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

I would love it if I was single!

Not with DH and DC!

Amazing thank you 🙏 I visit beaches and mountains whenever I can and feel so trapped when I have to return to the house, you have summed up what I hope to achieve. I’m quite handy with repairs and maintenance, at times having to be creative with it … I’ve been looking at the 1000 huts movement with interest for the future.

I’m now single with an adult child, it’s a bit of a now or never time, I’ve been planning it for so long it’s ridiculous 😁

I know I couldn't. I would absolutely hate it. I need my space. I need room away from DH and DC. I'm not at all materialistic but I do love books and they take up space. And I do love a comfortable bed and a deep bath.

I admire people who can life that lightly but I couldn't.

@RoseBucket

Go for it!

I love camping in a tent. I think I would be much happier living outdoors...but I would struggle with the mud in the winter.

If I end up alone, it'll be a canal boat or a van for me.

Absolutely not. Pokey and cold. Plus they are the bane of my life living in Cumbria - always illegally parking overnight in laybys and blocking roads.

@WhichBitchIsWhich
Very pithily said

I wouldn't even do it for a weekend.

I'm confused as to why they would need to. I follow some "van lifer" on YouTube and I love watching their videos I don't need to watch 'real' travellers . I like the Instagramable videos. I know their is obviously some non Instagram able things they don't film which are probably not great part of lifestyle but so what

Thank u for your replies here I've enjoyed reading them 💗 it's not something I think I'll be able to do but love listening to others doing it

Me too :) I know a couple of people who've done it though and as far as I know, loved it (as far as you can tell from the glossy Insta feeds).

cold, condensation.
In NomadLand they are mostly part-timers. They live in brick/solid houses 4-5m/year.

DH wants to travel once we are retired but I’m not so keen. I prefer a proper bathroom! It’s lovely having the freedom to explore and park up in places that welcome campervans ( not UK) such as France where many villages and small towns provide a space or two ( with minimal charge) for stopping overnight, to encourage visitors to their shops and cafes. We have a small elderly motor home/ camper . DH worked on it to upgrade it. It’s rather unique. We have a disabled young adult son who lives with us- so we can take a bit of home with us for him. DH went off on his own some years ago ( he can work from his laptop) and travelled around Europe for a couple of months and ds and I joined him for the summer holiday.- exploring northern Scandinavia I loved it but I was glad to get home. Some of the places we stopped were so beautiful and remote. Our van was small enough for the ferries. A bigger motor home might be easier to live in. Some small town car parks in the UK allow overnight parking for smaller motor homes ( usually a maximum of 1 or 2 nights only) but the charges can be quite high even without any facilities.

Sounds like you have cause and effect mixed up. Don’t you think she went to live in her car because she was already mentally ill? It’s not a mainstream choice is it?

I have a motor home and have had some fabulous trips in it. Sometimes we fantasise about living in it when we are older but I only have to be on toilet emptying duties to realise its not for me!😆
That said we might live in it for a year when the kids have left so we can rent the house out and make a bit of money to retire on.

I could do it but I'm not sure about forever. I'd probably need a tiny house somewhere just to touch base. I do already have a campervan and always have had some sort of mobile home for holidays. I get itchy feet and am very nomadic. If I have to stay in the same place for a while I get grumpy so I love nothing more than getting away even for one night. It's probably reasonable to expect that would work both ways and after months of living nomadically I'd get a bit fed up and need to rest up in one place for a while (before heading off again).

This was my absolute dream but unfortunately a change in health knocked that dream on the head.

Ugh, no. No proper bathroom, no space (in any direction!), bloody cold in the winter, too hot in the summer, the condensation… I could go on and on 😂 we did a few months in NZ before DC and it was great fun in a lot of ways, but knowing we had a house lined up kept us going sometimes!

Plus that was summertime, so limited days where it was rainy and miserable but they seem ENDLESS when you’re in a metal box 😂 the days we could just go and surf and hike and ride and all that were much better days.
altho you can’t easily dry anything in a van… another annoyance!

We camp but the lack of bathroom and everything being damp gets to me.

No. I wouldn’t even do a camper van holiday as I couldn’t think of anything worse.

We lived full time in a van for almost two years. However, when I got pregnant we decided to buy a house.

I do miss living in a van, but it's hard work compared to in a house, especially in the middle of winter and it's freezing outside. You also get very little privacy (assuming you are with a partner) and it isn't necessarily any cheaper when you take into ground rent, electricity, gas, petrol etc...

Just remember the videos you are watching are very romanticised, they aren't gunna show the rougher bits of it like emptying and cleaning out toilets once a day 💀