Many folks ask us “how is life different from living in a house”. I thought it might be interesting to go through some of the most common questions people ask us.
How are we able to handle living in a small space?
We have discovered (or created) a “normal” where we have areas that we go to for certain activities. Our areas aren’t really areas like you would normally think of, but really it’s the couch or the kitchen table or the bedroom or the front chairs.
Do we want to kill each other when we don’t really have any alone time?
I like to spend time alone in the early morning playing on the internet and watching morning shows while my partner sleeps. He has his alone time after I go to bed around 11pm.
We also have two little dogs where taking them for walks gives us some time to ourselves and together.
It is interesting that the dogs always know where their “home” is even though it changes locations about every month. Maybe they recognize it? They know the smell?
Do we miss having a yard or garden that we can call our own?
I have always loved to have a little nature around me and I have an AeroGarden where I can grow herbs, vegetables, flowers… and now I’m learning to grow and care for bonsai trees!
How do we handle being in different locations and surroundings with nothing being familiar?
We use a number of chain stores that have more or less the same layout in every city (e.g. Walmart, PetSmart). These stores enable us to go into any one of their locations and we can normally easily find what we are looking.
How did we decide what to keep and what to discard when moving from a house into our small space?
This was one of the toughest things we did to start this new life. I think it took us at least three attempts to be able to fit our “stuff” into our RV.
First attempt: This was where we got rid of the obvious things that we realized that we didn’t want or need
Second attempt: This was the first serious look at our belongings to determine if any item was going to be usable in the RV and if it wasn’t
Do we need to keep it?
Does any family member want it?
Should I donate it?
Third attempt: This was where the rubber meets the road. If we had any item that really shouldn’t go in the RV, we had to ask ourselves why it didn’t go away during the second attempt. Maybe it was an heirloom? Maybe it had a wonderful memory? …but if it couldn’t (or shouldn’t) go into the RV, it had to go somewhere and that was probably into paid storage. At this point I had to determine the following for each item
Will we use this item if we ever bought a home again? E.g. kitchen item, wall hanging
If not, will this item always be in a box, probably never to be opened again and is very important personally to keep? E.g. heirloom, fond memory
Note: Paid storage is very expensive especially if we planned to do this new lifestyle for many years. We had to think about how much it would cost to replace vs paid storage… so we got rid of all (or most) TVs, furniture, linens, kitchen appliances, clothes
As it turns out we were able to get our “extra” stuff down to few enough things that we have been able to leverage family to store anything that we are not carrying in our RV.
Once a year, we go through our RV from end to end and get rid of anything that we haven’t used in the previous year.
So what is life like living in a mobile RV vs a house? Different! …but with a new “normal” that we love!What questions do you have?
@Nyainurjanah We have a mail service that scans our mail and puts the envelope or card on a portal. From the portal, we can request the mail be opened and the pages inside also be scanned and put onto the portal. We can even print checks received and deposit them using mobile bank apps!
There are actually more than 1 million full time RV families on the road in the US. I’m glad you enjoyed the post. I didn’t realize this lifestyle was an option and wish I had earlier
@AniaKiser Good question!!! …and we get this one often too We do miss family and friends! I think Facebook helps a lot to stay connected. We also try to talk often and go by family/friends places as we travel. We do game nights and play online periodically as well. For sure we have be proactive to make sure that we don’t loose contact with family and friends.
@yagokd You really nailed it. We REALLY are attached to our things! We worked hard to be able to buy them and they are our possessions. I realized that I had become emotionally attached to my “things”. I could think of a million reasons why I would need each and every item in the future that I needed to give away. What made me able to de-clutter my life was two things.
I couldn’t start my new coveted lifestyle unless I learned to live without my stuff
I couldn’t afford to pay for storage to keep my stuff
Now that I’m 4 years past the start of our new life, I don’t regret anything I had to get rid of and it’s only a few things that I wish I had kept… and honestly I’m doing fine without those things as well
@Melissa_Langlois You are right that this lifestyle is not for everyone. We find a lot of couples where one would like to do it but the other is unable… so they normally do long trips instead.
We mostly stay in campgrounds. Most of our friends do not have a location big enough for our RV for us to stay with them and they don’t have the power we need as well. This has actually been challenging for folks who are full time RVing as we need campgrounds to survive and they are closing many of them down due to the Coronavirus. I haven’t heard of anyone yet who hasn’t found a solution, but it could be possible if all campgrounds closed.
Great post @Denise_Barlock , thanks for sharing. How are you getting on with current situation? Any restrictions to your movements?
I’m in the healthcare industry and know there are many people throughout the world that aren’t taking the pandemic serious enough. Someone may get infected but show no signs but they can still spread it. It pays to be very careful with all interaction with people and movements.
My father travelled in a RV for several years before settling down in a house again. He had a petrol powered power generator so he had power whenever he wanted it. It was a good lifestyle for him and I stayed with him too at different places. There are many people living fulltime in RVs in NZ.
Take care and be safe. Did you apply for Connect Live 2020?
@Denise_Barlock I always wanted to live a lifestyle like yours. You get to explore new places and it’s never boring. From the post it seems you are really enjoying it.
But, do you miss your hometown? Do you often go back to visit it?
ps: I love that google map stand you put up. So creative.
@TheEagleEye So far I’ve only heard of just a few folks outside the US who do extended stays in a RV. It’s great to hear that NZ is also a place where the lifestyle is possible.
We have been following the stay at home (or RV) directive where we currently are which is Myrtle Beach, SC. We are very fortunate to have been here as we have the beach to walk during the day with lots of social distancing possible.
…but we can’t afford to stay here much longer. We’re going to move to a friend’s house in Raleigh, NC on the 15th and we’ll follow the stay at home directive there probably through the rest of this situation.
We are very fortunate that our RV is mostly self sufficient and is fine to isolated in.
Thank you for asking about our welfare!! It is quite challenging for the 1 million full time RVers who are traveling the US who may not have a sanctuary place to go to.
Miss our hometown? Yes and no. We still have contact with our friends through text and Facebook and we go back to visit 2 to 3 times a year. What we find is that when we are back, we realize how much slower life is outside of the cities we left. We, now, really love the slower lifestyle vs the hometown we left. We love to go back and visit but we are always happy to go back to our new “normal”.
Hi @Denise_Barlock , this post is something I wait for from you since last year event! I am curious about how the procedure of entering new country using your mobile RV. Did you just show the passport or anything else you? And…where’s the longest place you stay during your travel?
@NunungAfuah It was absolutely FASCINATING to go through Canada on our way to Alaska. We did show our passports but the border patrols searched our RV from end to end for an hour and a half!!! We couldn’t take fresh produce through and there were limits on amounts on certain items like dog food …and this is just some of the issues of crossing the border with an RV. Eeeekkk!!!
The longest we’ve stayed somewhere is Texas when we spent time with Dave’s Dad which was about 4 months when we were having problems with our Jeep. We normally stay about a month anywhere
One must be very flexible with our lifestyle! hahahaha
