• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Subscribe
  • About
  • Forums
  • The TVC Store
  • Home

The Virtual Campground

RV Entertainment and Culture

  • Community
    • Forums
    • TVC Live
    • Inside the RV
  • Stories
  • Resources
    • Fix It Yourself Course
    • Marketplace
    • Recommended Products
  • RV Lifestyle
    • Full-Timer
    • Some-Timer
    • Newbie
    • Dreamer
You are here: Home / RV Lifestyle / Choosing to Live in an RV: 4 Events that Changed My Mind

Choosing to Live in an RV: 4 Events that Changed My Mind

November 27, 2016 By Liz 12 Comments

You live in a what?

Chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve heard that phrase before. Or you are thinking of moving into an RV and are AFRAID of hearing that.

And it makes total sense. Living in an RV isn’t exactly “the tried and true path.” For the masses, it might seem like a crazy thing to do. But for you? It just might make sense.

Choosing to live in an RV is a personal decision. And each person has a different story leading up to their purchase. With different events unfolding to make it all come together.

Here are four events that led to buying and moving into an RV.

1. Having a Baby

 

Chelsea at 3 months
All the effort to put an actual outfit on and she has to pose like this?!

 

Everyone knows that having a baby changes your life. Mostly because it’s all anyone wants to tell you when you’re pregnant.

What they don’t tell you is that it changes your life because it is stressful as all get out! The literal “having” the baby is hard, but the more literal “having the baby at home with you” is harder!

People fail to mention the more-popular-than-we-think Post-Partum Depression, or the way your body forgets how it feels to be normal, and (oh!) how it is nearly impossible to balance getting the right amount of help versus the right amount of bonding time with this new little creature.

To sum it up, having a baby was not fun for me.

I got hit with a huge dose of PPD, propelling me in a thousand different directions to distract myself. I was lost as a parent, and I knew something drastic had to occur in order to find purpose in my life as a mother.

This is the number one reason why I decided to go all in with RV living. I wanted that romantic feeling of motherhood and I knew my current lifestyle was distracting me in a million directions.

 

2. Husband’s Twelve Month Deployment

 

Daddy’s last night with the fam

 

During my first year of marriage, I was filled with this incredible sense of guilt.

I had come into the marriage with $22k worth of student debt. Debt to me, was poison. I didn’t even have a credit card.

To ease the guilt, I worked a job below my skill set for the easy money. I worked while finishing up my master’s degree and up until the day Chelsea was born.

And 27 days after Chelsea was born, I trudged out into the snow and returned to that job, little seven pound baby in tow.

During that time, my husband was training. This meant we were not together.

We got used to being apart, falling back into our pre-marriage long-distance thing.

And when the opportunity to deploy came up, he snatched it.

He knew I wanted to pay off debt as quickly as possible.  And he saw this as the perfect opportunity. I did too. Coupled with the depression I was unknowingly facing, I didn’t put up much of an argument about the idea.

He left for Afghanistan the day after Chelsea turned 6 months old. By the time he returned, his daughter was 3x older and no longer a baby.

By the time he came home 12 months later, I was a little less “foggy.” And I hated that he had missed out on so much because our number one priority was paying off debt instead of being together.

Transitioning back to normal family life was difficult, and when times were tough, I would hide from him. I would leave the room, close the door, or make an excuse about having to clean the bathroom, whatever it took to walk away.

Doing this stunted our growth.

I wanted my relationship back and I knew he wanted to be husband and Daddy again.

This is why choosing to live in an RV became more appealing to me. A smaller space would force us to confront our emotions and work through our issues.

There would be nowhere to hide!

 

3.Living With the In-Laws

 

my house before living in an rv
Welcome to your new home, Liz!

 

When Ed deployed, we girls moved in with his dad and stepmother.

I had a large bedroom that was my sole responsibility. That was it. It was probably about a quarter the size I was used to, and very easy to keep neat and clean.

Of course, I tried my hardest to help with the rest of the house. But because it wasn’t mine, it was less stressful to clean up.

You know, kinda like when you’re a kid and have fun at your best friend’s cleaning and helping, but when you’re at home you start World War Three if anyone suggests you make your bed.

Strange how the brain works, huh?

While I was there, I really embraced a minimalist way of thinking.

I have always been pretty minimal, but after having a baby and being without my partner to help me with her, it really stuck.

Having so much stuff given to me for Chelsea was making me on edge, so I purged constantly. I joined a local minimalist group and attended meetings.

I started taking Chelsea on many trips because I had no husband waiting for dinner, because I was lonely, and because I love to see new places.

We went on a 2500 mile road trip together in that first month without Ed. Then we went to Florida twice. In the winter, we visited family in Kansas City. Chelsea hit her first birthday already having seen New York, Chicago, Boston, Detroit, and Canada.

I fell in love with travel through this little girl’s eyes.

Even though I was still struggling to find my way as a mom, I knew I wanted Chelsea to have a life full of wonder and adventure. I didn’t want her first year to be her most exciting.

Keeping this in mind, I knew choosing to live an RV might make this possible.

 

4.Failed Attempts at House Buying

 

Ed and Liz in dismay about contract fall-throughs
You won’t believe this couple’s epic real estate fails!

 

A few months before Ed came home, I went house shopping.

I found a house and put an offer on it. It was accepted and the process started.

What a hassle!

This was my first time trying to buy a home. My husband was across the globe and I was doing everything through Power of Attorney. And our bank didn’t even have a physical location.  And to top it off, the potential house was about 1000 miles away from my location.

As you can imagine, I was very meh about the whole thing.

 

In my mind, we had just gone through a year of being apart to pay off debt. And now we were tripling it? It didn’t make much sense to me. I really had an uneasy feeling about it.

But house buying is what you do, right? RIGHT?

It would be saving us money in the long run, right? RIGHT?

 

Ed finally came home and this deal ended up falling through. No big whoop.

So he flew to Alabama to scout out a new place, leaving me at home with Chelsea. (See how invested in the process I was?)

My only request was less than 1200 square feet. I even told him to pay more money for less space!

I was coming very close to the realization that stuff and space does not mean success. And it definitely doesn’t equate to happiness!

We put in a second –accepted offer only to have the deal fall through…again. This time, it was days before our big move.

What were we going to do?

 

Finally choosing to live in an RV.

Ed made a joke about living in an RV.

“Everyone in Alabama lives in a camper, Liz. Let’s just do that.”

I laughed but was secretly excited. After all, RVs were small and couldn’t hold a lot of stuff. This might have been his best idea yet!

Click here to read what happened next!

 

Think choosing to live in an RV is for you? Or have you already made the decision? I’d love to hear your RV story in the comments! 

Filed Under: Blog, Full-Time RVer, Marriage, RV Dreamer, RV Lifestyle

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Millie says

    March 2, 2017 at 5:26 PM

    You are a smart lady! Good for you for seeing what’s important, and your kiddo is one lucky little girl. She will have so many adventures to remember for her whole life. I’d love to do what you are doing, but I went and had a pile of kids and I would probably go crazy without a room of my own to lock the door and get away from them sometimes. Sad but true! Good luck to you.

    Reply
    • Liz says

      March 3, 2017 at 3:47 PM

      Thanks Millie. As far as locking yourself up, I’m jealous! Even the dog has figured out how to open my bedroom door.

      Reply
  2. Brenda says

    March 1, 2017 at 11:08 PM

    I’ve been reading your posts for awhile and wondered what prompted you to live in an RV. I enjoyed reading this post and finding out the reasons why. They are very practical and make a lot of sense.

    Reply
  3. Cheryl says

    March 1, 2017 at 8:40 PM

    We have both a house and an RV and I would sell the house tomorrow and live in the camper. So would our animals and 13 year old. The plan is to get our blog to allow us to travel full time. Hopefully before our daughter is grown. If nothing else it’s our retirement plan. I think minimal living is the best and it brings the family closer. Your daughter is a lucky girl.

    Reply
    • Liz says

      March 1, 2017 at 9:55 PM

      That is awesome Cheryl! I hope your blog takes off and you are able to LIVE YOUR DREAM! Let me know if I can help with any of that. I’m always looking for ways to collaborate within the blogosphere!

      Reply
  4. Bex says

    March 1, 2017 at 4:16 PM

    I love the idea of tiny living and being free from the debts and hassles of modern home living! I think RV living could be an amazing experience– thank you for sharing your stories!

    Reply
    • Liz says

      March 1, 2017 at 6:20 PM

      It is an incredible experience and I know it will only get better as we go!

      Reply
  5. Valerie says

    March 1, 2017 at 12:02 PM

    I am loving reading your story. I love the idea that less is more. I could do with some serious minimalizing in my own life. Thank you for the inspiration. xoxo

    Reply
    • Liz says

      March 1, 2017 at 6:21 PM

      Valerie, your comments are always so great and inspiring in themselves. Thank YOU!

      Reply
  6. Vibeke says

    January 23, 2017 at 4:52 PM

    It sounds so interesting that you live in an RV. I would love to do that especially during summer and to travel around, but doing that during winter in Norway would be too cold I think. I would hate to buy a house and be in debt for so long as I already have student loan as well 🙁

    Reply
    • Liz says

      January 23, 2017 at 5:10 PM

      Thanks for commenting!
      Yes we live in a pretty warm climate. It has gotten cold here, but only for a few days and we survived.
      As far as buying a house goes, I am so glad we didn’t end up buying one. It seriously makes me nervous thinking about how close we were to putting ourselves in 100k worth of debt, and for what? I’d much rather take away a few of my “luxuries” and live in the RV for cheap!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Our RV Story: Finding Dixie - Liz Wilcox says:
    January 31, 2017 at 4:58 PM

    […] lot can happen in 2 years to change your mind about living in an RV (click here for that story) but to sum it up, I was feeling very overwhelmed by all my responsibilities and wanted a home as […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Get the Full Hookup

Join thousands in the TVC tribe and get weekly RV tips, tricks, and stories.
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube

Not Your Average RV Book

The Latest

Great Gift Ideas for Every RVer in Your Life

October 18, 2024 By Debra Benton

My First Mardi Gras in New Orleans

March 8, 2025 By Debra Benton

Essential RV Tools That Will Save Your Ass

June 8, 2019 By Kelly Beasley

You Know You’re an RVer When…

April 25, 2019 By Jamie Feinberg

Footer

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
  • Forums
  • TVC Live
  • About
  • Contact

Copyright © 2025 Cavan James LLC · All rights reserved.
Privacy Policy

Cleantalk Pixel