caseyc
Well-known member
I am now entering my 6 month mark doing the full time van thing. Hard to believe. For all of you contemplating doing this yourself, it's possible. Took me 2 years before I finally took the plunge.
The hardest part is regularly moving to another parking spot either every day or every two days. I don't overstay my welcome at any one spot for long, that's how I avoid getting those warning notices plastered on my windshield like I see on other vehicles.
Yes, it's a P.I.T.A. to constantly move to another parking spot, but fortunately I've now gotten it down to a near rhythm by alternating at 3 different locations, all within a several block radius. I keep careful track of street cleaning schedules by writing down my parking spot on my smartphone calendar (and setting alarms) so I don't inadvertently get costly parking tickets. Again, it's a pain, but I figure it's either do this or pay monthly rent!
By far, my biggest pet peeve is the heat. The occasional warm days are annoying as I find it hard to sleep in the heat. Even though I'm in a relatively cool area near the coast, my van still gets up to 90F plus degrees if it's been sitting in the sun all day during the summer months. That's why I need to open the rear bay windows when I get off work to cool off the van interior for a few hours in time for bed. I will check the thermometer which might read 90F degrees around 4pm, but will go down to 70F around 9pm after opening the windows and outside air gets cooler in the evening. I'm constantly monitoring the daily temperature so I don't come back to my van and find it at 102F, which I've encountered more than once.
For the most part I'm able to sleep pretty well at night. I park at a relatively quiet, safe and dark-ish location, so that helps. Sometimes I will toss and turn and wake up a few times in the middle of the night from a bad night sleep. But then I remind myself that I've had plenty of lousy sleepless nights when I had my apartment in the past, so there's not much of a difference.
It's only been recently that I sometimes stay at my GF's place on the weekends. I find it strange to go from sleeping in her apartment bedroom on the weekends and transitioning back to my van bed during the weekdays. It usually takes me awhile to "re-aquaint" myself back to the van life, haha. Other times my GF will stay with me in my van. I'm happy to have her with me in my van. But sometimes I've noticed that when we're together in the van too long we get on each other's nerves. That's probably due to being in too close proximity to each other in such a small environment. But heck, I've had the same problem living with her in an apartment in the past too, so not much difference there either, haha!
I recently upgraded my gym membership so that I now have more choices for taking showers at various locations. I was starting to feel self-conscious about going to the same gym location for showers. Now I mix it up by going to 3 different gyms so that nobody recognizes me as being a regular. I always sometimes just take showers at my GF's place. One thing I've learned to do is to take showers in the evenings during the ideal time when the sun is down and is no longer warm/hot outside. Otherwise if I take a shower too early during the day (say around 4pm), I'll just get sweaty again in a couple hours if it's hot outside, so that's a waste of time. I used to take showers evenings and mornings every day when I was living in an apartment, but nowadays I simply take a shower only in the evenings a couple hours before going to bed. I also do quick bird-baths in restrooms once or twice a day in between showers, so that helps too.
I like summer time, just as long as it doesn't get hot. I think it's easier for me to do the van thing during the spring and summer months versus winter time. Fortunately the temps usually stay above 40F in my area even during winter months. For me, 40F is already cold enough, so I can't imagine those of you in freezing temps in the East Coast. Still, I'm not looking forward to winter with its cold rainy days and no sunlight after 5pm. Rather depressing. I'll deal with it when the time comes.
One thing I noticed doing the urban van dwelling thing is that I need very little power. The other thing I noticed is that I don't use any of my cooking equipment. I pretty much only need to power my smartphones, a tablet, small fan, and a portable small TV. I have a lot more power hungry devices, but I don't use them hardly. I don't use my larger power hungry flat screen TV. Nor do I play games on my Sony PS3. Nor do I even use my laptops nowadays. Just don't. Before I did the van thing, I bought a bunch of cooking equipment thinking I will do some cooking. To date, I've done zero cooking. I simply eat out. Or my GF cooks at her place.
One enjoyable thing I've been doing most weekends is to drive 40 minutes North or South to other cities to hang out all weekend. It's almost like a mini vacation to get away from my usual environment. I feel a bit refreshed when I come back "home" after being in a different town all weekend. It's almost amazing that I can be in an entirely different environment in only 30 to 40 minutes drive from my normal home location. Plus when I'm in a different location I feel more at ease. I still practice stealth at the different weekend locations, but I'm less concerned since those are not my home location. Hard to explain. Suffice to say, I like getting out on the weekends to different environments, and doing the van thing makes it easy to do so. I jokingly say to my girlfriend, "like my summer home location?" whether it's a different city or a campsite, etc.
Anyway, thought I'd give another update on how I've been doing. Still surviving. Doing okay actually.
The hardest part is regularly moving to another parking spot either every day or every two days. I don't overstay my welcome at any one spot for long, that's how I avoid getting those warning notices plastered on my windshield like I see on other vehicles.
Yes, it's a P.I.T.A. to constantly move to another parking spot, but fortunately I've now gotten it down to a near rhythm by alternating at 3 different locations, all within a several block radius. I keep careful track of street cleaning schedules by writing down my parking spot on my smartphone calendar (and setting alarms) so I don't inadvertently get costly parking tickets. Again, it's a pain, but I figure it's either do this or pay monthly rent!
By far, my biggest pet peeve is the heat. The occasional warm days are annoying as I find it hard to sleep in the heat. Even though I'm in a relatively cool area near the coast, my van still gets up to 90F plus degrees if it's been sitting in the sun all day during the summer months. That's why I need to open the rear bay windows when I get off work to cool off the van interior for a few hours in time for bed. I will check the thermometer which might read 90F degrees around 4pm, but will go down to 70F around 9pm after opening the windows and outside air gets cooler in the evening. I'm constantly monitoring the daily temperature so I don't come back to my van and find it at 102F, which I've encountered more than once.
For the most part I'm able to sleep pretty well at night. I park at a relatively quiet, safe and dark-ish location, so that helps. Sometimes I will toss and turn and wake up a few times in the middle of the night from a bad night sleep. But then I remind myself that I've had plenty of lousy sleepless nights when I had my apartment in the past, so there's not much of a difference.
It's only been recently that I sometimes stay at my GF's place on the weekends. I find it strange to go from sleeping in her apartment bedroom on the weekends and transitioning back to my van bed during the weekdays. It usually takes me awhile to "re-aquaint" myself back to the van life, haha. Other times my GF will stay with me in my van. I'm happy to have her with me in my van. But sometimes I've noticed that when we're together in the van too long we get on each other's nerves. That's probably due to being in too close proximity to each other in such a small environment. But heck, I've had the same problem living with her in an apartment in the past too, so not much difference there either, haha!
I recently upgraded my gym membership so that I now have more choices for taking showers at various locations. I was starting to feel self-conscious about going to the same gym location for showers. Now I mix it up by going to 3 different gyms so that nobody recognizes me as being a regular. I always sometimes just take showers at my GF's place. One thing I've learned to do is to take showers in the evenings during the ideal time when the sun is down and is no longer warm/hot outside. Otherwise if I take a shower too early during the day (say around 4pm), I'll just get sweaty again in a couple hours if it's hot outside, so that's a waste of time. I used to take showers evenings and mornings every day when I was living in an apartment, but nowadays I simply take a shower only in the evenings a couple hours before going to bed. I also do quick bird-baths in restrooms once or twice a day in between showers, so that helps too.
I like summer time, just as long as it doesn't get hot. I think it's easier for me to do the van thing during the spring and summer months versus winter time. Fortunately the temps usually stay above 40F in my area even during winter months. For me, 40F is already cold enough, so I can't imagine those of you in freezing temps in the East Coast. Still, I'm not looking forward to winter with its cold rainy days and no sunlight after 5pm. Rather depressing. I'll deal with it when the time comes.
One thing I noticed doing the urban van dwelling thing is that I need very little power. The other thing I noticed is that I don't use any of my cooking equipment. I pretty much only need to power my smartphones, a tablet, small fan, and a portable small TV. I have a lot more power hungry devices, but I don't use them hardly. I don't use my larger power hungry flat screen TV. Nor do I play games on my Sony PS3. Nor do I even use my laptops nowadays. Just don't. Before I did the van thing, I bought a bunch of cooking equipment thinking I will do some cooking. To date, I've done zero cooking. I simply eat out. Or my GF cooks at her place.
One enjoyable thing I've been doing most weekends is to drive 40 minutes North or South to other cities to hang out all weekend. It's almost like a mini vacation to get away from my usual environment. I feel a bit refreshed when I come back "home" after being in a different town all weekend. It's almost amazing that I can be in an entirely different environment in only 30 to 40 minutes drive from my normal home location. Plus when I'm in a different location I feel more at ease. I still practice stealth at the different weekend locations, but I'm less concerned since those are not my home location. Hard to explain. Suffice to say, I like getting out on the weekends to different environments, and doing the van thing makes it easy to do so. I jokingly say to my girlfriend, "like my summer home location?" whether it's a different city or a campsite, etc.
Anyway, thought I'd give another update on how I've been doing. Still surviving. Doing okay actually.
