Current Location: Nashville KOA, Nashville, Tennessee

Back to work for Malcolm this week. He’s enjoying having found a better route into town (coming in from the north to avoid various construction projects and inevitable downtown road closures around the Broadway area for various events. Val has been busy doing various little organizational projects as well as working on some sewing and crochet projects.

Speaking of projects and organization, we’ve also done a few small organizational mods. Most of them are repeats of ones we had done to the previous trailer. One is using large paint stirring sticks and cup hooks to make hangers for the various measuring cups and measuring spoons. The sticks are cut down to size and mounted on the back side (inside) of the pantry or cabinet doors. Cup hooks are screwed in and now you have a place to hang these items within reach.

Measuring spoons in the pantry

Close-up

Another project Malcolm tackled was some way to organize the various stereo and computer components in the cabinet above the TV. Each time we travel, we find them all bunched up in disarray. Plus, most of these components generate heat and were stacked right on top of each other – not good for heat dissipation.

We looked and shopped around for some type of shelving or rack type system to mount items on where they weren’t stacked right on top of each other. We finally found a solution at The Container Store – wire type letter trays in the office department. Wiring is run out the open sides (the bottom and back have wire mesh). The computer (bottom shelf), Apple TV and Blu-Ray player (middle shelf) just sit on their respective shelves. We will evaluate if we need to secure them better after our next move.

The home theater component (top) was about 1/4″ too wide to fit inside one of the trays, but perfectly fit between the raised tabs on the sides that are used to interlock with a tray stacked on top. We used a couple pieces of velcro to hold it in place on top, then another piece to secure the wireless router on top of that.

Media cabinet looking more organized

Close-up of the rack

Not really a mod, but more of a necessity. We found birds flitting around the front of our trailer, flying in and out. We found that they had started a nest inside the pin box on the front of the trailer. After debating several methods of preventing the nests, we decided on a low tech solution for now since we’ll be stationary for about 4 more weeks. Some blue painters tape and a large lawn and leaf bag covered the whole assembly rather nicely.

Not the prettiest, but it works.