Back when we lived in a traditional house, I’m sure I romanticized what RV living would be like. The freedom of it was so alluring. I was focused on the adventure. And I’m not sure I thought much about what I might be giving up in exchange.
Fast forward six months. We’ve had plenty of time to experience the good, the bad, and the ugly of the RV lifestyle. Traveling to new places has been incredible. And to be honest, I haven’t missed living in a stationary house very often. I’m still very happy we took the leap into the full-time RV life.
I recently had a chance to really test my feelings on RV living when we visited my in-laws in New Jersey. This visit wasn’t just a for a day or two. We stayed in their guest room for nearly two weeks while the RV was safe and secure 45 minutes away.
This was our first time back in a house since we hit the road. And staying there gave me ample time to truly compare our new RV lifestyle with everything we used to have in our prior life.
There are pros and cons of both lifestyles, for sure. But, here’s the few areas that percolated to the top of my mind during our visit.
6 things I sometimes miss about living in a house
#1 – Free laundry. Our RV doesn’t have a washer or dryer. So, we always have to pay to do our laundry. I have to admit I miss the ease of just walking down to the basement and throwing a load in the wash. And it was so nice to wash our clothes without depositing an entire roll of quarters. I took serious advantage of staying with the in-laws to do free laundry. I even had the luxury of walking away and doing something else without waiting for the load to get done.
Look…no need for quarters
#2 – Great Wifi. As every RV nomad knows, you don’t always get perfect cell coverage. And there is no such thing as truly fast, unlimited data at a campsite. Getting back to a sticks-and-bricks house where the Wifi is super fast was terrific. Streaming was such a breeze. Uploading and downloading was simple again. So, yeah…I totally soaked it up during our visit.
#3 – A doorstep for deliveries. We tend to move around pretty frequently. We also like staying in public campgrounds where there isn’t a reliable address for package delivery. As a result, we need to carefully time our online orders with an upcoming stay at a private campground or be somewhere near an Amazon locker. Staying with my in-laws included a residential mailing address AND a doorstep where the mailman could leave a package any time of day!! I’m pretty sure we wore out Amazon during our visit.
#4 – Spending time with extended family. When you live the nomadic life, you can’t plan regular get togethers or dinners with your extended family. You barely remember what day it is, and the weekends don’t have the same relevance they once did. So there’s something really nice about getting together on a Friday or Saturday evening with the family for a big meal together.
#5 – Never worrying about weather. We spent a number of years living in locations where there were tornado sirens or massive snow storms. Each time this bad weather occurred though, we had a nice warm roof over our head. So we didn’t ever worry too much about the forecast. When you live in a poorly insulated tin can with thin walls, you start caring a heck of a lot more about heavy rain storms, violent winds, and major temperature swings.
Yes, this really happened on day 2 our very first RV trip. The forecast said rain…we got 14 inches of snow instead!
#6 – Bathroom privacy. Anyone who spends time in an RV knows there are NO secrets in such a small space. What each person does in the RV is heard (and smelled) by all who happen to be inside. So, having the ability to close a bathroom door for a little privacy these past few days seemed like pure luxury.
Even though I missed these conveniences of living in a house, I’m not ready to trade in the RV life to go back. There were easily twice as many things I missed about our RV during that short period while staying at my in-laws’ place.
12 things I missed about living in our RV
#1 – Being in nature. Suburban New Jersey has some perks, but being in nature isn’t one of them. I love getting out in the wild and breathing the fresh air. Looking out my window in the morning and seeing deer or squirrels running around is awesome. Not every campsite is idyllic, but it definitely beats concrete sidewalks and the rumbling of the garbage truck at 7 am.
Our campsite at Lake Gogebic, MI
#2 – New places to hike/run. One of the really great things about being nomadic is enjoying new scenery each week. One week, I might be hiking on a National Scenic Trail. The next, I could be trail running near Quebec City. I rarely have time do the same route twice before we’re on the move to somewhere new. While we were staying at my in-laws’ house though, I seemed to do the same boring run route multiple times. There just weren’t a lot of other options if I wanted to avoid being hit by a bus or car.
#3 – Avoiding spending temptations. When you live in suburbia, it’s really easy to spend money without thinking about it. There’s a Dunkin’ Donuts on every corner. Target is right down the road beckoning you with its big red shopping carts. And it’s so tempting to fall into old, unwanted spending habits. Being in the RV gives me the space to think about what I really need, and there’s far less impulse purchasing.
#4 – My writing space. When we’re in the RV, I have a desk that pulls out in the passenger seat. My chair is super comfy and I have inspiring views out the windows and front windshield. Each morning I’m the first one up, so I go to my writing space with a cup of coffee to be creative. I genuinely missed that picturesque little spot while being a houseguest.
The view from my writing seat
#5 – Tidiness. When you live in a super small space, you need to pick things up immediately. If you don’t, the RV looks like a dumpster in a matter of minutes. Everyone in the family is forced to maintain good habits. In a 2,000 square foot house it’s super easy to spread out though. Finn quickly reverts back to taking off his shoes wherever he wants instead of putting them away. When there’s too much space, it’s easy to rationalize, “we’ll get to that later.”
#6 – No dirty dishes. We have a total of four plates in our RV. Everyone has to wash their plate when they are done to make sure it’s clean for the next meal. Consequently, the dirty dishes never pile up in the sink. And you never have to unload a full dishwasher.
#7 – Enjoying the quiet. Spending a lot of time outdoors and in nature makes you more attuned to pure quiet. In most homes though, there’s always some artificial background noise. Sometimes it’s the sound of the TV in the other room. Or maybe it’s the constant dinging of someone’s cell phone with incoming text messages or alerts. This extra stimulus was once unnoticeable in my old world, but now I find it much harder to ignore.
#8 – Being mindful about consumption. When you live in an RV, you’re much more aware of how much water you are using and the amount of trash you’re creating. We regularly camp in places without water hookups. So we have to fill our fresh water tank and try to make it last as long as possible. This means we don’t leave the water running while washing our hands or doing the dishes. And when your sole trash can is the same size of most people’s bathroom wastebaskets, you see how quickly it fills up. This makes us far more mindful of how much waste we’re creating.
#9 – Eating healthier. Perhaps it’s not true about everyone, but we tend to eat healthier in our RV than we did before. We’re not always out at the campfire making s’mores like most people think. Instead, we’re sticking to smaller meals made from healthy foods. And there’s rarely leftovers sitting untouched in our fridge. Due to our limited space, we only buy what we can use quickly. And of course, there’s the freshly caught fish to appreciate too.
Fish for dinner
#10 – Simplicity in the kitchen. When you’re tight on space, everything needs to have more than one purpose. We don’t buy napkins, we just use paper towels. There’s no handheld mixer, blender, or toaster. We go “old school” for most things. And that means less clutter in our drawers or on our countertops.
#11 – Reading more. Without cable TV, we no longer plop down on the couch flipping from show to show at night. More often, we read instead. I love seeing Finn enjoy books. He gets to use his imagination to decide what the characters and scenery look like in his mind. And, this is something that he didn’t do nearly enough in our house when TV was the default source of entertainment.
#12 – Closeness as a family. There’s something about small spaces that makes you bond and feel closer to the people around you. Think back to a long road trip you took with someone. You probably learned more about that person in the span of a few hours than you might have ever learned in months of casual interactions. While we definitely still need our space apart, I feel like I’ve gotten to know my family much better than I ever could have achieved in a traditional house.
All in all, I appreciate living in our RV far more than living in a house. Each of the things I miss about our sticks-and-brick life are truly luxuries. And they don’t impact my quality of life enough to outweigh all the benefits of what we’ve gained with our RV lifestyle.