If you have gone on camping trips in the past, you know what the RV life is all about.
If you have only camped in tents or pop ups, or have not ever camped out before, then you are in for a real treat, living full time in an RV is like camping in a hotel! Well, maybe without maid service! You have chosen the vehicle you would like to have, the price is right, it's within your budget, and the decor color works for your wife.
You have told the kids about your plan and they didn't freak out, so that hurdle is accomplished.
Next comes the big one...
sell the house, or rent it? What to do? Depends on where you live and the housing market in your area.
Do you want to move out forever, or leave just for the cold winter months to head for warm weather and then come back for the summer months? Or do you want to just head out and go wherever the road takes you? This decision may have been made when you decided how much you could afford to spend for your RV.
Assuming that you are buying an RV, you have looked at your monthly income and you know how much you will have available to live on and a vehicle payment may or may not be in that budget, so the money you get from a house sale will get you the RV of your dreams.
Or, you may already have an RV and moving into it will be fairly simple.
Once that decision is made, then what goes and what stays? When we were ready to go full time, we found it best not to rush into selling every thing in the house, but we also didn't drag it out.
First, we tried to decide if there were some things that would work in the RV, i.
e.
cookware, electric appliances, dishes, etc.
We went back and forth a few times on this, and there were still some items that we were sorry we brought, and some that we didn't.
What to do with the items that don't sell...
put them in storage, or give away? This is the time to make lists.
Make lists for everything...
what goes, what stays, what gets given away, what gets donated to charity, what goes into the trash.
For the new RVer, this process can be a bit of a crapshoot...
two years later we were still disposing of stuff that we thought we couldn't live without in the beginning! Fragile china and crystal may not be the best choice because of the constant movement when traveling, so if it's an heirloom then maybe someone else in the family would really love to have it.
We gave ourselves one month to sell the furniture we would no longer need, so we made our list and put a desired price on everything, with the thought in mind that this should be flexible.
If it didn't sell right away then a price reduction to move it out would not be a big disappointment.
Then we put the special mementos and pictures that will not be sold in one place that is securely out of sight during the sale.
Trust me on this one, buyers will open drawers and look in closets, even with signs stating items in these areas are not for sale.
Plan an "estate sale" and place an ad in the local paper (another good source is Craigslist) and plan for a week's duration.
It actually only took us 3 days to sell everything in the house...
make that 3 frantically busy days...
but it was all gone nevertheless.
Time for The Big Move.
The ideal situation would be if you are able to bring your RV home where you can spend a couple of nights in your driveway getting set up and also acquainted with the systems in your RV.
But if you can't, try to make an arrangement with your dealer that you can bring your things to your RV in several trips and have time to put them away.
If you can't do this, then you may have to stack all your boxes in your RV and move to a local RV park for a few days while you get set up.
Don't forget to do a little grocery shopping before you move in.
Also, note that it may take a few hours for the refrigerator to get cold, so plan to take an ice cooler along for perishables, at least for the first day.
If you have only camped in tents or pop ups, or have not ever camped out before, then you are in for a real treat, living full time in an RV is like camping in a hotel! Well, maybe without maid service! You have chosen the vehicle you would like to have, the price is right, it's within your budget, and the decor color works for your wife.
You have told the kids about your plan and they didn't freak out, so that hurdle is accomplished.
Next comes the big one...
sell the house, or rent it? What to do? Depends on where you live and the housing market in your area.
Do you want to move out forever, or leave just for the cold winter months to head for warm weather and then come back for the summer months? Or do you want to just head out and go wherever the road takes you? This decision may have been made when you decided how much you could afford to spend for your RV.
Assuming that you are buying an RV, you have looked at your monthly income and you know how much you will have available to live on and a vehicle payment may or may not be in that budget, so the money you get from a house sale will get you the RV of your dreams.
Or, you may already have an RV and moving into it will be fairly simple.
Once that decision is made, then what goes and what stays? When we were ready to go full time, we found it best not to rush into selling every thing in the house, but we also didn't drag it out.
First, we tried to decide if there were some things that would work in the RV, i.
e.
cookware, electric appliances, dishes, etc.
We went back and forth a few times on this, and there were still some items that we were sorry we brought, and some that we didn't.
What to do with the items that don't sell...
put them in storage, or give away? This is the time to make lists.
Make lists for everything...
what goes, what stays, what gets given away, what gets donated to charity, what goes into the trash.
For the new RVer, this process can be a bit of a crapshoot...
two years later we were still disposing of stuff that we thought we couldn't live without in the beginning! Fragile china and crystal may not be the best choice because of the constant movement when traveling, so if it's an heirloom then maybe someone else in the family would really love to have it.
We gave ourselves one month to sell the furniture we would no longer need, so we made our list and put a desired price on everything, with the thought in mind that this should be flexible.
If it didn't sell right away then a price reduction to move it out would not be a big disappointment.
Then we put the special mementos and pictures that will not be sold in one place that is securely out of sight during the sale.
Trust me on this one, buyers will open drawers and look in closets, even with signs stating items in these areas are not for sale.
Plan an "estate sale" and place an ad in the local paper (another good source is Craigslist) and plan for a week's duration.
It actually only took us 3 days to sell everything in the house...
make that 3 frantically busy days...
but it was all gone nevertheless.
Time for The Big Move.
The ideal situation would be if you are able to bring your RV home where you can spend a couple of nights in your driveway getting set up and also acquainted with the systems in your RV.
But if you can't, try to make an arrangement with your dealer that you can bring your things to your RV in several trips and have time to put them away.
If you can't do this, then you may have to stack all your boxes in your RV and move to a local RV park for a few days while you get set up.
Don't forget to do a little grocery shopping before you move in.
Also, note that it may take a few hours for the refrigerator to get cold, so plan to take an ice cooler along for perishables, at least for the first day.
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