wilsonseattle
04-10-2014, 08:42 AM
It was an intriguing dream when we purchased our first travel trailer. We only had one kid at home out of the four and at that time in his life going camping with his parents was the last thing he wanted to do. So we picked out a small 19 foot trailer and camping we went, 82 days in our first summer. We just fell in love with RVing, a warm, soft bed with real sheets and a bathroom only a few steps away that didn’t require a flashlight and a cold walk. Everything we wanted was packed away and could stay that way, no boxes that had to be lugged around and tents that to be set up and torn down.
Fast forward a few years and we found ourselves as empty nesters on a one year assignment in North Carolina. We decided it would be fun to try full timing while we were there so we sold the small trailer and bought a larger model with three slides. Big enough to live in but still small enough to enjoy camping. Now we really got the bug as we met lots of great people, had a few adventures and got a real education driving it all the way back to Washington State. We learned that we could get along fine in 300 square feet of space and that we really didn’t need a lot of stuff to be happy. Our marriage improved as we learned a lot of new skills for getting along and became even better partners and friends.
No sooner are we settled back into everyday life in our stick and brick house and the boss calls, new manager in charge she says, new ways of doing business. She then drops the bomb that all West Coast operations would be consolidated into Southern California. Yikes, now what to do. Within six weeks we went from deciding trivial things like when to have summer parties to getting rid of 98% of everything we owned and moving into an RV. Here is the story of that adventure.
Stuff, yep stuff and lots of it, 2200 square feet of house with a three car garage and an outside shed tends to accumulate a lot of stuff. This was going to be a real challenge. It’s not like we are pack rats, in fact just the opposite. My wife hates clutter and over the years we have been married I have very much learned to hate it to. Probably why the RV lifestyle immediately appealed to us. However, it’s a much more daunting and frankly overwhelming task to get rid of everything we had accumulated in our adventures. We knew we didn’t want to buy a new place in Southern California being only a few years from retiring and renting was expensive too. I suggested over dinner one evening we should full time in the RV. The spark was easy to see in my wife’s eyes as it was a path back to the lifestyle we loved and missed.
We jumped in the truck on a rather wet Saturday afternoon and hit the local RV lots. We knew we wanted a fifth wheel travel trailer as our truck was only one year old and we didn’t want to trade it in. We had bought it anticipating the move up to a larger trailer at some point in the future. The very first RV we looked at was a huge 39 foot 2012 Keystone Alpine Fifth Wheel with all the goodies we wanted and then some. Just under 13,000lbs but still within the weight limits of our truck. Fours slides, three tv’s, AC’s with heat pumps, double door frig, washer/dryer hook ups and enough storage space in the basement to qualify as another room. We spent the rest of the weekend looking at more models but ended up coming back and buying that very first one. Seven days later it was parked in front of the house taking up half of the roadway and all of our neighbors wondering what we were up to now.
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest with parents who enjoyed the outdoors. Hunting and fishing trips every year as well as a small Chinook motorhome we toured the country in every summer. I still hunt and fish and being someone who loves to do things with his hands and has the ability to fix most anything around the house I had a garage full of tools. As I stood there on my first Saturday morning after getting the RV I anxiously wondered what to do with it all. First step was to contact my older brothers and see if they wanted any of the tools that our Dad had given me over the years. We all had an unwritten agreement that if one of us was given something we didn’t want then everyone else had first say in it before it could be sold. One brother took me up on the offer and cleared out most of the large power tools, and almost all of the fishing and hunting equipment. From our experience in North Carolina I knew I needed to only keep a few basic tools to work on the RV so most everything in the garage and my beloved shop would be going away.
The next step was to clear out everything we didn’t think we could sell. All of the kids were invited over and we filled their cars to the dome lights with clothes, DVD’s, pictures and whatever they wanted. Some of the kids put their names on the big ticket items we wanted to sell like the washer/dryer and furniture in case we couldn’t find buyers. The wife and I made a pact that if we couldn’t sell it for at least $5 and the kids didn’t want it then it would be donated to Goodwill. Three truckloads of stuff went to Goodwill that first week. Now we were making some progress!
We also put the word out to the rest of the family and many of our friends and work associates that we were selling everything. Oddly enough the Finance Manager where we bought the RV had just moved to the state and needed things, he and his wife made three separate trips and bought a great deal of stuff. Even the Sales Manager at the RV dealer showed up and bought one of our big screen TV’s. Most of our brand new bedroom furniture went to a colleague from work.
Yard sales, garage sales, call it whatever you want my wife hates them. We have had them over the years to clear out the clutter but she refuses to participate. Getting rid of most everything we owned by this method meant that I was going to have to do all of the work. The garage was quickly filling up with all of the things we thought we could sell in the yard sale. Having spent over 31 years in the military it takes a lot to overwhelm me. However, looking at this enormous pile of stuff and the timeline of when we needed to be out of the house so we could get it on the market I quickly realized a yard sale was out of the question. The minimal amount of money we would make just wasn’t worth the stress of dealing with trying to sell it. More calls were made to the kids to come over and pick out what they wanted. Over the next few weeks we got rid of everything that remained. Some of my high value tools and stereo equipment went to pawn shops. Craigslist took care of the remaining furniture that we didn’t sell to friends and family. Even the neighbors started avoiding us, as every time we saw someone they usually got asked if they needed something we were having a hard time selling.
The RV was loaded up with everything we needed except for our clothes and food. We decided we would stay in the house until the day before we listed it for sale or we didn't have any furniture left to sit on, whichever came first. It was a strange day when we moved the RV from in front of the house and set up on our camping lot. After getting it positioned in the lot and leveled properly we started setting it up. All of the stress and anxiety we had been feeling seemed to just melt away. We knew immediately this was the right thing to do. Six weeks after deciding to go full timing we moved the last box out of the house and started living full time in the trailer.
I wouldn't be truthful saying we got rid of everything that wouldn't fit in the RV. We had a nice 8X12 shed on the campsite. Since we were not leaving for California for a few more months we had a few “projects” we took with us to the camp site. There were boxes and boxes of hard copy photographs from the years when the kids were growing up. We scanned the ones we wanted and then divided them up between the kids. There were also several boxes of documents from my military career as well as the normal documents like bills and receipts. We installed a locking, fire proof safe in the trailer and put away those documents we needed to keep. The rest were either scanned or rolled into nice little logs and used for camp fire material. I ended up keeping some of the awards and larger pictures I had acquired in the military. Most were framed so I removed them and donated the frames. I then took two flat cardboard panels and enclosed three sides, all the stuff I wanted to keep went inside and were secured to one of the walls in the RV basement.
We also found we had acquired several boxes of items we thought we would need, however these exceeded the storage capacity of the trailer. So we kept going thru the boxes as well as questioning everything we had inside the RV already. The rule became if something went in, something else had to come out. It took a couple more weeks be we finally whittled it down to only what we really, really needed and could reasonably fit in the trailer. Liberating is the word we used when we were finally done. We realized after it was all over with that we really didn't need all of that stuff to be happy. We had each other, a nice place to live that was comfortable and a renewed sense of adventure for what awaited us in California. In hindsight it was perhaps easier to be forced to make quick decisions on what and how to get rid of everything. It was certainly an emotional roller coaster parting with many of the things we had struggled to acquire in the first place. In the end we were both glad it happened quickly and as efficiently as possible. Could we have made a little more money if we spent more time selling everything? Sure, but the headache and heartache of doing that just wasn’t worth it to us in the end.
Fast forward a few years and we found ourselves as empty nesters on a one year assignment in North Carolina. We decided it would be fun to try full timing while we were there so we sold the small trailer and bought a larger model with three slides. Big enough to live in but still small enough to enjoy camping. Now we really got the bug as we met lots of great people, had a few adventures and got a real education driving it all the way back to Washington State. We learned that we could get along fine in 300 square feet of space and that we really didn’t need a lot of stuff to be happy. Our marriage improved as we learned a lot of new skills for getting along and became even better partners and friends.
No sooner are we settled back into everyday life in our stick and brick house and the boss calls, new manager in charge she says, new ways of doing business. She then drops the bomb that all West Coast operations would be consolidated into Southern California. Yikes, now what to do. Within six weeks we went from deciding trivial things like when to have summer parties to getting rid of 98% of everything we owned and moving into an RV. Here is the story of that adventure.
Stuff, yep stuff and lots of it, 2200 square feet of house with a three car garage and an outside shed tends to accumulate a lot of stuff. This was going to be a real challenge. It’s not like we are pack rats, in fact just the opposite. My wife hates clutter and over the years we have been married I have very much learned to hate it to. Probably why the RV lifestyle immediately appealed to us. However, it’s a much more daunting and frankly overwhelming task to get rid of everything we had accumulated in our adventures. We knew we didn’t want to buy a new place in Southern California being only a few years from retiring and renting was expensive too. I suggested over dinner one evening we should full time in the RV. The spark was easy to see in my wife’s eyes as it was a path back to the lifestyle we loved and missed.
We jumped in the truck on a rather wet Saturday afternoon and hit the local RV lots. We knew we wanted a fifth wheel travel trailer as our truck was only one year old and we didn’t want to trade it in. We had bought it anticipating the move up to a larger trailer at some point in the future. The very first RV we looked at was a huge 39 foot 2012 Keystone Alpine Fifth Wheel with all the goodies we wanted and then some. Just under 13,000lbs but still within the weight limits of our truck. Fours slides, three tv’s, AC’s with heat pumps, double door frig, washer/dryer hook ups and enough storage space in the basement to qualify as another room. We spent the rest of the weekend looking at more models but ended up coming back and buying that very first one. Seven days later it was parked in front of the house taking up half of the roadway and all of our neighbors wondering what we were up to now.
I grew up in the Pacific Northwest with parents who enjoyed the outdoors. Hunting and fishing trips every year as well as a small Chinook motorhome we toured the country in every summer. I still hunt and fish and being someone who loves to do things with his hands and has the ability to fix most anything around the house I had a garage full of tools. As I stood there on my first Saturday morning after getting the RV I anxiously wondered what to do with it all. First step was to contact my older brothers and see if they wanted any of the tools that our Dad had given me over the years. We all had an unwritten agreement that if one of us was given something we didn’t want then everyone else had first say in it before it could be sold. One brother took me up on the offer and cleared out most of the large power tools, and almost all of the fishing and hunting equipment. From our experience in North Carolina I knew I needed to only keep a few basic tools to work on the RV so most everything in the garage and my beloved shop would be going away.
The next step was to clear out everything we didn’t think we could sell. All of the kids were invited over and we filled their cars to the dome lights with clothes, DVD’s, pictures and whatever they wanted. Some of the kids put their names on the big ticket items we wanted to sell like the washer/dryer and furniture in case we couldn’t find buyers. The wife and I made a pact that if we couldn’t sell it for at least $5 and the kids didn’t want it then it would be donated to Goodwill. Three truckloads of stuff went to Goodwill that first week. Now we were making some progress!
We also put the word out to the rest of the family and many of our friends and work associates that we were selling everything. Oddly enough the Finance Manager where we bought the RV had just moved to the state and needed things, he and his wife made three separate trips and bought a great deal of stuff. Even the Sales Manager at the RV dealer showed up and bought one of our big screen TV’s. Most of our brand new bedroom furniture went to a colleague from work.
Yard sales, garage sales, call it whatever you want my wife hates them. We have had them over the years to clear out the clutter but she refuses to participate. Getting rid of most everything we owned by this method meant that I was going to have to do all of the work. The garage was quickly filling up with all of the things we thought we could sell in the yard sale. Having spent over 31 years in the military it takes a lot to overwhelm me. However, looking at this enormous pile of stuff and the timeline of when we needed to be out of the house so we could get it on the market I quickly realized a yard sale was out of the question. The minimal amount of money we would make just wasn’t worth the stress of dealing with trying to sell it. More calls were made to the kids to come over and pick out what they wanted. Over the next few weeks we got rid of everything that remained. Some of my high value tools and stereo equipment went to pawn shops. Craigslist took care of the remaining furniture that we didn’t sell to friends and family. Even the neighbors started avoiding us, as every time we saw someone they usually got asked if they needed something we were having a hard time selling.
The RV was loaded up with everything we needed except for our clothes and food. We decided we would stay in the house until the day before we listed it for sale or we didn't have any furniture left to sit on, whichever came first. It was a strange day when we moved the RV from in front of the house and set up on our camping lot. After getting it positioned in the lot and leveled properly we started setting it up. All of the stress and anxiety we had been feeling seemed to just melt away. We knew immediately this was the right thing to do. Six weeks after deciding to go full timing we moved the last box out of the house and started living full time in the trailer.
I wouldn't be truthful saying we got rid of everything that wouldn't fit in the RV. We had a nice 8X12 shed on the campsite. Since we were not leaving for California for a few more months we had a few “projects” we took with us to the camp site. There were boxes and boxes of hard copy photographs from the years when the kids were growing up. We scanned the ones we wanted and then divided them up between the kids. There were also several boxes of documents from my military career as well as the normal documents like bills and receipts. We installed a locking, fire proof safe in the trailer and put away those documents we needed to keep. The rest were either scanned or rolled into nice little logs and used for camp fire material. I ended up keeping some of the awards and larger pictures I had acquired in the military. Most were framed so I removed them and donated the frames. I then took two flat cardboard panels and enclosed three sides, all the stuff I wanted to keep went inside and were secured to one of the walls in the RV basement.
We also found we had acquired several boxes of items we thought we would need, however these exceeded the storage capacity of the trailer. So we kept going thru the boxes as well as questioning everything we had inside the RV already. The rule became if something went in, something else had to come out. It took a couple more weeks be we finally whittled it down to only what we really, really needed and could reasonably fit in the trailer. Liberating is the word we used when we were finally done. We realized after it was all over with that we really didn't need all of that stuff to be happy. We had each other, a nice place to live that was comfortable and a renewed sense of adventure for what awaited us in California. In hindsight it was perhaps easier to be forced to make quick decisions on what and how to get rid of everything. It was certainly an emotional roller coaster parting with many of the things we had struggled to acquire in the first place. In the end we were both glad it happened quickly and as efficiently as possible. Could we have made a little more money if we spent more time selling everything? Sure, but the headache and heartache of doing that just wasn’t worth it to us in the end.