Giving it all up for RV life

[dawnbarnard]

I am still new here. I thought I would find out how many full-timers are out there. My husband and I have lived a life on the go. He still "go's" but just in an 18-wheeler. I used to drive a truck but gave that up to go back to more corporate-type work where I can use my education. My son lives with his father now and is quite happy so it's just hubby and I now. There is 13 years in age difference with me being the younger. However, I am an old soul Anyway, we have both reached the point of not needing this big house. The whole part of the upstairs stays closed off. The garage is used for nothing but storage of "stuff" that is never used. We live in a portion of the downstairs and that's about the extent of our use of this home! He works full time and I have been working government contracts for the Department of Defense (War on Terrorism) and am currently in-between jobs. So we're just at a weird place in our lives.....we have sold our home and are moving out into a brand new RV.

We have a Class "A" that we can't afford to keep on the road. It's been parked for 2 1/2 years now and would take a couple thousand to get it road worthy again. So we like to go ---- and can easily conform.

Was it hard for you full-timers to let go of your "stuff"? We are putting some things in storage, but we're talking about downsizing a whole house into a 10x7 storage unit and an RV!! Everything is going into a big yard sale or the Goodwill.

I'm having a hard time parting with it all but I can't think of one thing that I need that I won't have in the RV. We even have two bedrooms with a King Bed in one and a queen in the other!!!

I'm excited but grieving at the same time. Any advice about what not to get rid of so as to avoid any regrets in the future?

[howie-2005]

We are new to full timing just selling our home also. My wife is 17 years younger and she still works. We had the garage sales of things that weren't important to us, BUT we filled a 10X20 storage bin with stuff we weren't ready to get rid of. We didn't keep any furniture, because we could always buy new if needed. We moved into our 38' motorhome and are staying at a KOA in St. Pete.

This is not the cheepest place to stay, but it gives us the opportunity to see if downsize living is for us. I believe once on the road, you do loose that part of life where friends take on a new meaning. The people you meet now, are all transient, unless you run with them, or attempt to keep in touch by email. That part I haven't quite figured out yet, or came to terms with myself yet.

I don't know if we're considered fulltimers because we've moved into our MH, or if we're just downsized and in a transitional phase. If the wife wasn't working and we were on the road, if things would be different! Don't full timers stay in one place for 4 or 5 months than move to warmer climates like snowbirds? I guess it's all in how you interpite full timing!!!!!

[dawnbarnard]

I guess for us - long-term will be 1-2 years in an RV and really having it as our only home. With our other home gone, all we will have is the RV for several years. I have worked for the Department of Defense for the Department of the Global War on Terrorism. However, with troops coming home in the Ft. Lewis area, I am no longer needed there. It is my hope that I will find work on a base where there are deployed troops. If not, I may have to find more conventional employment. But that shouldn't be a problem. The next possibility is Medford, Oregon. Who knows how long that job will last? 1 year? 6 months? 2 years? It's just hard to say. Apartment living sucks and moving all that nonsense around in a U-Haul and constantly packing up and unpacking and then doing it all over again is tiring. I guess I need another line of work (sigh). Hubby is a trucker, so he can call home wherever he takes off his shoes!!!

So that's our situation. I just don't want to have any regrets. The 10x10 storage is sounding like a good plan. I want to hold on to some antiques and family heirlooms. If for no other reason - just to pass down to my son.

I guess we'll see how it all goes! Thanks for the advice!

[Finhawk]

Stuff is only "Stuff". It was amazing to me when something would turn up that I hadn't seen in years and had forgotten about. So I figure that things like that really mean nothing.

[WheelingIt]

Giving up our stuff ended up being easier than I imagined. At first it seemed really hard, and then as I started letting go it was easier and easier. We got rid of most of our old furniture and old stuff we never use and ended up with a small storage which we keep while we're on the road. Getting rid of the old stuff was frankly very cleansing (honestly, most of it we hadn't used properly for years). I think keeping a small storage is a good compromise.

We used a BUNCH of charities & swap organizations:
1/ Goodwill/Salvation Army
2/ Local library (books)
3/ www.paperbackswap.com - for swapping books...we actually built up a really nice inventory of "credits" that we use while on the road
4/ The Freecycle Network - Our local chapter (in San Diego) was very active and we got rid of a BUNCH of stuff I never thought would go (old boxes, broken furniture, CD cases, junk etc.)
5/ Craig's List - Again the San Diego chapter was very active and we sold a good amount of stuff on there

Nina

[GaryKD]

Hi dawnbarnard,
If you'd like to forum with other full timers, go to the iRV2 main page. Scroll way down to the RV lifestyles Forum. Inside that forum is a sub-forum for full timers. I'm sure there you will find lots of members who can provide support, hints/tips and have been where you are going.

[RickO]

Hi Dawn and congrats on the sale of your home. Not quite two years ago we sold our home in Northern Cal... put what we couldn't part with in a 10x10 storage unit and hit the road full time. We're retired so we had a different set of circumstances but I can tell you that at least in our case... the storage unit was for phycological purposes.

After >18 months on the road we ended up buying a townhouse here in Az. It was not something we planned to do for some time yet but the prices were so attractive and we found a perfect place for us so we took the plunge. We'll still be traveling about half time... at least for a few more years.

Two month ago I went back to Calif and emptied out our storage unit. While on the road we paid >$2000 in storage fees and I can tell you there wasn't anywhere near $2K worth of stuff stored there. It helped that I had completed the long project of scanning all of our old photos into the computer and "ripping" all of our old music so it too could be stored on the computer. Bottom line is that we had no regrets about not saving anything.

Best of luck to you

Rick