Follow us on our FREEDOM journey in our RV, Ruff Road, with our dogs! We like looking at freedom!
Yes, we have uploaded our first “official” You Tube video. This one is short and just introduces us. You will see where we were living and our RV, Ruff Road. Check it out!
We have enjoyed our life in Ruff Road for six months now! Incredible. This month is special because it was one year ago that we took possession of Ruff Road. In that time, we’ve enjoyed several trips and finally moved in full time in July 2017.
So how has it been after six months of living in an RV and not in our sticks and bricks home?
In one word- GREAT! We don’t mind the space at all. Even though we haven’t officially hit the road yet, we enjoy short trips and even our weekly dump run. There is plenty to do in our county. Gary continues to be involved in our church music ministry and has been writing some great music. I have reunited with the Florida Trail Association in our area to hike and volunteer. Of course, having family close by is a bonus right now.
Do we miss our sticks and bricks home?
No, we do not miss our sticks and bricks home. My daughter and her family have done a beautiful job of decorating it and making it their own. We don’t even think of it as ours anymore, it’s theirs. We don’t miss the upkeep and the constant cleaning that went with a larger home or all the stuff that went with it. Truthfully, we only lived in our bedroom, kitchen, and bathroom anyway. As the children left home, the rest of the rooms were just there and prone to collect clutter.
How are RVs and stick/brick homes similar? Different?
I thought about what it was like before living in Ruff Road. Much of what we do in Ruff Road is similar to what we did in our house. Rearranging, decorating, purging, cleaning, and organizing took place in both homes, however in Ruff Road it is on a much smaller level which is nice! Rearranging and organizing seems to be the two that we have worked on the most as we continue to “squeeze” into our new space. Most recently, we removed the pedestal table from in front of the couch. We had contemplated this for some time but where would we eat or work? We finally had enough and bravely unbolted it from the floor. We put our long rug over the area in front of the couch and now use the top of one of the dog crates for our table. No problems! We talked about adding a hinged wooden table top for more flexibility but for now, this works!
The biggest difference between life in a house and life in an RV, is that everything in the RV is magnified due to the smaller space. For example, dirt gathers more easily in the small space of an RV vs the larger space a house offers. Things can accumulate more in a house but in an RV, the clutter becomes screamingly evident and you have to deal with it. In the house, if I wasn’t sure about tossing or donating something, I’d put it away in a closet to decide later. In the RV, space is limited so this is not an option. Even as I write this and everything is put away, we are aware that we have too much on board with us and we have a little RV purging to do. We have too many clothes. The dogs have too many toys. We have too many linens. So we’ll whittle these things down. Finally, we don’t have the anchor of a large yard to maintain. Anywhere is our yard. This was more freeing for me than I realized and there are no arguments from Gary about this. Here’s another bonus: We interact more in an RV. We like that. If we need our space, we have outside, one can go to the bedroom or to the coach area.
What has happened this month?
If you read our previous post, we sadly said good-bye to one of our ruffs, our 15 year old mini poodle Phoebe. We miss her and she will always be in our hearts.
We attended the Florida RV Super Show in Tampa, Florida. This event is huge featuring many vendors, seminars, RV types, models and manufacturers. You can view the bare chassis frames that are on display and learn how to maintain your generator. If you are exploring the RV lifestyle, attending an large RV show like this one provides the opportunity to see everything from pop-ups to large class A coaches and everything in between. Of course, if you are already RVing, you can see what’s new and how space is used in the different units. Also, I’m sure the dealers were looking to make a deal with new owners and with those willing to trade in their current RV. We spent most of our time looking at the vendor stations and attending seminars. We especially appreciated the seminar about maintaining your generator and diesel engine. We also attended a couple of seminars for RV newbies and full-timers which was helpful. If we were going to look at RVs as well, we would have needed a second day which was included in our ticket. Visitors with RVs could stay on the site with no hook-ups for a fee. Learn more about RVing in Florida by the group that sponsored this event, the Florida RV Trade Association at http://www.frvta.org.
What RV supplies did we purchase this month?
As trivial as it might sound, we were in the market for new pillows so we picked up two bamboo pillows at the Florida RV Supershow. They are super soft but can be used to prop up so you can read or work. Also, we found some stick on lights for a few of our dimly lit cabinets and bins. These were our two Florida RV Supershow purchases.
Other purchases were:
DEF (Diesel Exhaust Fluid): This is required for all diesel coaches to ensure that the exhaust from the engine is environmentally friendly.
Leveling Blocks: These are long overdue but we’ve only had one major problem not having them. Wood planks from a nearby dumpster provided the solution. In all other cases, we were able to maneuver the coach so all four tires were firmly on the ground.
Tank Tech Microbials: Gary says this is like RidX on steroids. This is the second month we have used this to minimize tank odor and ensure the right bugs are living in our tank to work on decomposition. All it takes is two ounces per dump. After using this product, we don’t have the pungent odor when our black tank is almost full and improves our tank’s health.
What’s next?
Watch for a link to be posted soon for our newly launched Ruff Road RV Life You Tube Channel.
Also, coming soon-
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Here was the plan: My daughter, Michelle, and her family were moving back to Florida and planned to buy our house. We knew about when they were coming. My last day to work was June 30th. Then we get word that they would be here July 22nd. Yikes! That gave us about three weeks to downsize plan, box up and move into Ruff Road! Now I’ve watched many downsizing videos, but none of them started with the amount of stuff that we’ve accumulated after six children, several grandchildren, parents passing, and 34 years! We are not hoarders by no means but we did have…stuff! Lots of it!
Here is my system for purging which I affectionately call the 3 Step Purge System for Over Thinkers. It is a multi-step process which probably goes against what the experts would say, but it worked for me. Let’s start with clothes. I worked in the professional world and had a walk in closet full of professional clothes, which will no longer be required in my retirement life.
Step 1: I ask myself: Do I love it? Yes or no? If NO-Box up to donate. If YES- Then it was hung up to keep. Of course, there is not much room in an RV so I knew that there would be a second purging.
Step 2: After a day or two, I returned to my YES clothes and I repeated the process. Do I love it? I found that I was able to let go of a little more this second round. It became easier.
Step 3: This was the final round. Do I love it? Yes or no? To my surprise I was able to let go of a few more. I did add favorites to a box for my family. Even though I counted this my final round, as I packed to take my clothes out to Ruff Road, I purged even more.
Bottom line: My clothes fit into the space I planned for them. I still have variety in my wardrobe. My purging system worked for me. Some may be able to do this in one round or even two. This worked for me. For the overthinkers of the world, the three step purge system is recommended.
Our home had four bedrooms, three bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room, dining room, living room, and two porches. Our brother in law was staying with us when this grand purge began so that was one room that he took care of, thankfully. How do you take all of the items, the books, the paintings, the décor, the STUFF and make a plan?
My plan started with sorting. I began to gather all like items in the living room. All of the children’s books go here. All of the photography equipment goes there. All of the fishing décor goes over there. Everything in the house was sorted, which began emptying out rooms. Of course, during this sorting process I was also following my PURGING process. We began posting items that we could sell on Facebook Marketplace. One half of our living room became our selling warehouse. That worked out well and one by one many items were sold. The rest was boxed for a giant yard sale. Anything we wanted to keep with us was considered carefully, space is a premium in an RV. Keepers were boxed up to be taken to Ruff Road.
So one of the bedrooms had become a scanning station for photos. We took down all picture frames and removed the pictures as part of our sorting process. All boxes of photos and photo albums were sent to this room and there is ALOT! I fancy myself an amateur photographer so just add that to the many family pics. I stood in that room for four days, morning to late at night, scanning and there are still boxes and tubs left to do. I finally had to just stop so I could get the sorting and purging done.
When downsizing, scanning your photos and digitizing your home movies are the two most time consuming things you will do. There is no fast way to do this unless you pay to have it done. That wasn’t an option for me. Later on, after the move, I ordered an Elgato to digitize the home movies we had on hand. I am sentimental and I love seeing my parents and brother again in the movies. It’s always fun to see the kids when they were little. If any of you have suggestions on how to get all of this done quicker, please comment and share!
Each day I had a TO DO list to keep us on track. We’d follow the list, adjusting as needed. I used a regular spiral notebook to keep my list in. I’d designate if it was Gary or me, cross off completed items and carry over what didn’t get done. We had a general timeline of what we wanted done by when so that’s how we prioritized the list. This was essential to us being ready to leave our house July 22nd. Anyone downsizing or planning a move, it is amazing what you can get done when you plan it out on paper and look at it every day.
Why yes, we did- well the majority! We spent our first full time night in Ruff Road, with pups, the night of July 22nd. We handed our house over to our daughter that night and haven’t looked back. We had sorted, boxed, donated and purged. We only had a few items left in the office, and closet shelves that I weeded out the following weeks. We had moved all of the things we were keeping into Ruff Road. This took several hauls and I organized and put it away each trip to make room for the next haul. Honestly, I am amazed at what we put in here and I was able to put it away neatly.
Ah, so now we could sit back, sip our coffee and relax in the comfort of our new home. We still had some selling to do and sheds to work on, but the biggest job was done.
Downsizing is what it’s cracked up to be. It is freeing to rid yourself of “stuff”. This realization began as I had to go in and clean out my mom’s house after she passed. She, like many who grew up during the depression years, kept everything. She lived with me her last few years but didn’t want us to do anything with her “stuff”. I discovered that all of that “stuff” had deteriorated, molded, it was of no value to anyone. And then, I felt the overwhelming burden of all of this stuff. It opened my eyes that at the end of the day, our stuff will not stay new, will get eaten and chewed on by bugs, will fade, will deteriorate. It weighs us down. You feel lighter inside with each letting go. Have any of you gone through a downsizing process? What system worked for you? Comment and share. 🙂