Getting rid of all our Stuff in Preparation of Full Time RV travel
We have decided to get rid of nearly everything we own and hit the road, living and working in our RV. Seems crazy right?!?! Well, the crazy part is figuring out what to keep, what to trash, and what to sell at a garage sale.
Downsizing from a 4 Bedroom, 3 Bath, 2100 square foot house to 224 square feet of RV space is much more challenging that we originally thought.
Going through each room of our home there are many years of memories with our children, their art pictures on the wall, and so many artifacts that are so difficult to give up. So many meaningful gifts from family and friends, it was difficult to figure out what to let go.
For example, my grown daughter took me out one evening and we painted pictures together, and they turned out really good. I couldn’t just through mine away, and my daughter, Anna, had the same painting at her house, she didn’t want it, and I don’t think anyone else would want it, but it’s the memory and the shear satisfaction of doing that painting with her … but there is no need for this picture in the camper.
My solution? I took a picture of it, and sold it at the garage sale. But, I have preserved that memory and have that picture to look back on if I want to!
The Purging Process
I started out with the three categories of sorting piles, Trash, Keep, Sell. But when it came to actually doing the process, I found the items to trash easy to identify, but what to keep and what to sell , I couldn’t get myself moving, it was all so overwhelming.
A friend told me to add one more category …the “ I don’t know what the heck to do with pile. “ It was after that moment that I was able to get myself motivated to do so something!
I also added a “donation” pile, which made getting rid of my JUNK a bit more comforting.
There’s nothing more affective at making you face the reality of what material items in your life are truly important. This process proved to be so much different than a traditional move. Instead of packing our belongings, loading a truck, moving to another location and unpacking, we had to decide what was important enough to make room for it in our small space and the rest either had to go away (trash, sell, donate) or go in to storage. When you’re packing things to go in to a storage unit that you’re paying for and you have no idea when they’ll see the light of day again, it really gets you thinking about what’s worth keeping.
Here’s what I did to declutter and downsize from our traditional house to the RV. ..
CREATE SEPARATE “PILES” TO SORT OUT WHAT TO KEEP and WHAT to LET GO.
Our “piles” were separated into different areas of our home, and into now 6 areas:
Trash – which was surprisingly easy once we got started!
Sell at Garage Sale – we may as well make a few bucks along the way!
“ I don’t know what the heck to do with “ – this is a good transition pile, but most of it eventually it ended up on the Garage sale
Donate. All items that had to go, but had value, we would donate to the local drop off centers.
Keep in storage – we only had a 10×5 we were willing to pay for, so we had to compress as much as possible
Keep in RV with us. – this was tough, as I wanted to have so much more with me daily. It took therapy to get this minimized! ( just kidding, but it was a good wake up call to figure out exactly what I really DO need on a daily basis )
For me, it wasn’t so much the sentimental value, but more of a financial issue. After all, I paid good money for those “things” that I am now throwing out, or selling for pennies on the dollar.
We started this process two months prior to our move out date we began the packing process and realized what a daunting, exhausting task it is. I recommend starting four to six months in advance. By spending the time this early to start the process of de-cluttering, I think a lot of stuff we don’t need would have ended up in storage because we would have been too overwhelmed to make the sell, trash, donate decisions. Even if you’re currently only dreaming of RV living, it’s never too early to get started de-cluttering. Your future self will thank you.
SELL LARGE PIECES OF FURNITURE
Large pieces of furniture are not challenging to move but eat up storage space fast. We got rid of several pieces of furniture leaving us with only a two large items. Had we not done that, we would have needed a larger, more expensive storage unit, which would eat up some of our much needed cash flow.
By selling these items on Facebook Marketplace or Craigs list, we got more $$ for them verses if we sold them at the garage sale.
GIFT ITEMS TO FRIENDS AND FAMILY
You may come across items you know you really don’t need, but you hate to see them go. One of the hardest things for me to let go of it those thoughtful gifts given to me or us from friends and family. A great compromise is asking those friends & family if they might like said item. Someone you know could use or enjoy something you love but does not make sense in your new RV life. Another option to retain the memory is to take a picture of the item, or painting, and let it go.
USE LOGIC, NOT EMOTIONS DRIVE YOUR DECISIONS
With so little space in an RV, you end up leaving behind MUCH MORE than what you can take with you. But every single thing you own, you wanted at one time. And at one time, you spent money on said thing, making it hard to admit over and over all the things you don’t really need or never actually used. When it comes to deciding what stays and what goes, if you let your emotions decide, you’ll run out of room quickly and end up taking a bunch of stuff you don’t need. Instead, ask yourself the last time you used or wore said thing. The answer to that question will make it much easier to decide what’s worth taking and what will just take up space.
I know my answer to this was, “yea but .. I may need it someday!”. But being the left brain one that I am, I had to analyze the cost of keeping it, paying for storage, or just buying new in the future if I DO absolutely need it. Usually these items in question were less than $10 in replacement value!
BE METHODICAL ABOUT HOW YOU PACK YOUR STORAGE UNIT
Not only is everything in our storage unit labeled but it’s organized in a way that we can easily get to just about anything. Instead of packing the thing floor to ceiling, front to back, we left ourselves an aisle down the middle for accessibility. We’ll be coming back to our “home base” in Colorado and if we think of something we want, we want to be able to go grab it easily without having to unpack half our storage unit to get to it. If something is in storage that we want but can’t find and so we end up buying a new one, what is the point of having it in storage? And labeling everything to make it easy to find what you need is critical, as you wouldn’t want to spend a half a day looking for that one thing you need.
CONSIDER TAKING A LONGER TRIP BEORE GOING FULL TIME IN YOUR RV.
We took some weekend trips, and one week trip in the RV to make sure all was working ok, but we knew we’d go back home to pick up supplies. If you take a longer trip, it will give you an idea of what you really do need.
For our first “fulltime” trip, we are going to Oklahoma to do some work on one of our rentals, and also to go to a family wedding. This trip is only 1 month, so it gave us a chance to see what we really do or don’t need in the RV. We’ll come back to our temporary office and storage area to further purge.
Had we left Colorado right away, we would have ended up carrying around a lot of things we didn’t need and buying things that we left in storage. But you just don’t know exactly what you need and don’t need until you’re doing it.
REMEMBER YOUR GOAL TO BECOME FREE!
Writing this post, I’m so relieved that this process is over. It really is mentally and physically draining. If you’re going thru this process alongside a spouse, go easy on each other and try to take it all in stride. It’s easy to get frustrated and irritated when you’re stressed and feel like there’s not enough time to do anything but pack.
Most importantly, keep your eyes on your ultimate goal! Downsizing means less to pay for, less to maintain and more time to simply enjoy life. Packing sucks, there’s no way around it but the reward of a simpler life filled with freedom and travel is unequivocally worth it!
Full Time RV Travel Adventure 