Full-Time RV Living

On July 29th, 2020 we finished packing our recently acquired RV with everything we thought we would need to live comfortably on the road and everything else went into the moving truck destined for a storage unit that would the hold larger items and personal treasures until we were ready to live in a regular house again (which may be years). It was 116 degrees in Chandler Arizona the day we moved out so that will live forever as a benchmark as one of the prime directives of our travels is to chase cooler climes as well as beautiful scenery. When COVID-19 hit and we were all told to “shelter in place”. We were both able to convert to a telecommute work environment and we thought sheltering in place would be much more interesting if it wasn’t always the same place, so we bought an RV and now home is wherever we drop anchor.

After working until early afternoon on weekdays, we head out to explore the sights we’ve identified with full day activities and travel on the weekends. We may stay 1-3 weeks in a place depending on the number of sights we’ve planned before moving on.

With just over 365 square feet of living space the 3 of us are surprisingly comfortable, but our kitty, Artie doesn’t take up much space and even efficiently reuses existing space. Once I’m settled comfortably on the sofa, it’s not long before he’s settled comfortably on my lap.

We’re far from deprived in our relatively small space with a queen size bed, comfortable sized bathroom and on-board laundry facilities, the only time we have to leave home is to go exploring or occasionally resupply. Our climate control is robust so if we hit spots that are warmer or cooler than our target of staying places where the temperature is between 50 and 80 degrees we stay fully comfortable, regardless. We always prefer just opening the windows on pleasant days and enjoy the fresh air, especially after living 20 years in Phoenix bottled up in sealed, air-conditioned “comfort”.

We did have some important modifications to make to fully adapt ourselves to RV living. I replaced the faux fireplace that came with the RV with a shelving unit that allowed convenient storage and access to our Instant Pot and crock pot. Since we work, we needed a printer and this shelf accommodates that as well as a high efficiency electric space heater so we don’t have to fire up the propane furnace unless it gets really cold. Cindy works with her laptop at the dining table and my “office” is a plate in the floor with a pole that supports floating mounts for my keyboard tray and dual monitors and the passenger side front captains chair serves as my office chair. My office breaks down in about 5 minutes and is stowed in the under bed storage box when we hit the road. Cindy’s office breakdown is a little more complicated but I’m working on something different.