Sometimes things aren't so scary from a different perspective.
In less than 2 months, Tiffani and I will be moving into an Airstream travel trailer to live full time. When we tell people about our plans, the majority come back with a resounding “Good for you!” or “I wish I could do that!” But then, there are always the few who don’t quite follow. You can almost see the terror in their eyes at the thought of living in such a small place with (GASP!) no permanent address!
We sometimes have a little devilish fun with these folks by delving deeper into our plans. Just to see their heads spin, we’ll say things like:
“We also have a 50lb Dog!”
“We’ll share 1 closet!”
“We’ll have no cable tv!!!”
But in the end, we keep their concerns in mind, because after all, we’re in a minority of our own.
Our 50 lb roommate.
Few people decide to make the leap from living in a 1100+ square foot house to a 200 sq ft RV. Even fewer decide to do so of their own free will. We realize there will be challenges, and more importantly, we realize there are reasons so few try this lifestyle.
Sure, we have moments of concern, gotchas, and even panic as we plan for this move, but so far, we’ve found them all rooted in just a few basic fears. So, we thought it would be a good idea to jot a few of the big fears down now and discuss them, before we move into the Airstream. Hopefully some of you will raise questions we’ve not thought of yet or, at a minimum, we’ll have something to fondly ridicule each other about once we figure out just how unwarranted these fears were in the first place.
Fear #1 – The Unknown
When we list our biggest fears of moving into an Airstream, The Unknown has to be the most far reaching. As human beings, it seems that everything we do starts with a healthy fear of what we don’t know about it.
A close friend of mine once told me “You can’t control what you can’t do anything about.” This phrase floats through my brain at least once a day. It helps me deal with the mini panic attacks caused by the occasional wild “what if” scenarios that pop into my head. You know, things like:
Crazy me: “OMG what if there’s a hail storm??”
Rational me: “We have great insurance and we’ll try to park under cover as often as we can.”
Crazy me: “But what if we need to take the Airstream in for repairs? Whatever will we do then?”
Rational me: “We have good friends and plenty of pet friendly hotel options around. The money we save on a mortgage will help pay for the room.”
You get the idea. The fact is, you’ll never be able to plan for all the things you don’t know about. Ultimately, there are more than enough rational answers to satisfy The Fear of The Unknown living in your head. Just make sure you give yourself a little breathing room in between panic attacks to hear them. Counting to 5 helps.
Fear #2 – Failure
As the move-in date draws near (tentatively set for Feb. 12, 2011), we’re speeding closer to becoming “thingless”, having given away, donated, or sold all but ~150 of our worldly possessions. We would be insane to never ask the question – “What if this crazy plan of ours doesn’t work – what if it fails?”
Our current life situation helps calm our fears about this. I’ve got a great job I’m not willing to leave – and that requires my presence in Dallas. This job also allows us to get a financial jump start on our ultimate dream of living fulltime in the Airstream. The nice thing about living in the Airstream full time right now, is that it’s almost like a trial run. Of course its the real thing for us, and we’ll try every avenue to make it work. But, in case it all goes to hell and we have no option but to move out of the trailer, our fallback is to simply find an apartment, find a place to store the trailer, and go back to the life we live now – not too bad, eh?
How can this apply to you? Well, it actually uses two simple principles that we use every day.
- Only worry about the things you can control.
- Visualize the worst case scenario and have a backup plan for it.
and
With both of these principles in place, Tiff and I sail right by most of our major fears with confidence.
Fear #3 – Fear of Safety
Let me explain the strikethrough. Safety, or lack of, is a major concern and one we take very seriously. But we’re not going to live in fear because of it. Applying the two simple rules above, we are going to be prepared for the things we can control – we’ve got excellent insurance, upgraded locks on everything, alarm systems, and safes. We’ve talked through the worst possible outcomes of various safety concerns and how we would choose to deal with each if they occurred. We’ve got pretty good plans for even the wildest safety issues, and we’re not afraid to use them, so really, this just isnt a fear to us now as much as it is our responsibility.
And finally,
Fear #3 – Fear of Claustrophobia-induced Mania
Ah, the space issue. This is the number one question we get from skeptics of our plans:
“How are you going to live in such a small space?”
For us, living in a tight space isn’t really much of a change. We started out in a small 1 bedroom apartment in Chicago, spent many-a-night in our 22′ Airstream before selling her, and most recently, we mainly keep in the bedroom, kitchen, or back patio of our rental house in Texas. We’ve minimalized our life down to just under 150 things between the both of us, and hope to dwindle that number even more once we move. Honestly, we wouldn’t know what to do with more space if we had it.
But that’s how we feel now. What about in 2 years after living in less than 200 square feet? After all, we are territorial animals. Will we irritate each other by simply moving in bed at night? Or by walking to the bathroom? or by … HEY! Fear of the Unknown Guy! Get the hell out of here! Like any successful couple, we’ll be courteous, mindful of each others’ space and communicate. What could go wrong with that?
Our hallway, or, 1/3rd of our living space.
We Confessed – Now It’s Your Turn!
So how about you? Are you in the “I wish i could do that!” camp? If so, what’s stopping you? Or, are you more of a “Why would you want to live in an Airstream?” kind of person? What’s your biggest beef with the idea?
Leave us a note below, on facebook, or twitter. We’d love to hear from you and we always write back!
All too late to this game, as I am fifty-five years old and plan to retire in ten years. I live in Newark, NJ and its a pretty ruff place to survive let alone thrive, and as a teacher I do not make enough to live well in this area—so I am relegated to a poorer neighborhood. What I fear most is being left alone in a urban decay zone, so I am seriously considering jettisoning all my meager possessions overboard and buying a cool Airstream to park semi-permanently in a nice place. Prefer climates like Central Coast (California), but I have ten more years to “serve” in NJ. Eventually I do hope to have an Airstream parked in a livable area . . . I wonder if this dream is even possible?
Hi Ron, thanks for sharing with us.
Of course your dream is possible! If we can do something like this, then you certainly can. It’s cliché to say, but it’s never too late. We’ve met plenty of Airstreamers and RVers who buy their first RV at retirement. I would give you the same advice we give anyone just starting out – go slow, rent a trailer if you can to see if you like it, research as much as you can (ask us anything) before you buy, and when you’re ready, buy used to avoid heavy up front costs.
We haven’t posted about our day to day costs for living in one spot full time, but its something we’ll likely start soon. Our friends at aluminarium and Where is Kyle Now both live on the road fulltime in Airstreams and have posted about costs on the road. You might find it helpful to get an idea of costs from either of them. Our friends at have a lot of experience camping around NYC and NJ and can probably point you at some good places to see. And finally, Wanderly Magazine has plenty of articles of interest to your story.
And finally, thank you for a career of making people smarter. I’m sure plenty of your students would have a thing or two to say about leaving you alone in urban decay zone!
Stay in touch and let us know how the dream plays out!
-deke
My wife and I are SERIOUSLY considering living in an Airstream to save money on rent during the last year of our Masters programs. We think if you’re going to live in a trailer it might as well have some retro-flair
We have school debt from our undergrads and feel that purchasing a home at this point sounds like a better idea than it is. We do have many of the concerns you listed above, though. Space will not be a problem as we are pretty forgiving of each other and not too attached to possesions, anyway. However, concerns about safety (we live in tornado country in Indiana) or just the feasability of accomplishing the renovation of the trailer we’re looking at, make us nervous! Any words of advice?
Hi Seth! Oh boy do I have advice! Im going to send you a separate email because it might be a long email……
I was a full timer and went back to a sticks and bricks house and hated it. I was wanting to be on the move all the time and didn’t spend enough time in the house to make it worth the trouble, so I am selling the house and I am going back to full time living in an RV. My RV is a 28′ class A no slides an older one (97). I love being on the road or the ability to be on the road. I can go anywhere I wish that I can afford. I’ll keep doing it till it isn’t fun anymore I’m 67 now so another decade?
Have fun you two your young healthy strong and smart you’ll do fine
Hi Kayjulia – welcome back to fulltiming! We look forward to hearing more about round two of your RVing travels. Good Luck, and hope to see you out there!
We want to do this for at least a year in 6 years when the kiddles move out. My biggest fear is less about the above (we are pretty serious weekend/summer break campers now,) and more about WHAT THE HELL ARE WE GOING TO DO WITH OURSELVES??? We are teachers and plan on hitting the road when we retire, and I don’t know– maybe it will be too much change all at once, to quit work AND hit the road, you know? I think we will probably spend an entire summer or two before we make the big move, no kids, no jobs, no itinerary, see how we do. We are pretty high activity people. I feel like we will love it, but I do worry a bit about getting bored. I guess if we do, we can always pull over for a month or two and guest lecture or substitute or something.
Kim, I completely agree with taking incremental steps toward any big life change. If you take a sink or swim approach, you’re giving yourself only a 50% chance of success!
I’ve read lots of posts on airforums.com about how people spend their time once retired and on the road. Many say similar things – you’re only as bored as you let yourself be while RVing. The experiences really are limitless as long as you have the time and you make the effort. Take it slow, find new things to do, see, follow and learn about.
Since we are somewhat location locked for a while, boredom may be an issue for us as well. I’ll probably be fine since i’m driving to and from work everyday, but Tiffani may need to fight boredom on occasion. She plans to get outside more, meet new people at the campgrounds we visit, and in general, spend more time with hobbies and things that interest her most.
My advice is to keep as much of the structure and high activity as makes you happy. Avoiding boredom is an excellent goal for any RVer – it’s a perfect means to avoid things you don’t like and do more things that make you happy!
Thanks for the reply – we look forward to hearing more from your adventures!
We can’t wait to read all about your adventures. Frankly, I am a bit jealous, but hey! We’ll get there. Right now, we are not in an Airstream. We are in a Winnie View, 24′ class C. This summer, we are traveling from Northern Arizona, up to NY. Hubby Frank is finishing his Phd, so we only have a month before summer session starts. Taking the remaining kids, ages 13 and 12, and the dog. Ought to be interesting. We cannot wait to travel without such stringent time lines in front of us, but a month should give us a somewhat real taste of life on the road semi-long term anyway. We plan on trading in the cars and the Skinny Winny on a nice tow vehicle and 27′ International when we semi retire. We will be watching y’all! HAVE FUN!!!!
That sounds like a really fun trip! Keep us posted on how everything goes, and thanks again for following!
Y’all will do great. And hey, if you change your minds in two years, you’ll have a great base to house-hunt from.
Used to live in Dallas; lots to explore and enjoy.
Thanks for the encouragement, Ashley. We’re looking at it that way as well. Worst case scenario, we end up in an apartment with a really cool summer home on wheels, which is pretty much exactly where we are now!
When you lived in Dallas, did you camp? If so, where were your favorite spots?