One thing the RV forced us to do was to minimize the amount of things we had. We had a lot less clothes (partly because we planned the route to stay as close to 70 degrees as possible), a lot less toys and books, and a lot less cooking/baking-ware. There were pluses and negatives: we didn’t have huge puffy winter coats taking up room, but on the occasions where it got at/below freezing, we were a little cold. It was harder to cook and bake in the RV, partly due to size of oven and partly due to not having a bunch of pans. We made it work, but if it was longer than a year, we probably would have reevaluated a few things.
On the whole, we realized that we really don’t need as many things as the commercials tell us we do. We wanted to try to keep minimalism going as much as possible when we got back home. In a way, it was easier in the RV because we didn’t have space for much.
We have so much more space now that it is easy to get caught up in the “need” cycle. Of course, we don’t really need it; we existed perfectly fine without it before! However, any sort of minimalism can be hard to maintain, and I think it is harder for me and the boys.
For example, the boys shared a room in the RV and they each had a small shelf, a cubby, and a bin for toys/books/souvenirs. At home they each have a whole room to themselves! Will legit stored 2-3 boxes of books in the storage locker, so now his (large) bookcase is completely full. I would say 99% of them are books he has already read but doesn’t want to get rid of (like the Hardy Boys). The RV encouraged us to find Little Free Libraries (which we love) and to donate the books we had already read.
I’m still sorting through the storage locker. It had been such a rush to get it all done before we left, that towards the end we just threw stuff in the locker. Looking at it now, I have no idea why we kept some of it!
I would say Ben is more of a minimalist and I lean towards collector (but definitely not towards the hoarder end). We have a little more leeway with space now, but for non-essentials we are trying to keep to a “one in, one out” method.
Where do you guys fall on the scale?