What is Reddit's opinion of Live in Your RV with Your Family: without losing your mind!?

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My family has been fulltiming for the past 2 years. We are a family of 4- daughter (13) and son (5); they were 11 and 3 when we launched.

Let me try to answer your questions and interject our experience. We decided we were going to take my daughter out of school for a year and tour the US for 14 months (beginning of summer 2015 to end of summer 2016). In planning, I decided on an exact route of weekly stops- 60 in total of where we would go. Heck, I often knew where we would stay. I blogged about it here: http://nowornever.learntorv.com/2015/04/the-idea-plan.html

The reality? Before stop #2, we decided to split up a longer drive by leaving a night early. At stop #4 or 5, my wife hurt her back and we had to stay put for 3 extra days. At that same stop, my wife found that there was a Fulltime Families rally going on that September (this was in July) and asked if we could go to it-- it was in Branson, my schedule had us in Montana or something. Going on the idea that fulltime RVing allows us to go do the things we want, we agreed and threw our plans to the wind.

We've yet to get back to that original plan - and honestly, we're better for it. We have visited places that never made the plan that we loved. We have gone to some places that were just "meh" and we were ready to move on.

So, have some places to go in mind, but fight the urge to make a super long detailed plan. It's extremely unlikely you'll stick to it.

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Clothes - you will take too many. You will wear less. You usually won't miss what you don't have. Only you know your family - are things a 1-time wear and they're dirty? Do you re-wear things multiple days? If the former, do you plan on a washer/dryer in the rig? For us, we're mostly a wear-once family and we ultimately added a washer/dryer combo to our rig. Adding that cut down on the amount of clothes we carried and needed since we do laundry more often (it used to be done weekly). For me, I own: 3 pair of shorts, 2 pair of jeans, 3 pair of gym shorts, 5-6 t-shirts, 3 casual button up shirts, 1 pair of dress shoes, 1 pair of flip flops, 1 pair of sandels, 1 pair of sneakers, and socks/underwear. I do keep 2 pair of khakis and a nicer button up shirt in a bin under the bed for when I have to go to work events. The kids have less than I do. The wife has more.

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Our camper is a 2013 Sabre 36QBOK. Like this one but older: http://www.funtownrv.com/product/new-2015-palomino-sabre-36qbok-7-204757-5

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Showers - our shower is huge for a camper. It's 48" x 30" and tall. Your husband would fit. Look online at floorplans specifically for that size.

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Sleep space - lots of layouts have dedicated bunk rooms. Ours has it in the very rear of the camper. Makes for a great space for them with it's slides on both sides. It really opens up the space.

The challenge will be fitting 6' tall kids in them. The bunks them are 72" x 30". For a 6' tall person, it can be cozy. Though, my father-in-law slept up there before we went fulltime. You might look at some of the mid-bunk layouts. One kid on a sleeper sofa and another in the loft where the bunks will be bigger. OR look at toy haulers and customize the garage to be a bedroom in a way that is exactly what you want.

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Internet- as mentioned, things change so rapidly. Anything we tell you now is likely to change. Your best bet is to join rvmobileinternet.com and pay their yearly fee to be a member. Awesome people and great info. My current setup is: - Grandfathered unlimited Verizon plan - just a hotspot (aka Jetpack) - New "unlimited" AT&T plan - our phones and a hotspot are on this - The camper network/backbone is powered via a WifiRanger so that I can mass switch all of our devices based on whichever provider is faster. - For times that service is weak or just needs help, I have a weBoost 4G Drive-X cellular booster.

I'm a programmer working a normal 9-5 job and "work from home" at it. We stream Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, and a variety of kids' networks (Disney, PBS, etc). We typically go through 200-300gb in a month split over the 2 providers.

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For mail/residency/etc- you typically will get a mailbox somewhere. Don't get a USPS post office box as a lot of places won't use that. You'll find the most options in South Dakota, Texas, and Florida as they're the states without state income tax and lax residency requirements. Texas and Florida are more friendly to homeschoolers (with Florida- you may consider a homeschool umbrella). Once you pick your state of residency, you get a mailbox at a mail forwarding service. I went with www.sbimailservice.com out of Florida. If you stick with Ohio, you'll likely need to us a UPS Store or family or something.

Mail is sent there and collected. Some mail services will scan the front and let you electively scan the contents (for a fee). When you're ready, you have it sent to wherever you're at.

For receiving online orders (and your mail as mentioned above), most RV parks allow you to receive packages. Check with the park as each has different rules AND sometimes you need to use a variation of their address. If not, a lot of people will us USPS General Delivery, though I've heard that can be a hassle if you can't control the actual shipper (think Amazon and it using whatever it so feels like). It's really easier than you'd imagine- heck, I had a Sleep Number bed delivered to a RV park!

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Animals- we don't have but friends do. Honestly, they don't usually mind as it's just a house to them. Travel days, you'll want to make sure they're secure. Friends have said that they don't like that their dogs have to constantly be on leash and rarely get to be off leash. Though some parks have leash-free dog parks. I do know having a dog seems to cramp friends sight-seeing style as they have to be back to let the dog out.

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Mental health- I'm one that needs periodic alone time. For me, work is good as the family knows I'm generally not to be interrupted. For my wife, she'll run errands on her own and leave the kids with me. It's not unknown for people to go for walks or drives or just go into the bedroom and lock the door. We have friends with 6 girls... one of the girls regularly needs quiet/alone time (less now that they've been on the road for 2 years) and she would go onto the roof of the camper! Headphones drown out the family...err, world. Everyone has routines- what do you do for alone time now?

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For downsizing, just start getting rid of crap. We constantly have a donate bag/box going even now. You'd be amazed at how much you don't want and how freeing it is to not want.

My friend's book might be a good start: https://www.amazon.com/How-Hit-Road-Familys-Full-Time-ebook/dp/B005FBSBS2

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The questions you didn't answer- what about community? What about finding your tribe and feeling like you belong? What about your kids having friends on the road?

We wouldn't still be on the road if it wasn't for finding an organization called Fulltime Families - fulltimefamilies.com. We made friends (parents and kids both). Road friends are different than home friends- they get it. The kids have deeper and more meaningful relationships with their friends who are also on the road than they ever did at home. We went to rallies where we watched our kids with 100 other kids. We've seen introverted kids get surrounded by other introverted kids and they all knew and understood. Kids on the spectrum will find other kids and you'll find other families to connect with.

You may travel with other families (or not).

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We love fulltiming! We thought we were embarking on a 14-month adventure and now plan on doing it until it stops being fun or something ties us down to a single location (which might happen as my daughter gets to working age and planning for college).

Why wait for 6 years- the fun is out there now!