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Old 04-10-2014, 08:42 AM   #1
wilsonseattle
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Full Timing in Six Weeks

It was an intriguing dream when we purchased our first travel trailer. We only had one kid at home out of the four and at that time in his life going camping with his parents was the last thing he wanted to do. So we picked out a small 19 foot trailer and camping we went, 82 days in our first summer. We just fell in love with RVing, a warm, soft bed with real sheets and a bathroom only a few steps away that didn’t require a flashlight and a cold walk. Everything we wanted was packed away and could stay that way, no boxes that had to be lugged around and tents that to be set up and torn down.

Fast forward a few years and we found ourselves as empty nesters on a one year assignment in North Carolina. We decided it would be fun to try full timing while we were there so we sold the small trailer and bought a larger model with three slides. Big enough to live in but still small enough to enjoy camping. Now we really got the bug as we met lots of great people, had a few adventures and got a real education driving it all the way back to Washington State. We learned that we could get along fine in 300 square feet of space and that we really didn’t need a lot of stuff to be happy. Our marriage improved as we learned a lot of new skills for getting along and became even better partners and friends.

No sooner are we settled back into everyday life in our stick and brick house and the boss calls, new manager in charge she says, new ways of doing business. She then drops the bomb that all West Coast operations would be consolidated into Southern California. Yikes, now what to do. Within six weeks we went from deciding trivial things like when to have summer parties to getting rid of 98% of everything we owned and moving into an RV. Here is the story of that adventure.

Stuff, yep stuff and lots of it, 2200 square feet of house with a three car garage and an outside shed tends to accumulate a lot of stuff. This was going to be a real challenge. It’s not like we are pack rats, in fact just the opposite. My wife hates clutter and over the years we have been married I have very much learned to hate it to. Probably why the RV lifestyle immediately appealed to us. However, it’s a much more daunting and frankly overwhelming task to get rid of everything we had accumulated in our adventures. We knew we didn’t want to buy a new place in Southern California being only a few years from retiring and renting was expensive too. I suggested over dinner one evening we should full time in the RV. The spark was easy to see in my wife’s eyes as it was a path back to the lifestyle we loved and missed.

We jumped in the truck on a rather wet Saturday afternoon and hit the local RV lots. We knew we wanted a fifth wheel travel trailer as our truck was only one year old and we didn’t want to trade it in. We had bought it anticipating the move up to a larger trailer at some point in the future. The very first RV we looked at was a huge 39 foot 2012 Keystone Alpine Fifth Wheel with all the goodies we wanted and then some. Just under 13,000lbs but still within the weight limits of our truck. Fours slides, three tv’s, AC’s with heat pumps, double door frig, washer/dryer hook ups and enough storage space in the basement to qualify as another room. We spent the rest of the weekend looking at more models but ended up coming back and buying that very first one. Seven days later it was parked in front of the house taking up half of the roadway and all of our neighbors wondering what we were up to now.

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest with parents who enjoyed the outdoors. Hunting and fishing trips every year as well as a small Chinook motorhome we toured the country in every summer. I still hunt and fish and being someone who loves to do things with his hands and has the ability to fix most anything around the house I had a garage full of tools. As I stood there on my first Saturday morning after getting the RV I anxiously wondered what to do with it all. First step was to contact my older brothers and see if they wanted any of the tools that our Dad had given me over the years. We all had an unwritten agreement that if one of us was given something we didn’t want then everyone else had first say in it before it could be sold. One brother took me up on the offer and cleared out most of the large power tools, and almost all of the fishing and hunting equipment. From our experience in North Carolina I knew I needed to only keep a few basic tools to work on the RV so most everything in the garage and my beloved shop would be going away.

The next step was to clear out everything we didn’t think we could sell. All of the kids were invited over and we filled their cars to the dome lights with clothes, DVD’s, pictures and whatever they wanted. Some of the kids put their names on the big ticket items we wanted to sell like the washer/dryer and furniture in case we couldn’t find buyers. The wife and I made a pact that if we couldn’t sell it for at least $5 and the kids didn’t want it then it would be donated to Goodwill. Three truckloads of stuff went to Goodwill that first week. Now we were making some progress!

We also put the word out to the rest of the family and many of our friends and work associates that we were selling everything. Oddly enough the Finance Manager where we bought the RV had just moved to the state and needed things, he and his wife made three separate trips and bought a great deal of stuff. Even the Sales Manager at the RV dealer showed up and bought one of our big screen TV’s. Most of our brand new bedroom furniture went to a colleague from work.

Yard sales, garage sales, call it whatever you want my wife hates them. We have had them over the years to clear out the clutter but she refuses to participate. Getting rid of most everything we owned by this method meant that I was going to have to do all of the work. The garage was quickly filling up with all of the things we thought we could sell in the yard sale. Having spent over 31 years in the military it takes a lot to overwhelm me. However, looking at this enormous pile of stuff and the timeline of when we needed to be out of the house so we could get it on the market I quickly realized a yard sale was out of the question. The minimal amount of money we would make just wasn’t worth the stress of dealing with trying to sell it. More calls were made to the kids to come over and pick out what they wanted. Over the next few weeks we got rid of everything that remained. Some of my high value tools and stereo equipment went to pawn shops. Craigslist took care of the remaining furniture that we didn’t sell to friends and family. Even the neighbors started avoiding us, as every time we saw someone they usually got asked if they needed something we were having a hard time selling.

The RV was loaded up with everything we needed except for our clothes and food. We decided we would stay in the house until the day before we listed it for sale or we didn't have any furniture left to sit on, whichever came first. It was a strange day when we moved the RV from in front of the house and set up on our camping lot. After getting it positioned in the lot and leveled properly we started setting it up. All of the stress and anxiety we had been feeling seemed to just melt away. We knew immediately this was the right thing to do. Six weeks after deciding to go full timing we moved the last box out of the house and started living full time in the trailer.

I wouldn't be truthful saying we got rid of everything that wouldn't fit in the RV. We had a nice 8X12 shed on the campsite. Since we were not leaving for California for a few more months we had a few “projects” we took with us to the camp site. There were boxes and boxes of hard copy photographs from the years when the kids were growing up. We scanned the ones we wanted and then divided them up between the kids. There were also several boxes of documents from my military career as well as the normal documents like bills and receipts. We installed a locking, fire proof safe in the trailer and put away those documents we needed to keep. The rest were either scanned or rolled into nice little logs and used for camp fire material. I ended up keeping some of the awards and larger pictures I had acquired in the military. Most were framed so I removed them and donated the frames. I then took two flat cardboard panels and enclosed three sides, all the stuff I wanted to keep went inside and were secured to one of the walls in the RV basement.

We also found we had acquired several boxes of items we thought we would need, however these exceeded the storage capacity of the trailer. So we kept going thru the boxes as well as questioning everything we had inside the RV already. The rule became if something went in, something else had to come out. It took a couple more weeks be we finally whittled it down to only what we really, really needed and could reasonably fit in the trailer. Liberating is the word we used when we were finally done. We realized after it was all over with that we really didn't need all of that stuff to be happy. We had each other, a nice place to live that was comfortable and a renewed sense of adventure for what awaited us in California. In hindsight it was perhaps easier to be forced to make quick decisions on what and how to get rid of everything. It was certainly an emotional roller coaster parting with many of the things we had struggled to acquire in the first place. In the end we were both glad it happened quickly and as efficiently as possible. Could we have made a little more money if we spent more time selling everything? Sure, but the headache and heartache of doing that just wasn’t worth it to us in the end.
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Old 04-10-2014, 12:07 PM   #2
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Good luck to you and above all enjoy yourself and each other. Many of us wish we could do the same. Safe travels from the east side.
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Old 04-10-2014, 03:07 PM   #3
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I wish you the best. May you have many happy memories on your next chapter of you life adventures. You are living my dream


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Old 04-11-2014, 04:24 PM   #4
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Wow! Is all I can say. That's quiet a story. Good luck on full timing. I would love to do that. Hope you keep your PC to keep us up-dated.

Enjoy the ride, and thanks for your service.
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Old 04-11-2014, 08:28 PM   #5
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Both retired, and recently married, we did the same thing 1 1/2 years ago, except we weren't going to a job elsewhere. Yeah, having lots of kids sure did help, looked like grapes of wrath with the loads of furniture and stuff being hauled off by the kids. We also refused to do yard sales, just a PIA. Ended up selling the house to a neighbor two doors away, who always liked our house. And when we swept up the last of the dust in the garage and closed the door, the drive away felt like the weight of the world was lifted from our shoulders. Good luck and safe travels.
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Old 04-12-2014, 02:32 AM   #6
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we will be empty nesters soon too and have thought about going full time. The budget would fit two military retirements very well. My biggest anxiety is my tools and my car. I have a 1975 corvette that I spent 13 years building from the ground up myself. As for the rest of the stuff in the house, no issues at all. You don't get too attached to stuff that will either get damaged or disappear in another move. It's funny how much we get rid of each time the Air Force moves us. As for the basement storage in the Alpine, I call that the mother in-law room
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Old 08-06-2014, 03:24 PM   #7
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We sold the house, wellllll it's in escrow. Hopefully we will turn over the keys on 14 Aug 14, and then we are off full-timing. Ye-Haw. We've been planing for over a year. Got a new Trailer and Pickup. Going to pay both of them off once we sell the house, and will still have plenty for a down payment on a new house if we ever settle down. Debt free except the Dish service pretty much. I can't believe we've made it. We can't wait. We have a few places that we made reservation at, but that's it. Free to go anywhere we want to go soon.

I got my start on this forum, when we bought our 23rb passport over a year ago. Since then we bought a Rockwood Windjammer 3025w. We are loving it. I still come over here for the fulltimers section. great forum. Thanks for all the info.
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Old 08-06-2014, 05:37 PM   #8
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Enjoy Chief MK!! Congrats on livin the dream!
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Old 08-07-2014, 04:30 AM   #9
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Thank you, it's going to be an adventure.
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Old 08-09-2014, 11:59 AM   #10
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We became full timers recently after selling our home of 20+ years.
Even though we are looking for a new place to land, we are in no hurry and are loving the simplicity of the RV life. The more day's that pass the easier it is to call the RV home and just take our time moving ahead
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Old 08-09-2014, 12:22 PM   #11
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Full Timing in Six Weeks

Congrats!! We thought about it in '09 on our 6 week cross country tour after I retired in '08...Now I'm back to work in a new job.
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Old 08-11-2014, 11:32 AM   #12
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Congrats on your new adventureThanks for your service.My wife retires august 2015 from the Army 20+ years and then we are out traveling the states and we are in our mid 40s life is good
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Old 08-11-2014, 03:13 PM   #13
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Great read, good luck and keep us posted. I truly hope this is me someday!
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Old 08-27-2014, 02:41 PM   #14
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Quote:
Originally Posted by petey82 View Post
We became full timers recently after selling our home of 20+ years.
Even though we are looking for a new place to land, we are in no hurry and are loving the simplicity of the RV life. The more day's that pass the easier it is to call the RV home and just take our time moving ahead

exactly right.
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Old 08-27-2014, 02:43 PM   #15
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As they say in the movie JAWS, your going to need a bigger boat. We definitely did. So we pick up our new 2015 Montana 375 FLF Mountaineer this friday. Yee Haw.
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Old 09-13-2014, 07:41 PM   #16
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Been at for 32 days now, and still loving it.
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Old 09-17-2014, 07:45 AM   #17
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Cool beans! Glad it is going great. Ah someday We went seasonal for the first time this year
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Old 09-17-2014, 01:00 PM   #18
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Dang Chief, this thread is still going??? We retire in December, I'm 25 years AF, the DW is 21 years (AF, not old). We want to go full timing, but we have to figure out how to get the kids to age a few years quickly. Our youngest is 12, maybe we can convert them to dog years.....
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Old 09-18-2014, 05:50 AM   #19
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Home school him and take him with you. There were two families up from texas that are doing that. they have 6 kids in two 5ers. the nicest kids you ever met!!Thanks for your service!
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Old 09-26-2014, 07:14 PM   #20
CHIEF MK
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Quote:
Originally Posted by bsmith0404 View Post
Dang Chief, this thread is still going??? We retire in December, I'm 25 years AF, the DW is 21 years (AF, not old). We want to go full timing, but we have to figure out how to get the kids to age a few years quickly. Our youngest is 12, maybe we can convert them to dog years.....


Yep, still going. Dang ! 25 years ? Are you going to make a career out of it? LOL!, Thanks for you and the DW's service. Were in Billings Montana this week, and getting ready for some rain.
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