Woman's Dream of Fulltiming Yields Hints on Unloading Stuff

"Nearly all her life, [she] has compulsively collected the odd and unusual. Some things are beautiful, such as a porcelain encased French clock built in 1870 that still works. Other things, such as a 1950s crabby-looking black poodle sculpture that doubles as a pin cushion, might fall into the so-ugly-it's-cute category. Or just ugly."

She is Becky Jones, a St. Petersburg, Florida woman who's made the decision to pack it up, sell it, and move to the fulltimer lifestyle. But she has a lot of "packing it up" to do in order to make that dream come true. Decades of collecting, including 65 pairs of shoes (eat your heart out, Imelda), a over two dozen silver place settings.

What may interest many aspiring fulltimers is how Jones is unloading it. One word: eBay. Jones is parlaying her collection into money to buy a fifth wheel and tow rig through an eBay "shop." This is a fair warning: If you're trying to get ready to hit the road, you may want to avoid the site, lest you be tempted to pick up that Victorian era pickle jar.

For the full story, check out the St. Petersburg Times.

Photo: St. Petersburg Times

Shopping for the Fulltime Rig: Bathroom or Badroom?

It may be the room where you spend the least amount of time in your RV, but if you're living with a bathroom that doesn't work for you, it'll seem like you spend a lifetime there.

RV bathrooms are a necessary evil, sometimes they can be real evil. How do you sort out the good from the bad? When shopping for that new rig, make it your business to go about your bathroom business. No, we're not suggesting leaving a calling card behind, but work your way through the bathroom area as if you were going to be living with it.

Take off your shoes, step into the shower--is there enough headroom and elbowroom? Are there places to put that necessary "stuff" like shampoo, conditioners, and razors? When you step out, is safety a concern--might you need to add grab bars to enchance mobility?

What about (as the Brits call it) the Loo? Some RV toilets are stuck away in a "closet" for privacy. Sit down on the pot with the door closed. Is there enough room for you feet to rest comfortably, or will your knees be in your chin while you fish for the paper? For that matter, where is the toilet paper--is it in easy reach? When you try to get back up off the throne, will you need help from a strong man?

Now in front of the mirror--how's the lighting? How about the medicine cabinet storage space--enough room for that, and all the other things you "must have" while in the powder room? If there isn't enough room for linens, is there a close and usable place for them? Are there shore power outlets in easy reach--and are they guarded by safety enhanced ground-fault-interrupter circuits?

Heating and ventilation, too, are important in the John. Back to the "toilet closet." Are there air conditioning and heating ducts? If you or your traveling companions spend a lot of time on the throne, it can get might uncomfortable if there is sufficient "environmental regulation." How about ventilation? Ceiling vents? Openable windows?

How about the bathroom layout and doorway arrangements? Is the bathroom sufficiently hidden away from other parts of the living area? When you take a shower, will you emerge "buck nek-ed" into the bedroom? Is that a problem?

By acting like you live there, you'll quickly discover whether the bathroom in your prospective RV will work for you, or whether you'd better take a powder and look for something else.

RVing couple discusses their full-time life

We recently posted an video interview on RVvideos.com with Jim and Jan Waytashek, who sold their Wisconsin farm in 1993 to live and travel full-time in a recreational vehicle. In the four-minute video they talk about their decision to go full-time and the creative way they got rid of a lifetime of belongings. They were interviewed in Quartzsite, Arizona in their fifth wheel trailer, and they talk about their interesting lives there as well. See the video.

How Many Fulltime RVers? How Many RVs?

In a broad-ranging article on RVing, a Baltimore Sun journalist suggests the number of fulltime RVers in the United States is around one million. While the writer doesn't say where his information comes from, it's an interesting thought. That would mean that a little over 3/10ths of 1% of the US population calls an RV home. As an interesting excercise, we started tallying up the folks that we know who are fulltimers to compare to those who weren't. We had to finally give it up, because we know too many people to keep it all straight.

If our experiences with readers of various blogs and articles that we publish is any indicator, there are a whole lot of folks who want to mushroom out that one million fulltimers estimate. Just take a look at any Internet forum directed to the fulltime lifestyle. Yes, there's a lot of fulltimers who participate, and lots more who have intelligent, meaningful questions about the lifestyle, those who want to get out and do it. Almost universally the advice that's given by fulltimers boils down to: "Don't let the grass grow under your feet--get out there!"

Other statistics from the Balty story: Averaging it all out, the typical RVer is married, 49-years old, owns a home (we presume landlocked), and lives in a household with a $68,000 annual income. In terms of age groups, if you own an RV and you're between 35 and 54, you're in the biggest group of RV owners. Across the US, over 7% of households have at least one RV--8 million homes with RVs.

Check out the full story in the Baltimore Sun.

Photo: FEMA