The unexpected things no one tells you about RV living

Parenthood is an unexpected and blessed adventure.  There’s no book to tell you all that you will learn from experience.  The same goes for any adventure, including RVing.  So this is a shout out to all my peeps (and then some) who have told me they always dreamed of RV life, but like me, want to know the skinny on the REAL LIFE happenings of the full time RV’er.

So here we go…..

No one tells you:

• That there is a sprayer next to the commode for good reason.   (If your squeamish turn your head now…) When you poop in an RV commode you are dealing with VERY little water.  No water that sits in the commode and a very light stream that runs, makes for little little “poop washer offer”  LOL  And honestly the sprayer doesn’t work much better.  Be prepared for a lot of potty scrubbing…
• That “Mom and Dad” time can be a bit of a challenge but is NOT impossible!  😉  Close every available door you have, accordion or otherwise, turn on the radio, maybe even wait for a windy night.  😉  And be blessed!
• That central heat in an RV, will BLOW through all of your propane if run by gas.  Buy the itty bitty cheapo space heaters… they don’t use too many volts and it doesn’t take much to warm the place.
• If you choose a motorcoach and you or hubby are not capable of making repairs, your “home” goes to the shop and you need a place to stay when something breaks  Keep that in mind when shopping for the right RV for your family… also that 5th wheels, toy haulers and travel trailers tend to have more PERMANENT beds/ bunks.  As in, beds that don’t have to be broken down or made up like couch or dining table beds.  More on this to come in a special  “What large families need to know about RVing” post.
• You will need to learn to say good bye… A LOT.  We have met so many people just in 3 months, that we have adored, only to have to say good bye in a matter of days/ weeks.  BUT DO get their blog addresses, phone numbers and e-mail and stay in touch!  Who says you can’t reunite somewhere else down the road.  🙂
• You will bond more with your family than ever and learn team work more than you ever thought possible.  We started out homeschooling before RVing which has been awesomely bonding.  But nothing says bonding more than 7 (and a half) people in 200 sq ft RV living together!  LOL  But SERIOUSLY… it’s GREAT!  But do be prepared if you think everyone “needs their own space” and think there will be ANY privacy… you might want to rethink RVing.
• Storage is expensive. So before you plan on hauling everything off to storage and only taking what you need… plan carefully.  For us, we allow 5 shirts, 2-3 pairs of pants (or sub dresses for girls if they want), one heavy and one light coat each, one heavy and one light blanket each, all kids have a shoebox sized plastic tub with their name for their personal belongings… whatever they can fit but nothing more, basically one bowl, plate fork, spoon, cup, ect. a piece.  One skillet, one small pot, one big pot… all we have in storage are family heirlooms, mattresses for when we decided to settle down again, and off season clothes, decorations.
• Not everyone will be as excited as you are about full time RVing.  If I have learned anything from homeschooling, home birthing, home churching, extended breastfeeding, co-sleeping, not vaccinating, not circumcising, using herbs more than meds, ect. is that there will be LOTS of naysayers along the way.  But I just want to encourage people to follow your hearts and your dreams.  NO ONE knows whats best for your family but YOU!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor.Catch the trade winds in your sails.Explore. Dream. Discover.” Mark Twain

RV expenses breakdown

Even when we HAVE the money, I know I don’t like what I do with it!  I get lazy with cooking from scratch and we all tend to get the “I wanna’s” more often.  SELF CONTROL is definitely a LEARNED habit and virtue to obtain with ANYONE but ESPECIALLY us managers of large families!  😉

I tend to get odd looks a lot on a daily basis… and particularly when asked how I can “squeeze” 7 people into an RV full time.  But you might find it surprising that now that we are all moved in I have empty storage and empty drawers left over!!!

I have never been a big fan of clutter anyways so this was my chance to do away with it all!

Now that being said, we do have a small storage for out of season clothes, family keepsakes and heirlooms and our mattresses for when we decide to settle down again.

But for those curious… here are a few things I found absolutely necessary:

• large crock pot
• 16 qt stock pot
• silverware
• plastic dishes (until we can get tin since it’s light and better than plastic)
• giant flat screen TV that is used as TV (antenna on RV), computer monitor and DVD’s (ok… not so much for me but for Jerry… ha)
• sleeping bags for all the kids and pillows for everyone and a few extra blankets
• sheets and quilt for big bed
• in season clothes
• a couple of those rubbermaid drawers as dressers
• shoes for everyone
• dirty clothes hamper
• FOOD… LOL
• one large skillet
• the one heavy item I demanded… my large cast iron skillet
• one small basket of toys
• one cabinet full of books including school books
• 1 small rubbermaid drawers for colors, glue, scissors, tape, pens, pencils and erasers
• my bookkeeping/ record keeping system (which is really just a few  3 ring binders)
• 1 small trash can
• 1 rooster wall hanging (of COURSE that was necessary!) 😉
• DVD’s
• CD’s
• marble jar reward system (I’ll blog about that another time)
• herbs, homeopaths and medicines
• toiletries
• towels
• Milburn Mercantile merchandise and blanks to become merchandise
• diapers (cloth and sposies)
• 1 small basket of toys
• cooking utensils
• kitchen towels
• salad spinner (as it is 2 colanders, 1 large mixing bowl AND a salad spinner)
• kitchen knives
• 2 small tool sets for Jerry
• sand and water toys for summer (which will be stored after summer while it’s cold)

That’s basically it.

Now… TIP NUMBER ONE to ALL large families (or anyone) considering fulltiming it…

Find an RV park with sewer hook ups (a rare find you will find) or get you one of THESE bad boys…

This is a portable holding tank for your gray water (sink and shower water that you otherwise would have to dump and this family of 7, who does not even shower in the coach, dumps once every other day and we STILL end up overflowing).  This way you don’t have to “batten down the hatches” every other day to dump your rig… you can hook this on to the back of your car and just roll it on down to the dumping station and dump all that yuckiness without moving your rig a bit!

THIS is next on our list to obtain.

NUMBER 2 RECOMMENDATION:
Call ahead to ask how many people they let stay in one spot.  MANY RV parks won’t allow more than 2 or 3 people and even if they do they charge ridiculous fees for each additional person… and family friendly does NOT mean large family friendly.  LOL  The place we stay in now allows only 6 people per space but made an allowance since #7 was a baby.  🙂

NUMBER 3 RECOMMENDATION:
Most RV’s have propane water heaters and ovens/ stoves… and if you don’t know this already… propane doesn’t last long and is expensive to replace.  So have your propane water heater converted into an electric with a Hybrid kit!!  This is also handy since the parks we look at include electric (though some read your meter at your site and charge accordingly or charge extra for electric … we take advantage of  “electric included” when we can!)

Many more RV tips to come!