Storage and a drain!

Hi everyone,
This is one from Di, about the more domestic side of living in our Symphony. I read all the very technical things that interest "himself", (and would probably interest me, if I understood what most of it meant!) But I wonder if I could just ask what others have found to be the best combination/use of the storage provided in what is obviously a very limited space. At present we are set up as follows:

Overcab Locker.
All bed linen, pillows, towels, and soft squidgy things, and the medicine box.

Long Settee.
Locker nearest driver: All utility items, i.e. mains lead, loo chemicals,water hose, and a box with all the mechanical/electrical spares "himself" thinks we MIGHT need!
Other locker: wire trays for tinned groceries and reserves of such things as cooking oil and squash.
Below wire trays: The wine cellar, where "himself" keeps reserves of his evil brew!

Rock and Roll seat/bed locker.
wire tray for shoes, umberellas, etc.
Below wire tray: Any fresh vegetables.

The small cupboards above the hob are used for condiments, and things like cooking oil in small refillable containers. Jams, sauces, and tea/coffee are also stored here.

Cupboards below oven/sink are used for saucepans, kettle, and such electrical items as we feel may get used on the trip.

The wardrobe has been filled with a small free standing drawer unit that fitted in well (we couldn't see we would ever need to wear anything that needed to be hung up!)

The cupboard above the wardrobe is divided in two. The bottom part being used for bread/biscuits/crisps/spaghetti etc. The upper being used for clothing.

Gas Locker.
Using two 4.5 KG bottles leaves useful space for dustpan and brush, and other cleaning materials.

So, that's how we've loaded Alice at the moment. Any comments or advice on getting the best from the available space would be interesting to hear.

One final point, on a different subject:
We do notice a slight smell sometimes from the sink drain. It's usually when the tank is empty, and we've tried the usual tricks of pouring cleaner/bleach etc down the drain, with limited success.
Are we right in thinking that no "U" bend exists, and that the pipe drains straight into the waste tank?

Anyway, nice to talk to you all,

from Di

Di,
One thing that have done is to remove the wire tray and its runners from beneath the single rear n/s seat and replace with various sizes of plastic crates and seed trays from the pound shop. This allows much more to be stored here.

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What you store where is very much a personsal thing, we each do it differently.

I have a first aid kit and a small tool kit attached to the front of the leisure battry with a bungee strap.
Have you investigated the compartment that houses the water heater? I have made the lid easy to access and can store quite a lot in there.
We like the wardrobe and do use it for hanging clothes. Shirts trousers and outdoor coats are all stored here. We each have one of the upper compartments in the wardrobe for other clothes. soks, undies jumpers.
Shoes go under the front passenger seat.
Under the long seat we have food, the yellow ramps, torch, binoculars, laptop plus more.

I find room for the loo chemicals just inside the loo cassette access door. Then they are right where they are needed.

One the subject of the waste pipe - you are right there is no u bend.

squip

We've also tried various storage combinations, many different ones are fine for a weekend or even a week but at the moment we are away for 17 nights, the longest we have done in our Symphony so we had to rethink storage for this trek. We has removed the deep basket under the sofa behind the driver and used this for bedding. We had removed the top basket under the single seat just to give one deeper basket for Carol's clothes. Mine went in the overhead locker and we both hung trousers in the wardrobe.

Total rethink - for this trek we put bedding in overhead locker, replaced large basket in sofa behind driver and I put my clothes in there using a couple of baskets inside the slide basket and two more baskets underneath together with shoes. Carol has always had the two small slide baskets in the other sofa locker for shoes and tools etc go underneath. We put back the other basket under the single seat and Carol finds that better for her clothes. Under these baskets we put the TV, hairdryer, & curling brush. I hang trousers in wardrobe along with our jackets. The cupboards above the wardrobe have wine/beer glasses, kettle, bread, biscuits etc.
Over the hob cupboard contains tea, coffee, suga and condiments. Bottom cupboard under oven saucepans/griddle pan (folding handle) and bottom of centre cupboard houses a steamer pan set, top shelf of that cupboard we use for tins etc. Wine/beer by the way is wardrobe, we use one of those special bags from Tesco/Sainsburys with dividers in.

Nearing the end of our 17 night trek this has worked pretty well but no doubt it will change again.

Regarding your drain, try Orange Cordial the cheapest supermarket brand will do, put some down the drains with a bit of water in the waste tank - it does work and its cheaper than the proprietry stuff. I picked the tip up earlier in the year either on here or elsewhere and it works.

roli wrote:Regarding your drain, try Orange Cordial the cheapest supermarket brand will do, put some down the drains with a bit of water in the waste tank - it does work and its cheaper than the proprietry stuff. I picked the tip up earlier in the year either on here or elsewhere and it works.

Thanks for that tip roli, we will give that a try ourselves do you leave it in the tanks for a few days or just say over night?

John & Jean

Hi everyone,
and thank you for the response to our queries about storage. In particular, thanks Squib for the photos of your underseat conversion, thanks also to Paul for the suggestion that storage is a variable dependent on the length or type of journey, and to Roli for the Orange Cordial tip for the drain smell, we'd have never come up with that one!

We're of again for a few days next week, to our very favourite part of the country, Exmoor. It's only an hour or so travel for us, and has been our "bolthole" for many years.
It's the smallest of the National Parks, but has everything you could wish for, from spectacular coastline to history (both real and imagined), and many miles of scenery and walks.
We used to stay at a lovely site near Porlock, but nowadays use the smaller Caravan Club CL network to save a few pennies.
If we could recommend just one place to visit, it would be the Doone Valley, and those familier/interested, can do as we do, and stand at the altar in St. Mary's Church, at Oare, imagining where R.D. Blackmore placed Lorna Doone when she was shot through the window by Carver Doone. (and the smell of beeswax, from the polished pews, and scent from the flowers is also to be enjoyed.)

Oh dear, seem to have gone on a bit! but if anyone wants info. on the area, just let us know.

Jeff and Di