Can I Do It?

Here's my home. Well, I hope to make it my full time home early next year. Right now it's my second home, my weekend home, my 1998 Pleasure-Way motorhome. It's got everything I could possibly need in a home, just on a very small scale.

I've dreamed of living full time in an RV for several years. It just seems to fit my get-up-and-go lifestyle. I believe a Class C would be a perfect size to fulltime in, but I hate to give up my Class B in case I find I don't really like fulltiming in an RV. So I'm going to give it a shot in my Class B first and then, if I love the whole idea, I may upsize to a Class C down the road. Then again, if I can make it work in the B, I may just stick with that since a B is still easier to drive, park and keep gassed up than anything larger.

The savings of living in this rig, in a nice RV park, versus continuing to live in my South Tampa apartment, would be substantial. Even with the slight increase in driving distance (and gas costs) to work, my monthly nut would be cut by 66%. I guess I lived on a shoestring so long when I was in nursing school that I have become more mindful of how I spend my money. I would also be located on an RV site with a little land around me versus living on the top floor of a three-story walkup with a great view but no balcony. I could get used to sitting outside enjoying a cigar and an adult beverage on nice evenings. And I wouldn't share a common bedroom wall with a neighbor who likes to drunk dial, loudly, at 4 am. That's a little bonus.

But can I downsize to the point where living full time in a space smaller than most people's bathrooms is feasible? I wear uniforms to work every day and dress pretty casually the rest of the time, so my wardrobe can be thinned out. I'm not a big fan of cooking, so the tiny kitchen shouldn't be a problem. I probably won't like walking the 25 yards to the campground bathhouse on cold mornings, but I do have the option of taking showers in my rig. I'll just have to choose between mini-showering in my tiny, low-pressure wet bath versus having a nice, long, hot, powerful shower. Life is all about choices.

I believe I can also put a small shed on my site and if so, that would be a great place to stow not only my bicycles and kayak gear, but also extra things I want to keep near, but not right in the rig with me. And I will have my car, so I can put plastic storage containers in there to keep light things like extra clothes. Finally, my mother's house is only 20 miles away and I can store other items there that I won't need for months at a time.

Ultimately, I know there will be plusses and minuses to doing this that I won't discover until I'm in the thick of it. I expect I'll find very nice neighbors. I already spoke with several of the park residents and they were very nice. RV people just seem to be more open and welcoming. I think I won't miss climbing up three flights of stairs every time I come home toting groceries, cat litter, etc. And living in such a small space means I simply won't be able to bring home too much of anything. That will be a savings of money and stress. Of course, I'll have to be even neater than I already am because everything will have to have a place and be put back in that place all the time.

The bottom line is this: I have to try it or I'll forever wonder "what if...?". As I've said with all my other adventures, the worst I can do is fail miserably. I know from experience that things will not work out the exact way I envision them now, but I also know from experience that things will work out exactly as they should and I'll be just fine.

This will definitely be an adventure.