The Coppock family heard a calling to "cut back" and "downsize" as early as a year ago, but failed to act on it until recently. In September of 2013, we finally came together as a couple with the same idea - sell the house and live in a camper for a while. What??? That's crazy. We both felt the same way about it, but felt the compelling need to do it anyways. October 26th marked the start of this adventure with our big garage sale. If we had only known how much we would eventually get rid of in our home, the garage sale would have been MUCH bigger! It was a start, though.
Since then, we have paired down our home, our posessions and our clothing to the point that we may just be able to survive in a 427 square foot 5th wheel camper. At the time of our garage sale, we owned a 34 foot Heartland Cyclone toyhauler 5th wheel, which had served us well. I (Mike), however, was uncomfortable with the prospect of living in it full-time. The cold of Colorado can be tough to fight in a camper, and we would need every advantage that we could get. The research began for our next new home. We searched and searched the internet, as well as several RV retailers, and finally settled on the Open Range line of campers. We found the attention to detail on the construction to be very good when compared to others in the same price range. We brought home the new 427bhs in November and sold all of the dirt bikes that we often enjoyed in the summer.
Since November, we have concentrated on preparing our house for sale and slowly moving stuff into the camper to see how we will all fit. Did I mention that we have three little girls (5, 8 and 11) and a Min-Pin dog? After countless trips to the Goodwill drop-off point, we may actually be down to a manageable amount of clothing for all of us. After a couple of trips to the Goodwill, I still had clothes that I hadn't worn in years. Why do we hold on to stuff for so long??? Anyways, the house goes on the market next week and we move into the camper this weekend! We plan on living in the camper while the house is for sale so that we don't have to worry about keeping up appearances. Hopefully this will pay dividends.
Where do we go from here? Time will tell......
Mike, Desi and the girls
Congratulations!! We hope to be not too far behind you.
ReplyDeleteOut of curiosity, what do you tow your Open Range with?
Thanks
Thanks! We tow it with a 2011 Ford F350 crew cab dually with the 6.7 diesel. Pulls it great.
ReplyDeleteNice! We have wanted to do what you guys are doing for so many years and I think we're finally getting to the real planning stage. We're in the process of getting rid of stuff now. Where are you guys traveling to/from? We're in Ca, Ojai to be exact.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for sharing, it's a real inspiration for us to read other people's experiences.
We are in the planning stage of living in an RV full time. We have a 10 year old daughter along with older children. I would love to hear how your kids are doing with the transition. We plan to stay at an RV park here in Arizona. Any input would be great. Thank you so much...
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