Author: Levi and Natalie Henley
Most RVers lived in a “sticks and bricks” home before deciding to live in an RV. More than likely, if you’ve lived in a house first, you have succeeded in filling that house with stuff. Unfortunately, not all of that stuff will fit in an RV. This means, in order to move into an RV, you must find ways to downsize. For many, this is not an easy task. Lucky for you, we have come up with a list of ways to make the process a bit less daunting.
Establish rules and stick to them.
Before getting to work, it’s key to set some ground rules. What constitutes an item that stays and goes? How will you handle those questionable items that you aren’t quite sure of keeping or discarding?
We sat down as a family and discussed this matter before making any kind of decisions. It’s important that everyone in the bunch agrees to this, otherwise there will be many issues down the road. Our final verdict to keep or let go involved two simple questions with brief “yes” or “no” replies.
Question #1: Will I use this item on the road in my new life as a full time RVer? If the answer was “yes,” it was a keeper. If it was “no,” we moved on to the next query.
Question #2: Can I fit this item in the RV? Likewise, if the answer was “yes,” it stayed. If it was “no,” we asked the bonus question.
Question #3: Why am I keeping it? If we agreed that the reply was a logical reason or of sentimental value, it stayed. Otherwise, it was tossed.
Those series of questions seemed to suffice with our situation; however, not every traveling family is created equal and will thus have their own criteria.
Related Read: Downsizing
Tackle a little at a time.
Slow and steady wins the race. The same applies with minimizing a household of items. Take a walk around your home. If you are like us, you have probably accumulated a mound of stuff. The thought of sifting through each and every possession was overwhelming for us. We made it a point to work in one room at a time.
Depending on your timeline, the amount of hours/days you spend in each room will vary. We set periods of time, based on our work schedules, to meet in sections of our house. We were relatively organized, using a dry erase board and crossing off sections of the house we had completed.
Expand your selling tactics.
Yard sales are a thing of the past, sort of. There is nothing wrong with holding a garage sale to make a little traveling money, but nowadays, there are just too many convenient outlets to get rid of unnecessary stuff. We held a yard sale initially in our neighborhood and had a very disappointing turnout.
We turned to social media and began selling big ticket items like furniture, appliances, and electronics online via Craigslist, Facebook, and Let Go. It is advised to be cautious when using anyone of these venues for obvious safety reasons. We would meet with interested parties in public places like parking lots of big box stores during the day.
Not everything needs to be sold.
We attempted to sell as many items as we could, but there was a fair share that we gifted, donated, or trashed. As we evaluated the items, we placed each into one of these categories. We gifted books, clothing, and sentimental treasures to friends and family. Gently used items that weren’t sold were donated to various organizations and if we couldn’t recycle worn out goods, they were thrown out.
Related Read: 5 Fun Volunteer Workamping Jobs with a Free RV Site
Store “outside the box.”
A bit of creativity and resourcefulness goes into packing a home on wheels. With the limited storage compartments and overall space, sometimes thinking outside the box can transform a cramped section of the rig into a spacious living area. We have included our own suggestions in the following snippet.
There are other alternative ways to store your belongings. For instance, instead of boxing and cramming photos, greeting cards, certificates, receipts, or other paperwork in cupboards or drawers in your RV, these tangible items can be stored digitally via hard drive or utilizing online storage services. If you have sewing skills, creating a quilt or curtians with scraps of family clothing can be a functional and practical way to preserve memories. In the same way, furniture, like tabletops, can be refurbished to display memorabilia. The following video shows how to complete this do it yourself project.
Reassess your closet contents.
Whittling down your wardrobe does not have to be another daunting chore. As a full time RVer you may experience a full gamut of weather extremes. What you decide to keep depends on these factors and your regular activities. For instance, since we do a lot of sightseeing on our travels and seek workamping jobs that involve quite a bit of physical activity, our wardrobe is very comfortable and casual. We each have maybe one outfit that is considered formal wear; so far we have worn this attire once at a family member’s wedding.
Many RVers try to stray away from cold climates, but at least once a year we roam through and work in regions of the country that are below 40 degrees. We carry warm clothing, coats, hats, gloves, and thermal underwear for these places. When we are not using this bulky clothing, we will store it away in vacuum seal bags under our bed.
Related Read: Winter RV Camping: How To Keep Warm
Leave everything but the kitchen essentials.
The keys to choosing kitchen essentials is to keep practicality and space in mind. Things can get quite bumpy on the road so keeping that fine china and crystalware may not be the most practical choice. Melamine dishware may be a better choice. Otherwise, sturdy cardboard containers may be the safer way to store those glasses you just can’t leave behind.
As difficult as it was for me to say goodbye to some appliances like my KitchenAid mixer, I did so because I knew I would not have room in our 26 foot motorhome with limited kitchen storage and it was not practical for our lifestyle on the go. We utilize a whisk or small hand mixer to do the same job. We applied the same principal of downsizing to other kitchen tools as we did with this example.
Packing the fun may not be so fun at all.
We chose to begin a new chapter of our lives as full time RVers because we love camping and spending time outdoors. There are countless activities to enjoy. To ensure optimal fun wherever we parked our rig, we made sure to load up plenty of gear: canoe, sled, skis, scuba gear, bikes, etc. This seemingly innocent idea became an unnecessary burden.
We found that we used many of these items once, maybe twice a year. The packing and unpacking was annoying. In some cases, we chose to forgo scrambling through a storage compartment to fish out our inflatable canoe and ended up renting a kayak. We have since given away many of our recreational toys and kept the few that we use on a consistent basis since renting or borrowing has seemed more efficient than lugging around more junk.
It’s not cheating if you store elsewhere.
We must admit, we are not true minimalist. We don’t carry all of our belongings in our RV. There are other items that we just could not bear to live without. This is true for many RVers. Perhaps living the nomadic lifestyle is not the endgame and they will eventually like to settle down again, surrounded by their furniture and other possessions.
Lucky for us, we have family members that have allowed us to keep our little treasure troves in their capacity. Otherwise, we would have sought a storage facility with monthly/yearly fees.
Downsizing is an ever evolving process.
In the end, there really is no end when it comes to downsizing. After full time RVing for almost four years, we find ourselves getting rid of items that we have really never used or forgotten, tucked away in the back of a closet or cabinet. RVers are notorious for decluttering their rigs and then passing along their belongings to others. It is not until you take off on the open road and begin living your nomadic life that you realize what needs to stay and what needs to go.
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