Due to a house fire (Read our story here) our family ended up moving from a 2200 square foot house to a 420 square foot park model trailer (when all slide outs are fully extended.) The move to a smaller space under these circumstances is what made us realize we were free and able to do this! Let me explain
My husband and I had dreamed about buying some lake property, living in an RV and paying it all off then building a house or moving but always having that vacation spot paid for. At the time though, this seemed impractical if not impossible. We were expecting a baby and how can you possibly deal with a baby in such little space? Luckily(?) for me, I would find out.
When we purchased our park model, we were fortunate to get a pretty good sized one. Also fortunate we were that my husband is excellent at hauling trailers and not scared of hauling 40 feet. (Ladies, he’s taken, but thank you.)
We didn’t have hookups yet but we were able to run a generator, use our neighbors office key to use the bathroom, wash dishes and clothes, and we made it work for a while. After what we had been through, it was just wonderful having that space together again. Eventually we got better set up and life was much better.
One thing that made this transition from 2200 sq feet to 420 square feet a lot easier is we didn’t have any clutter. By the time we moved in, we had literally just wiped our slate clean of stuff. What we had at this point was only stuff we needed on a day-to-day basis. The house was CLEAN. And easy to clean. I’m not a neat freak by any means but having a simple home with minimal stuff and having it easy to keep clean does wonders for my happiness. If you feel like you don’t have enough space where you are right now, it's because you have too much stuff (probably).
Another thing I learned living small is that the winter is the hardest part. Spring and Summer? We basically lived outside. Just came in to sleep, shower, cook, or clean. It is because of the small space that pushed us to be more outdoorsy. We enjoyed the weather so much more because we were always out there playing, gardening, raising goats or chickens. If you want to move to an RV lifestyle, I highly recommend start at the tail end of winter or beginning of spring. You can get use to all the other little frustrations of RV life and not add seasonal depression in until you are well established.
The set up… We were fortunate to be able to get an RV cover right away and it’s the best investment you can make for your RV. It’s not cheap, but if you are going to stay somewhere or even store it, having an RV cover is wonderful peace of mind. These things will absolutely leak, and it sucks waking up to dripping on your face. Plus the stress of “how much damage is happening right now” isn’t a feeling I’d wish on anyone. Having utilities is what I would consider a “must”. I’ve done it without and it’s no fun. You don’t need a lot of space to be happy but if your time is spent playing frogger to go to the bathroom or get water to cook or getting up in the middle of the night to top off the generator, it takes over your life fast. Especially with kids. I wouldn’t personally settle for not having power and water again. Septic can be another story. Right now, and for the last 5 years, we have rented an outdoor bathroom. But still, life would be significantly more convenient if we were able to go to the bathroom inside. Plus, there’s the cost of renting the potty. We finally have septic which we installed ourselves. But we are not at a location we can hook up to it. It’s by the house and the RV cover is not. We know now that this particular RV does have a leaking roof so we’re just biding our time until we can move into the house. Thank God we have an RV cover for the time being!
Another thing I can’t stress enough, invest in a heated hose! It really stinks to wake up with snow outside or even frost and just already know you can’t shower or make coffee. A heated hose in our climate works 99% of the time. We might get a deep freeze that is too cold still for it to work but that’s pretty rare.
Do some slight remodeling (Only if you need to though) This can happen before you move in or after. We got a break in between living in our RV and my husband took the opportunity to remove a junk cabinet set (the cabinet wasn't junk but we historically stored junk in there that we should have just gotten rid of instead), and to put in a nice tile countertop and a real kitchen sink. I no longer worry about putting something heavy on the counter and watch it sink down further. I’m pretty sure he also made it a little taller, but I could be wrong. Either way, a real kitchen counter is nice to have. I’ve always been a big fan of tile and it didn’t break when we moved it here so that’s good news!
If possible, have a separate room built to have a real laundry room. As a family of 5 the tiny washer and dryer set was miserable. Thankful to have that over having to go to the laundry mat and pay exuberant prices to do laundry, plus have to wait there or come back multiple times. People do it, and I commend them. We had our washer outside under a tarp sitting on a pallet for a while but at least it was full size. Now we have converted one of the bedrooms in the “haunted house” to a full laundry room and it’s way better. This might not be possible for you right away but having a shed with the ability to do this plus have a full sized fridge is a nice addition to work towards, if you can. Speaking of full sized fridge, we removed the dinette a long time ago and put in a real refrigerator there instead. We don’t have a table. We eat on the couch instead. To me it's worth having a real refrigerator. Especially since the built in one stopped working forever ago, plus my son walked by and the door just fell off. (I was there to witness) It’s been my spice storage ever since and works awesome for that! Side note, I got our refrigerator on a whim. I was out in Tacoma in my Honda Element and was near the scratch and dent place. I was able to load up our fridge in that car, close all the doors and make it home no sweat.
Skirting. We’ve never done it, but I know skirting helps keep things insulated as well as prevents rodents from having free access to your crawlspace. In our case, we’ve only done the RV thing as a “temporary” solution the 5 years we’ve been here and the year and a half we were at the last place, so…..
Last but definitely not least. Invest in a pellet stove as soon as you can. In the meantime, at least a dehumidifier. A pellet stove will fix 2 major problems in RV living. Moisture, and actually being warm. RVs are notorious for sweating. You might see people advising you to cover your windows and walls with blankets for insulation. If you did this for a week during the winter, you would have mold already. If you did it for a whole year, you’d probably do damage to your RV that would cost more than the RV is worth, to repair. Don’t do it. If you have to struggle with the propane heater that typically comes with the RV, you may learn that propane ADDS to the moisture problem. A pellet stove on the other hand, will make your RV as uncomfortably hot as you can tolerate! (If you’re already RVing it you will understand) also, at a fraction of the expense. We would go through 14 gallons in 10 days during a time where we both worked full time and kept the heat on low or off while we were away. It was so pricey and inconvenient how often we had to change bottles that we used a radiator heater instead. So far last year and into this year we have spent $500 on pellets (2 tons) and that’s with me staying home every day. We will have enough to get through the next couple weeks and it’s March so at this point we’re about to switch back to radiator heater anyways. We had some good freezes this year too. Also, our pellet stove isn’t the best and instead of keeping the house at 60 it’s more like 72 which causes us to go through them much faster. But it is absolutely cozy and dry in there. Even with the propane heater all the way up it just won’t be warm. It won’t be freezing but it’s still uncomfortably cold. And wet. Moisture everywhere.
Anyways, I hope you find some ideas in here to make RV living possible or more comfortable for you. We are blessed to have a pretty good sized RV. No doubt we are mentally ready to get out after 6 and a half years but if my experiences can help you, I’m glad to share. Happy RVing!
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