I was camping next to this fun couple that lives full-time in their 25-foot Airstream Flying Cloud
for the past four years and I was super curious how they managed to live in such a tiny space.
So I asked him if they'd give me a tour and tell me how they do it.
This is our kitchen or dinette area where we eat all our meals together and we like it that
it's in the back of the trailer because we've got these fantastic windows back here that offer the
views like you see here. So this is really one of the main reasons that we were drawn
to the Airstream to begin with. These are our storage cabinets and one of the things that you
decide when you live in a small home like this and it really is a tiny home is you adopt more
of like the minimalist style. So these are our dishes. We have four plates and two bowls and
literally, that's all. We have paper. Yeah, quite frequently. But you know we don't have tons and
tons of plates like we used to have in the house. So that's our dishes. Our DVD player is there.
Over here is where we keep our pots and pans. So we've got a large pot, a medium pot, a small pot,
Keith's coffee pot, and a strainer and that's it. One of the neat things when you retire and you
decide to do the full-time RV life is when you choose your trailer like we did with the small
size it works great for two people. There are occasions that you might want somebody to spend
the night with you so in that situation, this does break down and it lowers to this level. And then,
of course, the cushions will cover the table so this will make a bed. When the table lowers down
and goes into the bed you could probably call it a full-size bed. You could easily sleep a couple
children here and then somebody could sleep here. So it can sleep four people but we like to say it
sleeps two comfortably. We've had our son and daughter spend a weekend with us one time and
they utilize this and they slept well enough. It's probably not like sleeping at their home but it
works well. So it will sleep more comfortably. This is actually our fourth RV. We've got two
motorhomes and two fifth wheels and this is our smallest one which is kind of odd since we were
going to live in this one that we chose to go smaller. But we were a little bit concerned
about storage with the Airstream unit because it doesn't have what some of the bigger units have
where it has the pass-through storage underneath so we were a little bit worried about that.
But once we kind of cut out the necessities of what we needed and didn't need it's worked quite
well. We've got several large bins underneath here that we can keep lots of stuff in. We just chose
to get a couple of tubs to organize our stuff well. So you make use of every little cubby you
have. So Keith's shoes go there and then that's another fold down storage underneath the sofa
there as well. Oh, I love that you have a spot for shoes. Yeah, we just tuck them in there. Welcome
to our kitchen. It's small but it does the job. We have a stovetop here that has three burners.
Underneath here of course we keep this down on travel days and when we're not using it so
that we can set things on top. And then our oven down below is a combination microwave
and convection oven and we've never used a convection oven before but it really works
quite well. We can cook anything in there that you can cook in a regular oven. So we've been
real pleased with that. Got storage underneath both sides here. It does go back all the way to
the wall. Some people and maybe myself included originally thought the trash can would be an
issue because it's kind of small underneath there but it really isn't because we don't generate as
much trash living in the Airstream as we did at home. So you adapt and it's just it hasn't
become a big deal. And then, of course, you've got the storage up here. This is our dry storage
and we keep the few mixing bowls that we have and the few tupperware that we have.
We no longer accumulate 100 tupperware bowls with missing lids that we can't find anywhere.
And this area here I use as my liquor cabinet so I have my alcohol in here and anything else that
I need to squeeze in somewhere. And then we do have a sliding pantry that's been really handy
so that's easily accessible and stores quite a bit of stuff. This is our silverware drawer,
like a typical plate you know, we've got four forks, four spoons, four knives.
You just learn to minimalize. We don't have a dishwasher but I mean it's you wash after you
eat and it's kind of nice because that way stuff is not laying around or waiting to be unloaded
from the dishwasher and it takes five minutes to wash the dishes and put them up. So we like it.
That's our junk drawer. Everybody needs one of those. Yes. And then our longer utensils here
and this is our store where we keep our canned goods.
We've got another storage cabinet here and this one Keith modified it a little
bit. When we got it it didn't have these little pistons on the side so you had to hold the door
when you wanted to put stuff in and out. And we saw somebody online that had added these
and so we just ordered them and it took Keith about 10 minutes to put them in but that way
you can access it without having to hold it. And then, of course, your standard RV refrigerator and
freezer. It's smaller than what you would have in your house but you learn to live with it and
it works just fine for us. We've got one more storage in the front part of the trailer that
we haven't looked at yet and it's underneath the refrigerator. And this is where we just keep you
know our Swiffer that we use to do the floors and clothespins we need to hang stuff outside.
That's a nice little small area that you can tuck some small things in.
All right this is our boudoir, our bedroom, and first thing you'll probably notice is that we have
two twin beds. That's an option that Airstream has on several of their trailers and the Flying
Cloud is one of them. It allows you so much more room when you're living in the trailer to
be able to walk around each other one and we can both sit on the beds if we need to. When you're
changing your clothes this is just great space. The other options does come with a twin bed. The
twin bed would take up this whole space and you would have a small narrow space on either side,
We looked at some of those and the beds I'm sure are super comfortable as are these surprisingly
but we just felt like this would give us a lot more living space. So he sleeps on his side I
sleep on mine and when we want to get romantic we can get creative. But this works great for us so
it gives us a lot more space. Back here it has the built-in nightstand in the middle which is really
nice. I can keep books. They do have charging ports for your phone on either side of the bed.
I've got two on my side and Keith has two on his side. So that's a really nice option as well.
The drawer is surprisingly large. When we first moved into the trailer we just kind of
threw everything in the drawer and obviously, that didn't work because it became another junk drawer.
So I just found some small organizers at Target and we put all our stuff in there and that's
worked really well. Also as far as clothes storage for what we carry we're not what you call clothes
horses so we don't have a whole lot of clothes but we have all the space that we need for them.
Each of these opens over our bed. Keith keeps his shirts and things here and these are my shirts and
shorts over here. So those are very convenient. Then we've got another one on this side. It's
not quite as deep as the one here but it serves its purpose quite well for what we need. And then
we've also got another closet here. It came with a or it does come with a bar that you can put some
hanging clothes in but we found that we didn't need it we just kind of use it for extra storage.
So Keith throws some of his stuff down here and we've got paper towels and things like that. But
you can tell we've got a shelf here that's mostly empty so we just got a ton of storage
there. And on the subject of storage we've got even more down here underneath. Both sides
they come with little pull-out tubs where you can put things in the tubs. Both on the bottom and
another one actually Keith only has one I think. Mine has two. So that's the storage on that side.
Switch over here. I've got one here that's a little bit smaller but works for
my raincoats and our rain gear and backpacks and things like that. And then this one here
is where I've got the two tubs that I can store things. One on the top and one on the bottom.
So that's great additional storage as well. One of the things that we enjoy about this unit
is it came with two roof A/C units. It's called the Texas package. If you've ever been to Texas
you'll know why it's named that. But they've got one unit on the front of the trailer and one on
the back. It's all centrally ducted so it's not as loud as some of the trailers that have
the roof A/Cs on but it will keep you very cold. You can run them both at the same time
or alternate so they go back and forth or just one one at a time to whatever your needs are.
And that's where the air comes out. Of course, they will swivel. For privacy goes sometimes it
is nice to be able to to close this space off. I tend to like to read at night after Keith goes to
bed so occasionally I'll stay up here so the light doesn't bother him but it does have the accordion
door that will snap right here and provides some privacy for changing clothes or whatever you
need it for. We actually have one here and then there's one up here too if you want additional
privacy in the bathroom area. This one does the exact same thing here. Oh, that's nice. Yeah.
All right and this is our tallest closet that we have in the trailer and this is where we
keep our coats or anything that needs to be hung which we don't have a whole lot of clothes there
but it goes back pretty far. I mean it's probably a good three feet or so with a shelf up here
that you can put some things there. And then underneath here, we keep a few things
on the bottom of the closet as well. This is our bathroom, of course, we've only got the one
bathroom in the 25-foot trailer but it serves all our purposes. So if you want to look in here of
course we've got just a small round sink but tons of storage on underneath there and on the side.
And then storage underneath the mirror as well for any type of incidentals we want to keep there.
We added the little containers here so that we could have a little bit more organization there.
We did add this full-length mirror. It didn't come with the mirror on
the door and we didn't have one so that was nice to be able to add that
just a cheap Walmart mirror that we added to the door. All right and here is our shower.
And then it does have the removable
shower head and as far as space again likewise I'm five eight, Keith is five
almost five eleven and we fit in here just fine. You can stand up without a problem.
I am curious do you mind sharing how much you paid for it and letting us know if you think after
owning this Airstream for four years if you think it's worth it or has it been worth it? The size
the 25-foot allows us to get into places that some of the larger RVs are not able to get in. I think
they're great. They're very roomy but for us, we wanted something that we could do some boondocking
in and get into some of the State Parks that tend to have smaller campsites and that sort of thing.
But absolutely no regrets. None whatsoever. In the resale if and when we get ready to sell this the
resale on the Airstreams tends to be a lot better than some of the other RVs so I don't know when
we're going to stop living this kind of lifestyle but at some point I'm sure we will and I think the
resale that the Airstream will hold its resale a lot better. A long time from now. Hopefully. I'm
glad you mentioned boondocking because I think everybody thinks about owning an Airstream they
think about being out in the wilderness, right? And so I think talking about the sizes of tanks
or the tank sizes in this Airstream Flying Cloud is really important. Tank sizes. 40 gallons fresh,
40 gallons gray, 40 gallons black. Our blacks can last us three or four weeks. The gray
we've learned to make it about a week. On the gray tank at 40 gallons usually the biggest
problem is fresh water but we carry a little six gallon tank around whenever we go into town
we just pick up six gallons of water and put it in the tank and we can stay as long as we
want. But it's not a problem whatsoever. Snd boondocking is where you typically will find
your prettiest campsites. We boondocked on the north rim of the Grand Canyon which was just
stunning literally five feet from our door was the the ledge to the Grand Canyon.
We spent almost 10 days in crested view Colorado last year and it was gorgeous.
Grand Teton mountains in the front of them. Do boondocking is really one of our favorites. Of
course, you have to have either a generator or solar panels to do that and we have both that we
carry with us in our our truck. We prefer the solar. Yeah, the solar is better because it's
paid for and it's cheap and you don't have to get the gasoline to put in the generator. We've never
used the generator. Well, we used it on the one time edge of the Grand Canyon to make margaritas.
So are the solar panels on top of the roof? When we decided to add solar to our trailer
a lot of people add them to the roof of the trailer which is probably great and I know people
have done it and they're very happy with it. We opted to get a Zamp panel. It's made by Zamp.
And it's a suitcase panel thats about 50 pounds and it just folds out so you've got
two big panels. The Airstream comes wired so that you can just plug it into the front of the
batteries, the batteries in the Zamp panel you can move it as the sun moves throughout the day
and that was really the main reason why we went that route.
We like to park in shade when we can because it keeps the trailer cooler but you have to have
sunlight in order for the the solar to work. So the Zamp panel goes to the outside on the front
of the trailer. We move it around throughout the day as needed. 30 foot cord on it. It's a hundred,
230 watt, 15 amp Zamp. And that keeps us charged for everything we need. You cannot run the air
conditioner using it but we can watch TV, we can make coffee, run our ice maker. Yeah, it allows
us to stay out boondocking for easily a week to 10 days as long as we have sunlight. So buying
the Airstream 25 Flying Cloud has been um one of the best decisions we've ever made and we don't
have any regrets. We would do it again. When we bought it we paid I think it was right at $76,000
which is probably a little pricey for some RVs or trailers but knowing that we were going to
be living in it we wanted something that would be durable. Airstream's been around for decades
and decades and they have a great reputation for their durability and we would agree with it
based on the time that we spent living in it. If people want to get a hold of you and follow your
journey as full-time RVers in your Airstream what's the best place for them to do that?
We have a Facebook page called Footloose and Fabulous where we
document our travels and we'd love to have you like us and follow along with us.
Meeting people along our journey is really one of our favorite things that we we've enjoyed. We've
met some of the nicest people and our page just allows us to stay in touch with people we met.
We enjoy it. We post we try to post at least daily where we are and things that we've done to help
people know the area a little bit better and and just enjoy the journey with us. Keith likes to
say he's the fabulous and I'm the footloose either way I'm okay with that but footloose
is fine with me . But Footloose and Fabulous. Thank you so much you guys. That was fun. Yeah.