Yep, we bought an RV and are planning to move into it full time soon! We’re going to be full time RVers and get to go camping every day! Our family has always enjoyed camping together. Rob and I used to camp 1-2 times a month before Emily was born, and after she came along we introduced her to the great outdoors. If you know anything about Emily, you know she is truly a nature girl! When we first took her camping, she was still a baby so we took the Pack-N-Play and set it up inside our tent for her to sleep in. As she grew, she eventually graduated to her own air mattress – first a toddler size and then a twin size. Through it all, she has always loved being outside in God’s creation. She loves the dirt, water, mud, birds, creatures, hiking, sticks, rocks – all of it!
The only downside to camping in a tent is the weather. For a while in the summer, it just got unbearably hot and too uncomfortable to sleep well. Then there are also the lightening storms. You do not want to be in a tent with metal poles in a lightening storm. In the winter, the opposite problem creeps up and it was sometimes way too cold for the camping gear we owned. We’d go camping as often as we could, but sometimes the weather would force us to cancel some trips. For many years we’ve looked forward to getting an RV with heat & A/C so we could go camping year-round. We finally did it!
We ended up getting a Jayco x213 model. It has a rear slide for the master bed at one end and bunk beds at the opposite end. When the slide is out, it really opens up the space and gives us plenty of room. It’s really a great layout for our little family! We will use the top bunk area for storage, while Emily gets her own bottom bunk. She can even fold up her bed and have a good size play area.
We have a dinette area and a comfy sofa for hanging out
We did replace the master mattress with a better memory foam one – it is OH SO COMFY! The space for the mattress is for a King, but we bought a Queen size for our replacement since that’s what we are used to at home anyway, and this gives us room to add more storage. I love the windows by our bed, too!
Emily has a twin size bunk bed with a big shelf for her belongings. She even has her own door to the outside! We’ll be hanging up some more storage for her and she’ll also keep some boxes of toys & books under her bed. She’s being silly in this picture and it makes it look like she’s crowded up there, but she really has plenty of room – her bed is the same size as the one in our house that she sleeps on.
When she wants more space inside she can fold up the bed and spread out her toys or crafts. She’ll even have a folding chair and we’ll have a folding table she can use under there too. We will be lining the floor with foam mats to make it more comfy and colorful under there. Right now, she and her Daddy are in the process of painting the underside fun colors! I’ll show more pictures when everything is done.
So why live in it full time?
Well, why not? People do this all the time. There are especially many homeschooling families that travel around living in an RV. Many with WAY more kids than we have. I’ve even read about a family with 12 kids living in an RV! Wow! Of course, their RV is much bigger than ours, but then again we only have one child.
We did some thinking and realized that we can live in the camper full time at a local RV campground and actually save a lot of money monthly compared to rent or living on post! We have an old student loan debt that we are determined to get rid of and this will make it happen really soon! We know it will be an adventure and we’ll have some challenges, but we are used to taking on crazy challenges in this family so we are looking forward to it. We love family time and getting outside together so that will be easy. We’ll also be able to just load up our home on the weekends and go visit places that we want to see while we are living in this area. We have a big list of places we want to visit while we live in the Maryland/DC area! The next time we move with the Army (which might be later this year), it will be so easy!
We’re planning to sell/donate a lot of stuff that we don’t really need. Turns out, there’s a lot of stuff we don’t need around here. Then, we’ll put the rest of it in storage for later. Hubby will be giving up his woodworking for a while, but he’s spending his extra time on school anyway so he says he’s ok with it. I’ll have to simplify my sewing hobby a bit, but I am taking it with me and will be like the many ladies out there that sew while living in an RV full time! Emily will have homeschool and her favorite things – Beanie Babies, arts & crafts, and reading. Right now she’s really into making things with polymer clay so she’ll be able to do that easily in the RV.
And a BONUS – it will shorten Rob’s commute to work, and we’ll be closer to our favorite grocery store and library! Yay!
Will it be hard?
Honestly, we think it will be way more fun than it will be challenging. We are all really looking forward to living simply for a while and cutting back on the “stuff”. Rob and I have a goal of hiking the Appalachian Trail together once he retires, so we figure if we can spend 6 months in the woods with only a backpack full for each of us, surely this will be a piece of cake!
Privacy will be the biggest challenge because our bedrooms have curtains and not doors, but we are all committed to making it work and we’ll get creative. Our plan is to work hard to save money and once we knock the debt out, we will upgrade to a 5th wheel model with more room and a separate bedroom (with a door!) for Emily.
I hope you’ll follow along on our latest adventure with us. I’ll give a more complete tour of the RV once we have it all set up and ready to go. We look forward to seeing how God grows and uses our family through this.
Jesus says, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” John 10:10
The word “abundant” means plentiful, generous, ample, even rich and lavish. Christ wants us to have an abundant life, but that doesn’t mean more stuff. That means finding the real JOY in life – in Jesus Christ and in each other. It’s going to be a great journey!