Go through all the motions: cooking... reach for pots, dishes, cooking utensils; refrigerated food. Is there room to stack, wash, and a dry dishes and pots. Room for a dish drying rack? Enough meal prep room? Counter space? Storage for galley items including crock pot, rice steamer, food processor, toaster, coffee pot? Can more than one person work in the kitchen simultaneously?
Where does the garbage can live? Laundry basket/bag? Iron / small ironing board? Pet beds / litter boxes? Yard pet fencing? Bulk dry food?
Lay down on the bed, how convenient will it be if you have to get up in the middle of the night? Go through the motions of making the bed.
Bathroom. Take a pretend shower, including washing your hair. How does the toilet flush (hand, foot)? Is it going to be an annoyance after a while? Enough room for towels, paper goods, cleaning supplies, bath mat, bathrobes, wet towels? Is there room to hang wet raingear if need be?
Have a hobby? Is there sufficient room for supplies and equipment? Work surfaces or work furniture?
Is the rig configured in such a way that guests don't have to walk through the kitchen to get to the sitting area? Is there enough f a division in the event you'd want some "space" between you and travel companion/partner/spouse/relatives? Can one person read while the other watches a loud sports even on tv?
Just some activities of daily living to consider regarding the layout of an RV.
So many ideas here we hadn't thought of. We have noticed, though, that not one single unit that we've looked at has a place for a trash container except a small one in the bathroom. Not one. Even the ones with an under-sink cabinet put a shelf across it.
We can't get to the Fairplex RV show because we're 500 miles from it and booked solid for the month. We've been to several regional shows, but a couple of them have been put on by a single dealer, and very few have had used units fort sale.
We are big bed-readers, and we've noticed how few units allow you to sit up in bed and read under that sloped wall. So I'm wondering if a rear bedroom might not be best. That would put the kitchen in the middle, which is fine with us, and the bathroom in front, ditto.
My husband got up at 4:00 am to make more lists, and started by browsing the manuals that came with our newly bought 2010 Sequoia. Because of what's been highlighted in yellow in the manual, he thinks it has the heavy-duty tow package on it, and a load leveler and lifter. I'm not sure how we could find out for sure. As far as we know, it's rated to tow 7500#, so we are looking for a trailer with a -5000# dry rating. If he's correct and the TV has been modified, he thinks it's good for +9000#, but we're not taking any chances because we don't know how to know for sure. As tenters of many decades, we have everything needed and plan to just move it from the tenting bins into the TT - a small cooking kit, heavy-duty paper plates and bowls, no electrical appliances (although we'll probably indulge in a toaster,) a plastic shoebox with all our cooking utensils and knives... We do plan to buy a small Tensor lamp so he can read when he gets up in the middle of the night (which is why I really wanted a sofa - sigh.) The cats will stay home to guard the house, and it will just be the two of us, so privacy isn't a huge issue for us.
Now I have to find and write down the formula for determining allowable weights so I can take it with me when we go looking today. I need to reduce it to a simple addition formula.
Thanks for all the good suggestions!
