In life, you often have events that require you to adapt to a new normal: marrying, having children, losing a loved one, moving, etc. These are normally “big” events. Living in a tiny space means that every time you bring back something extra than normal, you have to redefine your space. When we left Australia, we got rid of half a duffel of van stuff, but brought back that same large duffel and 3 boxes of items to stuff into our van. This meant that we were going to have to be creative and develop a “new normal.” First, though, we had to get the stuff to our van.
This was what the inside of the duffel looked like after our first journey across the pond. We had to use sail tape to patch it up to make the return trip back to the States.
Jonathan laid out everything we planned to take with us back to Australia. It completely covered a queen-sized bed. (I wish I had remembered to take a picture, but I got distracted by the task in front of me.) We used our well-developed spatial-reasoning skills and managed to carefully pack everything into our original duffel plus the 3 largest boxes (that were under the airline oversize-luggage dimensions) that we had (from all the mail deliveries for the products). I felt quite accomplished. Now, the only problem was going to be how to carry it. We had planned on taking public transportation back to the van. I really didn’t want to have to rent a car just to carry our stuff back, as that meant we had to be alert and had to drive the rental back the next day. Neither was very desirable. So, we decided to pick up a cheap, folding dolly from Lowes on the way to the airport. We plastic-wrapped it to the duffel and sent it off, hoping it would make it to our destination, 2 airlines, 5 airports, and an ocean later.
The poor duffel needed more repairs to make it back to Australia. Apparently we just won't let it die.
All four items packed and ready to go (pre-plastic wrap and dolly).
In addition to all that, this was our carry-on luggage.
We were a bit concerned in Sydney when we only received one box from the baggage claim. But Jonathan wandered around and eventually found it in the “special” and oversized baggage section. Whew! In Melbourne, we didn’t have any issues; in fact, I had all the luggage gathered before Jonathan had returned from the restroom. Amazingly, the dolly had survived the trip and we unpacked it to allow us to navigate through Melbourne transportation with greater ease. We were very thankful we had it.
Back safe in the van, we began to unpack the items. What did we feel was so important that we risked its loss over the ocean, awkward transportation, and possible fees (from oversize or too much luggage)? Australia is able to provide most of what we want/need, but a lot of it is really expensive. So, we brought back a lot of inexpensive food and medicine. However, after 6 months of cooking in the van, we decided we really wanted a toaster oven and a rice cooker. The toaster oven would allow us to bake more efficiently (I refuse to give up baked goods completely and had been experimenting with different methods (to Jonathan’s hope and then disappointment; I think he had one too many disappointing cakes). Plus, Jonathan could have toast, should he so desire, and we could heat up certain leftovers better. I picked out a 4-slice toaster which fit into our vertical cabinet and whose reviews didn’t include regular explosions. As for the rice cooker, I make it a point to have rice for dinner at least once a week. It is cheap and mostly pretty easy. It took us a lot of experimenting to figure out how to cook rice properly on our induction cooktop. Most of the time it was too crunchy, as the water would evaporate too quickly. I finally figured out that I should just set it to heat setting 1 and leave it (no bringing it to a boil first). But Jonathan still missed the ease and consistency of the rice cooker. So, we found a 3-cup (cooked) mini, portable cooker. So cute! Apparently, you can make pancakes in them (resulting in more of a cake-like shape), so I am looking forward to trying that. Skip to the end of the post to see the contents of our shopping cart.
So now to make it all fit. Most of it was food items, so would eventually be consumed, and possibly take the place of something that had already been consumed, so it wasn’t too bad. A lot of it was small, so we were able to stuff several items in between storage containers under the bed. However, there were a few items that weren’t either. The rice cooker was fairly small, so I put it in one of the pull-out pantry shelves, relocating those items to the drawer below where the stovetop oven had been. The toaster oven would replace the stovetop oven that I had; however, the space wasn’t equivalent. So the stovetop oven space was filled with other things. We had actually planned on where toaster oven would go before we left Australia. It would be in the vertical cabinet, where our towels (and my computer and laptop) were stored. However, that meant that those would need to be relocated. So the towels went where some miscellanea shower stuff went (that we rarely used). The tub the shower stuff went in when under the table to hold chips, while the shower stuff went under the bed near the outdoor shower. Whew!
The towels used to be where the toaster was. I managed to find space for the cereal and miscellanea above it using a makeshift cardboard container.
Some of the stuff could be saved for later, such as the freeze-dried camp food (saving for New Zealand treks). And, we found a few more items that no longer needed to be in the van, so our kind friend allowed us to store them at his place until we left Australia. I also took time to add a few more pocket/shelves to the upper cabinets to add to our storage space. They aren’t heavily-used yet, but that is part of adjusting to the “new normal.” I don’t think I have things quite right yet. I might have to switch the oven with the contents on the other half of the shelf so that bathroom needs are all on one side while kitchen needs are on the other…
You can see the pocket above is currently holding whatever doesn't fit elsewhere.
You can see why the water heater needed fixed...all the sand.
Also, we have had issues with our fridge not keeping food at a safe temperature or freezing everything. So Jonathan brought back another thermostat and fan and modified the fridge some more. So far, seems to be much more effective.
The installation of a fan and additional thermostat in addition to moving the thermometer of the original thermostat to the freezer should help stabilize temperatures in both the fridge and freezer.
While we were gone, it rained a lot. While doing inspections, Jonathan discovered some failing paint spots (stupid original paint), water in the brake lights, and a leak in our window flair (fortunately only on the outside). So he also repaired all those. Honestly, where would we be without him?
After a week of resting, reorganizing, and repairing, we are ready to start back on our journey across Australia. Our goal is to head north through the outback up to Cape York, then start heading down the east coast back towards Melbourne. When we put it that way, it makes it seem like our foray through Australia is nearly over. Only a few months left before we pack up and head to New Zealand.
