100 Things Challenge Interview

One of the keys to Trisha and I being able to up and leave our "old" life behind and travel has been the ability to let our stuff go.  I've talked a little bit about the 100 things challenge before and the concept of a minimalist lifestyle.  I think living a simple life is one of the keys to being happy.  Think about it, if you learn to get by with less and enjoy it, then you don't need as much money, so you can have more time to pursue what you really want to, and so on.

Another key to us being able to take off has been the elimination of most of our debts, specifically credit cards and car payments.  Without having to pay for stuff on credit and then fighting to pay it off every month, we've been able to get out and follow some of our dreams.

So, with these two things in mind, I was happy to see an interview by Baker of Man vs. Debt fame (who is about to embark on an RV journey of his own) of Dave Bruno who started the whole 100 things challenge a few years back.

It's a great interview and touches on a lot of points that I think are valuable to cruisers, RV'rs, and pretty much anyone who wants to be able to cut down on the amount of stuff they have.  So check it out if you have about 15 minutes to spare:

100 Things Challenge Interview

If you haven't yet made any resolutions for the New Year, this would be a great one.

What We Like (and Don't)

Parked in Charleston, SC

Well we’ve been living pretty much full time in the 160 sq. ft. of space allotted in our VW Rialta for about three weeks now.  Here’s a brief list of things we like and don’t like about it:

Like

Home is where we park

Life is simplified

Not having clutter

Freedom (though it’s quite scary sometimes)

Exploration, we’ve seen some truly stunning scenery

As winter gets closer, we’ve only gotten warmer

Cooking simple meals with a two burner stove

We don’t have a lot of clothes, hence it is simple to get dressed

We use our microwave as an extra cabinet rather than a microwave

It’s cozy

Friendly locals (more the further south we’ve gotten)

We can fit in most parking places in the city (only 22’ long)

We have a TV, but we don’t watch it (we watch the occasional movie or show on the laptop)

Dislike

Tolls

Staying at WalMart too much

The suburbs that we have to drive through to get to the Wal-Marts

Not having a sense of community – we miss our friends, and our local shops

Doing dishes in a mini-sink

Banging a knee or a head into something at least once a day

Having to move various items (ie. Fishing rods) to get to storage (ie. the kitchen cabinet)

One of us can sit while eating, the other has to stand (we’re sleeping on the dinette)

Things We Miss

The aforementioned friends and local shops

Unlimited hot showers

Laundry facilities

Dishwasher

Going out to eat more often – we’re on a very limited budget to be doing this

Being able to be “greener” (we had a worm compost at our house)

Grocery shopping for more than two days at a time

A couch

A kitchen table

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All in all, this has been a great experience thus far.  We have our days where we look at each other and say “what the f*ck are we doing!?”, but the good experiences outweigh the bad.  In looking over our lists of likes and dislikes, it seems the things we dislike or miss are many of the conveniences that we take for granted when living in a house or an apartment: furniture, unlimited water on demand, etc.

Will we stay living in an RV forever?  No.  Our ultimate dream is still to live on a sailboat.  We are living in less space than the size sailboat we will eventually live on, so this has/continues to be a good primer for that.  In the meantime we will continue our travels on land, but keep the water in our hearts.