Another day, another dreamer! - RV-Dreams Community Forum

Jo And Craig · RV-Dreams Family Member

Another day, another dreamer!

NorCal Dan · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome Jo and Craig, glad to have you aboard. There are plenty of friendly and helpful folks here that love to answer questions. I can feel your excitement, it's contagious :)

Jo And Craig · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you so very much for the warm welcome. I am open to ALL kind of ideas and options, so please don't hold back! I like doing my homework... down to every little detail. (To know me is to love me! biggrin ) For example, we went to Alaska in late August/early September. (This was probably our 6th visit to Alaska.) I put together a spreadsheet with all anticipated expenses, including food and gas. When we got home, I was only about $142.00 off, and that was because we did a couple of things we had not planned on. So, needless to say, I am quite, well... you get the message!

Before I go, I do want to thank you for your service to our great country! God bless you!!

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome to the forum. biggrin

Since you've been lurking for awhile, you already know that there's a whole bunch of friendly folks on this site who are more than willing to answer any questions you may have.

Also, remember that on this forum, there are no "dumb" questions. Everyone has to begin by asking basic questions and in fact if you're wondering about something, there's a very good chance someone else is looking for answers on the same subject.

Good luck with your plans, Maybe we'll meet up out on the road someday. smile

Jim

Jo And Craig · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you, Jim! I'm having a WONDERFUL time here. What I find so amazing is how many people all have the same idea to go RVing and, especially, full time. Why do you think that is? I just love learning how people are preparing for their eventual escape. A lot of good ideas out there.

Jim01 · RV-Dreams Family Member

Jo,

You just answered your own question.

People are escaping from the rat-race of what is called "normal" living.

It's not easy to give up all your stuff and move into an RV, but the rewards can be great enough to make it worthwhile.

Jim

Jo And Craig · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thank you, Terry! Even though I still have 63 weeks and 6 days before I can retire, I have already begun to weed out closets, drawers, etc. I realize this will be an ongoing project, layer-by-layer. My plan is to have accomplished ALL of the layers by the time we purchase our 5er and tow vehicle (whatever those will end up being). (I'm researching those, too!) I am on vacation next week and I have already asked my husband if we can make the garage our "project" for the week. I told him I didn't mean cleaning up... but GETTING RID OF! I think he will have a MUCH harder time than I will when it comes to actually getting rid of things. (That's why I want to start NOW!)

Like I told him... Happy Wife, Happy Life!

-- Edited by Mary Sunshine on Wednesday 23rd of May 2012 07:38:24 AM

Terry and Jo · RV-Dreams Family Member

Jo and Craig,

Welcome to the forums. I was one of those that had a tendency to hang onto everything that I had accumulated, even when those things were totally unnecessary. The process of getting rid of all that "stuff" was actually liberating. We are still working, and may be for another 3 years or so, but we've sold the stix and brix and are now in our RV full time. I'm actually jealous of those that are already getting to travel.

While it is good to plan, especially with the financial aspects of things, it is amazing of all the wonderful things to see that are free, except for the cost of getting there.

So many have said that the freedom to change one's mind and go somewhere other than originally planned. That is one of the real advantages of living in an RV. Other than perhaps needing to find a place to park and hook up, it is still a life with more freedom.

Good luck with your research and planning, and as a part of that, be sure and seek out your "family" members here at RV Dreams to help you with questions and ideas.

Terry

Speedhitch · RV-Dreams Family Member

We are glad to have you as part of the family here. Please don't be shy and let us know what you think of things. Share your ideas and thoughts anytime you want to...We love to have new thoughts and ideas.

heyduke · RV-Dreams Family Member

Greetings Jo and Craig, it is not too early to start clearing out your "stuff" it took us at least a year to get rid of it all and we still had lots to freecycle at the end.

Jo And Craig · RV-Dreams Family Member

Hey, heyduke, thanks! Might you guess what I'm actually doing this holiday weekend? Yeppers, I started cleaning out last weekend, actually. AND, I'm on "vacation" this week so my plans are to hit every room. This will be the first layer to peel off and I'm sure there are many more to come, but I'll get there. I'm a good planner and VERY organized. I will have 63 weeks, 2 days, 3 hours, 34 minutes, and 10 seconds until I can retire. (DH retired young.) That should give me plenty of time... now that I've started. This is a lot of fun, actually. I'm really ready for a simple life.

I think DH is going to be in shock when he must GIVE everything of his away because of poor planning. He's a procrastinator. Poor fella. Anyway, I'm working on it!!

Ivey · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome to the forum Jo and Craig. I know what you mean by having a husband who is a procrastinator. Mine liked to hang on to everything. Eventually we did get rid of most everything and hit the road a year ago. So far so great!!! My husband is a planner. He needs to know exactly where we are going, when we are going and that there is a spot waiting for us when we get there. He is resistant to the "lets just go and see where we end up" sort of planning. This being said he is getting much better now that we have been "out there" for a year. I think maybe he is just getting more comfortable hauling our 37 foot house behind us.

Keep plugging away at your stuff and it will get done. I was the one to really get the ball rolling but eventually he did get into the activity too. It is worth it, so worth it. Keep posting what you are doing and the progress you are making. I always enjoy reading what others are doing to get ready to hit the road.

Vicky and Ira

rclvnv · RV-Dreams Family Member

Welcome. No need to repeat anything already said. Just wanted to add that participation on this forum led directly to our going f/t. last year, after looking at it for two years prior. The key to the lifestyle, in my opinion is flexibility/adaptability. Some people travel constantly. Some move just a few times a year. Some like us are static for a part of the year then travel for a few months, visiting family, or whatever.After 6/2013,we will no longer need to be static,so we'll consider doing something else. Workcamping is a definite possibility for us,but we'll see. Freedom from the house we sold and all the stuff we didn't need has been very liberating.Driving down the road with everything you own being towed behind, or in your coach,as the case may be is a unique experience. Staying engaged with a group like this,will help keep the dream alive, for sure.

Richard

Jo And Craig · RV-Dreams Family Member

Thanks to everyone for your greetings and words of encouragement! I just got home from conducting a yard sale... mostly things belonging to my sister, but some of my "stuff", too. Geez, it's hot here in Texas and I do believe after today I will just be GIVING my things away as we "prepare" for full-timing. As I mentioned previously, I have been on vacation this week and got rid of a LOT of paper in the file cabinet. My DH has aleady burned it all for me in the fire pit. (I suppose that's HIS contribution!) As I was doing this, I was wondering what all of you full timers did with your "paper" when you went full-timing. My plan is to get rid of EVERYTHING I can, and scan the rest, making sure to keep a couple of extra back-ups. In other words, most all of our important documents will be filed electronically.

How did you dispose of your paperwork?

Neil and Connie · RV-Dreams Family Member

Mary Sunshine wrote:

How did you dispose of your paperwork?

Scan and shred. Fujitsu has a line of scanners named ScanSnap which are auto feed (although that is sometimes problematic and one has to feed a single sheet at a time) and double sided.

Even having to stick in every sheet instead of just dropping a stack in the hopper you can easily blow through 250 sheets an hour or so. I did it for an hour at a time most nights and was done in a couple of weeks of evenings.

It's not the cheapest scanner available but well worth the cost. Includes OCR software so that instead of a pdf file with essentially a bunch of images of the pages it converts them to searchable text so you can find what you're looking for much more easily.

They live on my file server and get backed up to one of Amazon's S3 servers in case the house (soon to be 5ver) burn up.