Handy Accessories

I've been meaning to do this blog for a very long while but haven't found the chance, I'm always writing current blogs or catching up on past ones (which I still have plenty, waiting in the wings) but with a little bit of time up my sleeve while we're here at the canals, I thought I'll do it now. I've had some of the photos in a file since 2014!

Here are four great accessories that have made life a little easier while living on the road, perhaps they'll appeal to some of you with RVs too.

Dish Drying Mat- of course those with dishwashers need read no further. This is a God send, especially if you're not quite level when parked up. You know, when all the water that's drained off your dishes disappears down to the corner underneath things that shouldn't get wet or worse over the front and onto the floor. It's a good thick absorbent mat, also for those extra dishes that don't fit in the dish rack either. It drys quickly outside or I hang it over the back of the hob's glass lid. I store it as a 'packer' between the hob lid and the gas rings when in transit. Makes a pretty red colour behind the glass decal.

The rubber draining mat under the rack is also from Briscoes, it tends to 'hold' the drained water underneath until you wipe it up after the dishes are dried (or drained). It sits, and fits, perfectly with the rack, in the sink when not in use.

The drying mat was bought from Briscoes for as little as $10, I'm onto my second one which I purchased in their sale for $6!

Door Mat- I had a regular door mat but during the winter it would get very dirty, especially if it was raining when you're trying to remove shoes and keep dry at the same time. So I purchased a couple of dark coloured bath mats from the Warehouse. I rotate and regularly wash them, something you can't easily do with a door mat. They're also soft and absorbent, and dry your feet or slippers when you've stepped out for a moment.

Collapsible crate (Payless Plastics approx $25-30)- we're onto our third one (you do have to remember to move it before your darling hubby moves the rig off the blocks!) While parked up, we store the box under the rig just to the side of the steps (no longer behind the wheel). It has our outside shoes in it- Crocs, gumboots, Tevas(here) and it's also good for keeping odds and sods in while parked up; funnel, mat ties, bug spray etc. 

When not in use, it folds down flat for easy storage, although ours is always up. I just lift it inside before we move- it sits on the spare door mat so as not to mark the floor- and out again when we arrive at the next site. Oh, and I do keep a large rugby ball sized rock in it, first it was a place to store the rock after I found it, then it became the weight to hold the bin in place during high winds. 

Though it wasn't heavy enough when we at Moke Lake, I heard an almighty clatter while the wind was shaking the van something tremendous. I looked out to see a half collapsed crate tumbling across the ground heading for the lake, with shoes, stone etc scattered in its wake. As it disappeared over the edge of the bank I thought we were soon going to be buying crate #4. I grabbed my dressing gown and in the pouring rain, raced to the lake edge, careful not to slip over in my retrieved Crocs, to, thankfully, find the crate hooked up in the only matagouri bush on the lake edge for miles! 

And last but not least another purchase from Payless Plastics (or similar store) for about $4 each, the very handy, multiple use, plastic white hook. We have half a dozen or so of these and they suit our van very well. We have a number of areas where we can hook them over; all along the the top of the slide-out and the top of the shower, amongst others. Here two have been used, one at each end, as rod holders off the slide out while we're parked up (that's part of the ceiling joining strip above the hook- bad photo composition). 

We can hang multiple coathangers with drying washing on them, the coathangers can be stacked across the bottom, sometimes we hang out jackets on them in the corner, and they're used as towel holders inside the shower when the shower is not in use and then they hold the towels on the outside of the shower, when we are in the shower. Not the most elegant of accessories but they suit us down to the ground.

Hopefully some of these may be of interest to some of you too.