Can you be a minimalist and own a Class A?

[biggcrisp]

Minimalism is a tool that can help you find freedom. Freedom from the trappings of the consumer culture we've built our lives around.

It's a current culture that younger people are experimenting with. I guess there is no definition.

[twogypsies]

As a full-timer everything we owned was in our motorhome. However, everything doesn't fit so you have to weed out what is really necessary. It's amazing how much stuff you really don't need.

Also, when we bought the motorhome we specifically ordered one with only two slides and both had to be on the same side. We stayed in public parks 95% of our time or boondocked in the wilds. Trying to park amidst trees with slides on both sides would be difficult.

For the same reason we definitely did not want a washer/dryer because the majority of time we would not have hookups. Also, we never watched television so we took the one out of the bedroom for storage space.


We see no reason to have more than one bath.

We like quiet so we installed solar. We also used a catalytic propane heater rather than the heat-wasting, noisy RV furnace.

So, yes, I think we could be called minimalistic. However, there are many full-timers who are more so than us. It can definitely be done and it's a great feeling to be able to do so. 'Stuff' owns YOU.


I doubt if we could find a new RV nowadays for us. There are so many gadgets and nonsense being built on them - things that folks seem to need to go camping. We don't need all that stuff.

[Scarab0088]

Originally Posted by biggcrisp

Minimalism is a tool that can help you find freedom...

If that is the definition...YES, freedom is the single most important piece from the RV life for us.
And, a Class A provides a "tiny house" (all the vogue, now) with a way to move it built-in = efficiency.

Buy one with cash = no debt.
Repairing a fixer-upper is reuse and recycling

Insurance is pretty much mandatory unless you live at Mom and Dad's house.

And in under 400 square feet, you better be a minimalist (using a more strict definition) because there is no room for too much consumer glut.

I don't know about the "young people" piece, above...folks from the depression era and those of the "greatest generation" went through times of mandatory minimalism...they just didn't give it a name.
I would be surprised to see any millennial's get through a day without the common electronics of today. Consumerism is beautifully packed into each and every app on a smart phone

Safe travels

[09 harley]

Of course you can. Say your house it worth $750K. You sell it and buy a new class A for $250K. That is minimalist. You will need to really clean house to fit everything in your new home.
Having a class A does not make anyone able to transport anything not necessary. My personal opinion is that anyone who full times in a class A is a minimalist by definition.

[adamfolger]

Neanderthals were minimalists, until they discovered fire. flint and clubs. In my opinion the minimalists of today are just recycling the failed communalist ideas of the 60s. If you really want to be a minimalist...put down your IPad and cell phone, walk out into the woods naked and eat pine nuts....You will soon come back to the fire.

My comments are not aimed at the OP, rather at the confused concept of minimalism.

[computerguy]

I'm not a minimalist nor care to be one. I like my Starbucks coffee brewed by my electric coffee in the morning. I love my residential fridge and microwave.
Can you be one? Sure!!! But I didn't work all my life and scrimp and save to retire early to sacrifice more in retirement.

[CarlAda]

For a minimalist thread, this thread is becoming too much

[TJFogelberg]

A minimalist is someone who is satisfied with what he has.

[pasdad1]

Originally Posted by TJFogelberg

A minimalist is someone who is satisfied with what he has.

This is a very good definition!


Another quote I live by is..... happiness is NOT getting what you want.......

Happiness IS wanting what you have !

[V3600]

I'm a comfortablist - I like my comfort. I like my 4 tv's, 3 a/c's, bath-and-half, and taking my Harley with me. I've tent camped. I've pulled a tent-trailer cross country behind my motorcycle. Now I am liking my comfort. I like my trappings of commercialism Something tells me the OP will find a way to feel guilty about owning a Class A but I could be wrong.

[Amazonia]

Originally Posted by biggcrisp

Asking because I have been acquiring "stuff" for my class a thinking that the more gadgets I have, the easier camp life will be.

This is the crux of your question. You are going through something that is all too familiar - solving problems you don't have (yet). Thing is, you may never need the gadgets, but because you're in a Class A, you have a lot more space for the gadgets. When I first hit the road in my wagon, I bought all kinds of gizmos for the issues I anticipated encountering. Power banks for charging my phone and iPad were a big one. I could have gotten by with just a couple. And some of the stuff just wasn't worth the hassle. I think there is constant refining of what works well, but only some of it can be worked out in our minds.

Buying for your future lifestyle is also a way to anticipate and enjoy the prospect of being on the road when you are not.

A minimalist is one who does with less. In a Class A, you are perhaps living with less than a person in a house, at least less space, but a bunch of gadgets serving similar or same purposes is not minimalist. A minimalist will use one device for several purposes, whereas the non-minimalist will have multiple items to serve the same or very similar purposes. The person who has things that serve possible but not probable purposes, or purposes whose time has past for good, is also not likely a minimalist, regardless of the size of the rig. That said, a class A will require more discipline than a class B or C, because the latter two will force the minimalist issue more strongly.

Get on the road and then get real about what you need.

BTW: I am at the same point: not on the road yet, and trying to decide how much space I really need.

[Sandy Swede]

Wow, I spent the first 10 years of my life as a minimalist and never knew it. We heated with wood stove and had no indoor plumbing (cast iron hand pump at sink does not count). On many winter mornings, I recall scraping ice from inside the window of my upstairs bedroom. Hand-me-downs from cousins. But we were not poor as no one would be foolish enough to throw away something of possible future value. As someone else posted, I did not work my tail off for almost 40 years to achieve early retirement with a comfortable (but never wasteful) lifestyle. Perhaps I would feel guilty if I owned a new King Aire. If I set up a GoFundMe site to test this out, would you help me?

To me, minimalism is, by definition, a subjective concept. Hmm, perhaps I should post the following: "What is the minimum list of things I need to buy for our new MH?" That would keep folks on this forum busy for the next two weeks. I suspect that the OPer will not find definitive help from others for his question, on this forum or elsewhere, but may find insight to the inner motivation which prompted his question. Or I could be completely full of it. That's never happened before.

[Stripe34]

Minimum list of things needed for new MH also depends on how it will be used (FT vs PT, FHU or dry camping, climate/destination plans, etc). Plus the intended lifestyle of the campers - eat at rig only, cooked meals or sandwiches, and so on.

The whole exercise is more IF / THEN than any set sort of recommendations...

[Old Radios]

People talking about being minimalists when living in RVs that cost more than a house, have full baths/showers, refrigerators, stoves, microwaves, flat screen TVs, king and queen beds, furnaces and air conditioning, generator and solar power, hot and cold running water, really??? I would say Gypsies maybe for many but definitely not minimalists. There's nothing wrong with being a Gypsy.

I've met a few van dwellers that might qualify as being minimalists but I'm not talking about class Bs.