Almost Full-time RVers

[?] Get Updates

Almost Full-time RVers

by Gloria from Kansas
(Getting Rid of Stuff and Eager to Go Full-timing)

Well we are doing it! We are almost full-time RV'ers. We have spent about six months getting 40 years of stuff cleaned out of our house. We had an auction to get rid of the stuff, and we are very close to selling our house.

We are in the middle of those last nerve-wracking details. If all goes well, we should be houseless in about three weeks. As soon as the closing happens, we will be full time RV'ers. We are so excited!

We don't have a lot of firm plans yet, since we weren't sure when the house would sell. Most likely, we will just park at our local state lake for a bit and regroup. Our plan is to do some work camping, to stave off boredom, and to perhaps help with the funds a bit.

Just wanted to tell all of you out there who are contemplating selling and gong on the road full-time, that it can be done. It is a lot of hard work, but it is not impossible. In future posts, I will talk about how you go about getting rid of all your stuff without too much trauma. Happy trails, Gloria.

Coleen, the RVing editor comments:

Gloria, thanks for sharing your excitement with us. We'll be watching for those updates that you promised, on how you went about getting rid of your excess possessions, as well as on where your RV travels are taking you and what you are learning as you go.

Go to the RV Life and Travel blog.

Comments for
Almost Full-time RVers

Average Rating

Click here to add your own comments

Rating

Counting the Days Until Full-time RVing
by: Deb

Gloria,
I am so excited for you. We are doing the same thing starting in April. We started planning a few years ago so we are just renting a house. The owners are very helpful in that they will let us extend our lease until April 15th. I would love to hear how you have determined what stays and what goes as far as your possessions are concerned. We need all the suggestions we can get.

Rating

What We Did with our Stuff Prior to Full-time RVing
by: Anonymous

Thanks for replying to my blog. I will try to answer your questions about what we did with all our "stuff." I don't know what your circumstances are, but we had to get rid of over 40 years of "treasures."

We started out just about a year ago, with the realization that we didn't want to spend the better years of our lives taking care of our stuff and our aging house. Our love is traveling in our RV, so it was a short jump from taking long trips to living in our 5th wheel.

Well back to how we got rid of all the things that cluttered our lives. First off we did a lot of emotional cleaning out. We realized that the things in our lives, rather than making it better were actually holding us back from what we really wanted to do. Once we decided to lighten our lives, it was like a big weight had been lifted.

We then called our kids together and told them of our plans, and after answering a bunch of questions from them, we assured them that we had not lost our minds. We gave them a couple weeks to adjust to the change in our living arrangements, then we got them together again and told them to take whatever they wanted.

We then started the chore of going through all that "stuff" that we had stored in the basement. That took a few weeks of pretty long days. Finally, we got it all in piles. Those things that we knew we would never use in our new life went into one room of the basement. Those things that were just clutter, we put in another room to be sent to the dump, or if it was good and serviceable, to goodwill. Those things we knew we would want to keep, we put in a storage building on our son's property.

If you are lucky enough to not have 40 years of stuff, you might want to contact someone to hold an estate sale. I don't know about where you live, but there are estate sales companies that will come in and catalog, clean, advertise, and even take the stuff out that doesn't sell.

We had too much stuff to do that because we had some machinery.

Well that is the short version. It all starts with the decision to lighten up your life. We realized that the "things" we own are not what makes us happy; it is the experiences we have. We are happily on our way to full timing. We have had some interesting experiences with the sale of the house, and we have not been able to leave when we had planned, but then that is for another time.

My suggestion is to go through your stuff and decide what you want to keep, and then when that is done, go through it again, and decide if it is worth hauling around. Then go through it yet again, and get rid of more. Family photos and thing that have emotional significance are keepers, and the rest is just "stuff."

Another suggestion is don't over pack clothes. In reality, you will only need a couple of dress outfits. The rest can be the stuff you would normally wear everyday.

Again, thanks for your interest. Happy trails. Have safe and happy travels.

Gloria

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How?
Simply click here to return to Full-time RVing Stories

Almost Full-time RVers

Comments for Almost Full-time RVers

Comments for
Almost Full-time RVers