Good morning from Traverse City, Michigan!
Tomorrow we pack up and leave to boondock for a day – that’s living off-grid in RV slang – because the campground we are in has no openings. Not sure where we will park it for the night, but that’s part of the adventure. Then, we will come back here for another week because it’s a great campground close to a lot of cool stuff!
Today I want to talk a bit more about selling it all and then making the transition to full-time life on the road while working – because yes, Dave and I still work while living our nomad life. It takes some juggling but it’s not as hard as you may think.
As I’ve said before – the key is picking a hard date as Go time. This gives you some structure and a timeline to work against. I’ve followed others with a willy nilly timeline and they never end up pulling the trigger. We chose Dave’s 50th birthday – because he always had this dream of backing away from 9-5 on that date – so for us, it was an easy pick!
We took 3-4 years of plotting and planning – so it wasn’t rushed….UNTIL IT WAS!
Purging
We made the tough decision to sell our beloved 1921 craftsman bungalow in CT versus renting it out. The risks outweighed the benefits, and we just didn’t want to be landlords from afar. We also didn’t want to incur the cost of storage units – because trust me, that cost adds up very quickly.
We started with our first yard sales, Facebook Marketplace listings, and “kids come get what you want” process about 9 months before our Go Date. I was so damn proud of all the stuff I got rid of until I went through the house and realized OMG – there is so much more.
I did read Marie Kondo’s book and literally spent time with things I “treasured” to determine how much I loved them. 99% went. They are just things and Dave promised me when we buy our next bricks and sticks home he would be my flea market mule so I can fill up a new house with new old treasures. After that – it was easier.
Here’s what we kept – note these are stored in a relative’s house:
- Artwork that I collected over the years – but all my personal paintings that I did got sold or went to charity.
- My grandmother’s teacup collection and other china that was given to me, as well as 2 quilts she made.
- Dave’s tools – and they came in handy while we were renovating a house!
- Our skis and snowshoes – we originally planned on bringing these with us in our bigger bus, but when we downsized we decided to just toss them in Dave’s Dad’s basement with our other treasures.
- Photos
In the end, we put nicer or higher ticket items on Facebook Marketplace and the rest got sold in yard sales (we had 4 in total). Note on the “yard sales” – we labeled them estate sales and took lots of pictures – it was almost staged to attract higher-end buyers! What was left went to 2 charities and Good Will.
Selling the house – and the big transition
We priced the house high because we weren’t giving it away – we got 2 offers in 36 hours and one was over asking. We closed in 4 weeks – it was crazy, but we did it. The reality hit us when we woke up the next morning in our RV and realized we were “houseless” – it was scary and simple things like a big kitchen including my Kitchen Aid mixer were no longer part of my life. We thought we were mentally prepared – but we really weren’t. I don’t think anyone is because it’s a BIG change. It took us about a month to figure it all out, where to work, where to go, and all the details in between. The point is to give yourself a little grace.
Working & Traveling
One of the psychological hard parts of full-time RV life is that you aren’t on a permanent vacation yet you are. What will kill your budget quickly is eating out all the time and going to every little tourist trap. Dave and I allow ourselves to do this about once a month – be a tourist, beyond that we are just traveling, working nomads, and that works for us. Others never cook in their RV and literally are in vacation mode all the time.
We learned NOT to plan too far out – because if we like where we are, and there is good wifi – we want to hang for a bit. The upside is we are really embracing the nomadic lifestyle – pick up and go when you want. The downside is finding RV spots – like the situation I’m in now. If you don’t reserve a year out in some spots – you won’t get a spot. Back to risk/reward – we don’t want to be beholden to a strict schedule, so we wing it. That isn’t for everyone – some people like to have it all planned – to me that’s incredibly stressful. To each his/her own!
Our workspaces are flexible – right now I’m sitting outside in my PJ’s writing this while watching some kids and a dog play. Dave prefers to work inside – he’s got a little set up in the front of our coach and another in the back. There is no right or wrong way. If you have a bigger class A coach, I’ve seen people actually create workstations – by removing a couch or bunks – permanent solutions because they can! Ours aren’t permanent, our space is too small.
WiFi is always our challenge. We have both AT&T and Verizon MIFI/hotspots – and as long as we can get service we are good to go. I would love to spend a month in Sedona – but unless I’m on “vacation” and literally plan on zero work – we have to skip it due to little or no wifi. Most of the time we are ok – even when boondocking, we will just drive until we find a good signal and park it. Sometimes that’s at a Cracker Barrel, sometimes a truck stop, sometimes it’s state or national land that has no hookups but has camping spots – it all depends!
Again – this life isn’t for everyone, but if you love to travel and explore new things, meet new people, and can be flexible – it’s AWESOME!!
Things happen, things break, and it’s not cheap – I’ll wrap up next week with budgets and what we spend and some of the wild things we’ve seen on the road!
Happy Trails – and again, if you want to dive into this more with me and Dave we are here! Just grab a spot on my calendar HERE.
CD