5 Things to Know About Van Life Before You Get Started
Whether you are a seasoned traveler or new to life on the road, we all make mistakes. I'm sharing five common van life mistakes that I wish I had known to avoid when I was starting my life on the road.
Here are things to know about van life that I wish I had known before I started.
Table of contents
Tip 1 Taking on too much stuff
I love to plan. But you would have thought I was planning for an apocalypse! I was trying to cover all my bases and have everything I thought I would need.I tried to pack way too much stuff into a tiny space. I didn’t need to go overboard. If you are not sure where to start, I’d suggest making a list of things that fall into six main categories.
Tip 2 Not planning ahead for where you’ll sleep
Decision burn-out happens fairly fast in van life. Unless you are planning to stay in one place for an extended period of time, it’s good to have options for where you’ll sleep. It will depend on your resources and budget. Have several options for any given area. I like to have one or two main options and several backups for each area.
Tip 3 Not measuring your van for permanent additions
Another mistake is not knowing the measurements of your van’s layout before purchasing an item you need to install. It can be tricky. I suggest sitting in your van before you make a permanent cut or purchase. Try out a few things before doing anything permanent.
When I started out, I decided to change my bed to allow more guests to come into my van for a meal, play games, or share a conversation. I totally reworked my layout to accommodate certain things and make it conducive to activities I wanted to enjoy inside of my van.
Tip 4 Forgetting that you need to secure your items when driving
You are basically in an earthquake on wheels every time you drive down a road. Items shake, rattle, and roll when you drive and you have to think about that when you secure your items.
You need to stabilize things in case you make any sudden stops, go down steep hills, or bumpy roads so nothing slides forward. I learned glass items are not something I want in the van because they break too easily.
Tip 5 Start with the basics and alternatives for creature comforts
This is a tiny home on wheels so you need everything here as you’d need in a regular-sized household. But it’s not always feasible to have all the creature comforts you’d have in a traditional home.
This is tricky because as I mentioned in tip 1, you can’t have too much stuff.
You can do without a flush toilet, touch faucet, or even running water. You can adapt. So you have to think about the essentials that will help you live comfortably. It may look different for your home on wheels than it would for a traditional home.
For example, I love coffee. At home, I’d have electricity to plug in a coffee maker. In a tiny space, I have to think about options that will get me what I love–like coffee–but maybe not from a regular coffee maker.
I suggest starting with the bare minimum and building on that. That way you won’t be sifting and sorting through all these extraneous things and wondering why you brought them in the first place.
Start with basic utensils, basic pots, and pans. If you love to cook, you may want more cookware and have more bare essentials in other areas to accommodate everything in the tiny space.
I learned I don’t like having bulk items in my van. It sounded great at first to stock up on things I needed. I quickly learned that it’s just as easy to get what I need when I need it. Batteries may be the only thing I stock up on.
Things to know about van life
I hope this has helped you. These are things I wished someone would have told me to avoid when I started out. If you would like to share any other basic mistakes or things to know about van life and what to avoid, please share in the comments so we can all learn from each other.
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