I think we can all appreciate how much time we spend on the toilet.

In my rig, the toilet has its own room with a nice heavy door that makes the room forgettable. It’s so easy to just toss stuff in there and forget it until you actually need to use the room for the purpose for which it is intended. And then, you go, “Oh, no!” as you realise you have to move X, Y, and Z out of the way to use the toilet.

This morning, I swore that the broom was never going to attack me again and that I was going to spend the time needed this afternoon to tame the most necessary and most poorly used room in my home.

I completely emptied the room, then washed it all down, from the ceiling to the floor. Then, I actually got the paint out (not surprised that I had tons left, but surprised that it was still good!) and did a ton of touch ups. No more staring at depressing white spots or scratches while doing my business!

Then, it was time to evaluate what I was storing in there and, to my surprise, I was able to determine that everything that was in there belonged in there or, rather, had no better place to be stored. It was just a matter of reorganizing a little.

End result:

This picture really makes me regret not taking two seconds to take a before picture because you would not believe I had the same amount of stuff in here, the room was so crowded and barely usable!

I went through my hardware bin to use up odd bits and found everything I needed to secure everything. A curtain rod hook was perfect to hang the broom:

And another curtain rod hook was the perfect solution to hold the floor piece of the filing cabinet securer:

And finally, an eye hook and a zip tie are holding up the vacuum:

I have no illusions that that will hold for travel, so I’ll have to take the vacuum down for now, but I have an idea of how I can use snaps and elastic in junction with this set up to really make the vacuum secure. I just don’t have time to sew today.

The floor now only has a garbage can and two big containers (one of carpet cleaning solution and one of stain remover for topping up a spray bottle) that fit perfectly behind the toilet.

When I was cleaning out the top shelf, I found some pictures I had completely forgotten about! They are from my trip to Maine. I found some little screws and hung up on the blank side of the room. I went for the random layout approach and it didn’t come out as nicely as I would have liked, but it’s nice to have them out:

I’ve bought all the supplies I need to continue touching up the paint all around the rig, so I guess today was the kickoff of spring spruce up. What, it’s only late-January? Well, it’s very springlike around here these days!

I’ve had my slow cooker for a while, but I haven’t really made anything of note in it yet. I really wanted to get going with it now that my electrical issues have been resolved since I want to try the ‘run the slow cooker on the inverter while you’re driving so you have a nice meal at your destination’ RVing trick.

My culinary discovery of 2012 was probably BBQ pulled pork. That’s what got me past the hump to start eating pork again. So I decided that that was what I wanted to make as my first proper slow cooker meal.

While getting a few groceries yesterday, I looked at the pork roasts that would be suitable for pulled pork, but they were much too big for my needs. I eventually found a small Hormel-brand roast that was already rubbed with spices and labeled ‘slow cooker ready’, just drop it in the slow cooker and you’re done.

I read the ingredients and nutritional info carefully and found nothing untoward, so I decided to take a chance on it. There was a $1 off coupon attached to it, bringing the price per pound to about the same as the unspiced roasts, and I wound up paying just under $5 for what I knew would end up making at least four meals.

This morning, I dropped it in the slow cooker and the olfactory torture began in earnest! The rig began to smell divine and will probably smell like pork for a week!

The instructions suggested that you take the roast out of the slow cooker about an hour before it’s done, drain the juices, shred the meat with two forks, and then mix in your favourite BBQ sauce.

So I did that and returned the roast to the slow cooker while I whipped up a batch of Marie Callender cheddar biscuits. I used to make my own biscuits, but since discovering these, making my own is too much work for less reward! I also made a salad with my homemade balsamic vinaigrette.

And voilà! I should get at least three, if not four, full leftover meals out of this! I’ll let the meat cool overnight in the fridge and then transfer it to freezer bags. I may or may not freeze the biscuits as I have some red sauce to finish up that they would be good with. 🙂