In addition to documenting our travels for anyone who might be interested, one of our motivations for building this website was to hopefully create a resource where people starting out on this adventure could go and find everything they need to get started. But creating all that content in a useful way is going to take time.
So I decided that the best place I could start was to build an RV Life Shop where you can find all of the things you need to live full time in an RV, fifth wheel, or travel trailer. From the essential gear you need to hook up your RV at a park to kitchen necessities and tow vehicle accessories, we’ve collected all of it into one place.
First a little back story…
When we first decided to buy our Airstream it was an exciting and confusing time. Our plans to buy a house had fallen through and this was a very different direction than we had originally planned for our future.
Thankfully almost everything we owned was in storage and what we had with us in our little rental near Willow Creek, CA, was just the necessities. We were starting out traveling light. However, the problem that left us with was figuring out all the things we’d need to purchase or get out of storage to start this new adventure.
What makes me think I know what I’m talking about?
I’m not an expert, I’m a first time full timer and am learning as I go. However one of the things I’m very good at is research. And when I tell you I spent hundreds of hours researching living full time in an RV, between making the decision to buy a trailer and towing her ‘home’ for the first time, I am probably underselling it.
I saved bookmark after bookmark, made list upon list, and ultimately helped out Amazon with their bottom line. But that process was time consuming and laborious because all that information came piecemeal from dozens of different sources.
Look for the Bear necessities!
There were a lot of questions we had to ask ourselves. Are we going to shower in the trailer? What do we need to cook? What kind of supplies do we need to carry? What kind of RV gear do we need? How can we upgrade that pancake thin RV mattress? How am I going to setup all my electronics in this thing?
The biggest question of all was, what is the absolute bare minimum we need to get by and live comfortably? Unlike our house where we had every little thing to do all the little random things we may want to someday be able to do, in the trailer we only wanted the things we couldn’t live without.
Of course, for full disclosure…
Now some of what you find in our shop simply won’t be your style, as a bunch of it is based on the things that we own and use every day in our home on wheels. And some of it, you may find cheaper elsewhere. No worries, the RV Life Shop is meant to be a jumping off point. There may be some things there that you wouldn’t use and there may be things you would use that aren’t there.
You certainly don’t have to buy all or any of the things you find in our shop, but if you do buy through our shop you will be taken to Amazon at checkout and we will earn a small commission on that sale. It doesn’t cost you a penny more and it helps support us in the work that we’re doing.
Shop smart. Shop S Mart!
While the RV Life Shop is up and running right now, most of the product descriptions are pulled from Amazon. Over the next few weeks I’ll be updating those product descriptions with personalized descriptions about how, why, when, and where we use those products. In the mean time please look around and, if you’re so inclined, let us know what you think.
Have you already looked around and want to give us some feedback, suggestions, or requests? Let us know in the comments below.
