Not just death and taxes

You may think that when you don't have a house you don't have to do any housework, but unfortunately you'd be wrong. There are still most of the same jobs to be done around the van, although admittedly they are often faster.

The first regular job is the laundry. 3 loads every week, usually on a Tuesday. All van parks have a laundry, although they do vary greatly in quality. Generally a load of washing costs $3, although it can be up to $4, particularly in larger towns like Darwin. We always save any $1 coins we get so we always have change for the washing machine. Depending on how many machines the park has, and how busy they are, you sometimes have to queue up to get a machine, and if the park doesn't have many clothes lines it pays to get in early or you could end up having to use a dryer. Luckily we've never been in that situation yet, it helps that we have been mostly been travelling in warm dry weather so if the washing machines and/or lines are all full then you can usually do a load later in the day and it will still be dry by nightfall.

After the washing there is of course the ironing. Some caravanners don't bother with this, but Wendy absolutely refuses to use an unironed hanky, and if you are going to iron hankies you may as well iron shirts and shorts as well. At first we were using the caravan park iron, but some of these are pretty awful so we bought our own in Port Augusta. We've only come across one park so far that didn't have an ironing board, and luckily we left there the day after we did the washing, so we've done the ironing every week so far. The only problem we have now is the little iron jug has disappeared (left behind at one of the parks no doubt) and try as we might we haven't been able to find another one, so a water glass has to do the job.

On the subject of washing, we also have to wash the dishes after each meal. No dishwasher in the van unfortunately! There isn't enough bench space to allow dirty dishes to pile up, so usually even the 2 bowls, spoons and glasses from breakfast get done straight away.

Cleaning the van, while faster than cleaning a house, also has to be done more often. We sweep virtually every day, sometimes more than once, as we are constantly in and out. Here in Darwin it isn't as bad as further South, in the outback the red dust gets into everything, the floor seemed to feel gritty 5 minutes after it had just been swept. On the same principle, benches and other surfaces needed to be cleaned down every few days in the outback, here in more civilised climes it is once or twice a week.

There are also some jobs that need doing in the van that don't apply at home. The toilet cartridge fills up about once a week and needs to be taken to the park dump point and emptied. The first time you do this is a bit embarrassing, wheeling a box full of wee around the park, but it didn't take us long to realise that everybody has to do the same thing. We also need to keep the back of the car clean, as John leans against this when hitching up the van, at first we couldn't figure out why his t-shirts were getting the nasty red stain on the shoulder!

At least we don't have to remember to put rubbish bins out!