Wayne,
I avoid laundry at all costs
(Just kidding) -- my point about the laundry was that if I only pack the kids a few outfits each I'll be doing laundry every 2-3 days, so I'd like to avoid that. Not that I feel the kids need to look superclean, but they do tend to get very dirty, muddy, and sometimes wet depending on where we're staying so they often go through a set of clothes each day.
I am trying out my own version of an end-of-bed shelf and will let you all know how it goes -- bought some pine boards and had them cut - then will put in L-brackets to affix the sides to the top -- here's what it looks like upside down:
l___________l
That's the best I can do using what I have on the computer keyboard! Anyway, picture that made out of pine, then flip it over and set it on the end of the bed so that it straddles the mattress -- your feet can slide nicely under it and on top rests your little suitcase, bookbag, whatever. That's my theory anyway - we'll see how it turns out. If I can ever figure out how to set up a website and post pictures, I will!
I broke down and bought one of those hanging bathroom travel bags at Organized Living -- it works pretty well but you do need to use smaller shampoo bottles, etc. if you want to be able to fold it back down and zip it up. Also bought a folding towel rack that we'll stand up underneath one of the ends of the TM.
We've decided to not take the bikes -- took them on our week-long trip in April and found it very time consuming to keep taking them off and putting them back on the rack. Decided we will be moving too often and it's not worth the hassle.
We will be leaving next week for our month-long journey to Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore, and Crater Lake w/various other stops. Occasionally, when we are just making a quick stop to break up a long drive, we will stay in a motel (is that cheating???!!)
Tomorrow my hubby goes to get our TM -- we took it to the Northern Calif dealer (Dinuba RV in Rio Vista) to have some problems fixed -- had a heck of a time getting the Anaheim dealer to send them the parts in a timely fashion. (It's been there several weeks!) They actually replaced our leaky toilet, put new latching catches on (the black ones) and we bought an over-sink cabinet to hang. I'm not too worried about the extra weight since we're pulling it with our Sequoia.
Thanks again for all your ideas!
~Teresa