Let's Break The Bad News First

Let's face it. RV life is not all the glamour that the YouTubers make it out to be. There are so many things I feel are left out when talking about living the RV life. I have seen so many posts on social media from people who regret jumping into this lifestyle because of how YouTubers made it look. We want to keep it real as it gets, so we are going to discuss all of our negatives for RV life first.

Buying the RV

When first adventuring into RV life we had to make the choice; new or used? We decided to buy new. Dealing with RV dealerships is very much like buying a new car at a dealership(but much harder). The runaround, hassle, waiting, negotiating, etc. We spent hours at the RV dealership where it felt like noone wanted to do the paperwork. We also wish we would have gotten it inspected before purchasing and bringing it home. We did self inspection and were quite picky, but there were still some small things we missed before bringing home the RV that we had to fix later. Another thing the dealership got us on that I wish we would have caught was all the extra unnecessary warranties we didn’t want. While we love our rig, it was a huge negative all we had to go through when buying our RV.

Smaller Space

Having a smaller space to live in is an obvious thing when moving into an RV. (Unless you've always lived in a place less than 350sqft.) Purging your house getting rid of tons of stuff can be difficult for some people (it was for us). Also, the struggle of where to put what we wanted to keep. We decided to get a storage unit and luckily had family willing to hold onto our furniture we didn’t want to part with.

Organization skills are a must when it comes to living in an RV. The use of air tight containers, soft sided storage bins, command hooks, and shelf inserts have been lifesavers when it comes to storing all of our stuff in the RV.

More food for thought when it comes to the smaller space of an RV is what is inside the RV that is much smaller than residential items. For example, our shower is big enough for one person to stand in, not much walking space to avoid the water when the shower head is running. This means having to turn on and off the water to apply soap throughout showering. Therefore, having to learn a whole new shower routine due to the restricted space.

Another complaint on smaller space I have seen is being stuck inside on bad weather days. Being stuck so close and not being able to have much personal space can be difficult. This is why whenever it's nice spend as much time as possible outdoors.

Dry Air

Being from the South, I've always been used to very humid air including inside my house. Moisture in the air inside an RV is a very bad thing as it can cause mold or effect the lining on the walls. In our RV the ACs do a fantastic job of dehumidifying the air, but in turn it caught me by surprise being so dry inside. With being used to more moisture in the air it has led us to where we drink much more water, and have to use more skin moisturizer because of the difference.

Poor Workmanship in Newer RVs

When an RV is built it's made to be lightweight and from what I've researched, they aren't built as well as they used to be. We've had moldings, doors, kitchen backsplash, and more fall off since living in the RV. This is where you need to be handy with different types of glues, nail or staple gun, screws, and more. We’ve also had the instance of our control panel being wired a little too loose causing us all sorts of problems. Luckily all of these problems we have been able to fix ourselves. Being able to solve and troubleshoot problems is truly a bring with you skill to RV life.

We have also discovered not to trust our tank levels by the sensors. The sensors don’t always read like they should if they are dirty in any way. Also, the tank sensors are not placed where you would think they should be when it comes to levels. (Ex. your black tank “Full” sensor actually sits at about 3/4 filled tank.)

The Smells

Now here's the least glamourus of them all, the smells of an RV. In a house you typically don't have to worry about sewage smells, well in an RV you do. Now, the smell is not a constant thing if you treat your tanks correctly. The only time we ever smell our black tanks are when they are very full. There is specific care you have to take of your black and grey tanks in order to help reduce these smells. For us, we use a black tank treatment and little gel air fresheners to help whenever we dump our tanks.

Laundry

While not a huge negative for us but I've seen many people concerned with this topic. There's really only two options with laundry when you live in an RV (especially with many parks not allowing clothes lines). The options are: washing and drying unit(s) in your RV or using laundry facilities. In some cases, laundry facilities can be expensive. But it is important to look at the cost there versus the cost of an in rig unit(s) plus the utilities they utilize. The biggest problem we found with the in rig laundry units were how small they were for the amount of laundry we produce. Also, the price of the washer and dryers, even the two in ones, we just couldn't justify having one when comparing it to doing our laundry at a laundry facility.

Cost

For many people I've seen the cost of RV life be a negative for them. It's not always as money saving as you'd think (however in our case it does save us money, having four dogs). The cost of accessories can pile up quickly especially once purchasing your rig there is still quite a bit of basic necessities needed that don't come with it. Repairs can also be costly if you don't know how to work on things yourself. We cannot stress enough how important it is to take a look at your situation in depth to decide if this is doable before jumping in feet first.

Overall, we have found ways to combat the negatives of RV life and our positives way outweigh our negatives. Some of these are deal breakers for many people and it is so important to really do your research and think about it this lifestyle would work for you. Continue to follow us to talk about all the positives we’ve found in this lifestyle!