We've lived in an RV for a year. What do we love, and what do we miss about living in a house?

On December 30, 2021, we officially closed on the sale of our house and started the intense journey of moving our newly downsized lives into 250 square feet of space. Two months later we hit the road, embarking on an adventure that a stationary home could never give us. We towed our home-on-wheels over 7,000 miles, visited 6 National Parks, and saw sights that the average vacationer would never experience. We went home to Massachusetts for the holidays, already planning our next season of travel, which coincidentally commenced on December 30, 2022.

It's safe to say that we love our new life of adventure, or else we wouldn't have set out again. We do, however, find ourselves thinking of the future, one that most likely has a house in it. We also are aware that there are many trade-offs no matter what path in life you choose. So what for us makes nomadic life worth it?

What we love about RV living:

It goes without saying that we love the flexibility of being able to go virtually anywhere we want, at any time. We don't need to think about our house and all the mortgage and utility payments that continue even when we're not there. We're financially free and we're literally free. To some, this idea can be intimidating, and sometimes it is for us too, but we made sure to set up our lives in a way that maximizes simplicity. We're much closer to being debt-free than when we were in a house, but that's not just because our payments are lower. We also opened our lives up to prioritize our careers. Last spring, Anthony got a remote job that he loves, that's also better paying. Nicole reallocated her work services, moving most of them online, which helped boost her efficiency and reach. When we stopped feeling bogged down by life as homeowners, we capitalized on our freedom in more ways than just our location.

People camp to get away from the hustle and bustle, to get back to nature, and to give themselves a technology break. This is so important for mental and physical health, even if you can just do it for a weekend. We of course work, so our life as campers isn't about eliminating screen time, but we do find we're given many more opportunities to be present in our surroundings. Sometimes we're forced into it, like when we stay at a campground with little to no cell reception, or when a storm rolls in and we lose our signal. Instead of stressing out about these times, we use them as an exercise in patience and time management. We get all our necessary tasks done ahead of time, so that nothing is pressing if we do come across a lack of connectivity. Otherwise, we do what we can, and sometimes that just means throwing in the technology towel and enjoying each other's company.

Contrary to popular myth, full-timers are not constantly outside sitting by their campfire. In fact, we noticed over the past year that it's easy to spot a full or long-term part-timer, because they tend to be in their RVs the vast majority of the time. That said, we use the "camping experience" as a really accessible getaway. After a long work week, we can build a campfire and sit outside with a cup of tea. We can take a lunch break hike at a trail right within our campground. We can embrace the pastimes that camping offers us, but we get to decide when and how we do this.

We get asked all the time if we get claustrophobic in such a small space, and the answer is no. There are advantages to living tiny. On nice weather days, it reminds us to really use the outdoors to our advantage. We know so many people who have beautiful decks on their houses, that they hardly ever use. We used our RV patio more in the past year than we used our backyard in 7 years of living in our house. On the gloomy, rainy days, like the one when we're writing this post, we get cozy. We made sure to decorate our RV with lots of soft textures and inviting colors, and we also made the space functional, with lots of seating and space to walk around. We have enough room for both of us to lay down our yoga mats and do a yoga practice. We can sit and do work either in the same room or different rooms. Best yet, we've got our furry travel companions to up the coziness even more!

The small space also forces us to stay organized. The space is functional. Everything has its own home, and we know where all our items go...and most are right within reach! Overall there's less to clean and maintain. While RVs require a lot of maintenance and we often need to be more mindful of the maintenance schedule than at a house, most of the tasks are quick and easy. Our extra attention to RV maintenance, travel, and tiny living also forces us to learn quick lessons. We can't sweep things under the rug; we instead face them head on and learn by doing. This has contributed to immense growth over the past year, in our mechanical/handy skills, in our communication, and in our self-awareness.

Even though we don't have a typical daily routine as we would in a house, we do still have a routine. The best part is that our routine makes even the mundane more exciting. Back in our house, we would constantly have a load of laundry in the machine, or laundry that needed to be folded, and it was a never-ending chore. Now we use campground laundry or laundromats, and we've come up with designated activities while our clothes are washing. We call these "laundry dates," and they often look like a walk while the clothes are in the wash, and errands/lunch while they're in the dryer. Suddenly one of our most mundane chores is fun! We've done this a lot with other daily tasks. Grocery shopping in a new location means we can visit supermarkets we don't have at home, and we've discovered a lot of new organic and clean foods that we wouldn't have otherwise. Now grocery shopping can be more like a scavenger hunt, as we look for new and exciting products that fit our diet.

...which bring us to our last big love of the RV life: We are inspired to seize opportunities. We're only in locations for a finite amount of time, so we make it a priority to go to that new store, or to take advantage of amenities, or to go for that hike or do that local activity. We make sure to create time for friends and family who are in the areas that we visit. But we also seize the opportunities to slow down and soak in the nature that surrounds us - especially when we're lucky enough to have a beautiful campsite that offers us peace and tranquility.

What we miss about living in a house:

The biggest downside to living the RV life is that we forgo the security of home. Because we travel, we're constantly saying bye to people. We're not able to get used to the same places, so errands and shopping take longer. We also need to take extra steps in order to get our mail and packages, something that homeowners don't need to think about. Sometimes this lack of stability can be exciting, but other times it can be fatiguing, which is why we do make it a point to go back to our home state on occasion.

Homeowners don't need to be as mindful about their electricity, water, and sewer, except in a financial sense. We find ourselves paying a lot more attention to where our waste is going now that we're in an RV, but conservation is a valuable lesson for anyone, and RV life forces us to be mindful about it.

As much as reliable internet has helped us learn a lesson in patience and embracing non-tech aspects of life, at the end of the day we are two millennials who work remote jobs, so naturally reliable internet is something we miss. We've come up with a good internet plan in our RV, where we don't need to worry about throttling or going over our data limit. Speed tends to be our biggest obstacle, followed by latency. However, we know that more and more solutions are popping up as technology develops and full-time travel continues to trend in our society. We've already made a few changes to our internet setup since we hit the road, and every change has been better than the last.

Fellow RVers often mention their yard when asked what they miss about "sticks n' bricks living." We do sometimes miss having a yard, especially since we had a fenced-in yard where we could just send Tanner out to do his business. But remember when we said we spent less time in our yard than we do on our RV patio? This is one of the reasons why. Being at a campsite means we actually need to go out and walk around, which is good for our health, as well as our bonding with Tanner. We've also been incredibly lucky with some of our campsites over the past year. We seem to have a knack for choosing sites with a good amount of space, whether we're staying in an RV resort or public campground. The county park where we're staying now has a lovely "yard," as we just happen to be in the site adjacent to a field, at the end of our row of sites.

We're hosts with the most, so not having a full kitchen is definitely something we miss about our house (not to mention the actual hosting). Our old kitchen had a double oven, making large meals and baking a breeze. Now we only have our Pizzazz and convection oven, both of which are small, so there are a couple things we can't make that we used to in the house (roasted chicken, anyone?), but for the most part, we can still cook all the food we want; it just sometimes means using different appliances and processes.

Every winter we're reminded of how cold our floors get in the RV, because they are not well insulated. Our RV walls aren't too bad, but of course the insulation is nothing like that of a home. Granted, we New Englanders had our fair share of temperature regulation problems in our homes and apartments as well. In the RV though, it's just a fact of life. Slippers are a must so our feet don't get cold walking around. Our area rugs aren't just for looks. And, condensation can easily build up, which isn't good for most items, but especially not good for harps, of which we travel with multiple. But, like anything else, we implement tricks to keep our heat and humidity within normal range...even if that does mean putting hand towels on our wheel wells.

As much as we enjoy the RV life, we do plan on getting a home at some point in the future. Our experience RVing has changed our perspective on what we want in a home. We've proven that we don't need a lot of space. Instead, we want functionality. We want each room to serve a purpose, and we don't want wasted space. We also won't shy away from new builds or remodels the way we did when we were hunting for our first home. We are a lot more knowledgeable about renovations now, thanks to our RV modifications and maintenance. Most importantly, even if we do end up buying or building a home, we always expect RVs to be a part of our lives. Our yard will need a space for the RV, and ideally some hookups for it as well! Someday we imagine living on our land as we build a house, using our RV as living space during construction. After all, that was our original plan when we decided to look into buying an RV. We just figured, if we've got the wheels, might as well use them! And we're very glad for that decision, because we just had a spectacular year of travels and are looking forward to seeing where this second year brings us.