trash can and more purging

the boys and i went thrift shopping this week. my big score was this trash can holder thingy for $10. 1 less plastic thing we will need in the bus!


i've had this stuff boxed up for one of steven's co-workers that had a baby a month ago for like 4 months. hopefully, he will actually give it to them now that the boxes are blocking him from opening the door.

here's our pile of stuff we are getting of so far. i think we are going to have a yard sale. i'm unsure. on one hand, we might get a little bus money. on the other, we have to keep this crap in the house until it's all collected.

almost starting!

busy weekend!

on saturday, steven started taking out the front driver's side heater. it was GROSS. filled with dead mice skeletons. ew. we took a break after a while because it was stinky. steven wanted to come back this morning by himself with a face mask.


while he was getting the heater started, i painted the doghouse with rust converter.

afterward, we went to get a drill, a pressure washer and a couple other tools.

we also went to the aquatic center in havasu and to late lunch at black bear diner for my birthday :D (steven got me a shiatsu massaging pillow and a bottle of disaronno. thank you!)


today, we dropped steven off and i took the boys to get some paint and to play at the park. when we got back, steven had finished taking the heater out and cleaned up a bit.

we started pressure washing the inside. it's made a HUGE difference. finally, an end to the filth is in sight.


i painted the doghouse blue. nicholas REALLY wanted it purple. i'm going to take that little can of red that i used to paint the wringer and dump it in for the next coat.

steven started pressure washing the underside of the bus. noah helped.

i cleaned off/organized our work bench/future kitchen.

all clean!
getting there!
steven ground down a few screws that were poking up quick before we left.

dog house

we went over to the bus this morning. first time all week. it's been SO HOT. today was overcast so we went over.

steven took off the dog house. the underside of it is a little rusty but not too bad.


we also took off the front heater behind the door. more anti-freeze. ick.



i vacuumed out underneath when he pulled it up. there were a million candy wrappers from the 70s. mmmm peppermint jellybeans :P

it was really humid so we didn't stay too long. we were just going to go home but nicholas asked to go to the splash pad.

beginning the purge

i was doing some living in the bus daydreaming while looking at some living-on-the-road blogs when i came across this post.

i've been trying to keep getting rid of stuff in the back of my mind on purpose because it's overwhelming. we have a lot of stuff. a. lot. of. stuff.

but reading that got me to face the fact that we aren't going to be able to bring a house's worth of stuff onto a school bus. most of which i don't even want anyway.

you know when you move and you get to the last couple hours of packing and there are little odds and ends everywhere? you are SO done with organizing so you just throw it in a box and forget about it. we have a lot of that. we've moved 5 times since i got pregnant with nicholas. with approx. 2 odds and ends buckets per move.... that's a lot of junk we don't want.

and with having small kids, people are constantly giving us stuff. we had to limit the grandparents to 1 gift per kid because one christmas there was so much that it literally didn't all fit in the car to come home. they have more clothes than will fit in their drawers.

so it's time.

time to shed the unwanted, unneeded, unnecessary STUFF.

our (my) goal is to get rid of 60% of our stuff.

we started last night by going through the blankets and sheets. we went through the linen closet, and 1 tub of baby blankets. we got rid of 1 bags of garbage, and 2 bags for donation. we kept 1 tub full, 1 small zipper bag of sheets and 2 blankets. (not counting the ones on the bed already.)

the clear bin wasn't gone through because they are heirloom quilts that steven's old tyme relatives made. the space heater is on the top shelf.

today, we started in the garage.

yikes. that's where the majority of our stuff it. it was so bad that you literally couldn't walk in there without standing on something.

it's a start.

we went through 7 tubs/boxes. most of them were half full. i scooped stuff up off the floor and threw it in them to fill them up.

this is what is left after throwing stuff in the trash, donating and putting stuff away that should have been put away when we moved in.


a sampling of stuff we got rid of:

noah's first haircut

steven got the driver's seat out with the grinder on sunday. he also ground off the rest of the conduit. i got off 4 of them with the pry bar. i wish i would have thought to use the grinder earlier!

side project: i made myself some safety goggles. i used this tute and some lenses from an old pair of glasses. steven wasn't nearly as excited about them as i am.

oh, and noah got his first haircut.

bye, bye, heater.

the big project today was to take the rear heater out. the actual removal was easy enough. steven used the prybar and popped the heater off the floor. we moved the heater to the middle of the bus so the hoses were slack.

then we went to the engine and shut off the valves.

back inside, steven cut one hose over a bucket and i lifted it so the anti-freeze would pour in. then he cut the other hose and i lifted that hose. then steven lifted the heater to the ceiling and i jiggles the hoses so all the coolant would pour in the bucket. he took the heater right out to his truck to put it in the dumpster at his work.

the other end of the hoses are clamped up so we can deal with them tomorrow.

i'm refinishing the cabinet that was in there. i'm going to put the sink and stove top in it, i think.

a little progress

today as we pulled up to steven's grandparent's house, his dad was just finishing up cutting their lawn. nicholas loves playing with his grandpa. the boys got to play with him while i worked today.

steven was just getting there to pick up trash when we got there too. he and his dad looked at the engine a little to see if they could figure out why he couldn't get it started yesterday. turns out there were a bunch of loose wires and we need a new battery. we needed to get a new battery anyhow because that one is out of steven's car so it's not a purchase we weren't expecting.

i got a little done inside. i took off the corner angle thingy along the door side floor, which came up way easier than i anticipated. i also got the conduit rail off the top door side. i also washed the floor a little.

nothing big, but still progress :)