This week, Kait and share our journey of minimizing for camper can life,
what we're looking forward to and some of our concerns.
My sister Gina stops by for a visit before we hit the road and shares her thoughts on our lifestyle.
I can't think of an exact moment when I said, "Oh, I could live in a camper van with my husband and our giant husky."
I think it's been a progression.
You know, it started with moving out of a three bedroom home that was 1,200 sqft into a
large RV that was about 250 sqft and realizing even in that amount of space I had too much stuff and there's room that we didn't need.
I started to realize we could live in something smaller and have access to so much more!
When Joe and Kait first told me that they were going to be downsizing, selling everything, moving into a RV, um, it did not surprise me.
After we sold the RV Kait, Leo and I have been living out of the house I grew up in for the past few months.
We have been minimizing more to get ready for the upcoming year.
We let go of things that we traveled with but never used.
Why did we bring a kettle bell?
Well it's ten pounds we don't need anymore.
[Kait] What's the hardest think you've had to give up?
I would say definitely the tools.
Most of those were my dad's tools and although I kept a good portion of them, looking back there are things I wish I would have kept.
Uh..but...we just didn't have room.
Even if we have enough room for everything we can't necessarily bring it all because we have a weight restriction.
In terms of what is essential to me that I need every single day, that wrench doesn't fit on the list.
Since we are moving into a space that is less than 120 sqft, we wanted to make sure everything we brought was essential.
I'm not concerned we won't be able to bring everything we want, but I am...I do have a concern that we won't be able to bring everything we need.
Because there is a difference between need and want.
But I think, for the most part, we should be able to have everything in the camper van we really absolutely need.
The advice I would give people looking to minimize are
Find the things that...I wouldn't even say matter most but are the most useful to you.
Is it multi-purpose?
Especially my REI pants because I can zip off the bottoms and turn them into shorts.
So then they are a pant and a short! [Kait] Multi-purpose. Multi-purpose.
My relationship with things has really evolved over the last two years.
If I were to go into a store and, let's say, look at a new jacket.
I look at that and say, "Can this jacket replace what I have?"
And will it serve more purposes than what I currently have?
So I no longer go into things saying, "Oh let me buy this jacket because I THINK this winter we might go some place cold so I'll need this."
Now I think, "Is this going to fill all of the roles I need it to regardless of what I am thinking in the future. It has to work today."
I love minimizing.
I'm having so much fun and re-evaluating everything I own almost on a monthly basis and figuring out
do I really need this and if not, I let it go.
[Joe] How do you think I have done with minimizing?
I think you've struggled with minimizing.
I know the tools were really hard for you.
Uh, but other things. I know you hold a lot more sentimental value.
Like a yearbook, if there's one page in the yearbook I want to keep, I'll just take a picture of it and throw the rest of the yearbook away.
But you kept your yearbooks because you might want to flip through them.
The more I think about it the easier it is to minimize.
So when you think about, like, I lived abroad for a year and all of the things lived with fit into one suitcase.
It was very easy.
And you realize what you really want and need in your life versus all of the crap you just have laying around.
I feel like everyone has a different level of what minimizing means for them, right?
And you and Kait have done a really good job of saying "This is all we need and we're OUT!" Right.
We're discovering the world.
For me, not needing a lot of stuff obviously makes you more flexible in terms of how much money you need to live, right?
Hence having more flexibility and freedom.
All of my belongings that I plan to bring for camper van life fits into a standard trash bag.
That includes jackets, coats, jeans, dresses under garments, socks everything fits inside that and
it is so freeing to know that I could just grab this trash bag and it's got everything I need and if, I don't know, I need to get our of Dodge, I just grab my trash bag and go.
The challenges of living in a small camper van
I mean, one...whether or not we can fit all of our stuff.
We're going to be right on top of each other 24/7.
I don't think Leo is going to have a problem but...
I'm thinking it's going to be interesting to see how we work with the dynamic of having to move
or break camp every time we go somewhere.
And what we do about our cassette toilet.
The big question mark for me is once we get moved into our camper van, is the cassette toilet situation.
I think that's on everyone's mind.
Some of the questions I have are, how easy it for them to dispose of their cassette toilet.
And does it give them the freedom they think it's going to?
So that's one.
I'm curious to see how long the cassette toilet is going to last us.
And how we're going to go about dumping it.
I think that's going to be interesting.
Especially since I've already committed to...sharing the duties
What are the quarters like, you know after they've been living in it for a while.
Cause now they don'e have any separation really no doors or anything.
I don't know if it's going to be as easy as they think it is.
I just can't wait to see all of the meals that Kait's able to concoct in that small kitchen.
So that's what I'm looking forward too.
And I can't wait to see them in a city, I think that will be really exciting.
And I'm wondering if they get any tickets.
[Joe] Leo! Time to move into the Hymer.
Next time, we take delivery of our Hymer Aktiv and get settled in.
What's up?
[Kait] You're going to laugh but read Geodiscobowl's comment on our new video.
[Joe] Ok. [Kait] On YouTube.
Uh let's see...Geodiscobowl..."A beautiful video, you officially crossed over, you are officially a story teller." Thank you.
"Rather than call you out on a typo in your new logo."
Three S's...what do you mean typo.
Is there really a typo?
[Kait laughing] I don't know how we missed it.
Did you look at it?
[Kait] Yeah I did, there is a typo.
[Kait] We worked on this for over a week and neither of us caught it.
That means we have to re-order business cards.
Cause I ordered them all last night or two nights ago.
[Kait] Well there's nothing we can... Laughing [Kait] There's nothing we can do about the video WOW!
We watched this video, I don't know how many times.
Went over the logo multiple times.
I made multiple versions of it.
And we misspelled our last name.
Thanks to our viewers for pointing that out.
[Kait] Thank you Geodiscobowl.
Alright, now I have to go through and change everything.
And we can't re-upload the video.
[Kait] Well we could but what's...I say we leave it.
It's a minor thing.
If you guys are watching and you want to see something funny, watch our first video and see the misspelling.
Alright, well I gotta get back to work and fix this stuff.