Did RV Life Stunt Our Minimalist Habits?

When moving from a house to an RV full time, unloading 80%-90% of your belongings is about the norm, especially if you don’t keep a home or storage unit. We were no different.

I have been a minimalist–or more of an essentialist, by definition–for almost 10 years and raised my youngest son with this mindset from a young age. Strengthening the muscle to make decisions takes time, and we’ve gotten pretty good at it.

Living in an RV, between space and weight, there’s just not room for unused, or ‘just-in-case’ items to live. But after 3 years full-time, we have gotten used to having all we own with us all the time. We keep the RV in shape by decluttering every season change, making sure everything has a home, and keeping our “travel day” packing/set up routine to less than an hour. But the creep still happens!

So when we took a trip this Spring without the RV, our first in almost 2 years, we were shocked to see how much we required.

Aside from medical needs, we were facing major weather swings that required winter and spring clothing items, as well as work/school and entertainment. Out of habit, we brought along our toiletries, but only had full size items, and we brought some food and laundry items. The pup came with us, so we also brought her food, toys, and playpen. We had that truck loaded down!

When we returned home ten days later, we realized we hadn’t used all we brought, and it got me thinking about how we’ve almost gotten complacent with minimalism. So, I was refreshing with my two fave bloggers/YouTubers, Joshua Becker at Becoming Minimalist and Dawn at The Minimal Mom, to get back in the groove. Then I did a big declutter of the rig since we were finishing up some projects, and we’d been sitting awhile.

Here’s a top 10 list from our favorite reminders:

1. purge often–we need so much less than we think
2. if you’re not sure, it’s probably a no; if you can’t remember when you last used it, it is DEFINITELY a no
3. on the maybe items, if you can replace it easily, or for under $20, it can go
4. we are never very far from a store, either where we are sitting or passing, online or brick and mortar, so many consumables can be replaced quickly
5. multi-use items are great, unless you only use them for one thing
6. quality over quantity for the items you do keep
7. everything needs a home, and should be in it if not in use–clear the surfaces!
8. organizing/storage solutions make it too easily to hide “too much”, so only use when needed; clear storage makes it easier to see what’s inside
9. let the space define the boundaries–if it fits, great; if you don’t like to dig or move stuff, either have less or find a new home–that’s when organizing and storage solutions come in handy
10. it’s okay to have things that are there just because they make you happy

It’s totally okay to not be a minimalist, if a different lifestyle serves you! This just works for us, as much for the RV lifestyle, as for our mental and physical health. We don’t follow any hard and fast rules about it, we just settle where we find peace.

Clearly we have some improvements for RV-less travel, but it happens so rarely, we’ve got time to work on it!

So where are you on your declutter journey? I’ve got more on this topic in the archives, but we are always a work in progress!