Opening Day Jitters

[Halfmast]

Last year when I retired, rented out my house and decided to Full-time-it not having camped since I was a teenager, I did a lot of research. I researched everything but winterizing. I live in the South and planned on traveling so that I never encountered cold climes. Well, the best laid plans....

My mother, who lives in Canada, took ill and I have spent the past five months - November through March - up there shivering and paying 13% sales tax while she recuperated. (Shingles)

My TT was stored in the Atlanta area, and in my rush to head north, was more abandoned than winterized. I returned this past weekend and am in a nearby RV Park. More by virtue of blind luck than skill, my only 'winterizing' issue is that I did not leave the fridge/freezer doors open and have some mildew.

My problem though - and my question - is that I am having a terrible time getting organized/acclimatized/comfortable. I've gone from a place for everything and everything in its place, to a surprise behind every door. I'm tripping over the anti-sway bar because it's been raining and I haven't folded the trailer cover which is stuffed into the truck bed. Who was the dunce who replaced only two of the light fixtures with LED bulbs last year?

Is it just my skill set - or lack thereof - or do others (who don't use their campers all winter) have the same issues with Opening Day?

[Doug33]

ahhhh....opening day jitters.....it's like we're ball players! 😉

[Halfmast]

Thank you all for your replies and suggestions. What a difference a day makes!

I combined a number of ideas. I cut myself some slack. I'm a newbie and I need time to catch up to everyone else's mistakes. Next, I stopped trying to eat the elephant in a single bite.

I can see that my shaky start to this season actually began last season when I didn't take the extra 3 seconds to put an object back where it belongs instead of shoving it any old place, 'because I'm in a hurry'.

I created space for hitch hardware by folding and storing the trailer cover, which wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be. I cleaned and bleached the fridge & freezer which was time consuming but, once again, not as bad as I thought. I was then able to store the cooler in the neatly-organized truck bed, creating more organization inside.

After that it was mostly opening cupboards and getting things organized... again.

I REALLY like the lists idea. I'm going to print them and have them laminated. I've been settling in and staying a month at each Park. At the end of the month, I struggle to get packed up and ready to pull out, in under three hours. I'm positive that using an organized list will eliminate me going round the trailer forty-eleven times, then circling back.

And thanks to Yeti plus for the laugh... "I woke up this morning with nothing to do, and I only got it half done by bedtime." Please consider that line officially stolen, my friend!!

[JiminDenver]

When we pack up everything goes back where it belongs. I'm a stickler for this because I hate digging for stuff. We also do the general housekeeping, strip the bed, etc. When we get home we pull up to the house and tale the dogs, food, meds and dirty laundry in. After that I take to the storage lot, drain the tanks, shut down the propane and pull the battery to be charged at home. Now it is ready for the next trip. The clothes and sheets will be washed, the food box restocked and what ever items on a list that the trailer needs will be done before we go out again. When it does start freezing in the fall it only takes minutes to winterize.

It'll be a month or so before it stops snowing up at altitude. When it does we will bring the trailer home, give it a good deep cleaning inside and out. check all the systems, fill the propane, grease the bearings, dewinterize, sanitize, etc. The clean clothes and sheets will go back in and I'll look through each space to get reacquainted and then it goes back to the lot ready to go as we never ever bring it home right before a trip.

The whole routine makes it for the least amount of effort to get going the next trip. We often decide on the spur of the moment and that doesn't play well if we need to spend a day getting it ready to go. We can usually be on the road a hour or two after deciding to go and that includes buying the fresh food to take.

So you will get use to it. Not just throwing things in or leaving them till the next time helps.

[Yeti_plus]

There used to be a provision for out of country visitors to reclaim the 13 % tax, but it may have been removed to fund ?????, but I think you need your receipts to verify your claim. Something to check out if you have to come back again to look after your Mom.
As others have said it is a learning experience and you are at one end of the curve. Take a deep breath, possibly an adult beverage and remember the best retiree line I have heard, "I woke up this morning with nothing to do, and I only got it half done by bedtime."
Once you have everything where you want it to be it will be much easier to keep it that way.

[westend]

I'd suggest to count your blessings and buy a dry erase board, hang it in a conspicuous spot. On the board, list the things that need to be done and erase them as you proceed. You still have your wits as evidenced by the notice of 13% sales tax so you are a step ahead of some older folks.

[stpauligirlmn]

Practice makes perfect. Cut yourself some slack and enjoy the ride! And like others have said, make lists!

My style is more spontaneous than the invasion of normandy, but the big safety things we check and double check.

have fun! You can buy anything you forgot along your way.

[Wishbone51]

When breaking camp, after the checklist, I walk around the trailer and look at all the panels for all the systems, which will allow me to free-associate and make sure that some things were done... Example.

Fresh water - pump is off?, water heater is off? (dishes are washed with water: Did I secure the dishes?)
Fridge - Did I turn off the propane? Food secure? (Food: Did I take out the trash?)
Water heater - pump is off?, water heater is off? propane is off?

Just allows me to do the same checks that I always do, just with a different perspective. Sounds silly but it works for me.

[profdant139]

Lists. Lots of lists. Lists of lists. That is the key to avoiding costly misteaks. Please don't ask me how I learned this painful lesson or how long it took me to learn it by heart. I never could remember which chores needed doing, what sequence to do them in, where things were stored, and my organizational skills have only deteriorated with age.

So to me, a list is a tool to compensate for my shortcomings. Yes, it is tedious to consult a checklist before (let's say) unhitching. But since we started the checklist habit, it has been a long time since we unhitched before putting the chocks on the wheels, and it has been a nice long time since I last watched the trailer roll majestically away after unhitching. (Plus we do not remove the safety chains before unhitching, for the same reason.)

When we come home from a trip, we have a list for that -- clean out the fridge, prop it open to guard against mildew (don't ask how I learned that, either), launder the linens, etc.

We have packing lists. Food lists. Clothing lists. Sporting equipment. Truck maintenance. On and on.

Camping has become about as spontaneous as the Invasion of Normandy. But nothing is forgotten. Errors are caught before they are unfixable.

Hang in there! Things will get easier.

[byrdr1]

i have spent the last two weekends un winterizing my 5er.we have a trip planned soon. Stated by opening it up after being closed for the last two months once the weather turned cold I shut it down. It was open through Christmas but then closed up.
I started the Frig as I had a problem last year that cost me a few hundred dollars and I wanted to make sure that was working. I ran some heat and started dusting the wood cabinets & vacuumed the carpet, pulled the coffee maker out and made me a pot to see it was working. This past week I started cleaning the bathroom area and bedroom. Same thing dust, vacuum and so forth. Sunday I washed the exposed ends from under the Rvport. Ready to wax those this week some time as the weather holds.
Just take your time and follow a list that you can find on most websites.
randy

[BubbaChris]

For me the most important thing at the start of the season is to get "safety" stuff correct.

I go through our printed hook-up checklist very thoroughly. And we tested everything propane-powered before leaving home on our first trip.

We did learn that our toaster was still brand new - set off our smoke detector on Sunday morning. So I now recommend 2-3 cycles outdoors before bringing it inside.

[rbpru]

Last week we pull the TT into the yard and reloaded the stuff we did not want the mice to get over the winter. It took a couple of days to repack everything for the coming season. We are planning a couple of short local trips as shakedown cruses.

We I have yet to have any two trips come out the same. Weather, distance, campgrounds are just some of the variable we run into. But, since we basically have our house with us, most of what we forget are convenience items that we can pick up at Wally World.

[shum02]

DutchmenSport wrote:

So ... before another day passes, why not take the time right NOW and get everything right! Put that cover away correctly, store those bars where the really belong. Get it all cleaned up, put up, stowed away, and ready for use. A couple good hours of "cleaning up" will do you wonders!

x2!

After every trip DW and myself put the camp back just the way it's suppose to be for the next trip. We do this before we even leave the park. I never understand those that just "throw" everything into the rig, close the door then drive home???

I all fairness though we do camp during the winter(yes up here in the cold!) so we never really have an "opening day" because the camper has been in storage for the past 6 months.

Spend some time and put everything back where it belongs.........you'll thank yourself when you go looking for something and it's where it's suppose to be 😉

[Merrykalia]

I have done both! I do winterize, but I don't always close it up like I should, it's just according to what our last trip was like and when we came home.

I usually try to put everything up and in it's place before we leave our last campground. I will put all of our clothes in a storage bag to be brought into the house (we have camping clothes that stay in the RV during the season). All the food stuffs are put into bags to be carried back into the house and used during the winter, to be replaced in the spring. Our shampoo, soaps, toothpaste are also brought in to be used and replaced in spring. All the food/condiments in the fridge are brought in for use.

That being said, there have been a couple of years that we have left the last campground in the rain and lots of that stuff has just gone out the window. After about a month, I did get the condiments out of the fridge, but that was about it. When we did the first trip in the spring, it took me a couple of days to get everything clean and back into the correct position and ready to camp. (There are 4 of us, so it makes it a bit more stuff than a couple of people or, just one.)

Just start at one end and work your way to the other. It WILL take you more than one day or two. Throw out what you have no use for or that you didn't use last year. (That's my hardest part).

[DutchmenSport]

No issue on opening day for us. We take the time to close everything up, clean everything up, put everything up so the camper is in pristine condition. Now we do use the camper through the winter, sleeping in it, heating it up about every other week-end just for the fun, so it's not like it's completely "shut down". But in the past, we have shut down completely. Sometimes you just don't have the luxury of time to do it right.

So ... before another day passes, why not take the time right NOW and get everything right! Put that cover away correctly, store those bars where the really belong. Get it all cleaned up, put up, stowed away, and ready for use. A couple good hours of "cleaning up" will do you wonders!