Why We Moved into a Camper in 2017
In one word: flexibility. We wanted to be as available as possible. To be able to say yes to an opportunity if we wanted to. We chose flexibility over stability.
I’ll get more into what we do for work in another post, but both of our careers are event-based and involve a lot of traveling. The first ministry Seth worked for after graduation was based in Kentucky, but we lived in Denver, Colorado and had family in northern Minnesota. We didn’t want to set up a home base in Kentucky, and we also didn’t want to have a physical house or apartment if we were only going to be there thirty days total throughout the year. Seth’s coworker was on the road almost every weekend while his wife stayed at their apartment. She had a location-dependent job as a teacher.
We didn’t want to do that to ourselves. I wanted to be able to go with Seth to every event. In the first few months, it was to be able to help Seth with his work, but the eventual goal was to be able to spend “off” time together and either work while Seth was out working or take care of the kids we were hoping to have. At the time we moved into the camper, it was just the two of us. But a little after a year of full-time RV living, we had our first baby. Being able to spend time together as a family while working alternative jobs was a huge priority for us.
Seth and I wanted to be able to take advantage of every opportunity that came our way, and living on the road would help facilitate that. We had considered a tiny house, but we didn’t know enough about them to feel confident in building one. And we definitely didn’t have the finances to buy one. Seth and I knew we wanted something light and easily towable.
eBook & Paperback coming soon!
This blog post is part of a series that gives a sneak peak into my forthcoming book, How To Tell Your Parents You Are Moving Into A Camper. This post is an excerpt of Chapter Two: Why We Moved Into A Camper. In the book, I expand on the different types of tiny mobile living arrangements, such as van life and tiny homes.
Look for the eBook and Paperback coming Fall of 2023!
Our campers have been light or ultra-light. We’ve been easily able to tow them with our truck, which was a Ford F-250, and our current vehicle, a Ford Excursion. Being able to take the camper to all of Seth’s events for work was exactly the right call for us to make and we are so glad that we made the choice to move into the camper and live on the road.
Are there things we would have done differently, now that we know more about nomadic life? Sure, and I’ll get into that in another post. And later, we’ll discuss how to choose a rig that is the best fit for you and the lifestyle you want to live our of your RV. I think our biggest motivator was making our living situation work for us, and not the other way around.
Another reason for moving into a camper was to save money. Like I said, we were living in Denver, Colorado. Our little one-bedroom apartment was $850 a month, which wasn’t bad, but the month we moved out we received a letter that the rates were going up. We’ve been watching the Denver housing market and it’s insane. There’s no way we would be able to afford a traditional house there. We spent two winters parked in Denver with friends, and being able to help offset electrical and water use plus pay the loan on our camper was around $500 a month, much more affordable for our family of three plus a dog. We could do whatever we liked to the interior of the camper, unlike an apartment that has special rules for painting and flooring.
How exactly can you save money living in a camper? We’ll get into that a little more in another post, where we talk about how we were able to afford to live in a camper, but less space equals less stuff, and less stuff equals less cost to maintain. And if you can swing it to buy a used camper, you may be able to forgo loan payments, saving you hundreds each month. Most campers already come pre-furnished, and even if you want to make your RV your own by buying a real mattress (highly recommend this!) or taking out the dinette and putting in your own table and chairs, you don’t need nearly as much furniture as a “house” house or apartment. You can even save money by cooking instead of eating out on the road.
If you want to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, a tiny living space like an RV may be a great fit for you. We didn’t necessarily set out to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle in 2017 when we moved into our camper. Living in a small space created eco-consciousness as a by-product.
It started with the knowledge that RVs have limited freshwater storage, and we knew that there would be times when we would be boondocking or urban camping without access to fresh water. We put in special faucets and shower heads to save water, and we learned how to take navy showers. Then we started looking into eco-friendly soaps and shower products. Most places don’t let you dump your grey tank into the wild, but in the places that did we wanted to make sure that our grey tank wasn’t hurting the environment.
Water conservation led us to composting toilets. We just couldn’t justify flushing drinking water down the toilet, literally. But even RV toilets are more water-conserving than Western toilets. It seems that learning to conserve water was the gateway to more environmental thinking. But the smallness of the space definitely played a part. Quickly after moving in, we switched our cleaning products to more green alternatives. Air quality can be an issue in tiny living spaces, and we wanted to make sure that we weren’t unnecessarily lowering our air quality. Being forced to spend more time outside was also influential in our environmentalism. Being in such a small space forces you to get outside more, even in weather you may have considered ‘bad’ before going tiny. Which is a great segue to the next reason for moving into a smaller living space:
Getting closer with family! In many RVs, there aren’t multiple ‘bedrooms’, which means that siblings and families are having to share sleeping quarters. Couple that with the small common spaces, and you have a recipe for one cozy (or crazy) family. I honestly don’t think this lifestyle is right for everyone or every family, but I think that when you approach tiny living with the right attitude it can change your family dynamics for the better. Being forced together so often means that disagreements need to be settled well. There is no space to allow for brooding. Seth and I can see that our conflict management skills definitely improved when we downsized our living environment.
We also co-slept with both babies, because there simply wasn’t a nursery. I’ll get more into why we chose the rig we did in the next chapter, but we had a ten foot toyhaouler that was loaded with equipment. The only bed most nights was our king-size slide out. And so the three of us (and eventually four of us) piled in. Co-sleeping was one of the main reasons we think our kids are still so snuggly, snuggling is what they’ve known their whole life. On a side note, baby-proofing the camper was so much easier than a house!