I constantly get asked about the downside of RV Living so I figured I would think about it for awhile and then give you both sides of my personal opinion. I hope this helps give a better idea of what to expect! BUT – remember – we are not all the same. SO maybe something that is off-putting to me is not a big deal to you and vice versa! Over all, RV Living is pretty BADASS!

We’ve been Full-time RV since April 2015. We NEVER thought this life would be ours but now we can’t imagine it any other way! I asked my husband to collaborate on a list of things we liked and disliked about RV-living and we couldn’t seem to come up with too much. I guess you could say we are pretty happy. Here we go!
–>Read our previous RV BLOG here: “The Cost of Full-Time RV Living“

“We could spend our life being afraid of the hypothetical or we can just be brave and live life anyway.”

THE PROS:
–new sense of FREEDOM
-have less material stuff because there isn’t room for shit you don’t use
-value the material stuff you do own, quality over quantity
-easier to minimize/downsize/let go of things that do not bring you joy
-do more LIFE. You have a HOME on wheels! GO!
-have less bills (check prior blog post for costs)
-saving money because you constantly consider if you absolutely NEED something because then you have to worry about making room for it LOL
-no yard to mow or weeds to pull
-never have to settle with annoying neighbors, you can move ANYTIME
-more quality time with loved ones, closer relationship
-take your sacred home space everywhere (introverts dream life)
-take your bed everywhere, who doesn’t love that idea?!
-travel more
-pretty stress free 🙂

THE CONS: (I elaborated more on these because I felt like this is the stuff you really wanted me to dig into and be real about, nam sayin? You already know the awesomeness of RV living otherwise you wouldn’t be pursuing it!)

–HOT WATER OR DIE! We don’t have an “on demand” hot water heater so anytime we need hot water we have to turn on the switch above the stove and wait for a solid 20-30 minutes (especially if it’s winter time) for the tank to warm up if we want to wash dishes or have a nice hot shower after a sweaty workout! My husband has gotten in the habit of texting me when he’s like 30 minutes out from home letting me know “turn the hot water on!” That means he’s had a good day at work and is dirty AF.

There have been times where I’ve started my workout and been super sweaty and totally forgot to turn on the water heater PRIOR to my 30 minutes and it’s been freezing balls outside. Nothing like earning your shower only to realize you don’t get one. D’OH! I will admit to using baby wipes, perfume and extra dry shampoo to avoid death by ice water when I’m in a hurry and have somewhere to be. *insert shit eating grin*

Also, our electric water heater works well but it heats up SO HOT that it’s like you have 2 choices when you turn the sink on — LAVA HOT or ice cold.. LOL.. I’m not even joking, its like burn your hands straight off HOT. That absolutely took us time to get used to and even now if we’re rushing or not paying attention it gets us!

–THE SEWAGE AND POO POO CITY! Everything is literally just chillin in a “black tank” underneath you until you release it when it gets near full. Sometimes the weather change causes it to get a build up of gasses and become unpleasantly stanky!

I have a highly sensitive nose so I smell EVERYTHING. Half of the time, unless its BAD BAD, the husband doesn’t even notice! When you release the poo valve from your tank into the park sewer system (in the ground) you and anyone in a 50 feet radius gets a strong whiff. (“It stings the nostrils” -Anchorman reference) I’m used to it by now, but it def took a minute! Just hold your breath…

Also, we have clogged our RV toilet like 3 times since we’ve lived in it. The first time we weren’t using the appropriate TP (scott 1000 is PERFECT) and the second time we weren’t using enough water in the bowl to flush everything down thoroughly. This tool from home depot works and makes unclogging WAY easier – it will save your life. You’re welcome. We’ve used a snake once and it was a nasty mess and not really appropriate for the delicate rv pipes.

–BUGS AND STUFF! There are ALWAYS bugs everywhere! Since most RV’s can’t be completely sealed there all of these little crevices for critters to sneak in! We get a lot of flies, spiders, beetles, little annoying gnat looking things and basically whatever is common to the area.

We had a mouse once. The dog let me know by constantly staring at the cupboard. I found his hideout and tons of poopies near our pots and pans and then pretty much everywhere else. He made his rounds. He even ate my meal plan. I’m not kidding. I went to pull it out of the cupboard when I was tracking my foods and half of it was eaten and missing. My husband said its pretty easy for them to crawl up under the RV and come in near our propane heater where it’s warm during the winter. This year we bought the Dyson heat+cool pure system to help cut cost on running the propane heater and hopefully this prevents any others from moving in! (p.s. we found him petrified a few months later behind our mini fridge in the garage – so that’s what that smell was??!)

I currently have a praying mantis pet. I have no idea how he got in the RV but he’s made himself pretty comfortable here for the past month and a half. He hangs out in my plants near my kitchen sink. Sometimes I find him near the couch or on the curtains and I put him back in his kitchen window spot. Husband says he probably crawls into bed with me. I think he just eats the small bugs AND he’s symbolic –  representing stillness and patience.

-WATER PRESSURE We weren’t even going to consider this one but at first we had a water pressure regulator on and it was giving us really low pressure so we removed it and that seemed to fix the problem for awhile. Then we added a filtration system to clean out the harsh chemicals and chlorine smell from the parks water and now its a little bit lower again. We realized that it fluctuates just depending up on the park. It’s not terrible.

-STOCK GRANDMA THEME! When we first moved into our rv the color scheme, prints, blinds, valances, oak cupboards were just SO NOT MY VIBE. We lived in it for a little bit like that and I kept telling my husband, this is NOT my home. I would NOT decorate like this. As an online health/fitness coach – I take photos of what I’m doing through the day from my RV home FOR A LIVING – it should totally look awesome right?! It took some persuading but we ended up completely re-doing it. So no, it did not come like this. (white and gray) We painted the walls + cupboards and removed all of the built in furniture/window crap! My prior blog posts show pics of this! ::click here to see before photos::

Thanks for taking the time to check out our RV living experience thus far! If you have any comments, reach out to me!! Hit me up via instagram @kandacerogersfitness !
As always, I appreciate the support of my journey. xo
–>Stay tuned for our next RV BLOG: “5th Wheel RV Modern Floor Remodel“

**WE ARE NOT RV EXPERTS BY ANY MEANS AND CAN ONLY SPEAK FROM PERSONAL PREFERENCE AND EXPERIENCE.