Adding lightness (AKA jettisoning unnecessary crap).

[static]

Often, when taking a walk around a campground, I come across lost or discarded tableware. Forks, spoons, etc., half buried in the dirt and gravel.

Being exceptionally cheap, I always pick up those stainless steel utensils, pocket them, take them home and run them through the dishwasher, then adopt them for camping use.

Apparently, I have collected far too many. The bus’ utensil box is now full and quite heavy. Today’s inventory shows that I have been carrying 12 butter knives, 18 forks and 22 spoons. Plus can openers, tongs spatulas (2), etc. WTF?

This, for an ***** who almost always travels solo.

I didn’t realize how out of control my hoarding had become until today when I was tidying up my bus in order to camp this weekend.

How much of each utensil do I really need? One? Two? Clearly, not as many as I have on board.

Currently, with my dog and myself, my ‘71 tintop Westy weighs in at approximately 3800 pounds (or 1725 kilos) when loaded.

“Give them all to a charity shop” you say?
I might need them some day!

 

[mike202]

You won't have to wash up for a week while you're away with all that cutlery!

 

[YellowBay69]

 

[ozziedog]

I haven’t collected my ‘stash ‘ of cutlery from finding odd items here and there. Mine seems to be added too in sets. I had one stainless set of older odd knife fork and spoon from the kitchen drawer. Then someone got me a complete picnic set in bright blue plastic that all packed neatly together, four knives forks spoons but no tea spoons. Then another set came my way for my birthday but these are stainless but a little larger because they’re a Snap On spanner set of cutlery which is of course knife fork and spoon set including a 17mm ring spanner as handles as bought for me by my fab nephew who never ceases in surprising me with his unique gifts. Then there is a complete set of six wooden knife fork and spoon sets that I have acquired somewhere along the line and I keep them just in case anybody needs an emergency set while we’re out camping. Plus a mahoosive set of stainless kitchen implements for out door cooking that I’ve never used apart from the tongs. This set has four pairs of stainless spikes handles for eating corn on the cob, tongs, skewers, egg flip, a carving knife and a yones guess what else is in the fab zip up fabric case about eighteen inches long by four inches wide. I could fight off a horde of angry wilder beast with the weapons at my disposal if I happened to be camped any where near any. I’ve already started slimming down on my excesses now maybe I should not worry about lending stuff to other peeps so much and keeping stuff just in case. I must have approaching ten or more different bottle openers that have found their way into my cutlery drawers over the years. I have a fixed Stella one on my kitchen unit, I have one with a wine type corkscrew on, just in case and I’ve a Corona one and a Coca Cola one and one that incorporates a tight bottle top opening mechanism. One from fab nephew that is also a gun, so once you’ve got the tops off, you can shoot the tops at targets up to about ten feet away. I must photograph all of these and show you.

Ozziedog,,,,,,,,,,,I too am mostly on my own ninety nine point nine per cent of the time

 

[W1K1]

Often, when taking a walk around a campground, I come across lost or discarded tableware. Forks, spoons, etc., half buried in the dirt and gravel.

Being exceptionally cheap, I always pick up those stainless steel utensils, pocket them, take them home and run them through the dishwasher, then adopt them for camping use.

Apparently, I have collected far too many. The bus’ utensil box is now full and quite heavy. Today’s inventory shows that I have been carrying 12 butter knives, 18 forks and 22 spoons. Plus can openers, tongs spatulas (2), etc. WTF?

This, for an ***** who almost always travels solo.

I didn’t realize how out of control my hoarding had become until today when I was tidying up my bus in order to camp this weekend.

How much of each utensil do I really need? One? Two? Clearly, not as many as I have on board.

Currently, with my dog and myself, my ‘71 tintop Westy weighs in at approximately 3800 pounds (or 1725 kilos) when loaded.

“Give them all to a charity shop” you say?
I might need them some day!

View attachment 7945

A little fishing line and a pair of pliers and you could leave behind some funky wind chimes at your local campground

 

[creationblue]

Every year about now I go through the cupboards and drawers and throw away out of date food tins, spares for a type1 engine that I haven't had for over 5 years etc, however this year I re-stocked the cutlery drawer a put some crockery back in as normally at a show I eat out but a few weeks ago we went on a campsite so needed the essentials.

 

[giraffeinbath]

I'm the other end of the spectrum with our van having been off the road for two years stripped down to a bare bones. All those useful little things that you accumulate over years of camping have been removed and dispersed so we're back to basics again.

I'll start with the essentials, a fistful of zip ties, a roll of gaffa tape and some blue tack to fix any eventuality and go from there...