The struggle to become a minimalist

I really want to be a minimalist, I want to have only what I need, including some resources so in an emergency I am part of the solution not adding to the problem.
It seems you have to keep revisiting your cupboards and scale back a bit more every time. I'm sure some hard core devoted people could do it first go, but I'm slow at it. I carefully consider every item.

I have continued to work on the linen cupboard.
How many sheets and blankets do we need?
For each bed I've reduced it to:

• 1 waterproof underlay
• 1 winter flannel set 
• 1 summer cotton set
• 1 spare cotton set
• 1 doona with one cover only (On beds most of the year)
• 1 cotton summer blanket

Spares are incase a vomiting bug takes hold and I don't have the luxury of washing in the morning and remaking the bed that evening. Little children tend to find their stomach contents pop out some what unexpectedly.

This means I now have two sets on sheets for each bed in the caravan. One on the bed and one spare, and caravan doona covers. I have included woollen blankets for the caravans that I'll place on the mattress under the waterproof layer for easy storage incase of unexpected cold weather.

Now my linen cupboard, while far from finished contains all the bedding, hair cutting equipment, bug lamps, christmas decorations, shoe cleaning gear, candles, light bulbs, a tub of paper party plates/cups/cutlery and fire emergency box. Hmmm that's still a lot of stuff :o(

I am proud to say I have recycled over 21 years of magazines. I had them stored and never looked at them. This was before the internet, now days you can find anything you want at the click of a few buttons. I'm glad they are gone, it's another weight lifted off.

Vintage caravan restoration continues

We have done very little on our restoration project, here is the first post.

Here is the overhead cupboards being restored.

The original cupboard had two doors and there large areas that could not be reached, so we re shaped it to have 4 large door and a section in the middle for a car stereo and a small door to store ipod etc.

'Before photo' of the cupboard, see the huge wasted space where everything would get lost.

Also I found some doona covers on sale, they are very thick and heavy quality, now before you look, remember "vintage" ;o) Also I want to be mindful of the boys, can't make it too girlie ( maybe just a bit!).

We are trying to maximise storage and keep the weight to a minimum. We found some nice quality wire drawers at Bunnings. A company called HandyShelf make them, you can pick and choice what you want, different draw sizes and they are reasonably light weight and well priced.
They are very solid once put together. One of these baskets will hold our dirty clothes awaiting washing and the other clean towels, the small mesh draw for toiletries, washing powder etc.
Much to my delight I've got more space than I first thought! That never happens!!

It is all very slow though, between study and Pooh health. Oh and I've dropped my hopes of having an en-suit, we will put the porta potty in the shower tent. It was too much to add extra water and a storage tank of black water (is that what it's called? All the poo and flush water?)

Water Spout

Today we took the children to a lego exhibition, it was not an official lego 'do' but something put on to raise money for Destiny Rescue It was a wonderful day and a privilege to be able to support such a cause.

On the way home DS8 saw this, so we stopped and took a picture at 2.20pm. We've never seem anything like it here where we live. I pray no one was hurt.