Purge & Purchase.

Edited by: E.Gray Editing

We returned to Canada, at the end of August 2020 in the middle of the crazy and uncertain covid pandemic. We then started our two week isolation in my in-laws' camper trailer, which our parents had taken the time to set up for us. The fridge and pantry were stocked with foods and beverages we had missed, we just had to take the time to adjust to the time change. We did our isolation on my brother-in-law’s farm, so we had bon fires, bbqed and just enjoyed the end of August weather in Canada.

One night while enjoying a bonfire, we started brainstorming what to do next. The plan was to spend the following winter travelling, if we got an apartment we would want a short term lease (which isn’t always easy to find). As the ideas and beverages were flowing, my spouse suggested an RV or trailer. At first I laughed, then we thought about it. This would give us somewhere to live during the summers but we could also pack it up and put it away in the winters while we travelled. It was a great idea and gave us the best of both worlds.

We found an apartment thanks to our family; so we empty what we had stored in the shipping container during our travels into our 3 bedroom apartment. Then we started looking on Kijiji and Facebook marketplace for RV's. We wanted to wait until Spring 2021 to purchase, giving us time to do research and sort everything out.

We knew we were looking at spending anywhere between $50,000 to $150,000 for what we wanted. We were going to be looking for something that could be self sufficient, if we could plug it in great, if not we had a back up (solar panels or generator). A mid to full size fridge was on the list, along with a good size kitchen with lots of counter space. Lots of storage space, we were moving our entire lives into the RV.

We went to see our first RV, in the fall of 2020 it was a 2003 40ft bus with 3 slides (slides are rooms that push out of the main body of the RV/trailer). It was in rough shape and had a few miles put on it. We were completely honest with the owner and told him we had no clue what we were looking at, this was our first viewing. We had been reading forums, blogs and articles online but really did not know what we were looking for. This man was so kind and went over EVERYTHING. Where the motor was, how to get at it, what to check, where the generator was and maintenance, the electrical, water system, batteries, how to work the slides, the jacks etc. We were there for close to 2 hours looking over everything and learning how it worked. By the time we left we knew this was not our RV. However we now knew that we did want to find one.

We continued to keep looking at ads online, until we found another one and decided to go take a look. It was exactly what we wanted, a 2011 Winnebago 40U. It had 4 slides , full fridge, convection oven/microwave, fireplace, guest bed, shower and separate toilet, washer and dryer, solar panels, inverter, generator and diesel. It was in amazing condition, had two previous owners (the couple showing us was the second), all the maintenance was up to date and everything worked. We left in love with that Winnebago,but we wanted to keep looking.

OWASCO RV dealership was our next stop, this visit was not a good experience. The salesman was not overly interested in talking to us, probably thought we were just a young couple there to kick tires. We discussed new and used models with the salesman; new was backordered into 2021 (with no estimated arrival date), while most of his used models were already sold. He showed us two models he had on the lot, two Class C 24 ft gas motorhomes. They slept 4 -5 people, a small fridge/freezer and an inside/outside shower. They did not have any of the features we were looking for and were much smaller. The salesmans took the time to answer a few questions but did not offer to help us find what we wanted. In the end we found he was more interested in getting back into his office than talking with us. We left the dealership and went back to the 2011 Winnebago ad, asked to see it again and this time drive it.

When we arrived for the second time, we were meeting the owners with the mindset of making them an offer. We went for a drive (my spouse drove), and once we were parked we looked it over once more, asked a few more questions and we made our offer with the condition that they would certify and e test (emissions test) it prior to drop off.

Now that the offer was made, and the deal met, we had to review our finances. We redid our monthly budget, reached out to the bank and found a way to make it work for us. We ended up getting everything together in the course of two weeks and by October 23, 2020 we had purchased the Winnebago. Not quite on the timeline we set out for ourselves, but sometimes you have to jump on a good thing before it passes you by.

We spent our first weekend in our RV, with the plan of winterizing it after.That weekend turned into 6 weeks, with the occasional trip to the apartment to pick things up. During those 6 weeks we learned about our RV, what certain beeps meant, what to do when the water backed up in through the shower drain, how long a full tank of propane lasts etc.Soon we realised that winter had started to sneak up on us...

Canada puts salt and de-icer on the roads in the winter, which destroys vehicles. So we quickly moved to winterize and find storage to avoid driving on the road. Storage for RV's or trailers is not cheap, and the price changes depending on indoor or outdoor storage. We also found people booked their storage months or years in advance. We got lucky and found storage at a family farm, so we winterized, removed the coach batteries, took everything out, put the cover on and walked away for the winter.

Back to the apartment for the winter we went. Due to the covid pandemic we ended up staying home the winter of 2021. Which worked out because we had an apartment to purge (again) and the RV to get ready for. We had moved almost everything out of our shipping container into the apartment, except for 3 totes, a dresser and a blanket box. We wanted to put as little as possible back in that shipping container. We started looking into things we needed for the RV, while looking around the apartment at things we did not need, use or want anymore.

I had just finished reading "The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing" by Marie Kondo. We also watched a few documentaries on minimalism; "Minimalism: A documentary About the Important Things" and "Minimalists: Less Is Now" on Netflix, that really got us motivated. I still had a few questions and found a helpful easy read on our iPad books app called " Minimalism Sucks" by Jens Boje,. It was quick, to the point and the last little bit of kick I needed to get going.

Best way to start is in one room, start with the closet or dresser and work your way through everything. I also found that once I started the trick was not stopping. I started with my clothes and went through all of them, the stained, the too big or too small or the ones I just never wore but held on to. I sorted them into three piles: clothes I wore the most, a maybe pile and a donate pile. Then I put away the clothes I wore the most, and went back through the maybe. I found that I moved the majority of it into the donate pile. Then we moved onto the next room and so forth until we had done every room in the apartment.

We did run into things that would take us down memory lane, I found putting them into a pile of "I will come back to this" worked best. This gave me the ability to come back and devote time to these items, instead of stopping what I was doing. Stopping and going down memory lane, in the middle of purging, would distract me from my end goal. I set enough time aside after everything was done and went back through this pile of memories.I wanted to see if I felt the same way about the items I had the first time I had picked them up. In the end we had piles everywhere! We moved all the items we were not using into our spare room, I bagged the clothes and other items for donation (over 25 bags). Anything we decided to sell was posted on Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji.

Facebook Marketplace and Kijiji are annoying and require a lot of patience. A trick We learned was to check what the current market price was of the item, and how many of them were in our area before listing. This made a big difference on how long it took for the item to sell. We ended up selling almost everything we had listed. Once we had sorted out our stuff all we had to do was wait for spring, which couldn’t come fast enough.

By mid March 2021 we had moved everything we had left into the RV and the few items we were not willing to toss into the shipping container. We gave ourselves two weeks to move out of our apartment, giving us time to organise everything going into our RV and shipping container. We ended up doing another big donation run at this point as well. Even after moving into the RV full time, we still have an ongoing little box of items we do not use. Our rule is we leave the items in the box for two weeks, if we do not use those items by then, then we donate or sell them. If we don't use them, someone else will.

Cheers!

**Please note that all opinions and views expressed in this post are my own, from my own experiences. If you would like to see more pictures follow me on Instagram vikki.gray

This post is edited and proofed by E.Gray Editing. (https://www.egrayediting.com )**