The Systems That Save Our Sanity on the Road

The Systems That Save Our Sanity on the Road

In this episode of TravelEssary, we’re pulling back the curtain on the systems that keep our full-time RV life peaceful, functional, and (mostly) smooth.

Living in a small space as a family means we can’t just “wing it.” Over time, we’ve built simple habits that help everything run better, from daily tidy-ups and giving every item a home, to making sure each person has their own space to breathe.

We share what moving days really look like for us, including the roles everyone plays and how we’re usually able to break down and set up in about an hour to an hour and a half. We talk about how we scout routes, plan travel days around our kids, and prep ahead whenever possible so departure mornings don’t feel chaotic.

Once we land somewhere new, we have a few go-to habits: finding the nearest grocery store, checking out the post office, looking up churches, and visiting local visitor centers to uncover hidden gems. We plan, but we also leave room for weather shifts, sickness, and those unexpected detours that come with life on the road.

We also touch on the work systems that support this lifestyle, truck maintenance rhythms, communication, meal prep before runs, and how structure actually creates more freedom.

Because RV life isn’t just about where you park.
It’s about the systems that make it work.

Transcript

  We're the Essary family and we're exploring America one destination at a time. On this episode of TravelEssary, we're going to share all the systems that we do that keep our full-time RV life running smoothly. Let's chat.

Welcome and thank you for joining us on this episode as we talk about the systems that keep us running smoothly. Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is not a very extensive list of everything that we do that keeps our lives. As smooth as possible. No, it's like a big picture kind of thing. Yeah. These are systems that we do that we keep in the forefront of our mind that puts our mind at peace.

Yeah. These are things we've had to learn , and I'm sure we'll continue learning and tweaking this and some other things. Oh, absolutely. These are things that we have learned as we progress into this lifestyle that just make our lives a little bit easier. And by doing these. I call 'em small systems because , they're not like huge, massive things you say that, but I feel like if we didn't follow the systems, it would make a huge impact in our day-to-day lives.

Yes, it would definitely get chaotic in a hurry because of how we live and where we live, because some of these things we didn't do in our regular household. Mm-hmm. And. It didn't really affect it that much. Having the system inside of a small space inside of our RV as we are full-time traveling makes it just so much easier and so much more peaceful. Yeah. So if you don't know anything about full-time RV life it has its challenges of course. Last week we talked about all the perks that came with it.

But of course there are plenty of challenges to go along with every single one of those perks. And we've just learned , a few things that we do personally and it's not. The same thing that everyone does in this lifestyle of, , different people do different things, but things that we do personally to just offset those challenges a little bit to make them run a little bit smoother.

And because of the space that we have inside of our rv, the number one thing that we do is we pick up a little every day. I think we might have mentioned this before, or maybe it was in a bonus episode, I can't remember, but. You guys we're in a small space and it will close in on you really fast in a hurry.

Even though we have a lot of windows and we have windows all the way around us, almost 360 1 wall inside of our living room doesn't have windows, but everything else has windows. It feels open. They've done a really good job with the concept, with the painting, with the colors, to make it feel as open as possible.

Yeah. , But if you don't pick up a little every single day, and I'm not just talking just because we have a 2-year-old, I'm talking about our teenagers, even ourselves. If we don't pick up a little every single day, that space will close in a hurry.

Yes. Now when everything is in its place and everything is picked up and clean, it's very spacious. We were actually just talking about this the other day with the teenagers . I feel like the RV gets a little bigger every day. I don't know if it's because we're coming accustomed to it, but the moment you like stop picking up it, it almost has to be like a constant, it's almost a constant, like you're constantly just doing something.

It never feels overwhelming as long as we keep it constant. A little thing here, a little thing there. But if you stop for even a day, a day and a half of not constantly picking up. Oh my gosh. You feel like you're living in a closet, a very disorganized closet. No, it's not constant. Like we're always, every minute of every single day we're cleaning up.

I mean, constant in the sense that a mom of a 2-year-old constantly has to be, aware of what that 2-year-old is doing. It's just like, oh, there's something here that needs to be picked up. Oh, there's something here that needs to be put away. It's, for me, it's a constant, not again, not literally, but almost.

And by picking up just a little bit, picking up the toys at night, doing the dishes when one sink gets full and not wait for both sinks to get full . That burden and the time constraint of how much time you have to spend, even though it's a small space, you could spend a significant amount of time of your day cleaning up just, , the dishes or putting everything back to where it needs to go, because every place and everyone has its specific space.

Yeah. So , that's really how we're able to keep it. Tidy and keep from losing our minds. , I'm gonna be so transparent here. I have seen so many people in this lifestyle that I don't know how they do it. I don't either. I'm okay. So one lady I'm literally looking at right now, she has a pile of.

Totes and boxes and stuff right outside of her rv. And that's actually not that uncommon. There are so many people that live with stuff like that stacked up in their RVs and they live in them full-time and they're traveling full-time and there's so much stuff everywhere. Like everything doesn't have it.

It can't all be put away, out of sight, out of mind type situation. And I personally, I think I'd go crazy. Yeah, they've accumulated so much things or it's just kind of their hobby. It's something that kind of takes up a little bit of their time. Uh, we've seen so many people that transport plants, live plants.

Yes. And I'm talking like 20 or 30 potted plants that take up their entire picnic table, or they set up a table outside, like all around their rv. That's all over the place now. It's. Sometimes it's very beautiful the way that they set it up. It's very feng shui. It's very nice. And then sometimes it is just plants all over the place and , those have to go back in the rv, every time they move.

Well, during the, if it can't rain, rain too much, it can't. The cold. It can't be too hot outside or some of the plants will die on them. And , hopefully they have a spot that it doesn't feel like it's closed in. But Misty's absolutely right. Having things in a specific spot that's outta sight, outta mind mm-hmm.

Makes the RV seem more open, makes it seem more clean, and , it makes me be okay with spending so much time in such , a small area because it doesn't feel that small when everything is put away and everything is cleaned and Yeah. , I have a lot of pet peeves, like leaving comforters on the couch.

Yeah. Leaving blankets out on the couch. And I'm one of those people that are like, Hey, , we're in wintertime. I'm gonna come back and visit that blanket eventually sometime today. I, and it's just like, you have to put it away whenever you get rid of it. No, no. And, because we live in such a small space and there are five of us in this small space, if you're not using something, it should be put away.

Yeah. Because, no, we're all gonna lose our minds. Even like making the bed I'm gonna, I'm gonna be honest. I did not make the bed every day when we lived in our sticks and bricks a couple times a week I'd make the bed. Yeah. But here I make the bed pretty much every single day because if not, you walk into the room and it already feels like things are out of place.

Yeah. It's chaotic already. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's already starting to get into your mind and Yeah.

But also having a space for everyone. Yes. So it doesn't feel like you don't have anything, or you had to get, you had to sacrifice such , a massive amount just to be able to have this life. Ariel is. She still has her space up there. She still has a lot of clothes. She has space that she can put all of her little knickknacks.

Justin has his own room where he can, , do all of his different stuff. Yeah, no, basically we have a role. The system that makes this work is. It does not come into our RV unless we know where we're gonna put it. Yeah. Unless we know it has a space to live. If not, it's not welcome into our rv.

We're not gonna purchase it, , whatever the situation is, it cannot come into our RV unless we know it's going to have a home. Yeah. And we've run into some things of going, oh, that'd be really nice. And then we have to ask ourselves, where's it gonna go?

Where does this go? Yeah. Because if it doesn't fit somewhere. And the main thing , is where is it gonna go on moving day? On moving day? Because if it doesn't fit somewhere on moving day, I'm not putting it in the truck. , We're not gonna turn into one of those people. Yeah., I always tell Jeremy, well, we can just put it in the back of the SUV because it's usually just me and

one other child riding in the SUV, we can put the third row seating down. We have so much space back there. There's nothing back there. It's big empty space. And he's like, no, I refuse to be those people that come. Yeah. And set up their campsite and they unload their underbelly and they unload their rv and they unload their vehicles.

And I'm like okay. Because if you, I don't know, and it's, maybe it's just me. And if it is, that's cool. I'm okay with it. But. I don't want to spend all that time moving and setting up and then having to unload another vehicle because you have that much stuff. Well, that goes into our next thing.

We do have a very. Pretty rigid routine when it comes to our moving day. I will say this is probably where we're the most rigid, I wouldn't say rigid, but we like we have a very specific system. Yes, we have a s and it's working and it works really well. Yes. I mean, I'm talking about we're broken down, , everything's put up, put away, and I'm hooked up to the rv.

Hour, hour and a half max. And no matter where we go, no matter the situation that we find ourselves in, we're set up in an hour and a half max. Yeah. So even if it's raining. Yeah. So only three hours of our day is breaking down, setting up, and then usually, three, four hours of drive time, that's seven, eight hours in your day, and then you're not having to.

Get somewhere late, set up late in the dark, you're trying to get everything done, or if you have bad weather raining, we've done it once. Mm-hmm. In the rain. And it took us like 30 minutes to set up. Not fully set up, but we were set up and we were in and we were comfortable. Yeah. But, ah, man. Just being in that system, in that routine and everyone having , their position that they go to and running the controls or driving the truck or making sure you're not gonna hit anything.

People knowing what they need to do in order to make that system work is just so much, so much peace of mind. I've seen so many different ways of o other people doing it. And, people have gotten divorced over it. I think that's more of like , the backing in part. Yes. It's definitely the backing.

In part we've experienced that a time or two and it's not just like our setting up and our taking down, like even going from place to place. Like we have a system and a rhythm that we keep every single time we travel. Like it doesn't fluctuate hardly at all. And the system is really simple, I mean.

Most of the time, depending on how far we go, because we always, especially me, I always scope out what direction am I going. Mm-hmm. What roads am I taking? Yes. Are they, number one, are they safe for the RV to go on? Number two, is there a place for either fuel or for potty breaks or three, is that the same way Misty's going?

Which a lot of times it's not. And I think we've only went the same way once, once. And that's because it was pretty much the only road. So I scope out my route, but my route pretty much all pertains to the 2-year-old and the autistic 16-year-old that goes with me. Do we have plenty of stops for potty breaks and maybe a dollar store in case we need snacks or you know, different things like that.

And I try to stay off of the interstates as much as possible. So yeah, we. We often go two different ways and that absolutely blows people's minds, but it's a system that works really great for us. Yes, it totally works because Jeremy fulfills the needs that he has when it comes to transporting the rv.

And I fulfill the needs of our children that are having to travel these long distances. And that way it doesn't put stress on either one of us trying to keep up with the other person's needs. So it does work really well for us, and we always try to clean up the day before. That's the main thing. We do that.

We say that, but the last two times we haven't done it till this morning now. Well that's because it's been very small travel days like this. Well, because we didn't have to leave till like 11 o'clock in the afternoon. Yeah. This next one we're gonna have to clean up the day before. Yeah. I think we have to leave at like nine.

No. I. To get there. Yeah. Roughly. So 8 39, 8 30, something like that. Yeah. So, I mean, it's gonna, it's gonna be an early morning for us, but it's, it's a routine that we've gotten into where we clean up we prep everything. Everyone knows what they're taking down, what they're putting up. Yeah. The teenagers know their task in the morning.

Like we all have a Yeah. The only one that really kind of throws a kink into the plans as a 2-year-old. Yeah. Who doesn't quite understand his role yet. But he will eventually get there. He helps out dad and he helps out mom when, whenever he can. He gets in the way as much as possible and, but he will definitely get to a point where he will be rolling and gunning with us for sure.

Me and Justin are kinda like the breakdown setup crew. Mm-hmm. Justin has his routine of, taught him what I would like for him to do. And , just knocking out those routines are. Such a big deal because whenever we get to , wherever we're going, hopefully at a decent time, hopefully somewhere around check-in mm-hmm.

12, one o'clock, depending on what , the time , is we always like to also scout out the town or at least do some type of research about the town . And the things that we're gonna do in that area. So far, every time we went somewhere new, either the day we arrived or the day after we have went into that a lot of the thousand trails we stay at are not necessarily in town, like in the city limits.

I think this is the first one. This is the first one inside City Limits. The one at Lake Conroe. Yeah. And so we like to go into the town or in the town. We're in the closest town that's available. We like to scout out the town and become familiar with the place we're gonna be spending the next three weeks or so.

The main thing is finding our grocery store. Yes. Which is a big thing. Huge. And it doesn't sound like a big thing. I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before, but that's been one of my challenges being on the road is like, ah, finding somewhere I want to. Shop at every single time we go to a new place, because not everywhere offers the type of grocery stores I actually want to go grocery shopping in.

And also , for people , that may not understand this , or, can't wrap their mind around this. So we've been to several places and because we're in Texas and because HEB is amazing . If we visit a place that has an HHEB, we try to pick up food. But sometimes you can get into these way smaller towns where they have a grocery store and it's an adequate grocery store, but it also could be a pricey. Grocery store. Yeah. And not only can they be pricey when it's a smaller town, you become so accustomed to getting certain products and now they're no longer available.

Like you have to travel really far to find the things that you usually consistently purchase. And so there's nothing that we can get on a consistent basis. Like we can't always buy this brand of peanut butter or you know, just. We're always gonna go and buy this one item because we love it and we eat it so much that doesn't exist in our world anymore.

So finding grocery stores that , we're somewhat familiar with or offer the products that we want or are not crazy expensive, that's a big part of our scouting mission. What we'd also like to go into the closest town that we're in is to figure out. Where the post office is. Yeah. If we're gonna be sending off our monthly subscriptions while we're there, it doesn't happen in every place we stay, but for most of the places, since we move every three weeks, yeah.

I wanna know where I'm having to go and do that. And we love to go check out where the church is going to be, that we're gonna be visiting. If it's in the same town's, the closest, if it's in the same closest we, there's been a couple that, it hasn't been the same town that we're closest to 'cause they didn't either have a church.

That we wanted to go to. Mm-hmm. Or, , it was so small that organization wasn't there and we actually had to travel a little bit to, to get to, yeah. We've had to travel up to an hour away. So when that happens, we did not prec scout the church, but that is something we like to do. We like to become familiar with.

Like, where's the front door? , We have visited a church where we couldn't tell the difference between the front door and the back door, and they were on opposite streets. Yep. Everyone parked in the back and came in the back door, which was not the front door. Which led to an awkward situation that we'll talk about later, us coming into the back of the church.

Oh yeah. So that's why we prec and, , just become familiar with where we're gonna be and become familiar with the town , and , what it offers the activities that are, might be going on in that area or in the surrounding area, or even sometimes now. It's a blessing and a curse and Google is amazing.

Most of the time Google will tell you where you need to go or what's going on or the big ticket items that are gonna be in that area. But Google will not always tell you the hidden gems that we're looking for. Yeah. So when we scout out the towns, we have an entire podcast about this, but if we can hit up a visitor center.

We've had, hit or misses with that, or a chamber or something like that. We want to go and see what is offered in that area so that we can make our plans. But in making our plans, here's another system that we have. We are not rigid on them. We cannot be rigid on our plans. The reason we can't be rigid on our plans is 'cause we know we have gone through so many different scenarios and different things that we've tried to go to either inside or outside or something happens and the plans change.

Yes. So we're not rigid in our plans at all. We might have a good itinerary on what the things that we want to do, and sometimes we check off all the boxes. Sometimes we only get half of 'em. Mm-hmm. Sometimes we only get one of them because either it's rainy all the time or it's too cold to go outside.

Yes. And you just don't feel like doing anything. Yeah. There have been a few times here this winter that the baby has caught a stomach bug that has knocked me and him out for about four or five days. And so any plans we had during that time, like completely got thrown out of the water.

Yes. So we have to be so incredibly flexible when it comes to making our plans. What we really like to do is just. Have a rough draft of what there is to do in this area, and then I'm not, I don't wanna say each day, but maybe at the beginning of each week, we give a, okay, what are we doing today?

What do we wanna do tomorrow? What do we wanna do Wednesday? And then we will check with the weather and check. To make sure it's not gonna be during when Jeremy's gone. Things like that. We, we kind of break down that itinerary into each week and then take what we can and leave what we can't. Yeah, because some of the things that we wanna do are only open on like, say Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Maybe it's , a weekend market or maybe it's the time that they're having a huge garage sale, but it's only gonna be on that Saturday. So we have plans to go to that garage sale on Saturday, but if something was to happen. It's not rigid for us. Yeah. It's not if we missed that, that ruined the entire time that we were there.

The only thing that I would say we would ever get rigid on is if we have like pre-purchase tickets. Yes. And it's like those plans are not changing, which we have done and have had adverse things happen. And if you want that podcast, go check out season two yes.

But that wasn't when we were full-time traveling. But during our full-time travel, it's only been a few times where we have had to pre-purchase tickets and , we haven't had any issues with that. But if we're not pre-purchasing anything,, we're super flexible. We might get slightly disappointed when we're not able to do one of the things that we wanted to because of weather or something like that.

But we know we're gonna have. Just as many opportunities at the next place down the road., Or that, , we have the opportunity to come back anytime we want. Absolutely. And sometimes it's even to the point of we know something's going on there, but we're a weak lake, and it's like, ah, we missed it.

Hey, we're gonna be coming back at this time. We'll hit it then. Mm-hmm. And so being able to plan those out, knowing what's going on, or even here in the location that we're currently at, of going, oh man, they're doing this, or, oh man they did this last weekend and we didn't know about it because, , we couldn't find anyone at the visitor center or something.

Then. Having , that mindset and writing those down and jo those down, that the next time we come visit, then it's on our bucket list to go check out. So having , that flexibility, because we're not so rigid in all of our plans, , the only plans that we are absolutely rigid about moving day.

Moving day and where we're going next. Yeah. Because we have to book those out months in advance. Yes. Or we're not going anywhere. And so those are the only plans that we have for sure, that even if I go on a run, those are always in my mind. Yeah, agree. Am I gonna get back at this time? , I can't make a run and make a tight window and be like, Hey, if something happens, because it's happened before and I'm down for a day, we're not gonna make moving day.

Yes. So, oh yes, that has happened there. There are a few times where. Plans are very rigid and they have to happen, . Yeah, and I know we haven't went into a lot of detail like our moving day systems and things like that, but if you're interested, check out our YouTube channel if you haven't already.

There are links down in the show notes that will take you to that channel. And there are so many videos where we break down like our moving day. Our setups, all of that we do, how we travel. There's just several different videos that if you wanna get a, a more in depth look in that area.

And then the last thing that we are gonna talk about real quickly is my work stuff is the system that we have of the truck prepping the food prepping, . Whenever I know that , I'm gonna go on a run, , I know I'm gonna spin out so many days. So we go get food, we do a meal prep.

Misty Cook, , she plans, she preps all this stuff. I get it loaded, get it into the truck's ready to go. And then the wave system, the company that I work for, they have a really good system of, hey, making sure you're doing the truck preps and truck maintenance and , you're doing your logs and , you're.

Contacting your dispatcher and , so all the good things that happen with all the truck stuff as well. It's just systems that keep us running smoothly.

And again, it's just really important that we have certain things that we do. I wanna say consistently, but I also don't wanna use the word consistently because there's not a lot of consistency in this lifestyle. , I guess the consistency that we do have is the systems that we put into place, like that's where our consistency lies.

Yes. And by putting these small systems into place, it puts our mind at peace every single day. And , it's something that we keep on saying that we're gonna break down, but we're definitely gonna break it down in season five for sure. But the time that we spend either. Me working or the time that we spend doing, these systems, we have so much more free time.

Mm-hmm. Even after we get these accomplished. Yeah. And after I do all my runs and stuff to spend as a family or going off and doing things because. These systems make it so smooth and so easy. If you're interested in being a part of this lifestyle at all, I highly suggest that you research other people who are also in this lifestyle travel history, of course, but there are so many others, and you'll notice that a lot of them, they have systems that they do, especially if you're watching, you know, YouTube videos of people who do this.

They have their own little systems. Not everyone's systems look the same. You have to find something that works for your lifestyle. And to be honest, you're not really going to find what those systems are until you're in the lifestyle, until you're actually doing it. It did take us a bit to, you know, find these routines and these rhythms that really, really worked for us.

I'm sure we will keep discovering even more. I'm sure we'll tweak things as we go along, but for the most part, . ,  📍 These systems and habits that we have put into place have just really helped offset a lot of the challenges that we face in the RV lifestyle.

So make sure you guys stick with us this season. We have so much more to share about how we do all of this crazy stuff. . Thank you for joining our Travel Ry journey.