We live in an 8’x35′ little house on wheels with much of that room taken up by a big honking engine and the driver’s area.  Though the lack of living space is partially offset by typical RV design, in that every piece of furniture has storage compartments, it is still imperative to maintain a “reduce and clear out” mindset lest we become overcrowded by “stuff.”  We did a pretty good job of cutting our possessions down to something close to minimalist before we moved into the motorhome, but our underbelly storage is rather crammed, the is closet nearly full, and all those aforementioned furniture cubby holes are mostly occupied.

Accordingly, we have continued our reduction efforts. Since moving in, I guesstimate that we have cleared out about 10 cubic feet of items, mostly by selling them off: half a dozen eBay items and two 30 pound propane canisters sold at RV parks.  We gave away a two gallon sports cooler to the park host at Amistad, and have a large plastic shopping bag of items waiting to drop off at the next Goodwill or Salvation Army spot.

We are also trying to use a “one in, one out” rule: If we buy a thing, something else has to go away.  During our recent enforced stay in Odessa, TX we went on a bit of a shopping spree to fill in our winter clothes and footwear gaps.  I took home two pair of shoes, two shirts, two pants, a windbreaker, and gloves.  So I got rid of three pair of shoes, two shorts, two shirts, one hat, and a pair of old gloves.  Last month we bought a stackable set of RV/Yacht type induction ready pots and pans, and now we have the remnants of our old non-stackable, non-induction ready pans on eBay.  Today we went “sand sledding” at Monihans Sandhills State park, and rather than rent two little sleds for $10, we bought the two-person toboggan for $12.50, and when we were done for the day we sold it to a young man for $5.   No net increase in items.