Fulltimers...How Did You Downsize?

[Geoff]

We planned on fulltiming 7 years ago, but bought a house in Prescott, AZ instead.  Moved out of California, which was the big motivating factor.  Now I have a nice house with a big RV/shop, plenty of room for the dogs to run around in the back yard. And no full-timing money left!

At this point I could not give up my dream shop.  I could live in the bus-- I've done it for weeks at a time and fully enjoy the way I converted my bus and wouldn't change a thing as far as the bus goes.  But I spend most of my time in my shop and working part-time, and the dogs have a yard to run around in-- something you don't get while traveling.  If we go fulltime, I wouldn't sell my house and shop, so I guess the best I could do is part-time fulltiming.

--Geoff

[PP]

After the real estate sold about 12 years ago, we held an auction and what didn't go was donated. When we moved from a large 5ver into the bus, we discovered that we were accumulating things again because of all the storage downstairs. Now I have to go through the bays and clean house again before we head out of here for the winter. I still have to do the fall coat of wax one of these days too. Couldn't imagine living in a stick and brick again. I like auto maint much more than house maint. but that's just me, Will

[oldmansax]

We planned on fulltiming 7 years ago, but bought a house in Prescott, AZ instead.  Moved out of California, which was the big motivating factor.  Now I have a nice house with a big RV/shop, plenty of room for the dogs to run around in the back yard. And no full-timing money left!

At this point I could not give up my dream shop.  I could live in the bus-- I've done it for weeks at a time and fully enjoy the way I converted my bus and wouldn't change a thing as far as the bus goes.  But I spend most of my time in my shop and working part-time, and the dogs have a yard to run around in-- something you don't get while traveling.  If we go fulltime, I wouldn't sell my house and shop, so I guess the best I could do is part-time fulltiming.

--Geoff

There is a guy on the Wanderlodge board that owns a house & shop also. He fixed his shop with a full hookup & rented the house out. Uses the money from the rent to travel & race cars. When he is home, he works on his coach & race cars. It's a pretty nice setup.

TOM

[boxcarOkie]

This may or may not apply.  We have one rule and that rule is:  "Bring something in, take something out." 

You cannot carry it all with you, just isn't practical.

We no longer full time but have instead opted for a nice shop and a small house in the country.

BCO

[rip]

When we started full timing in 2003 we sold everything except for me woodworking tools and some things my wife could not part with.I bought a 8x16 trailer and stored it at a friends.We were on the road for seven years and loved it.We when decided to build a spec house in the Phx.area which was not a smart move.We could not sell it for a profit so we moved into it and travel for 6 months.We cant wait until we can sell it and start full timing again.This time we will rent a storage unit instead of selling everything again and sell the trailer.The only thing my wife would like is a slide,but that not going to happen.
          Don

[luvrbus]

Where about in Phoenix area is the house a 1200 sf house built in the 50's are selling for 300 to 400 grand in the Arcadia area fwiw and there are not many bargains in the Scottsdale area either ours go up in price about every day  

[rip]

My house is 3500 sq.ft. located in north Surprise sitting on 5 acres

[luvrbus]

That one may take awhile being that far from Phoenix,we have a place in Peoria it's taking a while for it to move also 

good luck

[Seangie]

Old Coot -

We are in the process of downsizing.  Fortunately we have had a lot of time to prepare. Here are some of the things we have done that might help you out.

1. Furniture Foster program - We had about 5 pieces of furniture that we had collected over the years that we just didn't really want to sell: our bedroom set, kids bunk beds, our dining room table and a few other small pieces.  We also did not want to pay 100/month to store this stuff. (over 2 years it would cost the same to just spend $2400 for new/used furniture as it would to pay to store it)  So we asked family and friends if they wanted to "foster" care for our furniture with the assumption that when we come back (if we ever do) that they would return it to us at that time.  We would give them 6 months notice so they could find something to replace.  We had a great response and now all except our dining room table and my wifes craft table have been adopted. 

2. Trailer & Storage - Alot of people had posted about trailer storage.  This is almost a must.  Even if you cannot take it with you it will be way cheaper to pay for storage for the trailer than a 10 x 10' storage space.  If you have stuff that doesn't need to be in air-conditioned storage, buy the trailer, pack it and then park it in a RV storage place.  Our RV storage (for our bus) is 45/month.  The trailer would be about 30/month.  A 10x10 with no AC is 100/month.  And when you are done traveling you can almost always get about 80-90% back of what you paid for the trailer if you buy it used.

3. Go Naked - Well...not really but as Scott mentioned, get rid of as many clothes as you can.  We are down to about 1-2 weeks worth of clothes for each of us (2 adults & 4 kids).  We have created a lot of space by getting rid of clothes we don't wear every week.

4. Junk the trinkets - Anything that doesn't serve a purpose - goes.  No decorations, no vases, no figurines.  The best way to deal with this (if you have time) is to box up the house like you are moving, completely.  And then live out of the boxes for 6 months.  Any box that you didn't have to open in that 6 month period gets sold or donated. 

5. Everything in its place and a place for everything - As we plan on moving into this bus this has become my new motto.  If it doesn't have a place to go, then build it a place.  If there is no room to build it then we don't need it.  Or as BCO mentioned - "Bring something in, take something out."  This has helped my Wife and I get through some heavy discussions on what we need to take and what we don't need.  And it has also forced us to be very creative on how we use space.

The hardest thing is that everything seems to have a value (monetary or personal or some use in the future) and when you can get yourself to "let go" of that value it becomes easier to get rid of.  I had a hard time with this at first because everything had a monetary value, I wanted to sell everything.  Wifey easily gave everything away but I just couldn't let go of the fact that we were selling stuff too cheap or giving away stuff (stuff that I could use when I finally got to the project I had in mind when I acquired the stuff).  I went through a period of about 6 months trying to sell everything and went through some mental and spiritual processing to get me to a place where it is easier for me to just give it away at this point.  Now, we are sleeping on the floors and have clothes in boxes in the closets but we still have A LOT of stuff to get rid of.

Good luck with your adventure!

-Sean
www.herdofturtles.org

[bobofthenorth]

The hardest thing is that everything seems to have a value (monetary or personal or some use in the future) and when you can get yourself to "let go" of that value it becomes easier to get rid of.  I had a hard time with this at first because everything had a monetary value, I wanted to sell everything. 

One of the best moves we made was to befriend a young woman who had just moved to town.  She was setting up housekeeping so we were able to give her several large appliances, some beds and some chests of drawers as well as cutlery, dishes and small appliances.  That felt really good & I'm sure was a big help to her as she got established in a foreign community.  We also were fortunate in that we lived on a major highway so I made a sign that said "Free stuff - help yourself" and we just piled everything at the end of the lane.  I think the only thing we couldn't give away was a cat litter box.  Marilyn put stuff out there that I'd have sent straight to the dump and somebody hauled it all away.

[RJ]

Marilyn put stuff out there that I'd have sent straight to the dump and somebody hauled it all away.

"One man's junk is another man's treasure!"

[Dave5Cs]

We like to donate to people who were having a hard time,kids, Women, families or church families etc. We found when we just put it on the street and put up a sign free, yes it was taken but then found out that most were coming around each day to see if there was more stuff and the same ones.

In California because there were so many foreclosures these groups would send collector's around with trailers pickup and resell the stuff for big profits. Just didn't seem right when we could give to someone that really needed it.

Dave5Cs

[belfert]

I'm not going into full timing or even part timing, but I have similar issues with too darn much stuff and not wanting to get rid of it.  I've only had my own house for eleven years and I haven't been able to park in the garage for least 6 years.  The strange thing is my garage is full, but my house is pretty empty with not much furniture and no knick-nacks.

I have the classic problem of not wanting to get rid of stuff on the off chance I might use it in the future.  I go through stuff and think it has $X value so why would I want to get rid of it?  I also go through stuff and realize I forgot I had that and think I will use it down the road.  When I do need the item I again forget I have it packed away or I can't find it so I buy another one.  I haven't used a pencil in years yet I have a dozen in a box somewhere that I won't get rid of.  I do have a bunch of bus stuff I will never get rid of because Dina parts are so rare and finding another one down the road could be impossible at any price.

I've been doing some cleaning this past summer and finally getting rid of stuff I now realize I will never use.  A big fault of mine is lack of organization.  I can never find anything due to the lack of organization.

[wg4t50]

Each has to do what works for them, for me, I enjoyed the MCI7 for many years 20+, and then purchased a Foretravel 36' with the ISM450 Cummins, and a slide, with the slide, there is more useable space than the 40' MCI7. DW does not travel with me very often, only to visit her family in upstate NY.   I travel and enjoy many parts of the country.
Built a 40 X 60 very fine commercial garage 12 yrs ago, the home for the coach and nice shop, my play house.
The thought of selling the bricks is unthinkable, as the wife would not go with that scheme. We bought this 108' long bfick ranch 29 years ago. too many memories etc to sell it.   We are over 70 and also have to think about the next events, full timing and me passing on, does not seem right way to treat the DW afterwards.
She will stay in the house for another 30 years and I am not saving anything for her next OM, hope the Foretravel is 100% wore out when he moves in.  
Cheers
Dave

[PP]

Life is about making memories, not living in them,,,,,