Happy Camper Wives Live Full-Time in a T@B Camper

If you think that downsizing into 200 square feet is a challenge, how about squeezing two people and two dogs into an 182 inch camper? After working 50+ hour weeks and commuting more than three hours a day in San Francisco, Jessi and Valerie of Happy Camper Wives had enough and decided to move their lives onto the road and into that tiny camper.

The T@B S has a wet bath and interior kitchen.

The married couple live full-time out of their 1,670 lb. Little Guy T@B S teardrop trailer (named “Ruby Rose”) and a 2001 Toyota Tacoma pickup truck. When they first met, they owned very few items, but a 1,300 square foot house and 900 square foot garage later and their belongings began to take over. Last January the women decided to sell everything and move to Alaska for a summer. Consequently, they fell in love with traveling and yearned to do it full time.

The women travel around the country with their two dogs.

“We were simply exhausted, making more money then we ever had, but still never felt like we were catching up on our ever increasing bills,” Jessi and Valerie say. “We decided living in San Francisco was not worth being this stressed. We realized we could live off of a lot less if we lived elsewhere so we chose Florida. We initially downsized from a three bedroom home to a 5X5 storage unit and went to Alaska for the summer. While in Alaska, we decided we liked traveling so much we wanted to do it full-time so we moved into a camper. Then, after living without our ‘very important things’ stowed away in a storage for six months we ended up donating almost all of once we came to retrieve the items.”

The compact living space is also a bedroom and office.

Jessi and Valerie chose a 2015 T@B S for its quality craftsmanship, its interior wet bath and dinette that converts into a king size bed. The T@B was also just tall enough for their 5 foot 10 inch frames. They turned it into a tiny home by recovering the dark dinette fabric, adding a water filter to the sink and fake cactus plants above the bed. If you are interested in the T@B S model, Jessi and Valerie probably have the best interior video about the tiny camper on YouTube—including some table dancing.

“We love our T@B S and think it was the best choice!,” the couple say. “It’s super cute and it offers a bathroom and kitchen area which makes it a functional home. It has huge windows and feels much larger than it actually is! The bed is king size which fits us very comfortably and the dining room comfortably fits four to six people. On the other hand, the biggest thing on our wish list is to have a space with both a living area and bedroom. Currently we have to convert the living room into the bed. Also, because it’s so lightweight, it doesn’t have the nice wood features that we love in tiny homes. Also, we’d love a bath.”

To brighten up the interior, the wives re-covered the original fabric.

The women have taken their little home to various locations including Zion National Park, Glacier National Park and Manitou Springs, Colorado. They also plan to head to Key West, Boston and Acadia National Park in Maine. While on the road Jessi works remotely as a web designer and Valerie runs the Happy Camper Wives blog.

Tiny cabinets hold clothes; the women are lucky to fit into each other’s shirts and pants.

“Our future plans for income could be anything from starting a tiny house village to blogging full-time, we’re not really sure but we want to see where the world takes us. Maybe we could camp in Europe or Mexico or South America…we feel like the world is an exciting adventure we want to explore. One thing we do know is we love this lifestyle!”

Photos courtesy of Happy Camper Wives

By Christina Nellemann for the [Tiny House Blog]