Thinking of the RV life in Anywhere USA

Tony and I started talking about 1) moving to Tennessee and living in a yurt, 2) selling the house and buying an RV and living in Anywhere USA. Option 2, when I found that there are two RV toyhaulers, started looking pretty OK. The Thor insides are pretty nice (with washer and dryer). Tony wants an RV over a 5th wheel – so I can make a sandwich while he drives… The baby conversation has actually evolved into: 

• Researching RVs – I have yet to be inside one! 

• Researching renting an RV – need a test run to see if we could even do this for a short trip, let alone a life trip 

• Decluttering the house – in order to live the RV life, I wouldn’t want to just sell the house and put everything into storage. We don’t need most of the stuff in our house anyway. 

• Getting work done on the house to put on the market (new roof installed July 2021) 

Researching RVs 

Boy, they are expensive! We could look at used vs. new. 

Thor has the Outlaw: https://www.thormotorcoach.com/outlaw-class-a?utm_source=thorindustries.com&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=RV-Types-toy-hauler 

And Newmar has the Canyon Star: Newmar Corp. (they even had a blog post about traveling with your golf clubs that is, of course, important): https://www.newmarcorp.com/blog/how-to-keep-your-golf-clubs-safe-in-an-rv/) 

I think we need to go to this RV show in 2022 in Dallas, February 24-27: Dallas RV Supersale Show

Researching Renting an RV 

It was nice that Better Homes & Gardens had an article about RVs and included a number of places you can rent them. I also read NOT to rent from Cruise America (you might have seen those overly branded RVs – big walking ads as you drive one). Someone did give a good recommendation to rent one for a couple of weeks just to see if we could survive. 

• Outdoorsy.com (the Vrbo of RVs) 

• Rvngo.com (specializes in one-way trips) 

• Rvshare.com (peer-to-peer rentals) – this one had a Thor nearby we could rent for about $350 per day

• Gorving.com (resource for general RV info) 

Decluttering the House 

This has to happen in waves and will keep happening. 

• Clothes we don’t need and haven’t worn go to Genesis. I still do the “leave my underwear, socks and T-shirts in Michigan” every year, and did it in August. 
• Dishes and kitchen stuff we don’t use go to Genesis. 
• The rest of my books – I’ve been doing this over the years, but my Clive Cussler collection is gone. And, my cookbooks (gasp) are getting filtered and donated. 

And then, the other stuff: 

• Mom’s wedding China that she shipped to me: Seagull pattern. Includes all kinds of plates, a tea set, a coffee set, and serving stuff that I don’t know what they are even used for (I looked at Replacements.com, but the cost to pack and ship it basically crosses off the money I’d get – and they don’t guarantee that they’ll even buy it all). 
• Piggy bank collection: I have over 30 piggy banks 

• Bank collection: I have a lot of non-piggy banks, including mechanical banks 
• Grandma Kline’s crystal drinkware: this is nice, but … 
• Mother’s Day and Christmas plates: Mom collected until 1980. And I seem to have two of every year. Pretty, blue, decorative plates that I’ll never use and really aren’t worth much anymore. 
• Silver: coffee set, trays, “hotel” silver flatware 
•  Crystal: a bunch of bowls 
• Knick knacks: just stuff collecting dust 
• Furniture: part of decluttering also means getting rid of furniture, including an antique buffet/sideboard, my old desk, an antique school desk, an antique wardrobe – this will also mean less dusting, and more open rooms for “staging” purposes. 

First trying to sell the stuff. But, who even needs a tea service for 12? 

 After two months of decluttering, we’ve made the following dents in our Decluttering Plan (I really wish that I had taken before pictures to show all of the stuff): 

• $700+ sold 

• Top shelves in kitchen cabinets are empty 

• Top shelves in pantry are empty 

• Top shelves in red room/office are empty 

• Two shelves in OCLL are empty 

• A few pieces of furniture sold – amazed how much easier it is to clean the house with fewer items on the floor! – and how much dust and cobwebs accumulated under them – yuk! 

• Two trips to Genesis with donated items – one or two more planned after surgery in October. I guess I’ll think about including items that I didn’t sell on Facebook Marketplace on this next trip. 

Getting Work Done on the House 

Our house is almost 100 years old. Which means that there is always work that needs to be done. In July, we put on a new roof (it was way overdue). In August, we patched up some walls in the red room (Office) and are repainting the walls and doors and trim. In August, after three years, Tony finished painting the one side of the house exterior (three to go). 

The Wall Street Journal ran an article on Monday, September 20 about RV life and I bought a book, Living the RV Life  (on my Kindle – don’t need more clutter by buying books) with some good blogs to catch up on.  

Stay tuned for Round 2 of getting ready for the RV Life in Anywhere USA.