Well, I have hit the 100 day mark of life on the road. Just over three months ago, I hastily and painfully moved almost everything from my apartment in Seattle into a storage unit and just threw up my shoulders in a “fuck it” shrug. I wasn’t giving up so to speak, but rather deciding that I wanted to make the most of the little time I had on this goofy ass planet. I moved into my Subaru Outback with two broken ribs, no money, and no plans.
A week later I found myself clearing out that same Subaru into a $50 motel room for a night in Portland, Oregon. My lifelong dream of buying a van was materializing. I had spent the better half of a week searching OfferUp, Craigslist, Facebook marketplace for rigs, while simultaneously trying to find a buyer for the Subaru. I was treading a tricky line; I needed the cash from the car to buy the van, and I needed the van to house the small percentage of my belongings that were with me on the road. I somehow made it work, and in less than 24 hours I cleared out the car, walked across the entire city of Portland, and bought a 1994 Chevrolet G20 from a college kid in cash. I sped back to the motel(really it was just a front for some unspecified operations I won’t get into), and shoved everything in the thing in a hurry to avoid a late check out fee. In retrospect; I probably could’ve taken my time a little bit.. I think the business had other things to worry about.
And here we are, somewhere between a quarter and a third of a year later. A year. Thats wild to me. I still feel like I just was in Seattle, I just had bought the van.. AND… I still have no idea what I’m doing. There’s a certain comfort that comes with discomfort for me, and while I’m sure a psychiatrist would love to pick apart the deeper causes of the functions of this brain of mine, I have settled on it. I’ve tried the “normal” life, tried “comfort” and.. well I’ve learned it’s just not right for me.
What I’ve learned from 100 days of van life
Honestly, I’m not sure if I’ve learned much 😂 I still feel fresh, and haven’t experienced much hardship that could be attributed to moving into the van. Or, rather, I have; but my mentality has changed a bit and I am trying to learn to more easily accept that these are just the facts of reality. I still have yet to experience winter, I still have yet to figure out power, water, appliances, etc. Hell, I haven’t even gotten a reliable heating source yet. Sure, there are a million things I miss about having a traditional home, but I know I’m much happier here.
Moisture is a MUCH bigger problem than cold
A lot of people’s first question about living in a van is, *”isn’t it cold?” Well, yes, it is. I mean, I have yet to spend a winter in Mark here, but it’s not my first rodeo sleeping in vehicles in cold places. You can get real cozy and real insulated real fast. A good sleeping bag will do wonders for you. Plenty of people just straight up don’t have heat, and are just fine. But moisture is the real problem.
I compare the two because I’ve found that the connection between them is not totally intuitive to people. Whenever the conversation of heat comes up, I usually end up saying I really would like to rig up a diesel heater before winter so I can dry things; and it seems to be kind of a head scratcher. When you have sopping wet shit in a van, there’s no hanging it to dry.. without a dry heat source that is. There’s no leaving it on a coat rack or in the bathroom.. you dont have those things. Where does it end up? With your other stuff. And what happens to that stuff? It gets wet. And what happens when you have wet stuff in a place that won’t have any sort of direct heat source for an extended periods of time? That stuff is ruined, the stuff underneath it is ruined, and after enough time, your van is ruined.
It took me only a couple days of just-above-freezing rain to learn my lesson. And then the impulse buy of an emergency propane heater to learn that lesson. Man, I’ve never been colder. And I’ve slept in heatless cars in negative 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Changing into dry clothes and getting into a dry bed felt life-saving.
Daily organization is key
In those above mentioned days, the only reason I was able to get myself warm again so quickly was from another lesson I’ve learned. The importance of organization. It took me awhile to figure out exactly where everything went and why. I’m still figuring it out, but it gets the job done for the meantime. Everything is together to a certain extent; so it’s important to keep up with making sure you move all your trash/recycling, dirty dishes, dirty clothes, etc. to their respective homes before things start getting hidden on you. Which will happen if you don’t make a habit out of it. Water bottles need to always be closed. Aluminum wounded soldiers, likewise; dump that shit out or finish it before you go to bed or as soon as you get up. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve moved the van with a half-finished seltzer in the back.. that tipping over can turn into an hour of cleaning.
Whenever you get the chance, empty out as much of that thing as possible. Find a nice quiet place to pull everything out of your rig and put it all back in clean and strategically. Every time I do this, things start to make more sense. You find things you thought you lost, you save yourself from future mildew, and you learn what needs to be accessible how and when. Every little thing is progress. Even things as simple as where you keep your paper towels lol
ALWAYS get it
Water, electricity, gas… all of it. You don’t always know where you’re gonna park- that perfect spot you’ve been at for a week could be occupied after a quick trip to the store. There’s nothing worse than realizing damn, I really should’ve stopped for gas. Even though you didn’t need it at the time. When it feels like you’re over doing it.. well, it only takes a couple times of not having water or power to realize you were wrong. For a long time, I thought I was ridiculous for accumulating emergency power bank after power bank, for making sure my 3 gallons of water was absolutely topped off before each night no matter how annoying it was to get. Well, I was wrong. It only takes a couple of days for all of that to run out.. and then it really, really sucks. I’ve been off work for almost two hours now, and I sit here charging my third power bank because I found out yesterday that one of my charging cords broke. And I almost missed the bus to work today because of it.
Showers too. Take that god damn shower every chance you get, even if you don’t need to. Seeking a shower sucks. I’m fortunate enough to be provided with a gym membership through my current workplace; and also have my own unique backup options.
Belongings are your enemy
Luckily, I have a storage unit. Unluckily, it’s about 4 hours from where I have been for the last few months.. but still. If you don’t have a storage unit- cut back as much as possible. It should kind of go without saying that clutter is your enemy. Learn every little nook and cranny of your vehicle- where you can hang things, where to string up paracord, where you can drill into the thing. I am somewhat of a hoarder by nature; so my approach to this one is kind of unique. I don’t stop myself from getting more shit that I will ultimately need, but I compromise with it. Okay, I want this for the van, so I will make a note that (this other thing) goes in my storage unit whenever I get back there.
LEARN
Unless you’ve got a bunch of money to spend, chances are whatever you buy is going to have some problems. If not immediately, eventually. You’re gonna want to force yourself to be a mechanic. And a carpenter. An electrician- you name it. I mean, aside from all the obvious advantages of these things, just getting your rig on a lift is gonna be uncomfortably more expensive than whatever you drove before. Shops don’t want to put some big monstrosity in their bays- or at least they’re gonna pretend like they don’t want to, so they can charge you more.
You might be able to find that perfect piece of furniture or storage rack while you’re searching around. But that’s likely gonna get in the way of whatever next you find. If you can figure out a way to access some space and some tools, it’s best to just design it yourself. I’m kind of being a hypocrite here- as I’ve been piecing things together just going off what I find. And it works! But, I also realized that this is home now, and it’s extremely important to make it exactly how I want.
Relax. Enjoy
There’s a million silly little things I could go on and on about. Where I’ve failed and what I’ve learned. For example; even though it sounds counter intuitive, having too much food is a problem. I pretty much eat day by day. At first it was always, “get this for emergencies. Get that. What about when you end up broken down in the middle of nowhere with nothing to eat”. Calm down. Sure, keep a day or twos worth of emergency eats.. but don’t stress about it. You typically know if you’re gonna be completely off the map for an extended period of time- so deal with it right before you head on that journey.
Living in a van is stressful as all hell. But there’s no benefit to giving into that stress. Learn to just take the situations as they come. Enjoy your time living this lifestyle- you NEVER know when it might come to an end. Things are never, ever going to be perfect or going 100% your way. And learn to just kind of embrace that. Laugh about it. Enjoy it. If you can’t enjoy being miserable a little bit; it’s probably not for you.
Which brings me to what I wanted to talk about when I started writing this post. I got REAL sidetracked there.. but it’s all entirely relevant. Comfort is so important to so many- and if that’s you, well, chances are you aren’t going to enjoy this way of life. I have met many people who just drastically underestimate how difficult it can really be- probably an unfortunate symptom of influencers posting their perfect #VANLIFE pseudo-lives on social media. Those same people often regret switching up their lives to go on the wonderful adventures they see on these pages.
But, for many of us, there’s a certain comedic catharsis to living like an absolute dirtbag. To being dirty and miserable every so often. To having to get fully dressed and walking half a mile to use the bathroom or wash your face. To forgetting to feed yourself for a day. To not knowing what time it is or where you are. To never having a permanent place to park. To instinctively plugging your shit in every time you see an outlet. To constantly wondering if your homes gonna be broken into or GONE when you’re rounding the corner where it comes into view.
There’s a comfort is all of this discomfort. Some of us are extremely uneasy with a stable life- it sounds weird, but it’s true! This is an amazing journey thats only getting started, and I look fondly back on all the mistakes I’ve made and laugh at myself for all the times I’ve thought about just getting an apartment. I’ll save that for when I meet someone, that wants that for the two of us. But this single, solo guy wants nothing to do with comfort, for now..