Travel nursing without a home + when to start getting rid of things before packing?..

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I had to open this thread since I have typed pretty much everything I could to find this kind of info on allnurses and on google and haven't found anything. Thank you and sorry.

I am thinking of travel nursing but I don't have a home. I rent an apartment currently, but once the year's contract is over I don't want to renew it and pay the rent ($1000/month) when I will not even be living here. Will that be a problem? Has anyone else been in my situation of not having a 'home to go back to' while travel nursing?

I have been researching a lot and the only thing remotely close to this was an article written by an RN who mentioned taking a week off between assignments and traveling in her car from the old to the new assignment without having to go home. Any information/ideas will be helpful.

One more question...when should I consider selling my furniture? Is there enough time after the job offer to set aside for selling furniture or will I be rushing myself and freaking out if I waited that long?

Thanks in advance for anyone taking the time to read this post!

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Specializes in Paramedic,ER, House Supervisor, OR, CVOR.

For my very first assignment in 1989 I sold everything and headed from Iowa to California. I had rented an appartment during nursing school and really didn't have that much furnature. A relative was having an estate sale and I was able to sell my couch and a few other things there. I loaded everything else I had into my Toyota Celica and what didn't fit stayed for several years in my parents attic. I rent a room and a garage space at my parents home and storage unit. I have a home to declare and a place to go when I take time off. I traveled for 12 years took about 7 years off and am back to traveling. Now I take my home with me. A 43 ft. toyhauler. If you have a plan with a time table and it fits with your job offer great. I have been hearing that assignments are only being offered to Nurses who have a current license in the state of the job offer. Hospitals seem to want to wait till the last minute now and want nurses to drop everything and just run to do their bidding. We will see how that works out for them.

Rod

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have you considered the convinience of renting furniture for each assignment? Takes away the hustle of moving stuff in and out or freaking out at the end coz you haven't found someone to buy your furniture and you have to move out tomorrow. I know cort furniture usually has some good stuff. Good luck

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Thanks Rob for that informative message! :) That actually helped a lot. It seems as though right now I may not be able to do the state to state hopping that I was hoping for... Definitely good to know!

Alibaba I'll check out cort thanks! As for renting out furniture for each assignment....well right now I am planning on how to get to my FIRST assignment :) Thanks for bringing this up though because I was under the impression that the furniture was provided!

Well I rather get all the information from people who have experienced this than to get a rude awakening!

Once again, thanks!

Any more advice is welcome please and thank you!

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Specializes in OB.

You may want to check with Travel Tax on exactly what constitutes a tax home for IRS purposes so that you won't end up with a huge tax liability for items such as housing and per diem that are only "tax free" if you have a legal tax home.

He's a tax guy who specializes in travel professionals and does come on here and other sites to answer general questions. You should be able to look his website up if you google traveltax.

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You may want to check with Travel Tax on exactly what constitutes a tax home for IRS purposes so that you won't end up with a huge tax liability for items such as housing and per diem that are only "tax free" if you have a legal tax home.

He's a tax guy who specializes in travel professionals and does come on here and other sites to answer general questions. You should be able to look his website up if you google traveltax.

Yes, I was going to comment on that, too. If you don't have a permanent "tax home," you're not "travelling" for tax purposes, you're just moving around a lot. :)

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