Almost one year ago (technically February 19), we moved into our 35ft travel trailer with our two cats. We purchased our camper in November 2022, had it delivered December 2022, moved it to the KOA in January 2023, and moved out of our apartment in February 2023. In June 2023, we left the KOA to travel and just recently returned in January 2024 for ski season. We’ve learned a lot over the year, not all good things, but the big question stands – would we do another year?
Lets talk about some of the good things we’ve learned and experienced during our year of RV life.
Intentional purchasing
I wouldn’t say we were over consumers in the apartment, but moving out was full of decluttering and donating. We kept necessities, extras of items we use often (like towels, toilet paper, soaps, etc), and sentimental things we couldn’t part with. I did make myself condense all of my holiday decor into one medium sized box, which lives in the under bed storage. The decor in the camper came from the apartment, with the exception of the clock in the bathroom.
There have been tons of times living in the camper where I’d see something cute at target that I would have bought in the apartment, but I had to take a minute to think of it had a place in the camper. Most of the time, the answer was no. And honestly, that was ok. We grew tired of the clutter in our apartment, and in the camper we try our hardest not to have clutter on sitting areas, on the counters, or in places we’d have to move on travel days.
Not only does intentionally choosing what we bring into the camper save us money, but it saves us the headache of running out of space. A good rule we like to follow is one thing in, one thing out. I usually apply this rule to clothes. I have a ton of t shirts that I’ve had for quite some time, so if I buy a new shirt at a national park, I can easily find an old shirt to either donate or throw away (if it has holes and such). I will say, I don’t apply this rule to mugs….
Traveling more than PTO allows
Another huge plus side of RV life for us was the ability to travel more than 2 weeks out of the year. We had a few hiccups in the beginning, figuring out which days work best to travel around our work schedules, but we figured it out pretty quickly. Especially after we implemented our 350 mile max in a day rule. Looking back on this year, we wouldn’t have traveled to half of the places we went, gone to any of the concerts we saw, or seen most of the family we were able to visit.
Your home is with you always
There’s something to be said about having a long travel day and still being able to sleep in your bed every night. We were able to shove our mattress from the apartment into our RV bedroom, which was a phenomenal effort. We had to transfer it to the camper, get it through the door, and then squeeze it through the bedroom onto its platform. And it is TIGHT. Like we have to pull it out a few inches to get the sheet on, and it’s a two person job. Having the comfort of a nice mattress every night though was worth the effort. Especially if you’ve ever slept on a stock RV mattress. No thanks.
Also, all of your stuff is with you! There’s so fear of arriving to your destination to realize you forgot your earbuds, chargers, soap, skin care, or toothpaste. Or course some of these things you can buy at a nearby store, but not if you’re boondocking or in a more remote campground. Also, who wants to replace things they totally meant to pack?? RV life gave us the comfort of not having to remember the small things to pack for a camping trip.
Campground utilities
At our apartment, we were spending $60 minimum for water and trash plus $100 minimum for electricity. At campgrounds with monthly rates, they tend to build in utilities at a flat rate. For example, the KOA we stayed at had a $50 a month flat fee for electricity, water, and sewer. Imagine paying $50 a month for electricity when You’re running 2 ac units NON STOP. That’s nothing! Additionally, if you’re willing to look into local campgrounds for your nightly rates, they can be as low as $40 for full hookups! We’ve found cheaper, but mostly in Texas.
Campground showers are a hot topic. Are public showers ok to use? We say yes, if they’re clean and well kept. Our favorites are the ones where it’s individual cubicles basically. You have a full locking door with a shower, toilet, and sink inside. Completely private to you. We don’t mind clean showers with curtains, but I prefer to only use those if I’m the only person in the entire bathroom. If you’re looking for a nice long shower, campground showers are the way to go! Most of the time they’re free too.
Small space = less cleaning
I don’t mind cleaning, but I don’t care to clean a large space every day. It’s so much easier to keep up with cleaning in a 200 sq ft space. It literally takes 2 minutes to vacuum or mop. The countertops may be small, but it’s easy to wipe down in less than 5 minutes. It’s a very small thing, but it’s definitely a pro to RV life.
Thousand Trails
I’ll keep this one quick – our first stint in TT in Orlando, FL this summer/fall saved us over $4000 in campground fees. This video explains more about TT and the pass we have!
TT is what allowed us to stay in spots for longer than 5 nights without blowing the budget out of the water. TT is also what’s going to allow us to spend 3 1/2 months in the PNW this summer!
While there are many other good things about RV life, let’s move onto the not so good things we’ve encountered while living in our RV
No bathtub
Ok this one’s a little silly, but I miss my bathtub the most. Bathtubs are hard to come by in campers. I miss my bathtub because there was nothing better than ending a long day at work by coming home to a hot bath and some bubbles.
Constant moving
A pretty big downside to RV life is constant moving, unless you stay in the same campground for multiple months at a time. Typically, we stay in TT campgrounds where the max stay is 14-21 days depending on the campground. That’s why you’ll find a lot of people with TT memberships rotating between nearby campgrounds. This is especially easy in Florida, Arizona, and the coastal areas where there’s a high concentration of TTs.
However, the constant moving can be tiresome after a while. Towing a camper comes with more to look out for while driving, and travel days can take a lot out of anyone involved. If you’re having to move every few days it gets very tiresome. When we were able to stay in one place for 21 days at a time, it felt like forever. So being back at the KOA for a while is a nice break.
Snowbird season
Snowbird season is awful for booking campsites in most places people like to winter in RVs. Thankfully we prefer the snow and cold, so we go the opposite way of the snowbirds. However, we did overlap in Florida before Thanksgiving. Trying to find a campsite was very, very difficult as more and more people were flocking to Florida.
Of course, there are a few more annoyances to RV life that I haven’t mentioned here, just like there are more great things about RV life, but these are the ones that stood out most to us. What are your favorite or least favorite parts of RV life? Or if you’re not a full timer, what do you think would be the reasons you’d start or stop RV life?
And the big question – would we do another year? The short answer is yes, but we’d do it a little differently. Follow along to find out how in the coming months.
anxietyinacamper 