I planned to write an article about 10 things we minimized to move into the skoolie. I quickly realized it really wasn’t that simple. We minimized everything. Nothing was safe. We teased about putting the dog on Facebook Marketplace. We threatened to get rid of each others things when no one was looking so there would be more room for our things. Since it was a massive project, I’m going to break it down. We will start with downsizing the kitchen.
If I didn’t lump this all together into one category then this article would be titled ‘Hundreds of Things we Minimized Before Moving into a Skoolie’. The truth is, our kitchen was a hot mess. Drawers and cabinets were crammed full of things we ‘just had to have’. You opened cabinets to have Tupperware containers rained down on your head. You opened the drawer and the hunt for the can opener began all over again because you lost it the day before and the day before that too even though it is always in one drawer. *Cringe*
Goodbye ,Pizza Cutter…I mean….Hello, Pizza Cutter
We had a year to prepare for this part of the transition so we did it slowly and it was painless. First, we cleared out the cabinet shelves above our fridge. You know, the cabinets that hardly anyone can reach so you put things there that you really don’t use. Yeah, we got rid of all of that.
Then, I filled it back up. Except, not with the same things that were there before. I went through our kitchen and picked out items that I thought we could do without. I filled the entire cabinet, walked away, and tried to forget about it. After a month, I opened the door to see what was hiding in that lonely cabinet. Guess what, we repeated this process over and over again only to find that we rescued 1 item from the cabinet. I thought I could do life without a pizza cutter. I thought wrong.
Life Hack: Pizza cutters are a great tool for chopping salads into smaller bites.
The Missing Toaster
The only other item we missed was our toaster. The problem was that I didn’t warn anyone that an item we used weekly was going to be hidden away in the cabinet of things that do not return. I just woke up one morning, realized we could make toast in the oven or in a skillet, and tucked that bad boy away. Then I left for the weekend.
I wasn’t here to know how long Chris searched for the toaster. It all sounded very dramatic. Within a month, we realized life without the toaster rocked on just the same as it did before. I actually prefer skillet toast so bonus!
Uni-Taskers
Downsizing the kitchen meant taking a closer look at items we saw as ‘useful’. A lot of the items we tossed lost their space on the bus because they only performed one job. Getting rid of ‘uni-taskers’ was a rule that made everything a lot easier when it came to decision making. The toaster only had one job. Even though saying goodbye was painful at first, it didn’t make sense to keep it around. The pizza cutter isn’t just good for cutting pizza though. We use it on pizza, salads, pancakes, and tortillas.
Other Uni-Taskers:
Whisk (Still under debate. Leave your thoughts below!)
Orange Peelers
Energy Hogs
We knew the Keurig needed to go. Still, it took us 6 months to transition to a regular coffee pot. It took another 6 months for us to transition to a pour over coffee system.
Some of the energy hogs stayed because they do a lot of jobs. We plan on only using these items when we have full hook up. The first item to stay is our Instant Pot. We stopped using our oven and we cook EVERYTHING in it. When we are on full hook up, I plan to meal prep and cook some bulk items so we can just heat them in a pot when we are boon docking.
One attempt to use less appliances failed. A few months ago, I put an out of order sign on the microwave. Guess who was using it by the end of the day! Me! I heat up my coffee at least 3 times before I finally give up and move on to water. Also, I make huge portions and we eat leftovers because I’m not the most reliable cook. The microwave was the hardest transition, but we knew we didn’t want one on the bus. At least, we wanted to try life without one. That ‘Out of Order’ Sign is the next step in our transition.
Using Less Space
Using less of the space in our kitchen was the next step we took once we had minimized a lot of our belongings. We took the items that were left and grouped them in cabinets together. After a while, we were only using 3 of our 6 cabinets and they weren’t nearly as full as they were before.
After that, we limited the amount of counter space we used. We began preparing meals on the countertop beside the oven, instead of across the room on our bar area. This step in downsizing the kitchen proved to be a challenge. Re-learning to cook in a smaller space was eye opening and made us realize some of the growing pains bus life was going to hold for us.
The last thing we did was declare our kitchen table off limits. We stopped eating at the table because we won’t have one in the bus. I wish I could stay this change stuck. Before long, we were right back at the table. We may need one in the bus after all.
If you want to see some of the items we do plan on bringing with us for our skoolie kitchen, check out this link.
To see an item that did make the cut, click here.
