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She Runs a Hat Business From Her RV!


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Meet Brooke: She has a doctorate in physical therapy, but ultimately found herself longing to spend more time with her kids. That’s when she got into crocheting hats. A hobby soon became a successful business, and now she and her family travel around the country spreading the word about her amazing bobble hats, running her business, homeschooling and exploring the US.

So basically she’s amazing! Her husband, Jeff, is the director of sales for her business, so her amazing hat-crafting is enough to support the family of 5 — and they are completely debt-free, which is even cooler.

They didn’t do a ton of renovations to their brand new Grand Design 3740BH, but they have made it a home (and business!) worth admiring. Read our Q&A with Brooke at the end of the post, and buy one of her hats here!

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Crocheting Hats and Making a Living! Amazing Entrepreneur

This is no small undertaking! Look at all those pom pom hats!

Her three kiddos in those precious hats.

Her office on the road is all in this cabinet!

Love the wall art. Great reminder for us all.

This is super cute!

Here’s the layout of the RV they purchased.

3740BH_0

Images via Grand Designs RV

Q&A with Brooke on Running a Business from her RV


What are your name(s)?

Brooke, Jeff, & kids: Hayden, Carson, Kendall

How many people (and animals) are living in your RV?

2 adults, 3 kids and Rey (yellow lab)

How long have you lived tiny?

18 months

What do you do for work? Or do you travel full-time?

We travel full time, I own my own hat brand, b.e.happe & my husband is a director of sales.

What are you hoping to get out of living tiny?

Spend more time together, make memories to last a lifetime, see the country and grow my hat brand.

What inspired you to choose an RV (rather than say a tiny house or a bus)?

We had a travel trailer and camped on the weekends when we owned a house so we were familiar with RV’s.

How did you acquire your RV? Did you do a lot of renovations?

We purchased our Grand Design 3740BH new. We painted the interior and made some modifications to fit our family but no major renovations.

What are bills/utilities like compared to before?

We worked very hard after my husband got his masters & my doctorate in physical therapy to pay off our debt. Once we sold our house we were debt free. Our bills are much less now than previously.

How did you find a place to “park” your home? Or do you travel?

We love a good mix between RV resorts with amenities and boondocking. Typically my husband travels during the week-outside of the pandemic so we plan our travel routes via his work, my business and places we want to see.

Before going tiny, what was life like?

Busy and overwhelming. A large home to keep up with and day to day tasks with suburban living.

Is there anything from your old life that you miss?

I miss the familiarity of the areas that we lived in as far as knowing where things are in stores and what restaurants were good. But exploring new things and trying new restaurants is an amazing aspect of this lifestyle also!

What benefits are you experiencing after going tiny?

So many things! The sibling bond with my children, the bond of our family, memories to last a lifetime, new friendships that would have never happened if we didn’t travel, exposure to alternative ideas/thoughts and way of life. There are so many benefits that we have experienced and continue to notice with this lifestyle.

What about some challenges?

As mentioned, grocery shopping can take a bit longer when going to new places. Also saying ‘see you later’ to friends that you meet on the road is difficult.

What makes your tiny home special?

It’s simple, filled with things that are being used daily and that have a meaning to us.

What is your favorite part of your tiny home?

The main living space is my favorite part of the home because we can all be together, its where my children learn from homeschool, it is where we cook nutritious meals for our family and the sign hanging in our living room- In a world where you can be anything, be kind- reminds us of our why every single day.

What helpful advice would you give to others interested in going tiny?

I would recommend renting an RV for an extended trip. Get an idea on the day to day tasks for the RV, see what interior features you like, how you think you want to travel, etc. There certainly are less glamorous aspects to this lifestyle like the tanks, water limitations, etc, but the benefits outweigh those potential challenges anyday.

Learn More:

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Our big thanks to Brooke for sharing! 🙏

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Natalie C. McKee

Natalie C. McKee is a contributor for Tiny House Talk and the Tiny House Newsletter. She's a wife, and mama of three little kids. She and her family are homesteaders with sheep, goats, chickens, ducks and quail on their happy little acre.

Latest posts by Natalie C. McKee (see all)

{ 8 comments… add one }
  • Linda Baker
    January 21, 2021, 4:51 pm

    I see only one dresser in the bunkroom for the kids and no toys around in the pictures – where is your storage for these things and is it a problem having only 1 bathroom ( upstairs in your bedroom area) with 5 people, 3 of them little – do you have your own laundry facilities (I see there is a hook up) – just seems storage overall is quite small in this unit – do you use your outdoor cooking area a lot and is there more than the griddle shown?
    You seem to have it all worked out as far as locations and your business – how is home schooling with 3 little ones — as a former child care provider I always said I would rather watch 3 than 1 because they could entertain each other – do you find that to be the case?

    • Comet
      January 21, 2021, 10:04 pm

      NOT the OP!!
      The floor plan of the RV shows a full bath next to the master bedroom AND a half bath with both interior and exterior access in the rear bunk house bed room. A lot of storage in RV’s is actually overhead against the outside walls, in short upper cabinets. Also underbed storage is common. In our older Class A (drive the whole unit, tow a small car) we have storage that is more than ample for 2 adults, and often travel with an extra adult, 2 teens, dogs and several bird cages. PS- ours is 36″, NO slides, and is a 1993, with solid hand built walnut interior thru out, Corian counters, real house size sinks and faucets. We have added a few storage items to make best use of space-we have a large deep cedar closet that has space on one side for a washer that was not ever installed, so we added an IKEA set of drawers that we built in and a matching shelf above. Lightens it up and keeps stuff sorted. I also added some smaller plastic drawer units on top of my bedside unit- I am handicapped and the *table* sits way too far down to be reachable without falling off the high bed!! I added the same to our kitchen eating counter and keep it in place with the blue poster putty, and we drilled thru the front corner of the drawers to be able to insert a dowel so they don’t open while traveling. We do try to make sure every item has several purposes! Collapsable items like extra food storage, collanders, buckets are worth their weight in gold. We use 2 folding TV trays for many things- I use it when I have stuff to do as the passenger, we use it for projects and food, take them outdoors for extra space, kid homework, bird cage spaces! Amazing what you can make work with comfort if you want to do this sort of stuff.

      • Natalie C. McKee
        January 22, 2021, 1:42 pm

        That’s all great to hear Comet!

  • Husabergchamp
    January 21, 2021, 5:52 pm

    Wonderful setup in the trailer and I love slide-outs. I always wonder what type of tow vehicles people use when they spend extended times in an RV trailer. A large vehicle that also acts as a storage unit such as a box van? I have a friend that travels the states but has a rented storage unit back in Wisconsin they can always come back to for anything they don’t need at the present but will in the future (such as a motorcycle they come back for in good weather). Or seasonal clothes or tools for hobbies or repairs??? Another friend has some land with garages both in Wisconsin and in Florida. Stores vehicles in both locations plus sports articles appropriate for that location (Kayaks, power boat, atv, fishing supplies, work shop, etc.) Snow birds.

    • Natalie C. McKee
      January 22, 2021, 1:44 pm

      Usually with fifth wheels people have a truck of some kind.

    • James D.
      January 22, 2021, 7:32 pm

      I don’t know their setup but you wouldn’t use a box truck with a 5th wheel/gooseneck, wrong type of hitch, tow vehicle needs to be able to dock below the front section of the trailer and connect the 5th wheel or gooseneck hitch… and you usually wouldn’t tow something this size and weight with a box truck as they’re usually limited to under 10,000 lbs but this has a 16,800 lbs GVWR and some larger models can exceed 20,000 lbs.

      There are 5th wheel/gooseneck hitch adapters, dollies, etc. but they’re mainly for working with smaller trailers and you lose most of the safety factor and towing advantage of a 5th wheel/gooseneck…

      Super Duty range pickup truck or similar class 3 or higher trucks specifically designed for this type of towing, or a semi rig would be your usual choices. Though, there are delivery services that you can hire instead of owning the tow vehicle yourself and they’ll handle a daily driver too, or you can rent the tow vehicle as another alternative.

  • Single mom of three in bus rv
    January 22, 2021, 2:39 pm

    I do same thing three years now as single mom doing a firewood business to be home with my 3 middle aged boys and we plan on moving into a 45 ft sail boat this year and sailing away soon. I bought an acre in ozarks and we did off grid for awhile and now we travel for fun

    • Natalie C. McKee
      January 25, 2021, 1:38 pm

      Oh that’s amazing! I am glad you get to travel.

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