What I Brought Vs. What I Bought

Our stay in the little vacation rental is turning into six months instead of three. There are a couple of different reasons for this -- one of the most important being that Mouse is loving the school here.  See, she stopped working for me so I put her in school here to show her that there are consequences for not doing work for mom. And it turned out to be a great thing because she likes it. I cannot even convey what a relief it is not to fight her to get on the bus or go to school. I'm taking advantage of it for the remainder of the school year.

Anyways -- since we are now living in limbo for longer than expected (thanks to our household goods extension coming through), I have been asked by a couple of people how we are managing without or stuff.

I'd say I did a good job of preparing for this. (Of course it doesn't hurt that we are staying in a furnished rental.)

Now, we were probably a little better off than many people would be just by virtue of owning the trailer. It makes everything easier because we are traveling with a little mini home all our own. A home that stays stocked with certain cooking items and beds and linens, etc. That means there are many things I didn't even have to think about packing.


The most important things that we remembered would be:

*the popcorn popper (cheap and well loved snack)
*a billion blankets (comfort and familiar)

*all the dog stuff (clippers, shampoos, toys, etc.)
*black box of important papers
*canvas bag full of rag towels (sick dog anyone??)

*rice cooker
*all our spices (usually I would give most of that away)
*sewing machine and tools (including Go! cutter and dies)

*two boxes of books
*favorite coffee or tea cups (ours are very oversized)

*hot water kettle (electric)
*large tote of all bathroom and medicine cabinet stock (again, I would usually trash all this but you can't believe the amount of things we have pulled out of here this trip - saved us lots and lots of money)
*Apple TV Box for watching netflix streaming (worth its weight in gold)


There were a few things that I had to buy but it was a planned thing:

*crockpot - I threw the one from the trailer out to force myself to buy a new one
*bathroom scale - ours was missing a foot pad and I wasn't sure if it was accurate anymore so I tossed it while packing

Things I wish I had packed but didn't (and won't buy a replacement):

*my kitchen scale that I use to weigh mail among other things

*my large cutting mat for quilting - I meant to pack it and don't know how I forgot as I have all my other tools

And the things that I did go out and buy because I can't live without them:

*garlic press (now the trailer will have its own -- we use this daily almost)

*veggie steamer basket for pots - how in the world did I forget this???

*wireless network printer -- we did plan on staying somewhere that had a printer available to us but my gut said to pack it and I didn't listen. Thankfully I found one for $30.

*swimsuit for the teen (I told her)


Unexpected purchase that is a pain for travel but I am in love with:

A bisell carpet cleaner. The big dog got very very sick and destroyed this carpet. She was so sick it had to be a carpet cleaner. Since I had borrowed a similar one to clear housing in Ohio (thanks again Wendy) I decided to just buy one. Kind of a crazy thing but it got all the bad stuff up and saved us our $400 pet deposit and probably the $600 other deposit also. By the way - have you ever seen a dog projectile vomit?? It is a sight I hope you never experience.

And things I will have to purchase from breakage or overuse:

I walked the walking foot right off during the last 6 inches of quilting the last Christmas quilt I made, so that will have to be purchased as I am working on more quilts. Grumble. I have and extra foot and machine in my household goods. Should have packed it. But really - pack two sewing machines??


So all things considered, we have done very well just with what we packed.  I still can't believe I didn't remember the garlic press or steamer baskets -- but hey, now the trailer has its own.

The box of books and all our favorite blankets have been good for entertainment value along with the Apple TV box for watching movies.

The teen is glad she had her work clothes from Ohio with her as she didn't need to purchase anything when she got a job here.

All in all I think we are doing just great. Just goes to show how much of our "stuff" is really just not necessary.