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I get asked ALL the time, "How do you live in an RV with FOUR kids?!" The idea of tiny living with four kids, four and under seems to boggle peoples minds. And honestly, I can't really blame them. Before we jumped into tiny living, I was just like most people. My husband and I would watch these Youtube videos of families living in trailers, or tiny homes, and I would think to myself "Wow, those people are nuts...I could NEVER do that."
I laugh at that version of myself now. It just goes to show, you never know what God has planned for you. Here we are now...living in under 300 square feet, four kids and a dog.
I will say though, I wouldn't have been able to do it if I hadn't changed my mindset and habits. What I mean by that is, I had to let go of a lot. Not just stuff stuff, but emotional stuff as well.
I came across minimalism a few years ago and it slowly made its way into my life. But, once we decided to actually pull the trigger and buy a trailer, it went into FULL force. I call it power decluttering. That's really what it was. I was like a crazy person donating and selling (thank you FB Marketplace) left and right. We downsized from a 3 bed 2.5 bath home to a less than 300 sq/ft travel trailer in just over a month. Side note: I do not recommend...haha. It was so emotionally and physically exhausting. I blame it on nesting since I was also 8 months pregnant at the time.
Minimalism saved me. That seems dramatic, but it's so true. I started to realize that the physical clutter was turning into mental clutter. I went from a snappy, irritated, reactive mama to a more calm and present one. Now, I'm not saying it's the magic answer to everything, it takes a lot of self work too, BUT it helped a TON.
I also learned so much about myself in the process. Letting go of the stuff gave me freedom. Freedom to play with my kids more, be more present and do nothing. The less you have to clean up, the more time you have to do what really matters to you. That's a HUGE reason why living tiny is so amazing. It works for us because we don't have all the other crap to worry about.
Another question people always ask is how do the kids play in such a tiny space. And the answer? They just do. You'd be amazed at how little kids actually need. They're born to play. Even if we got rid of ALL their toys, they'd still find a way to play. They also play outside everyday. The beauty about living in a tiny home on wheels is we have the freedom to park wherever we want. In the current RV resort we're in now, the kids play out front on this little concrete pad we have. To be honest though, they're mostly playing in the dirt with rocks and sticks. We also have a pretty river walk on the property that the boys love to explore.
Another MAJOR reason why this works so well for us is we renovated. We've actually upgraded trailers since we started this journey six months ago, but we're in the process of renovating this one as well. (We only upgraded because we realized this was going to be more long term than we originally thought.)
So, I thought I would do a little tour of our trailer! I'll start at the front and work my way back!
the master bedroom.
First up...the master bedroom. We didn't do too much to this room yet (although I do have plans for it.) The first thing we did was replace the lumpy mattress with a foam one. What I actually like about this trailer is that it has room for a residential queen. We also bought Beddy's for our bedding, which if you have an RV any bed at all, it's seriously a MUST. Best money we've spent. It makes making the bed in the morning a breeze. Seriously takes me less than 2 minutes. As a mama of four, I appreciate that.
I also bought this cart from Ikea to act as my nightstand. It has my Etsy shop supplies, diapers and books in it. It's also on wheels so if I need to move it, it's super easy. We also hung our wedding canvas on the back of our door just to make it feel more like our home.
Wes made this temporary shelf for my computer, but we plan to mount it to the wall. The RV came with a spot to mount a TV, so we're planning to put my computer there on a swivel mount to free up floor space.
the bathroom.
Our bedroom opens up into the bathroom, which is one of the reasons we loved this floor plan. Not to mention, the bathroom is huge for an RV. Our shower has this 4" lip that can fill just enough water for a bath. It's actually a pretty roomy shower. We had to completely demo the counter top where the sink was because we had nowhere else to put the washer dryer. If you full time, this washer dryer combo is a MUST. Worth. Every. Penny. Once we got the washer dryer installed, we had to find a sink that would fit in that tiny space. So for about a month we only had one sink (the kitchen) and we were so ready to have a bathroom sink again. By accident we found the perfect fit at Lowes. The plumbing was all DIY...so it was trial and error. We almost threw in the towel and hired someone, but my handy husband figured it out last second. It's funny how much pride you have for a project when you finish it yourself!
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I'm in the process of wallpapering the bathroom with this herringbone design from my favorite wallpaper company Walls Need Love. You can use CODE:: Dakota to get 25% off your order! I used it in our last trailer and it's such good quality!
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the living room + kitchen.
Our living room and kitchen area is all open, which I love. We completely removed the theatre seats that came with the trailer and replaced it with our beloved IKEA couch. We also removed half of the U-shaped dinette and table. I made a trip to IKEA and bought this table that folds down on either side. I also love that it's made out of sustainable bamboo. I eventually want to get some stools that we can pull out when we all sit at the table together.
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One of the challenges we faced was finding a place for the Berkey water filter to go. We ended up buying this cart from Target and just not putting the wheels on it. Then, we bolted it to the wall so it doesn't move during travel. I actually love this thing because it holds the kids books and extra diapers too.
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I knew I wanted to brighten the space, but after painting the last trailer...I was not about to paint this one. Don't get me wrong...painting is so worth it and makes a HUGE difference, but it's SO time consuming. We weren't full timing when we renovated the last one, so this would have been a different situation. So, instead I found this shiplap wallpaper at Target. It's pretty easy to apply and is super thin. The only problem is it's not super durable. I would NOT put this in the kids' room. It works great in common areas, although there is a spot by the dining table that I need to redo because little hands decided it would be fun to pick at.
We also removed the blackout curtains and valences to put up curtains. I always feel like it adds way more character to the space. It also makes it feel more like a home.
In the kitchen we didn't do much. The counters are actually this nice faux marble which I like a lot. I do plan to get some wallpaper to make a backsplash, new cabinet pulls and a new faucet eventually, but other than that there isn't much that we want to change. I also hung our white board on our fridge, it doubles as a place to write notes and a photo collage.
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the kids room.
Finally, the kids room. Aside from the bathroom, I think this was the biggest transformation. We completely demoed the wardrobe. I painted their back wall with vintage green chalkboard paint to make a cool creative space for them. We also added two bookshelves and wallpapered the whole room. Wes even made a cool shelf for their diffuser out of an old EOD box from work. We also bought a blackout curtain for their one window and put down a fun carpet for their cars. (We recently decided to put that carpet up top and make a cool play space loft for them.) We also hung an iPad off one of the shelves, so it acts as a mini TV if we want to have a movie night.
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We still need to replace the cheap, thin mattress pads that come with every RV bunk. Until then, they seem to be doing okay. We also went with Beddy's in their room because it's SO much easier to keep their beds looking nice. Anyone who's had to make a bunk bed knows how annoying it can be. Plus, the kids can zip it themselves which is great.
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Another big question we get is: how do we store their toys? We have a pretty good system that we started in our house and moved into the RV. We have a container for each category of toy. For example: cars, trains, blocks, etc. The boys know that they're only allowed one box out at a time. We store all their toys neatly under our couch, where the kids can get to them easily. We don't allow them to keep toys in their room, because we noticed it just distracted them (there are a few exceptions to this though.) This is actually something we implemented in our house too. They have a separate box outside by the door for all of their outside toys.
Well that's it! I'd love to hear if you've been thinking about tiny living and if you have any more questions!
