Moving Out and Moving In

We officially moved out of our house on Friday and started the first leg of our journey in the RV.  We won’t take off for a couple more weeks so we’re learning to adapt to the size of the fifth wheel.  I can’t tell you how many times we’ve looked at something and decided whether it fit into the keep, trash, or store category.  Again, going from more than 2,000 square feet to just under 400 makes you truly think about the value of something and the needs you must meet to live. For a little bit of perspective, I give you my photo gallery of “from this…to this.”

From the house we lived in with a perfect floor plan, with a nice mix of stone, brick, and wood.  The large living space was great for family gatherings and anything else we might want to do. Unfortunately, we had very few of those activities…to our smaller space, which for RVstandards, is pretty large. The slideouts make it larger but we still don’t have nearly the space we had in our home so we’re adjusting.From this living room with a massive sectional and entertainment center…to our living area with two recliners and a couch that makes into a queen-sized bed. We have surround sound for the first time, something we always wanted in our land homes but never installed.From an extremely large bedroom with huge furniture that still couldn’t fill the room with an adjacent walk-in closet…to our new bedroom with a king-sized bed, two small closets, and built-in dressers. Lots of our clothes went to charity, especially those that hadn’t seen the light of day in years. I’m not sure all women have experienced this but I had four different sizes of clothes, based on my size that month. Ridiculous!From the kitchen of my dreams, so I thought at the time. I loved my island but we kept filling it up with non-food items as we piled our mail, books, receipts, etc. all over it. I seldom cooked as I didn’t have a lot of time for it…to our small kitchen with a three-burner gas stove, convection/microwave oven, tiny gas oven, full-sized fridge (a bonus) and a pantry.  I still get my island but it’s a tad smaller and it won’t hold a lot of stuff so the pile up I experienced in the last   kitchen will be less likely to happen. From the incredibly large bathroom with separate sinks, a walk-in shower, and a garden tub (yes, I’ll miss it)…to a tiny bathroom with a few cabinets for essentials, something we are still trying to sort out, and a walk-in shower with a bonus sun roof.Finally, from a nice sized backyard where you can see the tops of more than 30 homes…to a backyard with whatever view we choose.  Yes, there are adjustments we will need to make and some may be challenging.  But this, my friends, is the trade off we’re looking forward to enjoying.