Your mission, should you choose to accept it……

Find the one thing you brought along that would be perfect in this situation and is now somewhere in your car. To accomplish said mission you may or may not have to unpack the entire car. In the car there are 8 small 12X18X8 (L/W/H) boxes with lids, 2 36X6X18 boxes with lids, 2 30X8X30 boxes, 2 action packers that are 16X24X16, a pull-out drawer for Erin’s camp clothes, a small YETI cooler, a HUGE Chuckbox, a camp stove and fuel and a BIG tote that holds our mattress cover, air mattress and pillows. Additionally there are the soft sided bags of clothing, our computer bags, a roll-up camp table, two camp chairs, a bag with three gallon jugs of water, a bike pump, a golf umbrella, shoes, sun hats, bike helmets and our sleeping bag. Good luck!

All the stuff we have for the trip

Every time ~ and I mean EVERY time I am at a camp site OR in a place with a roof & a bed I am confronted with this mission. Something that is deep in the bowels of the car would enhance my current experience and I think to myself “Where is that__________?”. This question is followed closely by the next questions; “Is it worth taking the soft goods from around the boxes, move those totes until I find whatever container that _______ is in then putting everything back in a way that means I can find the next _______thing I’ll want?”.

The mission, should you choose it, means you have to sort through in town things, camping things and future travel things. Cooking stoves/fuel, hiking boots/sandals/tennis shoes/good shoes (for both of us), a kite, a couple of journals, guide books, maps, heavy/light jackets, clothing, filtered water bottles in case we run out of water & have to drink out of a stream, a kite in case the wind comes up & you’re in a place that you can fly it, umbrellas, a knife roll with Erin’s knives, a box full of “tools” that includes a 40′ extension cord, in town/pool/camp towels, a camp hatchet, a ball extension for your hitch in case you have to tow something at some point…and and and…….the list goes on……

I am pretty good at Tetris, so eventually everything has found a consistent location in the car, I just wish it were a little easier to get that one thing that would enhance my experience (or that Erin just asked me for), just a little easier to find.

Any advice is good advice, so I’m all ears if you’ve got suggestions.

10 responses to “Your mission, should you choose to accept it……”

  1. Two suggestions: 1) make a list of the contents of each box, put it in a plastic page protector and tape it on the top of the box. 2) reevaluate the need for so much freaking stuff! 🙂

    1. Doesn’t it just all seem like too much? And that’s AFTER we packed up and got rid of about 2/3 of the rest of our stuff……I’m telling you, I’m leaving it by the side of the road soon.

  2. I could leave a suggestion but I cannot lie and say that ANY suggestion I have has worked in a similar situation. Somehow the desired object moves to the bottom of the stack while you are driving.

    1. I know!

  3. You all have way to much stuff. I bet it is fun packing and unpacking everything every day…..Ugggggh. Ditch the spare water bottles and replace them with Life Straws, Why a 40′ extension cord? Cut down on the amount of shoes, get rid if the kite, and switch the heavy journals for iPads to journal with. I have learned how to streamline all the packing stuff from several motorcycle trips.

    1. Ah….so many good suggestions. Thank you! Of the list, the 40’ ext cord does seem a little unnecessary now…..originally we thought our air mattress pump was going to need electricity – the new one runs on batteries – so we actually did have a use for it. We do have life straws….and again – originally the water bottles had whiskey in them but that didn’t last long! The kite? I must have room for whimsy or life isn’t worth living……kites are the closest thing I’ve got to whimsy. The shoes – I wish I could dump them & only wear sandals……alas…..my ankles will not tolerate too much time out of leather shoes with good soles, but I need boots for hiking, my walking shoes for exploring, tennis shoes for “casual” wear but something that still has a closed toe and sandals for the boat and the camp showers and the occasional ocean trek…..gah!!!!!! See my problem?! Maybe I’ll just ride a motorcycle next time. Which will be alone ‘cause Erin refuses.

  4. Inventory? Lable the boxes (1, 2, 3 etc). keep the inventory on your phone in google keep or the like…

  5. You’re on vacation, leave of absence, early retirement, meandering…. you got alla time in the world grrr!

  6. Sounds like you are attached to the stuff you brought, so I say: car top carrier. I do think a note card with contents listed on it and slipped on the inside on end of the clear boxes might assist you can of course use clear packing tape and tape it to the outside.

  7. I am impressed with the tidy organization of all your stuff. I especially like it that Erin has a knife roll. It seems like a monumental “clown car” task that you got all this stuff in your car. I can’t imagine taking out just one or two items you “need”, but you go girl and get it.

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