Friday 22 November 2019

Hiding a Multitude of Sins


A king size bed can hide a multitude of sins ...


… when it has full sized storage capability underneath.

This is the one main storage area in the Van that we actually use.  There are lots more storage spaces in the living room under all of the sofa cushions, empty space under pull out boards, as well as a hidden fold-out double bed.  But all those nooks and crannies (except the one with the fold-out bed) are empty.  We just don't have that much stuff, and more importantly we don't intend to acquire any, so they will stay empty.

But at this time of year, when it's time to start packing away things in the Van ready for the three month caravan park closure, I fill under the bed with all the things that are just not worth taking home.



These storage bags from Lakeland are ideal for the bulky stuff that I need to store.  It's hard to imagine that with a two minute blast from the vacuum cleaner, enough air will be sucked from this bag to enable it to be zipped up in it's outer cover.  It's a little pleasure of mine vacuum packing, on a par with laminating … yep you know how weird I am  😉


Everything gets satisfyingly shrunk and strapped in.



Labelling is essential when we have three different bed sizes and therefore three different sizes of bedding.


The double bed is the only one we have never actually used, but we have the bedding just in case.


And here it is all neatly stored, with enough space left to fit in all the bits and bobs that will need packing away just before I leave for the Winter months.


Seeing how useful this type of bed is, I think this is what we will buy when we move into our little flat, as unlike the caravan the flat has absolutely no storage at all.  Another good reason to keep on with the decluttering and jettisoning of our belongings.

The latest things to be sold on Facebook Marketplace at home in Wales has been one of our office filing cabinets, a large plotter type printer that our business no longer needs, the old living room carpet and the coffee table that used to be here at the Van.  

It's all going in the right direction, hence me not wanting to take things from the Van home with me at the start of December.


Sue xx



24 comments:

  1. We had a bed the same as that in our lovely touring caravan (oh how I miss that van!) - so useful. I bet you'll really miss your lovely van for the 3 months you have to be out of it - I know I would. Are you allowed to go and check up on things during the closed season? I think I'd love to go for the odd day, just to sit in it and have a coffee or 2 for a couple of hours - a wee break.

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    1. We are allowed to go back into the park to check the Van, but we wouldn't be able to brew up as electrics and water have to be switched off before you leave. Last year we stopped briefly on our way to Scotland for New Year. We checked the Van, walked the dogs round the caravan park and then had lunch and a toilet break at Suky's favourite garden centre round the corner before jumping back onto the M6.

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    2. You'll have to take a flask and a picnic....:-))

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  2. Wow, there's a lot of storage space there! Very, very handy indeed.
    xx

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    Replies
    1. It is, and it makes me very happy that everything we own here fits into it 🙂

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  3. Excellent storage solutions but as you say, having less helps.

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    Replies
    1. It really does. Although I think even this amount of stuff can be reduced, and most likely will be next year when car boot season starts again 🙂

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  4. A good bit of storage space there. I bet you will miss your van the next few months.
    So the future we be living in your flat? We are exploring small houses, flats, and park homes, difficult decision but I guess we will know soon enough as the right thing turns up, we check every week now, if something came up before next summer we would still go for it now, but I would rather hunker down here for the winter. xx

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    Replies
    1. Yes, we will live in the flat, although it could be temporarily. We are thinking that we would like to live in the area the Van is located in as it is central for both our families.

      I don't think we would consider buying a park home for permanently living in as they don't gain in value the way bricks and mortar do.

      I think you are sensible to hunker down where you are for the Winter, think how much more you will have achieved and saved up through sales etc by next Spring as well 😃

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    2. Yes John said that about the park homes if anything they would devalue.

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    3. I can vouch for that, we have lost £30,000 in the 10 years we have lived in our beautiful park home. That is one reason we're going back to bricks and mortar with this move :( x

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  5. Replies
    1. I already have a few of them, but recently bought some from Asda … big mistake!! The Lakeland ones are SO much better, apart from being better quality they have the straps to hold the shrunken bags down just in case any air gets in. Sometimes better quality really is worth paying a bit extra for.

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  6. That is a good storage space! I've tried storage bags for our caravan and home storage but they always seem to re-inflate themselves. Perhaps a trip to Lakeland is needed ;)
    Gail x

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    Replies
    1. Yes, see my reply to Weavers' comment above. The Lakeland ones really are the best and they arrive quickly if you order online.

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  7. Love that under the bed storage space. I might just have to look into some of the storage bags we have here in Canada.

    God bless.

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  8. Brilliant storage bags, Sue, I think we might need to invest in some decent ones with space being so limited at the new house. The cheap ones I tried were useless.

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  9. Love those storage bags, I bought some for the move north but although they deflated well I split the bag trying to refit the screw cap! We have decided we will continue to sort out the boxes in our storage unit (still in Hampshire) whilst we have the time and space over the winter, but need to sort out some time off in the spring to do a car boot sale, as it is embarrassing how many duplicates of some items we have. Don't even get me started on my crafting stash! We do enjoy the bungalow, but we both think we will miss our motorhome travelling this winter, however it was a good move to get things sorted out and save a bit of money, and this job gives us the 8 month working contract we needed for 2020. I have just invested in some plastic storage boxes for under our bed as there is no storage here either.

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  10. I love your lampshade in your bedroom. I need lights with a diffuser like that, as my husband has cateracts and cann't tolerate glare from unshielded lights.
    Could you let me know where you got this one from if possible
    Many thanks.

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    Replies
    1. The lampshade came with the Van so I have no idea where it's originally from sorry.

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  11. Hi Sue thankyou for your support through my journey with my simple living and frugal blogs but after a lot of thought I can't write about those things anymore. No one has upset me or anything it's just how I feel.xx

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    1. Then simply do whats best for you, there's no pressure to blog at all. I do hope you will still be around to leave the occasional comment though. Take care of yourself, you should always come first. Xx

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  12. I love those vacuum bags! I use them to store my summer clothes in my loft at the moment. Your bed has a Fanta amount of storage!

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    Replies
    1. Fantastic, even! Bloomin' predictive text!

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