To summarize, I will always graciously accept a gift from a friend/family member…they put thought into it and many times I LOVE the gift! Unless they are ASKING me if it’s something I will use, then I am honest with them and decline (these usually aren’t gifts, just things people thought I might need). It’s a little easier now because I can remind them that I live in an RV Not room for much.

I would just be vocal about your desire to downsize…and also about your desire to receive CONSUMABLES. Tell them to buy you things that go away. Like food. Tea. Soap. Or thing that are very functional and that you need anyway. Cloth grocery bags. Klean Kanteen bottles. Or anything else you have your eye on

One question…how do you limit the items brought into your home via other people without offending them? I want to reduce our stuff in general, but I also want to love and honor people. I would love to read any input you have on this topic.

I might add, we have already addressed this with some people and they have reduced the amount of stuff they give us, but it is hard to balance allowing people to be who they are (such as when certain people are just “gift giving people”) and managing the a less-stuff-oriented home, like we desire to. My parents have started giving us a season pass (like for a zoo or aquarium…) for Christmas and that has been great. But I would love to hear any other tips or ideas you or others may have.

Pixie: Thanks for stopping by! I have loved following your journey.

Jenny: Chacos…I just had mine resoled 2 summers ago. I’ve had them for about 5 years now. Next year I might get new webbing. I LOVE that they have that option…at only a third of the price of new ones.

Willow: So far we have only stayed at our family’s homes and campgrounds, so we have not given it much thought. When we are traveling, we aren’t planning on staying at our host’s homes more than a couple of nights. I can’t imagine our RV would use any more power/water than if we were staying in their home as a guest for the weekend. It would actually use LESS when you do the comparison of a traditional shower or toilet, etc. and also traditional lights/power needs.

Rene: Yes…veggie oil is MUCH easier to find than biodiesel. There are 7 billion gallons of waste veggie oil produced yearly…and only 3.5 billion is being used. That’s a lot of grease for the taking! It does take a bit more planning when you’re fueling on the road…you can’t just pull into a gas station and fill ‘er up But not paying for gas is worth it!

Gotta say that if you had an inverter, you’d definitely see what a huge difference it makes. Check out our specs page. We only have to run our uperquiet / supersmall generator about 20 minutes every other day or so, depending on how much work we did. It’s amazing. Wish it was a diesel one, but the diesel ones are not only huge, but expensive.

Your veggie oil searches are so successful, I am anxious to see how we can apply it to our own situation. Finding biodiesel is probably more of a challenge than grease!