Winterizing & Travel Prep

We are full time Rvers, we live in a Winnebago 40U from April until the end of November/December. We have now been doing this for two years and are enthusiastic about the third and coming year. After every season we purge, yup! We donated more items from clothes we did not use all year to household items that sat in a bin in the basement that we did not think about.

Towards the end of every season, we start working on our travel plans for the coming winter, start planning on when we will start the deep clean, winterizing and put our home into storage for the winter. So what does this process look like? We both work full time, with a few side hustles and a fairly active social life. How do we balance all of that and still get ready to go?

Photo Credit: V.Gray

We get 6 months of blissful living just being in our home. Spending time with friends, family and working our tails off. We do not worry or think about winterizing until October, around this time is when we start to plan our travel too.

This is how we have gotten through October to December for the last few years and what works for us.

Deep Clean

When it comes to winterizing, people will tell you it's super easy! Antifreeze through all the water lines, disconnect a couple of things, take the house batteries out and voi-la done! We got a bit deeper than that, we clean every couple of days in the RV. It's a small space and between little visitors and Ryan owning a Landscape and Excavation company it gets a bit messy.

Our deep clean involves washing all the walls, emptying all the cupboards and closets, cleaning, reorganising and possibly tossing a few items, washing windows, mopping, cleaning the basement out, the BBQ, smoker and fridge and so on and so forth. We normally start this the second week in October and slowly go through every section of the RV and it does take us 3 or 4 weeks by the time we are done (we are still living in the RV during this time).

We don't just pull items out of the cupboards and put them back; everything gets cleaned. We do not want any unwanted visitors during the winter while we are away, we rewash all the cutlery, plates and all kitchen accessories. The kitchen and main living area is always our biggest concern because it is our most used space, even up until our final days in the RV.

This deep clean is important for winter and re-opening when we come home. Instead of having to do a deep clean in the spring, we get to come home, wipe everything out, unpack and get to enjoying our family and friends quickly. Honestly opening the RV has only taken us a few hours plus a grocery / alcohol shop and we are in chairs out front enjoying the day.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

Packing Up - Backpacks & Winter Home

Once November hits and the snow starts to fly around a bit, this is our hint to get our bums in gear and pack up. This is also normally when deer hunt happens, I do enjoy hunting but the last few years work schedules have not allowed me enough time to get out. As Ryan can take this week off and hunt, this leaves me a quiet week of packing and tidying up.

Starting outside, packing up all the items like hammock, chairs, bbq and smoker making sure it is all clean and put away properly. Making sure all liquids or cleaners we store outside throughout the year get moved back into the shop, so they do not freeze.

Then moving onto the interior, putting clothes in totes, bounce sheets, blankets and towels in vacuum bags, removing cleaners and batteries, putting everything away and securing it.

While packing up and storing for the winter, we take a small tote and pick what clothes and items we need for the week to two weeks before we leave and the week when we come home. We normally stay with family during this time and then store our tote or what we do not want while travelling in our cars making it easy to access when we come home. We also pack our backpacks (one 80L checked backpack and two carry ons) for travel during this time, which is a few pairs of shorts, shirts, underwear, socks, bathing suits, sandals, GoPro, passports and toiletries.

Mouse Prevention, Winterize & Storage

Once the deep clean and packing is all done, onto our final stages before putting the RV away. Mouse prevention, dumping and winterizing are our final three steps before driving to the storage building.

When we are done living in the RV for the season, we disconnect the secondary propane system and head to the dumping station. After we have dumped the grey and black water, we make sure the hot water tank and water tank are empty with a bit of antifreeze in all the tanks.

We then move onto anti-freezing all the water lines, fridge, taps and toilet. Ryan connects everything on the outside and I run everything on the inside. We then do a walk through and disconnect all the electronics from the outlets and move onto disconnecting the house batteries. These six batteries are located in the basement, a slight pain to get to and heavy.

Now the RV is ready to go to storage. We have a friend that stores the RV for the winter months for us indoors. Onces Ryan has it in the building and parked he does his final checks outside and I go inside for mouse prevention. Mouse traps, bounce sheets and peppermint tea bags in with closets, draws and cupboards and a bit of tea tree oil smudge around. We did double check our wraps around the lines (steel wool) from last season and done.

With that we lock it up, chat with our friend for a few minutes then walk away until April. It's bitter sweet, we love living in our RV and sharing time with everyone. Now we go into crunch time before we take off.

Travel Prep

The RV is done! We are now staying with family and into our final weeks at home. Crunch time!! We now start reviewing and making sure everything is set to go. Confirm AirBnB, arrangements to airport, VISA's are set (if needed), we have all our paperwork (vaccinations), Covid tests (if needed) and start doing a bit more research. This probably sounds crazy to some people, leaving that to two weeks before we leave. It's a bit more organized than that.

Normally when we start the deep clean in October we apply for our VISAs and have booked our plane tickets. This is when we look over our 80L backpack and carry ons what we have and what we need to pick up. Otherwise make sure all our electronics are charged, toiletry bags in our carry ons and everything else goes in our checked bag.

Photo Credit: V.Gray

Closing Up

During our last two weeks, life gets a bit nutty. Seeing family and friends, working and putting vehicles/equipment away. Our last two days in the country normally consists of us cleaning and packing away our vehicles, going in and talking to the phone company about reducing our plans, emailing insurance companies, reducing storage coverage, doing our last load of laundry, confirming we have everything to leave and getting on our way to the airport.

This year we had an early morning flight, so we went to Toronto in the afternoon before touring around to a few pubs and had some beverages. Our friend came to visit us at our hotel for a few drinks, we got a few hours of sleep then got up around 3:30 am for our 8 am flight to Boston to start our trip overseas.

This probably sounds out to lunch to some. We are both pretty organized people or try to be. From October until we leave, my agenda looks like a mess that only I decode when reading it. It's a bit stressful but the excitement outweighs any of the stress.

Cheers!

**Please note that all opinions and views expressed in this post are my own, from my own experiences. If you would like to see more pictures follow me on Instagram vikki.gray **