Pandemic Pandemonium – Downsizing During a Pandemic

A few weeks ago I sat down and started writing a post about the non-existent stress I was feeling just 4 days before the closing date of our house. Why? Because “The Sickness” (as I will refer to Covid-19 from here on out) had thrown a monkey wrench into the closing of our house, more than a few times. I shall elaborate.

The Impending Move:

About 2 weeks before our closing, we were still on schedule to close on time. The realities of The Sickness were becoming tangible in the US, and the reality of schools closing had started trickling down the rumor mill. Well, schools did close, which meant Ryan would be at home for the last week before we were to move out of our house. Hooray! I didn’t have to finish all of the last minute packing and moving all by myself with a toddler in tow. 

Since teachers had no teacher-ly duties that first week, we felt like we had all of the time in the world to prepare for the big downsize into RV living. For the first couple days we hustled through some packing and completed some projects with the RV that we had initially prioritized to “after we moved in”. Then the reality of the pandemic set in and we started to doubt that we would actually close in a week.

On the night the governor finally shut down all non-essential business, we chatted with our realtor. She wasn’t sure what that would mean for us at first, but she was pretty certain we would not be closing on time. Although this meant that our mad dash to the move deadline had been suspended and some certainly had been bestowed upon us, there was also anxiety brewing. What if this delay causes the buyers to fall through? Were they just temporarily laid off from their jobs without pay? And if they could no longer buy the house, while we wait for new buyers (until after the pandemic) would the housing market crash? If so, we would need a new appraisal for a new buyer eventually, and what would our house be worth after this economic crisis?!? This is where my husband’s mind goes…

I finally convinced him that although all of those things may happen, we needed to realize that we would still be OK. Would we lose money on our house? Yes. Would that suck? Yes. But, he would still have a job (hopefully) and we would all still be healthy (hopefully) and together. 

Pandemic Pandemonium:

After a few days of stewing over our new situation, we decided to embrace it; we were happy about being stuck in a 1200 square foot house with a backyard instead of a 250 square foot RV with little outdoor space. I went to the grocery store to stock up (responsibly) since it looked like we would be stuck for a while, and we took advantage of a few more weeks (or more) of having a movie theater in our basement!

Tuesday afternoon, March 24th, we received an e-mail from the title company that basically said, “If you are still able to close Friday, we can make it happen”. What?!? In a panic, we started talking to our realtor and decided to say yes, as long as we could get a notary; everything else could be signed and done electronically. The flood gates opened, a mere 3 days before we were supposed to be out of our house!

We started scrambling to get things into the RV, and everything out of our house. At this point we were under a “stay at home” order from the governor, which meant no help from anyone with moving, OR watching the child… but we needed to completely move out of our house! We still had boxes of things in our garage that we wanted to donate, but couldn’t. We had a few more items we had planned on selling a week or so before we moved out; we couldn’t. Items we were still using in the house didn’t have a place in the RV; what to do with it all?! 

One more truckload of things was crammed into our storage locker, but it was pretty much packed to the rims; we had no time to sort through and downsize our stuff from there AGAIN. (Downsizing is a multiple step process!) Out of utter desperation, we finally asked our neighbor if we could store some things in their garage temporarily (for who knows how long). They are awesome, which we already knew, and said we could store things there for as long as we needed (they don’t use it for car storage).

On Wednesday we went through a covert operation to sign our papers with a notary and by Thursday we moved the RV to a campground a few miles down the road, which was thankfully still open, and we spent our first night in it. Most of what we needed was in the RV, but Friday morning we went back to the house to move out whatever was left, and to do a quick cleaning (although the cleaning was not up to my usual standards, these were desperate times!) 

A Fond Farewell:

We said a teary farewell and drove away from our house at 12:45 PM, with a mobile pantry in the back (I had to stock up, didn’t I?) and a canoe on top of our truck. The new homeowners had a solo walkthrough at 1:00 PM before they would go to sign the papers. We made one extra loop around the neighborhood to drive by for the last time, and on our way out of the neighborhood we passed the new homeowners pulling a U-Haul. We made it within minutes.

Fulltime (FT) RV Life:

Many of you may not realize, but we had toyed with the idea of moving into an RV for almost 2 years; an official decision came about a year ago. It may seem like an impulsive and spontaneous idea, but we have thought about this, researched it and planned out almost every step in preparation for this move. With all of that forethought I’d like to tell you that the whole experience of finally moving into our RV was liberating and satisfying, but it wasn’t. It was quite stressful.

For the first week or so, we had boxes upon boxes piled inside and outside our RV, in our truck, and in our neighbors garage. It took the entire first week to finally sort through everything, weed out what we didn’t actually want, and find a place for everything. As I said before, downsizing is a multiple step process, so we are still going through that procedure, but at least we aren’t playing musical boxes anymore. In fact, just today Ryan said, “I could probably get rid of a bunch of clothes.” At this point, everything has a place, even if it isn’t living in it’s permanent place yet. We will continue to adjust, reorganize, and downsize through this entire process, but for now, we are finally settled and it feels much more liberating at this point.

Almost 4 weeks have gone by now, and I would say things are going pretty well (for living through a pandemic). I think we have all adjusted well. The 2 year old seems to have adjusted the best, with the exception of not being able to play at the campground playground because it’s shut down; the dog seems to be having the hardest time, which is a surprise. 

We spent months worrying about our anxiety-ridden cat and how he would deal with the move. Within 24 hours he was living the good life! He has plenty of windows to look out and observe the RV neighbor cats, the squirrels and birds. He has claimed our bed as his own, and appreciates that we made room for his cat tree (temporarily) in the RV.

The dog has been struggling with shortened walks around the campground (she would get 2, mile long walks a day around our old neighborhood), and with not being able to see out of any of the windows or doors. If she can’t observe and protect, what is she good for?! She also struggled to find a place to lay down the first couple days, while we were still playing musical boxes. Poor puppy! But, we have since eliminated the box problem, extended her morning campground walk, have tried to include a short hike in our daily schedule, and we are still working on the inability for her to see out any of the windows. 

I think I speak for both of us when I say that Ryan and I have adjusted pretty well. A friend recently asked what has been the biggest surprise to us since moving into the RV, and neither of us could come up with an answer that wasn’t related to social distancing and staying at home. We had our 2 week trip in the RV last summer, so we had a good idea of what to expect from living in an RV. That’s not to say we haven’t had our share of “events” since we’ve moved in, but more about that in another post.

Although life now is very complicated, for all of us, we have significantly reduced the manageable stress factors in our life. We have already spent more time together as a family hanging out than ever before, and we look forward to becoming closer as a family. Being stuck in a 250 square foot rectangle during a pandemic may not be the best situation, but we are making the best of it and are happy for our fortunes. “And then Llama Llama made a lucky and fortunate list with his friends.” Oh sorry, how did that get in there?