Fulltiming - and keeping my stuff!

[Neal]

I really believe fulltiming is in my future. I'm out in the MH this week and it's my happy place. I love the simple life, I love the traveling, the freedom, everything the RV lifestyle grants us (other than when things go wrong, that part sucks). I don't know though that I could part with my belongings as some have. My "plan" as of this 10 second time slice is to only FT for a few years, we'll see where that leads me. My options are:

1. Sell house and put belonging in storage. Question is how much will it cost to store that much stuff? Is it worth selling the house or using as storage?
2. Rent the house, furnished or unfurnished is the dilemma
3. Sell house and all belongings, start over in the future. I somewhat like this idea as it closes one chapter and reopens another for another day. Just the waste of money is the sad part.

For others that have been through this thought process, please share as well as share what you pay for storage if you are storing your entire house belongings.

 

[BGMAC]

My $0.02 worth.
1. Unless the stuff will increase in value or is sentimental I would not keep the house stuff if your not going to use it relatively soon. If your going to be gone for a long time it is probably worth selling it and keeping the storage rental money in your pocket.
2. Rent the house unfurnished. Usually the furniture will get damaged and it would probably cost more to repair then a hole in the wall.
3. If you plan on possibly returning to your house. Rent it if you can manage it yourself. I have not seen to many property managers keep up and check things out until its too late. If you can't manage it yourself, then I would probably sell it.

I am not really a materialistic type of person so getting rid of things is not a problem with me...

 

[Our Coddiwomple Journey]

just started our fourth year as full timers. Sold/gave away/ donated everything.
No regrets.
It's all just stuff

 

[sheridany]

Rent the house. Clear it out and keep what is important with family friends whatever and or put in storage. You may want to come "home" at some point and you dont have to go through the house buying process and you certainly dont want to pay cap gains on the sale assuming you make some money on it and then start over again. I would imagine you could do pretty well right now on the rental front. My .02 FWIW.

 

[Jabber Jaw]

Neal;
Since we have sold the house here, & are in the process of getting ready to move into the RV for a while, until probably the end of October; we have been going through the "getting rid of stuff" mode. What a challenge it has been. Sell, pack, give away, & donate "stuff" is a big task. Actually, going through everything posed the biggest time consuming challenge.
So, as a result, here's a small piece of advice, start early, & allow yourself plenty of time. We started this process in June, so plan ahead if you can.
We are anxious to get to Florida and get into our new house. Essentially, what we did was buy all new furniture, and probably don't have enough in storage to fill a U-Haul Cube Van.

I think "full-timing" would be wonderful, but DW wants to still have a house. Net result. New house with RV garage, smaller home, low to no maintenance, & easy to leave to travel.
Load the Coach, lock the door, & hit the road! But it still leaves her a place to call home. This way, we both win!

Whatever decision you make, don't look back, & enjoy each day to the utmost!

 

[NWIP]

Keep as little as possible. Storage only cost money and well is it preserved. We have spent about $7000 in storage in 3 years, keeping mostly sentimental or irreplaceable items.

 

[Jim]

I love my MH cuz it gets me away from my house/property/etc. But I love my house/property/etc. cuz it's a nice place to come back to after being in the MH for a month. No way I could be without them both.

 

[MapNerd]

If you have family that can store your stuff, store the sentimental with them instead of a storage unit. If you don't have family or they can't/won't store your stuff, consider a mail-in storage facility that charges by the box. Sell everything else, take the proceeds and put them into some CDs (or whatever investment vehicle floats your boat) that will mature when you think you'll be finished, or half way through and then reinvest. When you're all done with your adventure, your investment should be maturing at the same time. Use those funds to refurnish and equip your new sticks & bricks.

As to renting or selling, that's a personal decision but talk to your realtor about market conditions in your area. Hopefully it would never come to it, but there are now all sorts of eviction moratoriums these days. I'd hate to be in the position of not being able to collect rent, not being able to evict and still having to pay a mortgage. Unless I could get a military renter, I personally wouldn't consider renting in the current environment.

 

[sheridany]

@Neal Don’t forget the extra charge to store the kayak....

 

[Nobaddays]

We bought a 24 foot used cargo trailer and packed that full of stuff that I didn’t want to replace if we decided to buy a home again in a few years or stuff that we might want in the camper. Couple tool chests full of tools, newer tv, minimal furniture, extension ladders, clothes, kitchen stuff, etc. I park the trailer at a family members and when we stop to visit we know what we don’t need in the camper and grab some stuff we think we need. Cargo trailers are always easy to sell and have little depreciation. At some point we will probably sell the rest and the trailer. Learning to live with less has been very enjoyable.