The One Real Secret to Traveling Light, RVing or Not

We learned how to travel light when we went RVing full-time across America. It was a conundrum! How can you travel light when you are taking your whole home with you? But now we take pride that every winter when we spend three months in Mexico, my husband and I just take one carry-on and one backpack each.

It all started when I came to America. I had downsized to two suitcases and one Balikbayan Box. When Bill divorced, he bought a duplex, lived in one unit, and rented out the other. When we met and we got married, he moved into my condo. Six months later, he sold his business and I retired from teaching at the university and squeezed all that we needed into our 24-ft. Class C motorhome. There were some boxes we left in my daughter’s garage and the small storage unit of my condo we rented out. When we bought our 37.5 Class A motorhome, we transferred all that we owned to the big rig. We were learning fast how to keep life’s essentials to the barest minimum.

Creeping Clothes

My husband has one rule: do not buy a new item until you want to get rid of an old one.  When tight pressure and extreme temperature caused my flare-up of hives, I changed my dress size to Large and gave away my clothes before I bought Medium ones. Two years later, I changed back to Medium and Goodwill got lots of clothes again.

Pounds of Paper

We learned to be more digital. We read e-books and e-zines. Our files became electronic, except those documents that need to be presented in their original form like passports, birth and marriage certificates, divorce/annulment papers, etc.  Health records are all electronically held in e-patient portals. Photos were scanned into photo frames.

Food and Fare

We had service for four and no more! When there were more guests, we used disposables, even for wine glasses. Cooking pots were just three, small, medium, and large, and skillets just small and medium. But we kept a small slow cooker, and our rice cooker was a small microwaveable container. Other coffee machines had larger footprints so Bill used a French Press. And the refrigerator held only a week’s worth of food. I loved my combination microwave/convection oven and the mini dishwasher.

Bathroom Burden

Our linens and towels were good for us and two guests (the RV sleeps six). The problem was my habit of collecting soaps and shampoos from motels and hotels. That was solved by immediately giving them away to the homeless as part of a zip lock bag where I added a small toothbrush, small toothpaste, a pack of crackers, a can of potted meat, and a small tissue packet.

Other Stuff

There were large storage bins under the RV. We had a small portable fire pit (for sitting out on cold nights), a small barbeque grill, an outdoor folding table with four folding chairs, two suitcases, and two carry-ons, Bill’s fishing gear, a ladder, a small space heater, a small electric fan, and a small vacuum cleaner. We also carried a DVD player, a small micro-chip-based Ziller karaoke system, a 32-inch and a 15-inch TV, a satellite dish, and two laptops.  

 

Our RV was about 350 square feet of living space and weighed 20,000 pounds. But fuel was expensive, so we learned to keep things to a minimum. We learned so well that we only needed 1,200 sq. ft. for a home to settle in after our RVing days were over. The key lesson to traveling light is the same for all travel, not just for RVing. And it is this: when you live light with the barest minimum, you will also travel light!

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