Top Nomad Hacks From the People Living Their Best Van Life
You'll be learning from some nomad hacks from people living their best van life. I travel to events and ask fellow nomads their opinions about things related to van life.
One of the things that I loved to hear about was van life hacks when I was starting. Let's go see what others have to say.
Marsha, with Mellow Nomadic Adventures, shares her van life hack: the hack I have is I use a travel bar where people can hang clothes.
You can see a couple of hangers here. I have some clothes hung there, but I hang other things on here, hats, and I just have it on an existing clothes hanger hook. Then I have the other end, where little hooks are up there.
That's just how it hangs, and it gives me a little bit of an extra storage level to hang things that I don't use all the time but want to have access to close by.
My name is Bunny, and my van life hack is to take things out of boxes.
It seems simple, but you'd be surprised how much room a box takes up when storing things like food.
So, for example, pasta would be in a large box, and I would have to somehow wedge it in here. But with this bag, I can take the same serving size and fold it up, and it takes up a much more limited and malleable space in my van.
Hey, my name is Brandon, and my favorite modification that I have is this fantastic little device right here.
So, I work full time from the road. This is the Pepwave Max BR1 Pro. This handles all of my connectivity. There are dual SIM slots on here for managing your cellular connectivity.
This also connects to the Starlink satellite that's sitting outside. I have multiple cellular networks plus Starlink, but only one Wi-Fi access point to connect to, and I just let it manage everything.
My name's Brooke. The van hack I have is I usually have this blanket here.
So I've got a sheet on the bottom, blanket here, but I'll sleep on top of this blanket and have that over me.
Last night, when it was kind of cold, I just climbed onto this blanket. And it saves me storage. So then I don't have to fold so many blankets up and throw them under in storage.
My name's Riley. Very recently, I got rid of my front passenger seat, and it has been a life changer because I have turned my back seats into a living room setup.
Having all this space is amazing. When I turn it into bed mode, I put this down here, and I put the back seat down, and I have a tri-fold mattress that just folds on top of these boxes.
When I'm in living room mode, I move them back here, and then I sit here, and it has all this space.
Hi, I'm Angie, and this is a 2018 Hyundai Santa Fe.
I call it my beach cottage on wheels. I don't sew, and I see many crafty people like that, but that's not me. I can decorate, but I can't sew. So, the number one obstacle I had to overcome was what I would sleep on.
The measurements of an SUV are the same length as a couch. So, I use three couch cushions. It's very comfy. It's just like sleeping on a couch.
My name's Greg. My biggest van life hack is a box van, so it's a little bigger than your typical van, but it would also work in a van if we bought these cabinets from Ikea.
They're 35 bucks a piece, and this is one cabinet here. You can't tell that closely, but this one is cut down narrower. So you can cut it, and you can see the edge here.
I haven't finished this, but you can see that you can cut them to fit the size that you need. You just have to put them together with your screws instead of the hardware that they come with.
I'm Shanine. I use these over-the-door shelves and little things you find for bathrooms because they hang over your cabinets and are not on the floor.
The best thing to do in a van is just to get things up off the floor. It makes it seem so much roomier.
My name is Kai. One of my hacks that I use is a plant grow-light. You can get these at gardening stores or online, and it's to help plants grow.
It's good, with sufficient lighting, but they come in different colors: pink, red, and blue. So they're much more stealthy.
I can turn them up, and you cannot see from the outside. So, it still looks dark around the van on the outside, but it's perfectly lit up on the inside.
I'm Kimberly. I thought this would be ridiculous because it cost me $50 for this tiny piece of metal.
But if you have a big sliding heavy door and you're van-living in it, this thing must be open all the way, or if you want to prop it and you're on a hill, it won't typically stay. So then you're either shut or open.
It just locks into this little tiny piece of metal, super easy. It's so amazing because now, when I want to open my door, it stops right there. Even on a hill, I can have more closed space so nobody can see what I'm doing there.
My name is Michael Peters. My hack that I have, I call this the hedonist's vent.
So, in the winter, when it's cold, I can pop this off and put it under my blanket. There's this one, and then this other one is a vent. In the winter, I just turn the furnace on and stick that under and get nice and cozy.
I'm Christine. One of my best van life hacks is Planet Fitness. It is like a game changer as far as showers go because they're everywhere.
Another van life hack, but it's not for everybody. If you join the military, you get a lot of discounts, and you get free national park passes and stuff like that. So that's been a helpful hack for me.
I'm Charles. As far as a hack goes for me when we left, we thought we took just the bare minimum stuff, and we brought way too much.
In a van, you always re-set things from the bed to the driver's seat, to the bathroom, to wherever. Take less. No one will care if you wear the same shirt twice a week. I promise.
My hack is gel pads.
These have been some of the best hacks for van life because if you don't have these gels, things just don't stick, and these last for a long time.
Nomad hacks
I hope hearing nomad hacks from others living the van life was useful. What are your best van life hacks? Share in the comments below.
Next, check out my 5 Van Life Organization Ideas That Help Save Space.
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