Since we are visiting family and friends in our hometown for the summer, I have returned to work, and so has my DH. I am still selling jewelry, and he is still landscaping. Some things never change. But I thought I would discuss the tremendous changes we faced back in April of 2017, when we made the life-changing decision to sell our house and go FT in the RV. This transition is the most discussed subject in the world of RVers, and the most controversial to all those concerned. Whether you are the RVer, family or friend, or even spouse of an RVer, it is the most serious of decisions one might ever make in their life, yet not discussed seriously enough. So here are some of my thoughts to shed some truth and light on what can be a very confusing subject. If you read my last blog, you will understand that FT life is not for everyone, as we venture slowly towards owning a small sticks & bricks retirement house. If you are contemplating going FT, you may want to listen up. If your DH is throwing the idea around, or vice versa, do yourself a favor and continue reading. It just might save you a major hardship down the road, and you’ll be thanking me.

If you travel leisurely on vacations, or as Snow Birds for months at a time during the winter to warm and snow-free destinations, you know it doesn’t take long before you become hooked on RV travel. (There’s a book title!) You wake up in your own bed in beautiful places and spend numerous hours sightseeing, hiking, kayaking, or simply loving a sandy beach with a cocktail or two. Making friends has never been easier and life is drastically simplified. All the decisions in normal daily life become so easy. Nobody cares what you wear, if you have makeup on, what car you tow, or the RV you drive. NO ONE CARES! You are all doing the same thing and loving life. It is very easy to get drawn in and addicted to this simpler life enjoying nature to the fullest, and not judging anyone by what they have or don’t have. So why not do what you’re doing ALL THE TIME?

The discussion starts gradually. You and your travel mate are sitting with friends at Happy Hour, and someone starts telling you how they sold their house, got rid of all their stuff, and hit the road, never looking back. They don’t miss a thing! No more house payment/taxes/insurance, no more house repairs/maintenance/yard work, and no more headaches. Sounds like a dream-come-true and you are already half-way there. Now the discussion comes up privately between you and your travel mate, usually during HH or dinner. You discuss the what-ifs and how to’s, but not seriously, and no decisions are ever made. Once you return home to your normal life, filled with all the normal complications, a little voice in the back of your head reminds you, now and then, of how simple life could be if you just take the plunge and go FT. If that little voice isn’t loud enough, your travel mate also reminds you how awesome it would be if we just chuck it all and hit the road. Then, on top of your little voice and DH’s voice, your travel friends call and remind you of how wonderful it is, and talk about their next trip, and would love for you to join them. The cycle repeats every single winter season that you pack up and head towards warmer weather. You hear more and more people doing this drastic RV thing, selling everything or giving it away, and the new simpler life awaits them down the road. This continues for several years but still no drastic decision is made. Eventually, one of you wears down. One of you either gives in to the idea, or you put it to rest with a NO, NOT NOW, NOT EVER. In our case, I kept my mind open to it because my DH really liked the idea, but I was always afraid to take the plunge. But after 6 years of RVing and enjoying this adventurous life on the road, I finally gave in to the addiction and the RV won! I honestly didn’t know if DH would even want to follow thru with this crazy idea at this point, but we arrived home from Snowbirding just before April 1st, and the house was sold by May 31st! Over and OUT!

So where did we begin? If you’re thinking about doing this, here is a brief run down of do’s and don’ts. I will try not to bore you with all the details, but there was nothing boring in our life during this 2 months of insanity and downsizing.

1. Before the house is on the market (ours actually sold before it was ever listed), you will want to de-clutter and stage it anyhow, so address your wall photos and dust collecting knick knacks, and all of your important documents. I removed all family photos and left only artwork that could possibly sell with the house on our walls. Have your family over to claim portraits, family photos or anything else you want them to keep safely until such time that your sanity returns, and you reclaim your items at that time. It could happen! Make sure they have whatever is needed for your funeral, copy of your will, jewelry, etc. Scan and save any important items onto flash drives before you part with them, and be sure to keep originals of necessary documents. This is very time consuming, so attack this first and work the other things in as you go along.
2. Burn, shred, destroy anything you don’t need or want. The taxes you have kept since you were old enough to file, receipts from big purchases that you don’t even own anymore. You know the ones I’m talking about. The piles of garbage we all say we will get rid of one day, but the day never seems to come? Well, that day has come to destroy the pile! We invited neighbors over for a bonfire and cocktails while the purging commenced. Have a little fun with it!
3. Now the organizing for garage sales or estate sales begins. Post pictures of everything you want to sell on websites first for family, friends & neighbors. They will come and get the good stuff and you will be left with the garbage for the public to hoard thru. You will wonder how on earth anyone could offer 50 cents for something so expensive and barely used! Don’t take it personal. It happens to everyone during this process. We are slowly devaluated. Just keep in mind, that when you die, the very same thing happens. You’re just not there to see it, but you kids will be appalled that your stuff wasn’t worth a dime!
4. By now, you are wondering what in the hell you have done, as you look at your bare walls, empty rooms, and empty drawers! Your garage is full of china, crystal, linens, DVD’s, CD’s, phones that still have wires attached, and every other antique, out-of-date thing that anyone has given to you, your entire life! Your Christmas tree, every decoration for every holiday is in a box on the floor. Your family doesn’t want it, NO ONE wants it. It was only important to you! Get over it, or store it.
5. I hope you didn’t forget to keep aside everything you DO WANT to take in the RV, because ours was in the shop getting repaired. We had everything that we needed to pack in it sitting in a back bedroom! Now that the sales are all over and you are exhausted mentally and physically, load up your car, your truck and anyone else’s vehicle with all the stuff you have left that will NOT be going with you. GIVE IT AWAY. Donate it. Just get rid of it, because your vehicles are next!
6. You can only tow one vehicle behind you, so if you own 3 more? Sell them. However, if you plan to return home on a yearly basis to visit family, friends & neighbors, as we do, you might want to consider storing one of your vehicles if they are paid for.
7. Now you can pack your RV for your new life on the road. You will find that you most likely can not fit everything you wanted, so now you have a few more items to give away. Remember, no one cares what you wear, so don’t keep that much. I still like to shop and there are places to shop everywhere you go. It’s not like you are going to be away from all civilization ALL of the time.
8. If you purchased a newer RV for FT, as we did, plan to stay at a local Campground for any necessary repairs where you purchased it, because there WILL be repairs. Also, stick around for any checks that may linger from the sales transaction of your home. Not everyone does transactions electronically, and forwarding takes time.

Lastly, look over this list of things to do and question it. If you knew two or three years from now that you would no longer want to live in your RV, what would you do differently? Did you really need to get rid of all the useful things? Could you have stored a bit more? I remember people saying, that after 2 years of FT, they got rid of everything in storage because they felt it was a waste to keep it. Well maybe it was that way for them. But as for me, I wish I would have stored my car and some of the expensive items that I will never purchase again in my lifetime, that I really liked and enjoyed! I am thankful that my Sisters kept some of the sentimental things that may be reclaimed once we settle in our retirement home. Thankfully, Roger’s Daughter also kept a few of his sentimental and military items. I am sad that we didn’t save more, but excited about getting some different things too. Our tastes do change over time, but so does our income. We will never live long enough to accumulate what we had, so less is more.

I heard someone mention on the Full Timer’s website, that they purchased their RV outright with the money from their home sale. Great not to have a monthly “house” payment! Please keep in mind though, that the equity from your home just went into a depreciating vehicle. (Some more than others!) If you are in your 60’s, or even 70’s, how long do you have to ever save for another home? You might not need or want one today, but life changes in an instant. Death, divorce, serious illness, life tragedies; can all be yours without ever expecting it to happen to you! I can’t say enough how important it is to have a Plan B. (I know the “fly by the seat of your pants people” think that’s crazy!) Luckily, we have an RV payment that will disappear if we sell it, and the money from our home is still available for the purchase of another, once we decide. As for all the money we made selling our stuff? It is long gone! Down payment for the RV, repairs, maintenance, insurance, fuel, pad rent, etc. All things that are not tangible to show for any of it. Nothing changes on the road from real life, you just traded one thing for another thing. So if there is anything you learn from reading my blog, let it be that nothing is ever certain. I took the plunge, but that did not guarantee I would love it, but Yea Me for trying! If you enter this decision with another person, also keep in mind that they may not love it, even if you do. This decision is as serious as it gets folks, so treat it that way and good luck! Be safe out there and be smart, because we are still out there with ya…for now…

If you have been following my blog, you know how I met my husband back in October of 2010, and was introduced to traveling the country by means of an RV. You also know that my blogs are informational for RV’ers, funny, sarcastic, and all lead to how I ended up living in one full time. Have any of you wondered what kind of person would willingly downsize to a slightly larger than 400 SQFT living space? I am reminded by the look on some people’s faces, once they understand that we no longer own a brick & mortar home by choice, that they may believe we have a few screws loose, or missing some completely! They would be correct, but not in the way you think. So I decided to venture down that highway, loose screws and all…(pun totally intended!) I am going to share a few personal things about our past lives in order to give you the whole picture, so prepare yourselves for a little ride down the information highway to understand how & why it was so easy to part with so much stuff.

Roger, as you may have already read, is US Air Force Retired after 22 years of honorable service to our country. I can not tell you about everything he did, but it involved security forces, 1 tour in Vietnam during the war, one in Korea, and then retraining into Air Traffic Control, where he retired after 16 more years. His stuff was moved around from state to state, and country to country. He was a single parent following a divorce, was a Manager in shipping/receiving for many years, worked in construction, built a home for him and his daughter, put her through college, and has been a landscaper for an awesome local company for 13 years. His house was paid for, and he bought his first Class C RV for leisurely travel, which was the point in his life that we met in the Fall of 2010. His dream was to one day retire into the bliss of the highway, traveling in search of needy farmers or ranchers out West, and provide help for their survival in exchange for food and a place to park Tin Lizzy. He never gave up his home to follow that dream, and he didn’t have a soul mate to travel with, so he stayed put, surrounded by family and friends, and enjoyed life to the fullest. His life story was a good one thus far.

I was a very young Housewife and Mother, who out of necessity after a divorce, became a successful career woman. I started out selling cosmetics for luxury brands, which resulted in climbing the ladder to an Account Coordinator, Area Manager, Regional Manager, and finally, Account Executive for several well-known Luxury Jewelry Brands. I was living the dream! I bought several houses, (rented a few), built a retirement home, drove a great car, and had a job I can truly say I loved traveling all over the country and abroad. In December of 2007, I received the dreaded call that no one ever wants to receive, especially before the holidays. I learned that my company was drastically downsizing in the US market, and January 31st, 2008, would be my last day of employment. I had only been living in my newly-built home for about 1 year and the rug was pulled out from under me. I went from a six figure income to collecting unemployment. My rental properties would soon fall under my responsibility as well, once my tenants also lost their jobs, and vacated. Three homes, one car, no job, equals certain financial demise, unless a miracle would happen! There would be no miracle during the biggest housing bust and recession we have ever experienced in my lifetime. I sold one house for what I owed, I sold one house short of what I owed, and over a two year span of determination for survival, bankrupted my retirement home, and moved into an apartment. And that’s my tragic little story, without getting into every detail, for fear my readers would simply die if they knew the truth about banks and lending institutions during the recession, and how they betrayed responsible, tax-paying, law-abiding citizens like me! I moved into an apartment with all my stuff, after getting a job paying less than half of what I used to earn, but I learned a lot about myself, who I was, what I was capable of, and what I could live without. All of my material possessions were just simply stuff! They did not define who I was, or determine where I was going. They just made it more difficult to get from one place to another, because I had to move all that stuff!

So once Roger and I were at the point of moving in together, I had to move my pile of stuff, yet again! (I can hear George Carlin laughing at me now!) So we merged two entire households into one. We got rid of a lot of stuff, but we had a beautiful place on over 2 acres, with a lot of yard work; mowing, edging, trimming, weeding, mulching, planting, etc. We had 1700 SQFT inside to take care of , two cars, one truck, and the RV to insure and register. We both worked and traveled during the summer, and we became snow birds every winter, and repeat. We had a very normal life with no financial crisis, and more fun than anyone I knew, as we travelled the country together. Those were the best days of our lives!

But we got greedy. We wanted more. More is better! More is GOOD! And that is the way of the world, is it not? So after 3 years of spending our winters in Key West, we decided to sell, donate, and give away, almost everything we had. We would sell our Class C and upsize to a 40 foot Class A to haul our asses and everything we still owned, anywhere and everywhere we wanted to be! The stuff we had accumulated our entire lives was reduced to a much smaller pile, and the house was history as of May 31st, 2017! We felt exhilarated! Our children would never have to go thru a lifetime of stuff when we make our final departure from this earth. A burden that so many never think of, was lifted. We felt relief and excitement for new travels to come, more winters away from snow, more summers up North. We were living the dream that so many can only dream!

But as I wrote very early on in my blogs, this was not my dream. I tried to change course, as this was someone else’s course, not really my own. I am learning that you cannot live someone else’s course, or happiness may never truly be yours. And so after 2 years of living full time in our RV, well over 1500 days since the beginning of our adventures, I have been able to tell my DH, that this does not feel right for me. I wanted it to, with all my heart, but I miss a traditional house, with a traditional yard. And that is where we are today. A very confusing time for both of us, as we have many decisions to make about where we buy or build our retirement home. But that is for another blog. What I want to leave you with, for now, is this; Don’t let someone else’s dreams interfere with your own course, and be very honest about it. I could have kept quiet about this, and tried to be happy for 3 or more years of full timing, but tomorrow isn’t promised, and 3 years may be too late. So be honest with yourself and those you love dearly, before you fall under the spell of FT life traveling the country in your tiny house on wheels. Others make it sound so exciting, like a fantasy come true. But it might just be their fantasy, and not yours. Most of all the people we have met from long ago that were FT, are no longer FT. They maintain a small brick & mortar home and travel part time. So if you have been enticed by the lifestyle and dreaming of it, just be sure to have a plan B and financially be prepared for that, if and when the time comes. I personally don’t believe you can live in paradise every single day, or paradise becomes just like every other day. Keep your travels special, dreamy, and limited, or they will simply become a “checked off” state on a big map or bucket list. I, for one, do not want to live by a bucket list, I want to live my best life! I just need to try and determine exactly what and where that is. For now, we are surrounded by family and friends in our hometown, and we will work it out.

As for the those loose or missing screws? We may have tightened up a few here and there, but I do believe, there are still a few missing! We literally find screws on the floor now and then after miles of rough roads…