Do you think you could become a vanlifer ? Where you live in a camper van

[LovelyYellowLabrador]

The ideal of an alternative lifestyle really appeals to be

spending life traveling around
started following some of these van lifers on you tube
seems such a nice laugh

We've got a vdub, it's fab, total freedom to pack up and go but you need money ie a job 😁
We use ours all the time but I couldn't live in it full time.
A week of weeing in a bucket and looking for somewhere half decent to have a poo and van life soon loses its appeal 😂

I'm seriously considering it. Completely unable to find another rental now. Thinking of converting a Luton van or a horsebox. Not ideal but would save on rent.
Insurance isn't as much as you'd think. Would love to have a van for weekends and a house as a base.

While I see the appeal, I could not do it. Well, maybe, if I could get my ENTIRE book collection (about 1200 books) in ebook form. And if the cat agreed.

I might not have a choice next year when I lose all my tax credits and maintenance.

Ideally I will keep my flat so I have a base, but that may not be possible. Thing is, when you ask in here you get a lot of replies from people who don’t actually know anything. For example they say with absolute certainty that there’s nowhere free to park but the Brit Stops book has a list of farm shop and pub car parks that you can park in (for one night).

I actually think that if you get a nice conversion you could be warmer than many people will be next winter in a house. You can get vans with showers and toilets and you join a gym. I think if you didn’t have a dog you could spend your evenings at the gym and have a lovely lifestyle. I hate driving long distances and I love the idea of being able to visit places that I’d never normally visit because I could take a week to get there.

This sounds like a dream🙂

For example they say with absolute certainty that there’s nowhere free to park but the Brit Stops book has a list of farm shop and pub car parks that you can park in (for one night).

Just be careful with this. I've wasted fuel driving to a few "free" places to be told that they've changed their minds and no longer allow it or there's a huge charge.

Brit stops are great but it definitely pays to call before you set off..

I’ve also found most places with big enough car parks will let you stay if you eat/shop/drink there, a polite phone call can work wonders

@avamiah my exILs had one, and there is an older couple with one a few doors down from me.

A few of my husbands family are van-lifer's, and are still able to work, and are definitely not funded by the Bank of Mum and Dad!

There are free public showers in all the main motorway service stations that I have visited, and space for vehicles of all sizes to park.

The trick to van-living is meticulous planning, working out what you can not live without, and what you can.

I spent 12 months touring Europe in a converted Mercedes van. (Took 12 months leave of absence from work - couldn't have worked while doing it) For the most part it was great. If you have toilet, shower etc etc, there's not a lot of difference from living in a studio flat. You do need a bike or something cos you don't want to have to take the van every time you need to go for milk. We met a lot of people who toured during the winter months and then during the summer had jobs looking after camp sites etc. I'd do it again

Nomadland is an amazing film, but that’s not the life for me. It would be very different in this country anyway, we aren’t big enough to be able to head south in the winter and find actual warm weather!

Also, one of my previous jobs involved planning policy for Gypsy and Traveller sites, and I can say with certainty that they definitely don’t have an easy life. There are lots of reasons for that, but it’s certainly not an easy dream. Doing it for a holiday - getting a van and spending a few weeks
or months travelling around - would be amazing, but not forever.

I think it would be fun as a single person, maybe OK with the right partner but absolute hell with kids.

I know people who have renovated standard white vans so that they can sleep and cook in them. They often go off for a night or two to the beach or the middle of nowhere but they don't live full time in them. I could probably do that knowing I'd be back in my home comforts in a day or two. But living full time on campsites, not having access to proper toilets and showers, having to collect water, huge fuel bills, lack of space etc doesn't appeal to me at all.

I have to laugh when you see these vanlifers making complex and messy meals. The effort that must go into making it and cleaning it all up just for that one insta snap of them eating their fancy eggs out the back of their van...is it really worth it?

Ah ok…thanks for that🙂. I will definitely call them first. That’s when I’ve saved up another 15k for my van conversion😫😆

I like Ame in a Van. She is kind of glamorous some of the time but mostly she’s stressing and running out of water.

When I was younger, I was a free spirit. I saw some amazing places, met some incredible people and had a great time. Back then you couldn’t work and travel so money was a problem, not progressing in my career was a problem and friends moving in was a problem. Also, my body and clothes were never as clean as I would have liked them to be.

These days life is more fluid. I see people living and travelling on canal boats, doing yoga in the sunshine and it looks great. I imagine though, if it’s cold and you don’t have much money, sitting in a van for hours on end would be very boring.

I'm planning a basic van build.

I could never be sold on the micro kitchens and teeny showers, I see it more as a portable office/bed and camping kitchen type situation.

A solar shower and a bivvy loo for the odd night, but no complicated plumbing or electronics.

But then I'd take the same approach with a house if my husband weren't a factor. Tiny space, minimal cleaning and bills.

I could do this, albeit not an actual van. I don't like the idea of the transforming furniture, and your bed becoming your sitting area, becoming your kitchen etc.

Instead, I would love to have a little Tiny House on wheels, basically a very small timber framed structure (so properly insulated for winter), on a chassis.
You can customise them, so you can have a proper kitchen with full sized appliances, and an actual bed in a sleeping loft. Plus I would like a small wood-burning stove in the corner for those cozy winter nights.
You can have mobile internet, so you could watch tv/movies on your laptop.
I have seen loads of videos on youtube of people in NZ and Canada living in them full time - some elderly people downsizing, some with young families. So it's not all young single people.

I like the fact that I could be more self sufficient - solar panels could provide energy for a few months of the year, gas powered shower and oven. You could collect rain water. I would happily live like that for a few years, maybe longer.
I have lived alone in tiny studio apartments and I got on fine, I often thought if they were better designed and I had a garden I would have been happy there longterm. I don't need much space really. Not everybody wants the big house with the big mortgage and the 2.4 children.

A good friend of mind lived in a caravan for 2 years while her and her partner were building their house, she said the only bad part was during the winter because it wasn't insulated. I used their composting toilet a few times, it was fine!

@Mangar are you still living the van life? I’m selling my small house to downsize to a small flat and looking to do the same.

I am, I have no plans to change how I live for a very long time.
It can be a bit scary and exciting when you think about what it entails but lots of research and a general idea of where you’d like to visit go a very long way.
The cost of living at the moment is mental and my very minimal costs mean I can help my daughter out too

I had two weeks in a van as a holiday in the summer. Even in lovely weather it is hard work! Constantly shuffling things around to make space! It's fun but not really the relaxing life it's meant to be..

We've got a motorhome with heating, shower, toilets all mod cons, I can manage it for about 2 weeks before I get seriously pissed off. We've been to Scotland in the winter and spent most of it 'off grid', so the weather it cold isn't an issue, but it's the lack of space that really winds me up after a few weeks, everything is so small and you have to shuffle round all the time, constantly bumping into things, squeezing into the shower, sitting on the loo sideways, squeezing past my dh the get to a cupboard, playing tetris in the fridge and oven. Arghhh just thinking about it sends my blood pressure up

Really appreciate your reply, this has been my plan for a good five years now, I’m now self sufficient re income as I work for myself (left a well paid corporate job to do so) and daughter has left for Uni, I just need a small bricks and mortar for when she is home.

I’m very hardy, I was in the streets briefly in my 20s so not afraid of the points others argue.

It feels as though it’s been a long time and lots of planning to get here! I’m looking forward to getting back to my true self.

Not full time. I could do a month or two at a time. I think the lack of washing machine would kill it for me. (Could manage washing pants in a small portable washing machine but not the bigger stuff)

It’s literally the best thing I’ve done for myself for a very long time. Started off with the other half but now have my own van. There’s nothing quite like choosing your work location each day or sitting watching the sunrise over a beach/mountain/lake knowing that it’s not just a holiday.
Costs are really low, even with campsite fees every now and again. I love the leave no trace thing and carry a litter picker with me. Things are just so much simpler ❤️
I hope it all goes smoothly and you can find yourself again

But you'd still have to earn a living and there must only be so many ways to do that from the back of a converted Transit van, in the middle of February while it's been pissing down with rain for three weeks !.