I Hate to Clean

As we travel in the RV, we do cursory cleaning. The rig is so small that I can get down on my hands and knees and wash the entire floor in less than 5 minutes. I have a mini-vac in the closet that I pull out when the rug under the table and between the seats gets to the point where I can actually see the debris.

The stove gets cleaned every night we use it; if we didn’t, it would get crusted on and that is just too gross, even for me. I have never won – or even desired – awards for my housekeeping. I’m from the ‘I’m too busy having fun (playing with my kids or – better yet – my husband) (reading) (you fill in the blanks) to get too carried away with dusting and wiping.

Usually we will devote one day out of a 60-day trip to doing some deep cleaning. Now I have to clarify that. I wash down all surfaces inside the RV. Keep in mind this is a 24 footer. I vacuum, including using the thingy you attach to get into the crevices and those tight places where the cabinets meet the floor. You know, the ones where all the crumbs end up.

We wash the outside, if we are in one of the campgrounds that will even let you do that. Otherwise, we spot clean. Last fall we were at a campground outside Montreal that had a truck wash bay with roll around high ladders. Well, we spent a whole day cleaning the outside of the RV. If it rains and then clears up, we’ll grab a rag and hit the high spots.

Usually the real cleaning comes when we get home from a trip. If we did it before we left, we’d probably never leave cause we’d be too exhausted! We get out the hoses and all the various scrubbers, rags, soaps, etc. Getting out the supplies alone usually takes a good half hour. Then we get out two ladders, one for each of us. Our street slants one way and the ground between the sidewalk and the street slants the other way, so it’s a real challenge to find good footing for the ladders on the house side.

We live on a residential street, but it’s a favorite shortcut so it’s even more challenging working on the street side, particularly if there is someone parked on the other side of the street. We try to do it when the traffic is lighter, but it doesn’t always work out for us.

First we have to completely wash the RV and get all the spots off. You know what that’s like. Hours of work. Then comes the easy part, waxing. You put it on, let it dry, rub it off. The joy of it is that you can usually see where you have been. Immediate positive feedback. That’s how you build good habits.

I do the deep cleaning inside, including a final spray of Fabreeze. Did you know that that stuff not only smells good but also it actually gobbles up odors, doesn’t just mask them?

The last step is taking everything out of the basement, reorganizing it into the right bins, replacing the grungy stuff, and taking out all the things that we thought we would need but didn’t. I take inventory at that point of everything in the RV, adding notes where we need to add things (like batteries) and crossing off things we’ve taken out (like the third rate toilet paper that we bought because that was all they had). Satisfaction? Well, yes. Aches? Of course. Want to do it tomorrow? No way!