that? How great is this timing? Just great people, a great company, and we can't wait to get the toll pass and tell you all about it. Having one pass is just just amazing. Can't wait for that.
Speaker 1:Well, I'll tell you what it really is. Something, because here we are and we have an easy pass that we thought covered pretty much the whole country. We fly or we're driving into the Dallas area and they have what they call the tea pass here. Something like that right and Well, it is what it is, but we don't have a tea pass, so we are Going to get some fines. I'm sure I can't wait for that. We went through with our easy pass.
Speaker 3:Okay, so now let's go to the RV pro tip brought to you by Patrick Buchanan, and these tips are always great tips.
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Speaker 3:Thank you, patrick Buchanan. Every week, patrick comes to us with a pro tip for RV trip wizard and it's always something we can learn from, even though we've been using it for three years. And I just want to thank Rob and thank you so much for being on. Give us some, giving us some amazing, amazing tips to get us through the holiday season, absolutely so welcome.
Speaker 5:Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1:You're listening to the RV life podcast. I'm Dan Hunt with my Incredible wife, patty Hunt. We are in Louisiana by Lake Charles, and we will be back with you Next week at the same time.