What I've learned after being full time for 6 months

Now that we have been full time in our RV for 6+ months, I wanted to write up what we've learned and our suggestions for anyone else considering this lifestyle. 1. Living small. If you are moving from a normal house with garage, multiple cars, spare bedrooms, etc., then you need to be prepared for the challenges of living full time in a small space. First, you take only what you need. This is a tough topic for both of the people on the RV. I have a list of handy man friends that would struggle with the single bin of tools that you can justify carrying with you full time. Be honest about clothes, dishes, DVD movies, SHOES(!) and all other personal items. I started working with a start up after we hit the road, so I ended up needing business appropriate clothes and travel bags that we would not have normally packed. Every situation is different, but it is easier to pick up on the road what you need but did not take than to toss items that are extra and occupying space that could be used for other things. 2. Wifi. Be prepared for bad wifi support at most of the parks. I assume that we will not have service and then am happily surprised when we do at a park. Buy a hot spot from whichever carrier that you prefer. We use Verizon because they cover more of the "out of the way" places that we end up. Get an unlimited plan!!!!! It is a huge weight off my mind to know we can use the data we need. This is particularly true when you have friends and/or kids on your data plan. 3. Make time for what is important. Hitting the gym is what keeps me sane. This was true while I was working and it is still true while on the road. We look for a local gym to visit when in places that have that level of infrastructure. Join one of the nation wide gym companies. We are members of Anytime Fitness and it has worked out well for us so far. We joined LA Fitness while in the Phoenix area because their gyms are so outstanding. They allow members to place their memberships on hold, which we did when we left the LA Fitness coverage area. We plan to reactivate our memberships when we get back to Phoenix for the winter months. 4. Take days off. Don't feel like you need to be on vacation and sightseeing every day. It is OK to be in someplace really cool, but spend the day in the RV hanging out, doing chores, shopping, cleaning, vegging in front of the TV or whatever else needs to be done. 5. Don't be in a hurry. If you go full time, or even part time for several months, you have plenty of time to cover all of the cool places in the country that you want to visit. We plan in our schedule an extra week every 4-6 weeks at a certain stop so we can catch up, I can travel for work as needed, or we can just catch our breath. Don't make full time RVing feel like a full time job. 6. Make a bucket list. Sit down with the map, a good book on the cool places to visit in the country or any other reference material and make yourself a bucket list. I want to see a Miami Dolphins game in their stadium. Danelle wants to see a Yankee game in their new stadium. We want to go the lobster festival in Maine, see the cherry blossoms in the DC area, watch the Kentucky Derby, etc. Make a list and add to it. Cross off items as you do them and add new items as you research and learn more about our great country. 7. Take pictures and document your travels. I cannot stress enough how important it will be to have a photo and text documentary of your travels. We started this blog for that purpose. If you are getting old and losing your mind like I am, then you will want to have the pictures and posts in order to remember all of the places that you've seen. It is also a great way for friends and family to keep up with where you're at and what you're doing. 8. Planning ahead. If you have a large 5th wheel or coach, you will need to plan many weeks or even months ahead of time in order to get a reservation in the parks that can handle big rigs. The park in Sedona that we wanted to try laughed when we called 2 months ahead of time and asked for a reservation. We write out a plan for where we want to go and for how many days. We have been spending 7 days in the major city areas and 5 days in the national or state park areas. That has been working out well for us so far. We may adjust that as we move into late summer and fall, but our schedule so far has us sticking to that general formula. 9. Carry walkie talkies and a box of nitrile gloves. The walkie talkies are essential when parking, checking the brake lights on your tow vehicle and multiple other instances. Phones work when you have coverage. Get the walkie talkies. They may save your marriage. The gloves are good for everything that has you handling items outside of the coach. It is never a bad idea to have the gloves on when hooking up the power, water and dump hose. Also, you will save yourself many shirts and pairs of shorts if you wear the gloves when hooking up the tow vehicle and loading/unloading the bikes on the bike rack. Don't forget that you need to be wearing gloves when you fuel up. The diesel stations and the truck stops are notorious for being a mess. It sucks to get diesel all over you hands and then need to get back into the rig and drive another 8 hours. Disposable gloves = happiness. 10. Water. Drinking water in some of the areas is marginal, to put it nicely. Anyone in the Phoenix area knows how bad the tap water tastes. I have yet to find a filter systems for the coach that can turn Phoenix water into something less than toxic. Carry extra bottled water in your coach and tow car. We also have two gallon water jugs that we keep full. When we leave an area of good water, we make sure the jugs are full before packing up to leave. 11. Use the GEO method for your tanks every time you move. The last thing we do on moving day is to flush both tanks and then fill them to ~33% with a cup of Dawn liquid detergent in each. The drive acts as the washing machine action and then we dump that water when we get to the new park. I think of it as preventive maintenance. It keeps the sensors clean and the tanks reasonably clean. 12. Put stuff away. Part of living small is that you put things away when they are not being used. This has been a bit of a struggle for me, but I'm trying to get better. Small amounts of clutter become a bigger problem as the living spaces shrink.