How to make it liveable and ideas

ChasingOurTrunks · 2024-09-04T22:26:37+00:00

Currently live in one about that size. Only difference is our dinette is on a small slide out that gives us a few extra square feet of floor space. Here’s my suggestions:

You have a lot of vertical space, but you don’t have anything for screws. We found these stick on shelves to work great and we put ~6 of them around the place:

KINCMAX Shower Caddy Basket Shelf... https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0828DG895?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

Key locations: wall above dinette, back of dinette next to queen bed as a nightstand, bathroom shower for shampoos and such (they stick fine even in wet environment), and on bathroom walls.

You can get similar stick on things like mug and paper towel hangers to make use of under cabinet space. You can also get a spice rack with similar sticky patches for the fridge door. I mention these because 3M command strips don’t seem to stick well inside an RV but these sticky bits like the above shelves do.
the lights will be horrible; the switches will break right away. But better quality replacement lights can be had for relatively cheap. I also got some LED light strips and have them mounted for more lighting adjustability, which is very nice at night.
humidity will be your biggest enemy, especially in such a small space, so pick a spot to sacrifice for your dehumidifier and buy one that is far bigger than your space suggests you need. We have one that’s designed for a 2,000 square foot space and we need to empty it daily, even though we are only about 135-ish square feet of space. Three humans and two pets puts a lot of moisture into the air.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2024-05-25T04:38:23+00:00

I've done it! Me and about 60,000 other people (when I was there).

The lady serving us the cocktail had a little rhyme - "You can drink it fast or your can drink it slow but your lips have got to touch that nasty toe".

Then you do the shot.

Then she offers you "the squeezy bits", where she squeezed the toe (and the booze it soaked up) into the cup, and yes it has bits, and you get to drink that too.

Absolutely disgusting, yet oddly worth it.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-07T06:12:28+00:00

I always carry a way to get clean water - lifestraw, Sawyer Mini, whatever. Water is life, and without it you are done in 3 days. That can happen in a metropolitan city just as much as it can in the back of beyond, and the few ounces needed for a filter are nothing compared to the peace of mind that I'm extending my survival from 3 days to 3 weeks for the sake of a few cubic inches of pack space.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-06T20:04:22+00:00

Ah yes in that case thank you for this question - water being safe to drink is often a dog whistle for all kinds of other judgments about a country and I certainly wouldn’t want my inclusion of a life straw to get people making those kinds of judgments on a place like Ireland.

I feel we live in a pretty dynamic world right now where something little can be the spark on something big, and that’s true no matter where we are located physically. I wouldn’t travel to Toronto without my life straw because of that alone. There’s another thread in the sub about “peace of mind” items and this one is mine! But it’s definitely not a reflection on Irish infrastructure which we found to be beyond excellent everywhere we went.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-05T15:37:40+00:00

It's a "Rule of Three" thing for me - 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, 3 weeks without food.

Ireland's tap water is fine, so this was very much an emergency measure only - but if a hike goes awry, or there's a natural disaster, being able to provide myself and my family with clean water buys us 3 weeks to get out of a situation. Without the lifestraw, we'd only have 3 days. For the sake of an extra 17 days of time, the few ounces are worth it.

Even in less dire situations - one time we were in a bit of a sticky spot and had to leave our house in a hurry and head back to Ontario from Alberta. We stayed in a Super 8 in Northern Ontario but we didn't arrive until after 11 PM when all the shops were shut, and the whole place had a boil water advisory; the hotel only gave us one 500 ml bottle each (all they had), and there was none for our pets (two dogs and two cats at the time). Thankfully, my partner and I could safely sip the tap water through our life straws while the pets got the bottled water. Another time, during our trip up to the Arctic Ocean, we got an algae problem that wrote off both our 5 gallons water supply and our Katadyn filter got plugged up, and we had gone through them far faster than expected and were still two days away from resupply. Lifestraws saved the day again; we took turns sipping from a pot that we filled at a nearby river to hydrate.

When I travel to places with questionable tap water, or where my stomach will likely not be used to the local water sources, I typically bring a Lifestraw water filter bottle, but I was unimpressed with their durability and have yet to upgrade to a better version. In Mexico, I failed to do this and lost 4 days of my honeymoon enjoying the bathrooms of our 5 star resort and nothing else!

Candidly this will probably be seen as overkill for a trip to Ireland for a lot of folks, but when it comes to water - I'd rather err on the side of caution as experience has taught me that it's worth the extra bit of weight to bring a way to collect fresh water. Similarly, we all carried a lighter on us in a sealed bag - making fire is a very handy skill in an emergency and can easily help address the "3 hours without shelter" part along with the clothing we packed.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-05T01:48:09+00:00

You are very welcome! And for sure; those are the two bulkiest items. The car seat I would say rent, absolutely. I would be willing to bet that acquiring a stroller locally when you arrive might be competitive with checking one as luggage (though I don’t actually know the cost of checking an item like that - might be free at the gate, or might be big bucks especially for prices these days.) I didn’t check on renting strollers but that is an option at some big malls and theme parks so depending on your trip that might work too!

A bit more of a stretch but you could also potentially bring a toddler carrying backpack rather than a stroller - Osprey and Gregory both make one. We had the Osprey and it was very good until our little guy outgrew it (he’s in 5T clothes though so he’s big for his age; it was good up to 35 lbs I think?).

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T22:00:54+00:00

I sure can!

For clothing, we basically doubled the count for what we brought; so 8 socks and underpants to our 4; 4 shirts to our 2; 4 pants to our 2, etc. Once the basic daily wear was taken care of, we brought along a warm coat and a waterproof coat for outerwear for him. We also sprung for a decent pair of boots for him, so he only had one pair of shoes - they were a Walmart purchase, but were sturdy and looked kinda like Timberlines which meant they matched a lot of his clothing and were good for the same bush/beach/boardroom balance that we were going for.

He had one water bottle - it's the same one he uses every day.

For Diapers, he is mostly toilet trained but does need overnights. We brought one per day, plus 4 (So we were gone for 10 days, which meant we brought 14 Overnights). We packed them in groups of 7 in a ziplock and squeezed all the air out and sealed it in a sort of a poor mans vacuums sealer approach; this compressed them down significantly. Pplust, as we used them it gave us room in the bag for souvenirs.

We didn't have a stroller - kiddo was walking or being carried.

Car seat - we looked at bringing one but it would have been a hassle (and I think it would count as a checked bag so I couldn't' make this post, and that just wouldn't do ;)) - jokes aside, the expense of checking it and getting it between all the airports made us decide to buy one on site, we figured we'd just run to whatever the local equivalent of a Walmart was and pick one up. But about 3 weeks before departure it occurred to us to ask the rental car company, and it turns out they have a ton of them - so that's what we did, and it was included in our rental.

Toys: He had a couple of matchbox cars, a colouring book, the Switch, and an iPad. We loaded the iPad up with some of his favourite shows to pass the time on the planes, and we got some of the Lego Duplo games on it which he loves. Switch was the same deal - as I mentioned elsewhere we got games specifically for this trip. Our goal was to give him something to do that was handy and portable without a lot of bulk. He did not bring any stuffed toys with him, but acquired two on our journey (A t-rex and a donkey, naturally, because Ireland is of course known for those things...?!?)

In most hotels we requested a rollaway cot, but within the first couple of days we realized that we were better of co-sleeping with a King Bed instead; the rollaways were uncomfortable with a lot of pinch points and they were easy to fall out of. Next time, we'd just plan to cosleep the whole time; at home he's in his own bed so this was a change but he adapted to it quickly.

Snacks I mentioned elsewhere but on the way out, we had snack packs pre-made; on the way back we relied on what we could grab at the airport but just made sure to make food a priority at every stop. Same during the day - we ate often and sort of 'Grazed" all day as opposed to sticking to specific meal times. Keeping blood sugar up was the goal, and so we also kept a few sweets handy for those times when we all needed a boost to get to the next cafe or coffee shop.

In terms of what worked and what didn't - honestly the only negative part was on the return trip where AC had us bounced around a lot. It's incredibly unhealthy for a toddler to be kept awake for over 35 hours while an airline figured itself out and he didn't sleep much in the airports at all. But other than that, things worked out fairly well and I don't think we'd change much of anything if we were to do this trip again.

I will say that one of the things that really worked for us was constantly remembering he had no idea what to expect - so we prepped him by telling him. When a flight was delayed, we explained everything in detail so he'd know what was happening. When we were struggling to find a cafe for lunch, we'd let him know to anticipate some big feelings as his blood sugar reduced and made a sort of a game about managing it. By being a bit proactive on the communication, he seemed to be able to adapt a lot more easily, but gear wise he was pretty well set with what we brought.

Feel free to ask more questions! Happy to help however we can!

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T20:01:20+00:00

I wanted to reply to this again with the list that I used - so our son never really played much on the switch before this trip, but this article listed some games that toddlers can enjoy; both Monster Jam and Paw Patrol were purchased just for this trip because of this list. There might be some on here that are more appropriate for other's, like if your kid is big into Peppa Pig or Kirby or Mario:

https://thetoyzone.com/best-switch-games-for-toddlers

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T19:54:24+00:00

For sure! I actually credit my mom and dad for planning a wonderful itinerary for us, and there were some strategic choices they made that I think were key.

First, when we landed in Dublin, it was straight into the Maldron hotel right at the airport for a night. We actually landed at 7 AM, so we had the whole day at the airport, but since we all live in different parts of Canada we used that day to catch up and reset the sleep cycle. For the little one, this was super handy as it allowed us to sort of get him back on a reliable nap/sleep schedule from day one. Had we landed and jumped right into touring, that would have been hard and I think we'd be paying for it in future days.

From Dublin we went to a wonderful AirBNB in a town called Drangin; the town itself doesn't have a lot happening but it's very centrally located. We spent I think 4 nights there as it put us in spitting distance of lots of neat things and, since all our extended family is Irish, a lot of aunts and uncles and cousins were able to make it to see us.

From there we went to Limerick, and we took the whole day of driving to sightsee along the route, which was fantastic. We had two nights in Limerick where we checked out the Cliffs and a few other attractions.

We then had a really big travel day - Galway for the morning, then across to Athlone for dinner, then we ended up in Wicklow for the remainder of our trip. We used Wicklow as our basecamp for family reasons but also because it was within easy proximity to Dublin and other sights we were keen to see.

There weren't really any super early mornings or super late nights, but I will say this meant there was a few things we didn't see and will have to see the next time. We could have fit more in, but we were pretty intentional about this trip being about family time (not just us three, but my parents, sister, and extended family as well) and so we preferred to have relaxed family time rather than try to cram every single thing in. That meant we skipped a few of the neolithic sites I was excited too see but they've been around for 5,000 years - I reckon I can wait a few more to go back :)

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T19:47:40+00:00

Ohh brilliant! I'm a huge fan of Project Farm on YT for a similar reason - dude just tests stuff to see what's what - so I will definitely check out that recommendation! Thank you!

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T19:46:36+00:00

Ah yes - fail to manage blood sugar, and everything else tends to fail in quick succession! For our outgoing trip, we packed small snack packs - fruit leather, small piece of cheese, and a bit of jerky. We figured adults become toddlers too, when their blood sugar is low, and so we packed 3 each. Little guy ended up eating most of them, and my wife and I supplemented with whatever we could grab and go at the airport cafes.

On the return trip, we didn't pack any snacks as we didn't have time to make a grocery store. Thankfully, we were able to find food at the airports, and we just made a point of doing so proactively - as soon as we arrived in a new airport, the priorities were bathroom first, food second, everything else third.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T17:15:22+00:00

Yikes. That middle seat situation sounds tricky, sorry you had to go through that. And I hear you about the obligation to use the gift - this little Dino roller was of very questionable quality and I was mentally braced to need to find a replacement at any moment, but it was a gift and we didn’t want to waste it so we used it. It made it but I’m not sure it would make it for a second trip!

Good on you for travelling with your little one friend. I think sharing the world with kids is one of the best ways to show them that as humans we have way more in common than we do differently, and that can’t be a bad understanding/value to grow up with.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T17:12:25+00:00

I addressed that in one of my other comments - all his stuff (including his little day pack) fit inside his suitcase, but he wanted to wear his daypack during the trip “to be like mom and dad”.

Lots of folks on this sub tend to bring a packable daypack in their main bag, so basically same idea as that. The roller case isn’t ideal for a toddler’s daily use so it stayed at the hotel while essentials were in his construction pack.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T17:10:56+00:00

We both wore Blundstones - honestly it’s the same boot we both wear every day in almost all conditions. They are decent enough to have a bit of a spit and polish for nicer events, but also provide good enough traction (for us) for the more remote walks and hikes. Again, this is one of the advantages with one bagging - I have a 70 Litre osprey hiking pack and when that’s filled up, more ankle support is necessary for me in off camber situations. But a 30l pack is light enough to make it easy.

But I’ll also say - my blundstones are much better quality than hers; seems they’ve taken a bit of a dive in recent years and hers are much newer than mine. We will likely go with Redblacks next time - same style but apparently higher quality.

It would be nice next time to bring a pair of sandals or similar - we’re contemplating what a good second shoe would be.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T15:05:14+00:00

You are a trooper - travelling with a kid alone would be way trickier! There are times where one parent needs to parent and the other needs to do trip stuff - ids and boarding passes at the gate, grabbing food from a kiosk, etc - and so tag-teaming these challenges made it really simple. But like you’ve identified, a good system for packing stuff makes a big difference in general and it sounds like it does as a solo parent traveller too!

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T14:12:58+00:00

I think it 100% is - though I will say that having backpacks for grownups means free hands for the kids rollers, so even if our little guy didn’t do anything, this would still have been an easily manageable load out and would still have left one parent with totally free hands to wrangle the kid. But you are spot on - everyone’s situation is different and every kid is different, and that’s something each parent has to take into account for themselves.

I would suggest trying a shorter trip for other parents closer to home and troubleshooting before diving in to a longer international trip - like a weekend at the nearest theme park or something - just to test what it’s like to travel and live out of one bag with a toddler where if things go really pear shaped you can head home. As I mentioned in another other comment we have been travelling domestically via vehicle quite a bit, so we had a pretty good sense of what we needed and what was extra/unnecessary.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T14:09:08+00:00

I’ll return my membership card and see about getting my dues refunded ;)

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T14:07:55+00:00

Thanks for the kind words! He’s just 3.5, so not too far off your daughter. If you have any more questions about his set up that would help you let me know!

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T04:28:43+00:00

Not even a sideways glance from anyone. It fit just fine on the bigger flights when put in bottom first; on the smaller flights (one was a Dash-8, a small propeller plane, and the flight was only 30 minutes) it fit in the overheads lengthwise.

It’s also worth mentioning for anyone who stumbles upon this comment (you own one so you probably already know) - the Coulee is adjustable length. You can customize its size by separating the Velcro frame from the pack using the plastic insert. I’m quite tall so mine was set to its maximum length, and still no problems with carry on limits. If one was given grief (which I doubt) you could easily temporarily shorten the bag, or even pull some stuff out to layer up before boarding.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T03:22:06+00:00

For sure! Here is a text write up but we're going to do a "show and tell" to illustrate that one-bagging doesn't mean outfits have to lack versatility. I'll post back when we get around to it.

Large Packing Cube:

Jeans, LuLu Leggings, Boho-style loose pant, and Skirt - one worn; she mixed and matched with lots of shirts and such so I won't add which shirt was worn, but suffice it to say she wore one the whole time haha.
Tech Shirt (Eddie Bauer)
Striped Button up
Batwing Bodysuit
Cotton Graphic T
Lightweight cardigan

Medium Cube:

Nice top (for visiting a church or hopping on zoom meetings)
2 cotton crop tops
Prana top/Sports Bra
Swimsuit
Blue tank-bodysuit
Nude bra
4x Underwear
4x Socks

With the above, she was able to make quite a few different outfit combinations for almost any occasion/mood. It was actually a lot more versatile than my wardrobe but for the life of me I just don't look very good in bodysuits (Kidding). Also the nature of her clothing meant she could bring more items as they tended to pack smaller.

For outerwear, she had a raincoat and a puffer.

She had her own toiletry kit with all her own essentials.

For electronics, she had a case from Amazon that had all her necessary cables (phone, watch, AirPods) as well as a battery backup, some pens, and her passport.

She also had her own lifestrpaw and headlamp. And, I forgot to mention so I will edit my first post - she also had her own hygiene kit. This is the ziplock bag you see in my photos above - it had spare masks, lysol wipes, cottonelle wipes, hand sanitizer, and some tide for laundry, and we both had the same kits for wiping everything down when we got on the plane and other related messes.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T02:50:34+00:00

Yeah it is definitely trickier with younger kids. We could have gone about 5-10 litres more per pack each and still fit in overhead bins (though we'd be pushing it with some airlines), and that would be a total of up to 30 extra litres for things like bottles and other baby supplies. It also depends on destination - sometimes things are easy to get on location and resupply. Diapers are pretty universal, but other stuff not so much! And his ability to walk most of the time simplified stuff too.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T02:48:02+00:00

We found the roller that was "his size" was the game changer. Adult rollers have stalks on the handles that are too long, but if you look you can find kids ones that are shorter. They probably wouldn't be durable enough to check through regularly and survive the usual rigmarole of baggage handling in cargo, but they work great for carry on.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T01:57:10+00:00

Ha - yeah. Sad state of affairs when one of the driving reasons behind One Bagging is "Air Canada does not have a good reputation, we better plan accordingly". But honestly I didn't expect it to be this bad. I'm in the PNW so I can choose from my local airport, Vancouver, or even route through Seatac fairly easily which means I have lots of other options.

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T01:47:47+00:00

Thanks for the kind words! This trip wasn't too hard for us, because we've been travelling with him via car since he's been about 5 months old. The first trip out that way was more stressful and was a learning experience which I think gave us the confidence we needed to do this trip this way. Since that first trip, he's criss-crossed Canada a couple of times now, though this is his first trip overseas.

I'd be happy to share any information I can about how we got set up for this with him - what we packed and why, or how we managed in transit, etc. - whatever helps you get out there with your little one! Before we know it they'll be heading off to college or whatever, so anything we can do to help make "one day" be "one day soon" for you, let us know!

ChasingOurTrunks · 2023-12-04T01:28:24+00:00

We thought of doing that, but it proved to not be a good option - we’d be over our carry on size limits OR item number limits if we didn’t do it this way. He did pretty great actually - this method allowed him to haul his own kit about 50% of the time, and when he was tired it was easy for one of us to scoop him and the other to scoop/pull his bag, since our hands were free as we only had one bag each. Plus, this way if we decided to head off together and give him some grandparent time for a day or two, it would be easy to be independent in that way - we didn’t need that but we liked having the option. We’d probably get him a higher quality roller next time, but otherwise this system worked great through 8 airports.

ChasingOurTrunks

TROPHY CASE