The Myth- RV Life is Simple.

We are constantly told that the RV life, is the simple life. But, is that really true?

On one hand the RV life forces you to adopt a simpler life, and shed the burdens of home ownership. You throw off the yoke of materialism. You shake off your boring routines. You live free. When living in an RV, you simply can’t burden your life down with a bunch of useless stuff. But, on the other hand, the RV life is much more complicated and time-consuming.

The RV life forces you to unburden yourself from the accumulation of stuff. But you can do the exact same thing without ever leaving your sticks and bricks home. Less junk can happen anywhere. A minimalist, no-frills lifestyle can happen in a 2,000 square foot house, just as easy as it can happen in a 200 square foot RV. Is it really simpler to completely change your lifestyle just to accomplish an unburdening that you could have easily done anyway?

Does your RV really take less maintenance and repair than your stick and brick home? Just because it’s smaller, doesn’t make it maintenance free. Which one is built with cheap lightweight materials? Which one is dragged roughshod for thousands of miles around the country?

Yes, with an RV lifestyle, you don’t have a yard to mow, but it took you five hours to drive your house to the camping site where you wouldn’t have a yard to mow.

Is doing laundry in an RV actually more simple? Owning a house doesn’t prevent you from washing your clothes in a sink, or driving ten miles to a laundromat, or wearing the same clothes for 2 or 3 days. But, there’s a reason homeowners tend to burden themselves with a washer and dryer- it makes life simpler.

If living in a house, do you have to constantly plan and route your house to a new destination, and spend a lot of money to get it moved there? Or, does your house practice the simple life, and simply stay in the same place it always has, waiting for you to come home?

And, when you’re traveling in your RV, where exactly is the laundromat? Or the grocery store? Or any of those other places? Is it really more simple to find a new laundromat everywhere you go?

Just how is your RV really simpler than your house? Does your house refrigerator operate on 3 different sources of energy, depending on which one you use (and threaten to burn your house down if you didn’t park level)? Or does it just stay plugged in, patiently waiting for you to use it and ignore it?

In your sticks and bricks home, do you have to hook up a garden hose to fill up your faucets? And, then have electricity to get the water back out of the faucets? Do you have to hook up and run drain lines from your toilet every few days?

Does your house run on two different electrical systems, which might be acquired from four or five different sources, all of which have to be regularly monitored by you? An RV is basically a power plant on wheels. How is that simple?

Exactly what do we mean by RVing is the simple life?

Oh, maybe you mean “simple” as in less bills.

An RV can, theoretically, be cheaper to own than a house. An RV can prohibit you from blowing your money on useless toys and junk. And, having a house can encourage you to acquire many recurring bills that just won’t fit into an RV lifestyle. But, on the other hand, living in an RV can also be much more expensive than living in a house, if not monetarily then through personal deprivation. It pretty much all boils down to comfort and luxuries, rather than the type of roof over your head. Living in a tent, under a bridge, can be much cheaper than living in an RV, but just how simple a life do you want?

There are many good reasons why people choose the RV lifestyle. But, simplicity can’t logically be one of those reasons. If anyone tells you otherwise, they are probably just a little bit simple-minded.