Living in a Travel Trailer - been there, done that

Living in a travel trailer is something I have experience with. It's better than being without a shelter, and it's way better than a tent. By design, a trailer is mobile, and sometimes you can pick them up relatively cheaply.

My experience is living on bare land inside three older travel trailers, each one with a dedicated purpose. It worked just fine for about a year or so, but it isn't something I'd want to do over the long haul, unless my job required lots of travel and relocation, and I wanted a convenient way to take my things with me.

With all of the homelessness washing over the country, living in a travel trailer is one way to be without a traditional home, yet not necessarily be on the street. I'd be willing to be that there will be a new trend in America wherein people start to realize that the "American dream" of home ownership can be too much like a nightmare, and they'll elect alternative housing like living in a travel trailer.



For those interested in this travel trailer lifestyle, let me tell you about my experience, and you can decide for yourself whether this is a viable alternative to whatever it is you have now.

Necessity

After bankruptcy, it was clear that staying in a house just wasn't in the cards. Rent was too much, so I decided to live on a nice parcel of land that I was paying for. It wasn't convenient for work, but since most of my office work was done out of my home office, I could live anywhere I chose.

As an interim measure, until I could get back on my financial feet, I was following the philosophy of an acquaintance of mine from Ohio. He used to say, "Do what you can do, until you can do better." I was biding my time, waiting for an opportunity to do better.

Living in a travel trailer certainly wasn't my first choice, but it became a clear choice what with having the land and having a large travel trailer on the land. I soon acquired a couple more travel trailers, especially in the face of trying to I had some remote land with a well and electric service to the well, so that provided much needed water and electricity.

Space

Trailer living isn't so glorious, unless you enjoy living in small spaces. I don't care how big your travel trailer is, it just won't ever be quite large enough for regular living. It might be fine for a cowboy or a sheep herder, but for the average person, it's just too small.

Nevertheless, it can work when it has to. If nothing else, you learn how to make every square inch count, and you learn to live a simplified lifestyle. Everything that isn't essential goes into storage gets sold or given away, or perhaps donated to those who might be in need.

My humble abode was 31 feet in length. Thankfully, I was able to get my hands on two additional travel trailers, both about 18 feet in length, and I used one for a kitchen and eating area, and another for an office. That left the larger trailer for relaxing and sleeping.

Making it a Home

I figured just because it's a travel trailer, and an old one at that, it didn't mean that it can't be a decent home. I tore out some of the seating and made room for a full size bed. Walls were painted and decorated. Unused items like a small inoperable refrigerator were torn out to make room for other things.

The key to comfortable living in a travel trailer for me was to know what was the most important aspect of my life in the trailer, and then to make that as special and comfortable as I could. It turned out that the bed was the most important part of the trailer. When I could curl up in a comfortable full-size bed, instead of something that resembled a bunk, it made my little Airstream trailer from the 60s much more tolerable.

Utilities

With a well and electric service at my "campsite," two essentials were taken care of. The last essential was heat, and that was provided by portable propane heaters that would augment small electric heaters.

Much of the electrical circuits were unreliable, so I modified the trailer to operate on 110 volts, and simply powered it via an extension cord.

Since the toilet and shower in the trailer didn't work, I constructed my own utility building of 8 foot wide by 8 foot long by 8 foot high. That allowed me to build the whole thing out of standard 8 foot length 2x4s and 4x8 sheets of plywood.

The building housed a generous shower of 16 square feet, a toilet compartment of the same size, and a 32 square foot area to house the washer, propane powered dryer, and a water heater also fired by propane. Attached to the outside the utility building was a wash tub.

A water storage tank, perhaps 200 feet from the campsite, sat in an elevated position and so provided gravity fed water to our shower, toilet, washer and wash tub. Although it only held 1,000 gallons, it lasted quite a while before requiring that it be refilled by turning on the well pump. A garden hose was also hooked up to the well pump such that it could be supplied by the water being gravity fed from the tank or under more pressure while the well pump was running.

It wasn't the lap of luxury, but this provided everything I needed to shower, wash and dry clothes, take care of "big business," do dishes, and run through the sprinkler.

A phone line was facilitated by having power poles for the electric lines, so I enjoyed conversations with friends, family and associates, whether hanging out in my home or office, or relaxing in a lawn chair in the shining sun.

Oddly enough, my refrigerator was outdoors, backed up against the trailer used as a kitchen. It remained outside during rain, windstorms and snowfall, seemingly unfazed by weather conditions, and not affected by the mice that most certainly sought a hiding place underneath.

Specialization

The least used trailer was the one dedicated for use as a kitchen, but it was nice to keep cooking supplies, camp stove, microwave and dining table separate from other activities. Being able to cook in something that resembled a kitchen was another comfort that made living in a travel trailer more successful than it otherwise would have been if all of my daily living was confined under one cramped roof.

Having my office in its own trailer also provided me with a big advantage for it allowed me to keep many of my important work-related items and activities separate from the living area. With precious little space for things, it was nice to be able to dedicate an entire trailer to my work. After all, it was my work that was going to help get me out of the hole that I allowed myself to get into.

Other Features

One key feature allowed me to have a relatively civilized life between three trailers - a large awning. This essentially allowed me to have a life outside, under a roof. It afforded protection from the sun and light rain, thus giving me some room to spread out. A sun shade or tent with screened sides would have provided something similar.

A small storage shed that was professionally constructed on a concrete slab was home for my electrical panel and meter. It also served as a place where I could keep several other items that required storage that was secure and tucked out of the way.

Living in a Travel Trailer - Never Again

Through my own lack of effective control on my finances, I wound up living in a travel trailer. It wasn't my intention to live there, but I was very thankful to have my own land so I could setup shop and live something that resembled camping at a remote, yet well appointed, campsite with multiple travel trailers.

It was the lowest point in my life, yet I kept my composure and worked my way through it. I knew that living in a travel trailer was only going to be a short period in my life that I would pass through. There was no sense dwelling on the unfortunate side of it. The best thing to do was make the best of it and plan to do better in the future, and that's exactly what I did.

If you find the need to be living in a travel trailer, take heart, it can be done. It's not an entirely pleasant life, but it can be enjoyable. For me, it was a last resort. For you, it might be a choice for frugal living. I'm never going back to living in a travel trailer simply because I've learned what forced me into that situation, and I'm on guard to never let that happen again.

Good fortune to you, and if living in a travel trailer is in your future, I hope it's by choice and not necessity.

Done with Living in a Travel Trailer, back to Cheap Housing