What Are The Must Haves?

We have been asked several times in the past few months what are our "must haves" for our RV.  My list is pretty small.  I need a few toys, bully sticks, frosty treats, my boot and my bed.  I'm pretty easy. 

Oh wait....I need a couch.  Definitely need to include couch on my list.

 

Mom's list is somewhat larger.  She actually got rid of a few things and re-purchased them while on the road.  A few things that she has re-purchased are: iced tea maker, electric can opener and a food chopper. She bought the Ninja 3 in 1 and got rid of her old slow cooker. 

So, what are the items that Mom thinks are necessary?  Well, they may not be necessary, but she finds some items just make life easier.  Here is her list in no particular order:

Kindle -  She upgraded to the Paperwhite last year because it has a built in light and she loves reading at night.  She gets most of her books from the library, but also finds free books online.   She has been on a reading binge lately.  I think she has been reading something like four to five books a week since we have been here. 

Laptop - She has a tablet, but she prefers her laptop.  The tablet used to be used while we were on the road for the travel apps, but now she has a smart phone. Basically our tablet doesn't connect well with our Mi-Fi and it gets stuck a lot.

Mi-Fi - what is it?  It is a device that connects us to the Internet.  Our service is through Verizon.  We only have 5 GB a month, so we can't watch many videos and we definitely cannot stream movies.  The folks are pretty happy though because Mom's cell phone service was upgraded to 4.5 GB a month for free and the unused data is carried over.  Mom uses her cell phone as a hot spot when she needs the additional data.  Some campgrounds have fee Wi-Fi but many times it doesn't work well, so we prefer to have our own.

Mi-Fi

Smartphone - She really didn't think she would use it that much.  BOL!  She finds it is a huge help even when the folks go sightseeing for the day.  There are times that the GPS doesn't work and the phone has saved them.  She also looks up restaurants and attractions while they are driving.  Basically, she uses it all the time.

Satellite - Dish has a pay as you go program for RVers.  If we decide we don't want to use it, we can just stop and when we want to start it up again, there are no fees. We just tell them and it is turned on again.  In the beginning, we were using the cable that most campgrounds provide.  We found that most did not have a guide to tell us what was on and every time we moved to a new place, we would have to learn all the channels.  Mom found it frustrating.  Dad likes HBO and that wasn't included at most campgrounds.  They are happier using Dish.  When we arrive at a new location, Mom tells Dish where we are and they turn on the local channels for us.  Our satellite with this rig is located on the roof and all we do it turn it on and it finds the satellites for us.  So far, we have had sites without trees so our satellite has worked great. 

Ninja 3 in 1 - This is a slow cooker, cooktop, steamer and oven.  It is the size of a slow cooker.  Yesterday, she used it to bake a frozen pizza for lunch, roasted garlic and then fixed a meatloaf in it for dinner.  It doesn't heat up the kitchen.  (The frozen pizza was a half a pizza.  A full one will not fit, but Mom doesn't need to eat a full one anyway.)

Collapsible bowls, measuring cups. strainers, etc.  Basically, anything that is easy to store, she likes.

Printer - yes, we actually use our printer quite a bit.  It is also a scanner.  Mom prints off her Emeals menu every week.  Yes, she could use her smartphone, but she prefers to have the paper copy.  It is not uncommon for her to need to print something.

We have found that we can be quite happy without a lot of "stuff".  Our rule is that if you don't have a place for it, then you can't buy it.  When it comes to clothes, you have to get rid of something if you buy something new. 

Mom created an Amazon link to some of her favorite items. They are on the column on the right. (Above Jack's photo)  It is almost like you are peeking into our RV to see what items we own.  BOL!

Joey,
The Greyhound Who Loves Living In A RV