Living in a Shoebox

 I love living in our little shoebox. I can sit on the bed and reach everything that I could possibly need. I can reach the snacks stored under the bed, and the refrigerator is right there for beverages! I can do the dishes and I’ve learned to chop fruit sitting cross-legged on the bed with the cutting board in front of me. The board games are stored in baskets above my head, as are my clothes.

The board games

The charging station is above the fridge and my iPad, phone, speaker and Kobo are in another basket mounted at the foot of the bed.

The charging station

Pretty much everything that I could possibly need to live a comfortable life in our little shoebox, I can reach from the bed. I enjoy my morning tea tucked into bed and have even enjoyed Mark’s room service breakfast-in-bed deliveries. Yes, I admit I can be a princess traveller even though Mark refers to me as the adventurer - up for anything! The indoor space has become my ‘she shed’, but when Mark is in there, it gets a little tight. We have to do a little bit of a dance when we want to get dressed or make our way to the bathroom. I actually have to crawl over him for my middle-of-the-night pee breaks. Today, Mark left for a couple of hours to do some fishing, and I was in my glory! I did some shuffling and reorganizing and moved freely around without interruption. 

The bathroom with laundry storage.

Mark’s domain is the outdoors; he is usually the first one up and heads outside to get the lay of the land, leaving the inside to me. His space to organize is the truck bed and all the nooks and crannies on the outside of the trailer. He manages the BBQ and outdoor cooking appliances. He chops the wood and makes the fires and ventures out in the middle of the night to switch the batteries over when one dies and the alarm goes off. Even now as I write, he is outside sitting in the sun, and I am… You guessed it… on the bed. We really have quite a system going, and we look after each other very well. 

Mark caught two Greyling this morning while I was organizing.

We have met many travellers and campers on this journey so far, and we are usually one of the smaller outfits that pulls into the campsite. We don’t need a generator, and we exist independently and quietly, thanks to Mark’s batteries and back-up batteries and - you know what I mean!  We don’t have a porcelain toilet or glass shower doors that will rattle loose on the Dempster highway, like some friends we met along the way. Honestly, some of the rigs that people pull are gigantic! They have upstairs bedrooms and lofts, and I swear some must have hot tubs and swimming pools too by the size of them! Where is the adventure in having all of the comforts of home with you on an adventure?

We have enjoyed economizing on space and coming up with storage solutions to meet our needs. We have used cargo nets to hold our bins on the bunk beds, and realized they are great for shoe storage and what Mark calls purgatory. You know that spot where laundry goes that is not quite dirty enough for the laundry basket or clean enough to put away - laundry purgatory!

Shoe storage and Laundry Pergatory

The clear storage bins from the dollar store have been great for food storage in the fridge and for our fruits and veggies that can stay out on the counter. Who am I kidding? I don’t have any counter space! So of course, they too are on the bed.

Our space is tiny, but it suits us perfectly, and we are really enjoying every moment of this adventure so far. I know many of you asked prior to us leaving if I was excited or looking forward to our trip, and I was really indifferent. But, please ask again! I am LOVING it. But then again, who wouldn’t love spending their days in bed while travelling the countryside?

Me on the bed writing to you with Mark between
me and the washroom.