When you choose to go full-time RVing, trading your “sticks and bricks” house for a rolling home on wheels can be a luxurious escape from the burden of home ownership. Say goodbye to suburbia and you’ll bid adieu to hassles like weekly lawn mowing, neighborhood drama and property taxes. And while I can’t think of a better way of life than full-time RVing, I’ll admit there are still some benefits to living in a sticks and bricks single-family home. Here are six of them:
Reason One: Protection from the Elements
Whenever there’s a damaging tornado or other natural disaster, TV news always focuses on harrowing footage of wrecked trailer parks filled with mangled RVs. No matter what kind of stick house you have, you’re more protected from bad weather if your home doesn’t have wheels. For those of you as bothered by bad storms and weather events as I am, you’ll always feel more vulnerable when your home is inside a RV.
Reason Two: Room to Be Sloppy
Whether you’re a neat freak or a slob, having more space to spread out your stuff wherever you feel like is a nice option to have when you’ve had a long day. But move into the average RV and you’ll get a crash-course in neat-nick behavior, eventually discovering that being sloppy isn’t an option if you want to save your sanity and stay on the road.
Reason Three: Your Own Washer and Dryer
Being an appliance-owning American homeowner comes with the freedom to wash whenever you please, but once you hit the road and run out of underwear for the first time, you’ll be singing the laundromat blues as you scrape up quarters and haul piles of dirty clothes to coin-op laundromats on the outskirts of town. I still haven’t gotten used to weekly trips to wash and dry my clothes in machines that can sometimes be dirtier than my filthiest pair of jeans.
Reason Four: Space for RV Repairs
Unless you live under the iron thumb of strict homeowners association laws, odds are that nobody will complain if you wash your RV or change its oil in your driveway. On the other hand, many RV parks refuse to allow these activities; instead they fantasize that little fairies come and perform RV maintenance tasks for residents at night, while everyone is sleeping. Outside of full-timing friendly parks owned by the Escapees RV Club, it’s extremely difficult to find places that allow residents to take care of everyday chores.
Reason Five: Space for Repairing Your Hair
Many women can certainly relate to this one; living inside a sticks and bricks house with a decent sized bathroom enables you to play hair colorist more easily than inside a tiny RV bathroom. For example, getting permanent hair color on a porcelain bathroom sink isn’t a big deal because it comes right off, but splattering dye on the plastic basin inside your rig leaves lasting memories that your travel partner probably won’t appreciate.
Everyday occurrences like these are easy to take for granted when they become a part of your regular rituals. Moving into a RV forces you to adapt and find new ways to do them, but discovering how is half the fun of living in an always changing environment. Stay tuned for next week’s blog post, where you’ll learn the best things about living full-time in a RV.
Rene Agredano and her husband, Jim Nelson, became full-time RVers in 2007 and have been touring the country ever since. In her blog, Rene chronicles the ins and outs of the full-timing life and brings readers along to meet the fascinating people and amazing places they visit on the road. Her road trip adventures are chronicled in her blog at LiveWorkDream.com.
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