Getting ready for a trip.

I pack and unpack, because outside storage is just too hot for much of the year to leave behind anything heat sensitive or perishable. I work with the checklists my late wife developed for her inside part of it, but I don't take so much that it is any more than a 30 minute job, or more than 5-6 trips from the house to RV. The packing is a lot less work than the pre-trip mechanical inspection, water system sanitizing and flushing, which is a few hours spread over one or two days.

One thing that has helped has been keeping the checklist handy, so that I can note what did not get used, and what I needed that I failed to bring. Enough of this refinement, you'll find that you are packing a lot less stuff than you formerly packed.

2milesup wrote:

rockhillmanor wrote:

Here's a moving dolly from Harbor Freight a whopping 12.00 bucks rated for 1,000 lbs! Same one can be bought at any big box stores.Screw a sheet of plywood on top attached a rope pull and you can schlep a ton of stuff out in ONE trip!

Do you check torque on the wheels' lug nuts? How often must you reseal the top of the plywood? What is the cart's GVWR and CC? The rope's rating? Sway control? People will need to know...

:W

Don't forget - you got to have a big enough tow person.

Like everyone else says, we leave it packed, except for clothes and food. The clothes get placed in a couple of those large re-usable grocery bags, and the food get put in coolers or as few bags as possible. That way, we only make a couple trips from house to camper. Then we stock everything away into the fridge/shelves when we setup camp.

rockhillmanor wrote:

Here's a moving dolly from Harbor Freight a whopping 12.00 bucks rated for 1,000 lbs! Same one can be bought at any big box stores.Screw a sheet of plywood on top attached a rope pull and you can schlep a ton of stuff out in ONE trip!

Do you check torque on the wheels' lug nuts? How often must you reseal the top of the plywood? What is the cart's GVWR and CC? The rope's rating? Sway control? People will need to know...

:W

We keep towels, bedding and all kitchen stuff all the time in rv. Camp chairs, rafts, grill etc we also use at home. Takes us only an hour or so to load clothes, food , chairs etc in it if rushing. Usually though we load leisurely since we park it a day ahead to get fridge cold.

I see that I'm going to have to invest in "camper clothes". That makes perfect sense to have at least a couple of changes that live in the RV. We don't leave the fridge running all the time because we tried that and the freezer froze shut before we realized it was happening. As for sheets, towels, and pots and pans, we do have a few that live in the RV too. I also LOVE the flat dolly idea! That is exactly what we need. Just load it up a couple of times and save 50 trips back and forth to the house! Thank you all so much for the suggestions. I know what to do now.

Leaving the fridge on is a great idea, 'cept when you have to store the RV. Our street is too narrow to get our TT in and out of. Having to load and unload perishables is a pain!

We keep a 3 section checklist. One section is everything that's supposed to always be in the trailer. We verify it in the spring. The second section is, consumables, the stuff that stays in all season but needs to be replenished from time to time, like toilet paper. The third section is stuff we put in just before every trip, clothes, step ladder, laptop, tablets, etc.

Here in AZ we cannot keep food stocked in the pantry during the summer. The heat would quickly destroy it when trailer is not in use.

We leave ours fully stocked. Everything kitchen and bathroom, also " camping clothes" are always in there.
Only thing to put in for a trip is any special clothing, electronics, and food.
Yup, have double of everything for kitchen, and some smaller trial sizes for bath products, but mostly full size items.