Living In An RV Full Time: 55 Tips From A Pro • Nomads With A Purpose

We have been living in an RV full-time for 10 years (yep, TEN), and have become experts at what it takes to make living in an RV full-time an enjoyable and fulfilling way to raise a family. In this blog, I’m sharing with you the hard truths and the incredible joys that have come from choosing to live in an RV so that I could chase adventure with my kids.

If you’re new here, I’m Robyn. I’m an idealist who believes that life is a blank canvas and that there is more to life than the balance in your bank account (although it does need to be bigger than zero), and that most people’s addiction to practicality is keeping them from pursuing their dreams.

My idealism is what allowed me to defy the norm back in 2015 and say, “Hey babe, can we live in our RV for 5 months?”

I hope to help you broaden your awareness, change your perception, and maybe give you that paradigm shift that your soul is calling for.

Below is a list of 55 answers to questions we are frequently asked, but first, a little about our backstory and why we’ve chosen to live in an RV for a decade.

At the start of 2015, we were renting a big house overlooking the ocean when…

The landlord called to say that she wanted to sell the house.

I said to Victor, “We’d save so much money if we just spent the rest of spring and summer living full-time in the RV, and then we can find a new rental and settle down.” (It was the practical thing to do, after all, our business was really slow in the summer.)

We had been renting this house on the beach for the past 2 years. I’d spend my mornings surfing with my oldest daughter, Gabi, then the rest of the day homeschooling the kids while playing in the sand, watching dolphins swim by.

We had a 28′ toy hauler at the time but had sold the truck that we towed it with and besides, Victor didn’t like towing so he requested that we get a class C RV to travel in.

Meet Momo our class C:

Finding Free Camping at Overnight Parking Lots

For those first 5 months, we bounced between campgrounds in San Diego and took 3 different road trips:

10-day Big Sur Road Trip
3 week Arizona to Colorado to Utah Road Trip
6 week California, Oregon, Washington, British Coloumbia Road Trip

It was life-changing (at least for me, Robyn, it was)!

By the end of that August, as we were driving home from a 6-week road trip from San Diego to North Cascades National Park, Victor looked at me and said, “You are too happy. I can’t ask you to move back into a house.”

So we kept living my dream.

But it wasn’t easy.

My motto: If it makes sense to you, that’s all that matters.

We Didn’t Have A Way To Make Money On The Road

We had a brick-and-mortar in Coronado, California, when we decided to launch into full-time RV living in 2015. We’d camp in different campgrounds around San Diego, which wasn’t cheap but was way less than a house at the time.

We’d sit still for a few months to save up, and then we’d travel.

Those first few years, we alternated between long road trips all over the US and even up to Alaska, with flying to Europe, New Zealand, Bali, Hawaii, and Costa Rica.

In 2016, we traveled through Europe for 6 months, living in a tent for 6 weeks and then in a 22′ RV the rest of the time. We covered 15 countries and about 10,000 miles. It was epic.

We did a lot more after that, which you can read about here.

I never really cared that our travel was frugal. Many times we had to sleep on airport floors, skipped showers, we rarely ate out, and sometimes we just lived off of eggs and rice when we traveled abroad, but we were happy and had so much fun every day.

We zeroed out our bank account almost every month. But I wasn’t worried. I believed in my ability to generate more when needed, and to be honest, all that mattered to me was not letting a single day of getting to enjoy my kids slip through my fingers.

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Motherhood Was My Mission

I love being a mom and playing with my kids. It’s wonderful that we’re good friends, and it was my aim to raise children who were enjoyable companions while granting them the freedom to be themselves and explore their true identities. My goal was to nurture good people who would make a difference in the world, yet also cherish and desire my presence in their lives long beyond their 18th year.

So far, so good.

I wish people would stop asking, “But what about friends? How will your children develop social skills?”

I want to reply, “Have you talked to kids in the school system lately? Do they have social skills?“

We ran a business in one of the most affluent cities in America, where these kids had all the opportunities & all the stuff. Most would go on to prestigious colleges only to go out into the real world and have a rude awakening about what life is often like. I saw many students (not all) suffer from anxiety and depression.

Unfortunately, we live in a world where making eye contact and exchanging ideas with one another is not common. Even today, my adult children would say they have better social skills than most of their peers.

I know, “But what about prom and dating?”

If I had let my fear of my kids not having a high school sweetheart, going to prom, or playing competitive sports (which was actually one of the reasons I wanted to move into an RV so I didn’t have to waste my weekends on the sidelines), then my kids would not be as grounded and confident as they are now.

Being time-rich has allowed for time and space to be creative, explore ideas, pursue passions, discover what they are capable of in hard situations, and start their own businesses as teenagers.

Can you create this without RV living full-time? Absolutely.

Is it even a guarantee that they will develop this type of grit and self-awareness if they do live in an RV full-time? Not necessarily.

But I do think the odds are more in your favor through this lifestyle.

My motto: Be who you want your kids to be (read my book).

Raising kids on the road was easy.

The whole worrying about my kid’s socialization part was easy. I had been homeschooling them before we decided to become full-time RVers, so it was easy to transition to road schooling.

But within a few years of travel, we shifted completely to unschooling, and I am now a firm believer in raising young entrepreneurs.

But my husband was a different story.

He was raised to play it safe, never take risks, and to believe that whatever he had, he should be grateful for and never ask for more.

But he loved me so much that he just kept saying “sure” to all my big dreams:

Let’s live in an RV
Let’s fly to Europe and live out of backpacks for 6 months
I’m going to drive from the Mexico border to Alaska
Let’s go to Bali for a month
While we are at it, why not New Zealand for a month too?

While his reply of “sure” makes him appear compassionate, the truth of the matter is that he is so conflict-avoidant that it was easier to endure the physical discomfort and persist than to have to say no to me or worse, spend time apart while I traveled.

The point of this is for you and your partner to know each other’s enneagram and childhood programming. If we had had a deeper understanding of belief systems back then, as we do now, it would’ve been a game-changer.

We did argue often, but I’m certain that if we hadn’t chosen to live in an RV full-time and travel as much as we did, our relationship wouldn’t have lasted. There is no way my soul would’ve ever been happy staying in the rat race.

But, we would’ve avoided so much arguing, and Victor would’ve been able to enjoy all of our adventures so much more if there had been someone with our knowledge and experience at the time saying, “Hey, let’s look deeper at your programming, your trauma, and your wounds so that you can experience the world through healed eyes.”

And the thing is, Victor loves that we live this lifestyle. He says it over and over again. “Just because it was hard doesn’t mean I wouldn’t repeat it.”

And as far as myself? I’m scared all the time. I worry excessively. However, I chose to face my fears and take more risks than most are willing to do.

Most people won’t live in an RV full-time and travel because they let fear drive their decisions.

Victor and I have been coaches for a long time. Whether someone wants to lose weight, get fit, or heal their trauma, the only thing ever standing in the way is fear.

When we were poor and traveling, it was our fear that kept us poor. When I’d argue with Victor about our travels, it was fear keeping me angry.

Fear is everything, but most of the time, it’s an illogical fear conjured up by the subconscious mind based on self-limiting beliefs that were instilled in childhood.

But when you actively shift the fear from the unconscious to the conscious brain, then the thoughts lose their power, and you can choose freedom and fun.

I don’t expect everyone to want to spend every day of their life hiking, rock climbing, skiing, surfing, and mountain biking, but wouldn’t it be nice to have the inner freedom, to not be plagued by self-doubt and unworthiness, to choose more things that bring you joy and calmness each day?

Ready to launch into RV Living but haven’t pulled the trigger yet? Watch This Video

I decided to be intentional about the sh*t sandwich I chose.

Life is hard no matter where you live, so why not see new places and try fun adventures while struggling?

Brene Brown talks about this in her book, Rising Strong.

Living in an RV full-time definitely has its challenges, which is probably why you are searching this keyword to begin with. You want to know what exactly is in that sh*t sandwich so let’s get those out of the way before telling you why I go to bed every night with so much gratitude for getting to live all of my dreams and also waking up every morning with excitement because I know it’s going to be the BEST DAY EVER AGAIN!

Some of the difficult parts of RV living for us have been:

My husband hates change & doesn’t think like me
Not being able to find a wifi signal when it’s time to work
My kids generally have way fewer friends
There’s always a lot to juggle, especially in regards of planning where to go

I always ask myself, “What is my current definition of a good life?”

We started living full-time in our RV, back before it was “a thing.”

I knew no one who lived this type of lifestyle, however, I had watched the movie documentary Surfwise in 2012 and instantly knew when I watched it that one day I would try living like the Paskowitz Family.

I remember idolizing the fact that they woke up to the sunrise, did some exercises, ate great food, went surfing, played on the beach, and, regardless of how Hollywood dramatized it in the documentary, they had an overall sense of connection and feeling loved.

That to me was happiness. That was the “good life” I wanted to live.

So I did.

Your brain is 5x more likely to remember the hardships in life, but I don’t really remember that many. When I think back over the last 10 years of living in an RV, all I really feel is a warmth radiating from my heart chakra.

We talked and laughed, sharing so much because we had an abundance of time.

Living with various options, we could either jump out of bed and paddle out at sunrise or linger until ten, engrossed in a book, before slipping on our tennis shoes for a hike.

It always made sense to me. It’s like the fisherman story, where the investment banker is so busy chasing success so that one day he could sleep late, fish a little, play with his kids, take siestas with his wife, stroll to the village in the evenings where you could sip wine and play your guitar with your amigos. Dang, we do that almost every day.

We panicked In 2020

This is getting long, and there is no way I can cover all my advice on full-time RV living here, so I’m going to sum it up with this.

In 2020, we got scared. I let fear sneak its way in.

I didn’t want to deal with mandates or restrictions, and so, we rented a house from a family member in Montana, thinking we could just transition to homesteaders.

After 2 months, I looked at Victor and said, “If I stay here, the system wins.” (I think I actually said communism wins.)

So we traveled in the RVs again. We kept the house as a backup until last April, when I looked at Victor again and said, “I hate having to run back to Montana to check on our stuff (it really weighs you down). I just want to be nomadic again.”

“Yes.”

2020 allowed Victor to become fully digital in his job, so now we can easily afford our travels.

My motto: Both. Both is good.

Now, more than ever, I believe in magic.

I understand so much more about the quantum field and the laws of the universe. Living on this earth, I sense its boundless magic enveloping us. Our purpose is to embrace life without fear and to pursue wanderlust unrestrained.

If your heart tells you to live in an RV full-time, trust it.

You can always change your mind; lots of people do.

If you believe your heart but can’t get yourself to make the jump, that’s one of the many things Victor and I coach people on.

If you find my tone rude or offensive, then you, too, might be a byproduct of the education system. It’s pumping out robots faster than Elon!

But like David Icke says, “Just open your heart and you will be free.”

Begin your journey today with our free Soul Purpose Kit

Everything you need to reconnect with your purpose — all in one soulful guide.

Living in an RV Full Time FAQs

55 Practical (& A Little Blunt) Tips from 8 Years of Living in an RV Full Time:

How do you handle small spaces? By spending a lot of time outdoors & trying to outrun the rain.
How did you handle 7 people and 1 bathroom? We’d start getting ready for bed an hour beforehand (not kidding)
How do you handle privacy in small spaces? Get creative.
How do you organize all your stuff? We’d just get rid of more.
How little did you keep? At first, everyone had only one box (22″ by 15″ by 10″) of clothes that fit under the couch.
Did you keep some stuff in storage? Yes.
How do you fit all your surfboards, climbing gear, bikes, skis, etc? We always had either an extra vehicle or extra RV, and we’d store stuff in them and put the RV/car in storage so that we could switch gear depending on the season.
How could you travel so fast? Often we’d do an activity— say, hiking, then drive for a few hours, then stop in a rest area to make dinner, then drive, then stop again to brush teeth, then the kids would go to sleep and I’d drive until midnight and I’d stop at a truck stop or rest area and sleep until 6 am and then drive again.
Are you insane? Possibly.
How are you adapting to slow travel now? I like it, but it’s only because I feel like I’ve checked off a good portion of my bucket list.
Why do you prefer fast travel? Because one of my core values is newness.
Why should someone choose slow travel? Saves money and may fit their personality type better.
You’ve referred to your husband. If he doesn’t like traveling, why do you keep doing it? Just because he’s not “good” at it or because adapting to new places is hard for him, doesn’t mean he dislikes travel. He had a lot of programming to overcome, but loves our lifestyle, loves being outdoors, and loves seeing new places.
Any tips for helping one spouse learn to travel when the other doesn’t? Yep… listen to this.

How do you not get on each other’s nerves? Through requests. By learning how to over-communicate your needs in a kind, yet clear way, you avoid a lot of conflicts.
How do you choose where to travel to? Through our love of sports. Initially, we searched The Outbound for epic adventures, or we would search, “Best _____ (mtb, surf, hiking) destinations.”
What’s your favorite app to plan your travels? I keep an Apple note with my next 12 months of planning on it. Every night before bed, I look at it and fine-tune it based on new desires. This is how, through obsession, I’ve manifested all my travel goals.
Any other apps? I pretty much only use Recreation.gov, Campendium, Allstays app, Google Maps, and Gas Buddy.
Favorite destination? The Rockies. We tend to just stay on a continuous loop through Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho now.
Recommended destinations? Check off the best national parks sooner rather than later. Access restrictions are making it harder and harder to visit.
Which National Park do you recommend first? Glacier National Park. Plan on at least 2 weeks here, in order to enjoy all the surrounding area, including Whitefish, Flathead Lake, and Seeley Lake.
Which National Park do you NOT recommend? Yellowstone. I don’t like crowds and Yellowstone feels like Disneyland to me.
Anywhere else you recommend not visiting? China and Disneyland.
Do you have a home base? We used to be out of San Diego before 2020. We tried Montana, but there wasn’t enough sun. We considered Spearfish, SD, but not enough big ski resorts close by. We tend to visit Steamboat Springs, Lander, Sandpoint, Bend, Leavenworth, and St George often.
Where do you winter? We love to ski, so we find creative ways to either drive the RV to resorts or stay in Airbnbs. We do spend a little time in St George in the winter, too.
How do you get your mail in an RV? Choosesd.com (btw, we rarely have mail, so this wasn’t even a concern for me)
Where do you have residency? South Dakota
How do you get internet? We carry 3 wifi hotspots for the 3 main carriers- AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile. Overall, Verizon is the most consistent in the US, and T-Mobile everywhere else in the world.
How much does it cost you to live in an RV? We could’ve gotten by on $3500/month. Our RVs were paid off, so we only had food expenses. We could always boondock & not drive if we had to. That only left a few small expenses like cell phones & auto insurance. We made more than this, so we ended up getting to choose how to spend an extra $3000 every month.

So you budget for $6500? We used to. We lived very comfortably and did a lot of epic things on that size of budget.
What do you budget for now? One million dollars.
Do you stay at RV parks? Only if we are staying somewhere for an entire month. Otherwise, we tend to stay at state parks and Forest Service campgrounds. Occasionally, we stay at national parks or boondock.

What is the typical monthly rate at an RV park? There is such a huge range here. In San Diego, it was $1550 plus extra vehicle parking costs. In Lander, WY, it is $550 plus electricity. I see $700-900 in a lot of states. Pro Tip: Finding monthly RV spots is getting harder and harder with inflation and recession. So many people have been squeezed out of the housing market and pushed into RV living that RV parks are in really high demand.
Do you boondock often? Not really. We did those first two summers to save money, but I like having hookups now. I manage enough in my life, I don’t want to manage water and poop.
Are maintenance costs high in an RV? Compared to a house, no, but things do break. All of our slide motors have broken at one time (we are really good at replacing them now, lol), and we’ve blown way more flat tires than I can count. Other than that, we haven’t had many maintenance costs, but we may have lower standards, and I think older RVs were just made better.
What did you like most about living in a Class C? It made it easy to fast travel, and it was easy to drive.

What did you dislike about it? We didn’t have another tow vehicle, so we were limited in where we could go and what adventures (trailheads) we could access.
What do you like about living in a 5th wheel? It’s huge. Seriously, it feels like a 2-bedroom condo. We can fit 2 deep freezers in it and still sleep 7 comfortably.
What do you not like about it? It’s massive to lug around, however, I’ve done it. I’ve towed it all over the US and even one time accidentally towed it across a steep, narrow, windy, 30-mile DIRT road north of Steamboat Springs, Colorado. (I should start using Truckers Path)

What type of gas mileage do you get with your RV? The class C gets 10 mpg. When I’m towing the big boys, Appa or Carbon, I get about 9mph.
What is the most important thing in choosing an RV? Making sure everyone sleeps comfortably.
If you believe in dreaming big, why don’t you have a fancy new Instagram-worthy RV? I’m tempted often, but it’s more important for me to be on the move and chasing adventures so I like that I don’t have to worry so much if I want to take our older RVs on bumpy dirt roads. (We actually still have the class C and another travel trailer, and bounce between them throughout the year depending on the adventure). Update: We do now, however, we rarely post about it.
How do you make money on the road? Victor does online coaching for injury rehab, strength training, and trauma healing. I run this blog, try to be an influencer (but often fail), and offer life coaching.
What about from blogging? Yes, but it is a business I do with my kids for their future, so I don’t count it in the income we live on.
What is the WHY behind living in an RV full-time? For me, being able to live each day to the fullest, in nature, challenging my body while feeling connected to my spirit. Also, to laugh and make great memories with my family, to be emotionally available for them so that they grow up feeling loved, and to teach them grit and self-responsibility so that they can grow up feeling empowered.
What do you use for RV insurance? Roamly
And for health insurance? Exercise daily, eat well-sourced food, live a low-stress life, be mindful of your thoughts, communicate your expectations, and meditate.
Are camping member shops worth it? We only have Thousand Trails and don’t use it, but are stuck with it for one more year. Most of their campgrounds are just trailer parks, and the nicer ones are hard to book. We have a Harvest Host membership that we occasionally use.
How do you manage to keep enough food in your RV for 7 people? You should look under my bed and in my under storage…I might be part squirrel.

What’s your go-to recipe when living in an RV? Chili. We eat a lot of homemade chili with grass-fed beef and sweet potatoes (it’s our secret to staying ripped).
Do you like those all in one RV washer/dryer combos? Yes, because I hate going to laundromats. The only thing is that you can’t fit much in it, and if you do, your clothes come out very wrinkly.

How do you homeschool? Unschooling now, but I used to road school.
What’s the difference? When we road school, I used textbooks or workbooks that mirrored the same subjects as the schoolool system. With unschooling, it is self-directed education, meaning the kids find something they are interested in, and I encourage them to obsess over learning all they can about it.
How did you teach your children to have such great social skills? I’d have them communicate to adults through our travels. I stopped answering for them. I limited their screen time. And I didn’t let them have IG or TT until they were running their own business (which for the older 3 was about 16, and the younger 2 aren’t on social media).

How did/do you keep the kids entertained? Reading, writing, art, and music. We do adventure a lot, but it’s not the majority of our day. The kids always wake up and read and write for 1-2 hours. During long drives, they love listening to music. They draw and paint. Currently, on this trip, we are lugging around a full drum set and a sewing machine since we are bouncing between our class C and Airbnbs.
Danny isn’t a fan of RV living as he prefers routine. Gabi and Isabelle, now adults with their own RV, often join us but like to stay longer in one place to build connections. Jiraiya and Tati enjoy our fast-paced travel style.
My must-haves in the RV? Sports gear for outdoor fun and my trusty Berkey Water Filter. It’s a constant in my travels, be it in the RV or on car camping trips.
Any other RV gadgets that are really helpful? Yes, outdoor rugs, storage bins, keyless door entry, and these 40 more RV essentials.
Best sports gear? La Sportiva Bushidos. Everyone in our family owns them. We use them for everything- hiking, running, mountain biking, and approach shoes for climbing. I wish I was a #LaSportivaSponsor
Have you found anywhere you might want to settle down someday? Maybe St George, but I doubt it.
I aim to be nomadic until Tatiana is 18 and my older kids settle down. After that, I might follow them wherever they go. I could also expand my RV fleet and keep alternating between RV and Airbnb travel indefinitely. Flexibility is key!
Any final advice? I think people worry too much or worry about the wrong things. Where your attention goes, your energy flows, so take charge of your mind before you miss out on life.