This is the question on everyone’s mind. It was on mine too, and I needed solid answers before I was willing to jump in and do it.
Toilets
I don’t have a toilet in my van, although that is rarely a problem. Toilets are literally everywhere. Most stores have toilets. I have met some people that mentally can’t get over using a public toilet. If this is you, then you might have a problem with vanlife. A good 70 percent of toilets are in decent shape. Another 25 percent are passable but might need a little love before you do business. And about 5 percent of the time, the whole stall is just rekt and you need to find another. RANT/> I don’t understand why some people MUST piss all over the toilet seat. If this is you, you are a filthy animal. Reconsider your life choices. </RANT.
I’m not really interested in having water systems and tanks in my van. It’s just more weight and complication if you ask me. Given the way that I live, finding public toilets works just fine. It also might have something to do with me being giant and not fitting in an rv bathroom.
I often use the bathroom at stores or businesses where I am already shopping. If I can’t find one there, I will stop at a gas station or convenience store and grab something small while I use the bath room. If you are staying in an area that only has a couple bathrooms around, only put $5 worth of gas in at a time when you use the bathroom. This way, you at least have something that you can buy for sure. Gas stations and convenience stores don’t usually have the best prices or selections for things and it keeps you from buying that bag of Funyuns that you really didn’t want.
I see some people using composting toilets and that is totally a viable option. I don’t feel the need for one at the moment, but perhaps I will change my mind in the future. They are small enough to easily add one. If the places that you travel to are far away from civilization, it will almost certainly be a necessity.
Showers
I have been showering at the gym for the last 10 years or more. Even when I did have my own shower, the ones at the gym are usually way better and have unlimited hot water. The honorable mentions here would be Anytime Fitness, Planet Fitness, LA Fitness, and maybe Snap Fitness or 24 Hour Fitness depending on your location. The first three all have a ton of locations in multiple states. I personally have multiple gym memberships. They are relatively cheap for what you get. Some are open 24 hours. Planet Fitness offers free massage equipment with their Black Membership. LA Fitness has saunas and pools and decent workout equipment. Anytime Fitness varies but many have decent workout equipment. By having multiple memberships, I don’t have to drive very far to find someplace to shower and workout. For me, the gym is the closest thing that feels like home.
Food
There are grocery stores everywhere, but I’d like to point out a little something magical. I can’t say enough good stuff about Aldi. To begin with, they have a ton of stores, but these are mostly on the east side of the US. Except for California, there really aren’t any Aldi stores west of Texas. That said, every Aldi store carries exactly the same stuff so you don’t have to figure out if some new store carries the _________ that you are used to. Aldi is super cheap for pretty high quality stuff. I personally use the cost of a dozen eggs at Aldi as my own guide for the cost of living in an area (cheapest to date is $0.46). Aldi sells most of their stuff in smaller sized quantities or portions so you don’t need to buy a ton at once. It’s like Costco cheap and quality, but with small portions. Many of the stores are laid out exactly the same so you don’t have to go hunting around and looking for stuff in new stores all the time. Aldi also stocks some awesome products like ghee and avocado oil. Let’s just say I’m a huge Aldi fanboy. If you are trying to keep your costs down for any reason, you want to look into Aldi.
I cook most of my own food. I eat out occasionally, but it’s not my norm. I have spent a fair amount of time without a refrigerator or way to keep food cool, and it is definitely doable. A refrigerator is useful because you can cook up a bunch of food ahead of time and then just eat it up over the next couple days. Without it, you can’t do that and need to cook every meal or find meals that require no cooking. It seems ridiculous to me that someone would need an actual freezer living in a van. Any frozen foods should be available cheap enough and small enough that you really don’t need to store frozen food. You should be able to eat it all in one or two meals. I actually eat a lot of my food raw, like fruits and vegetables. Not only is it usually healthier, it takes less time and requires no fuel for heat.
For cooking, I use a small portable camp stove / hot plate. It heats and cooks really well. I don’t cook anything that takes a long time, like say soup or potatoes. It’s mostly eggs, water for tea, and sautéed meat or vegetables. When I bought it, I accidentally bought one that was butane only (I thought I was getting a dual fuel butane and propane). I missed the return window and ended up keeping the butane only. What I have found is that I like the extreme portability of the butane fuel. I can pack up the stove and put it on a shelf when I’m not using it. This lets me use the counter top for other stuff rather than having a dedicated spot that is always taken up by the hot plate. The butane fuel is a bit more expensive, but you can save a little if you buy in bulk. I had always planned on using the stove connected to a 20 lb propane tank, but this current setup works pretty good at the moment. I’m not super motivated to change it anytime soon.
For a short time I had a small portable grill, but the grease and the smell of the grill made me get rid of it. If I had a place to keep it outside of the van somehow, I might still own it. I don’t really miss it honestly.
Garbage
I use typical plastic store shopping bags as garbage bags. I’ve found that a 2 gallon trash can fits these bags really well. My habit is to drop off garbage on the way into a store when I’m walking in to pick up supplies. Almost every store has a trash can out in front, and those bags usually fit pretty well through the store can openings. One of the best parts about using small trash bags is that raw food scraps don’t have enough time to start smelling bad.
Water
This is one subject that I seem to think differently than most vanlife people. I use refillable 5 gallon jugs with a spigot cap for my water. I have been drinking water this way for over 10 years. I see people with setups trying to mimic indoor household plumbing and it just doesn’t make sense to me. A sink, a faucet, and then a holding tank and a pump to pump it blah blah blah. Way too complicated if you ask me. I have two 5 gallon jugs that I can refill at most grocery stores for about $2. It is filtered and reverse osmosis so it tastes great. I use it for drinking, cooking, and cleaning. Yes even doing dishes. You don’t really need a ton of water to clean a dish, so I just use my main jug water for everything. Also, room temperature water is fine for doing dishes as well. The jugs sit on a frame stand that inverts the jug. The weight of the water itself creates the pressure to pump it out of the jug. It just works. Cheap. Easy. Tasty.
You want a 55mm crown top water jug. Not the 44mm screw top jug. I have owned both and HANDS DOWN the crown top caps are way stronger and better than the BS screw top.
I also don’t have a sink or a gray water tank. When I first built out my van, I saw what everyone else was doing and I put one in…… only to discover that I never used it. I ended up taking it out because what I did need was more counter space. I only use like one dish per meal really, so I don’t need a sink to wash one dish. I just put some water in that dish, scrub and toss the water out of the back door. It is only water, biodegradable food, and a little bit of soap. And it is only a small amount at a time. If you are concerned at all, just buy biodegradable soap and you’re golden. Some might say this is a bit crude, but I think all that fancy sink installation stuff is more about looks and old paradigms than actually getting things done efficiently. Given my setup, it seems like paper towel is the preferred method for cleaning counters and messes. Having said that, I don’t use very much paper towel.
I also use 1.5L Nalgene bottles for drinking water as well as using for rinse water outside of the van. That is enough water to rinse most stuff, or at most you might need to refill it once. The bottles are heavy duty and last a long time. If you own multiples, I recommend changing up the colors so you can easily tell them apart.
Internet
One of the big deal breaker requirements for me to be a vanlifer had to be fast and unlimited mobile internet. It took some research, but I eventually settled on a MOFI wireless internet router. It runs off of the ATT cellular network through a company called UBIFI. It is currently $90 a month. The speed of your connection is very dependent upon the cell service at your location. The highest I have ever seen is 70 MBPS down. The highest up speeds are about 10 MBPS. The highest speed locations are typically in store parking lots that are close to a freeway or other high traffic area. Residential and rural areas tend to be slower. The worst speeds of all are locations near big bodies of water like lakes or oceans. I like to see 10 MBPS down as a minimum. That seems to be fast enough for me to do the things I need to do. I typically use about 70GB of bandwidth every month. I haven’t looked into it recently, but there didn’t seem to be a similar device that used the Verizon network. In a perfect world, I think I would want a router on the Verizon network, but in the meantime ATT does just fine.
You have to buy the modem/router upfront, and then subscribe to the monthly service. I also bought the 12VDC dc/dc converter as well to power it off of my solar system. I like the dc/dc converter as it isolates the device from any electrical references. This way I can plug in a cat5 cable to a computer, I know that there won’t be any problems. I typically use both the wifi and the cat 5 for connection my computers. I am using the stock antennas that come with the MOFI. I do not have any external antennas connected or mounted on the exterior of the stepvan. I feel like I get decent enough signal strength without it.
You can also configure the wifi pretty easily. It works off of an IP based contol panel like most other routers. I like that the MOFI wifi login can be hidden. If configured properly, the MOFI network name will not show up on other devices. This way most other people don’t even know your wifi exists and can’t even try to hack in.
Laundry
Laundry is done at a laundromat. Or at someone’s house if I happen to be staying with someone. I actually prefer a laundromat. For me, I can wash all of my stuff together in one giant load. I typically use a 2-4 load washer. I like to use a laundry bag carry laundry around. Doing laundry this way is great. I can put a load in and go back to the van and get some work done. Go back and swap for the dryer and then work some more. I get a week or two worth of laundry done in less than two hours while multitasking. The cost is usually $5-7 total depending on location and load size. The only down side is needing cash for the change machine. I recommend doing cash back from a debit card purchase rather than finding an atm.
Heat
If you travel with the weather, heat should not be much of an issue. Even still, you probably will want a heater in case it does get cold. I prefer heaters similar to the Buddy Heater. They are indoor rated and run off of propane. I have used multiple brands. The Buddy Heater works well. If you’re going to use it with a 20lb tank, you must buy the Mr. Heater brand hose and inline filter. If you don’t use their specific hose and filter, you will likely end up with oil in the lines of your heater that will keep it from operating properly. I found this out the hard way. I was using a different brand of heater that didn’t seem to require a special hose to work correctly, and then switched to a Buddy Heater. It took a while but eventually I got a bad tank of propane and it fouled up the heater, which had to be taken apart and cleaned out. I’d also recommend spending a little more money on quality propane. I’ve gotten bad batches of propane that must have had impurities or something, and did not burn correctly. Find a place that does tank exchanges with one of the better known propane suppliers. Currently, I’m using the normal Buddy Heater, not a Big Buddy Heater. I like the smaller heater as it takes up less space and seems to give decent heat for 120 sqft. It works well down into the 40F’s, but any lower I and would want a Big Buddy Heater. I don’t spend time in those temps, so I find the smaller one just perfect.
I can say that one downside to using this style of heater is that you need to use a 20lb propane tank to cost effectively run it. By doing so, you need a hose that is long enough to reach the propane tank and the heater. I have a 12′ hose. As long as you use the Buddy Heater brand hoses, you shouldn’t have any propane smell leaching through the hose. I have used other hoses and for whatever reasons, the propane smell will come through the hose and stink up your vehicle. When I know I won’t need the hose for a while, I coil it up inside of an empty 1 gallon metal paint can. The metal can does not leach any propane smell at all.
The hottest I have ever seen in my van was 94F in the middle of summer in Detroit (I have a temp and humidity gauge). The temp inside is typically 5-10F hotter than the outside ambient temp. Keep in mind I have 2″ mineral wool insulation in the walls and ceiling which is equivalent to R-8. If you have less insulation, you will probably have different results. I think the perfect temps for me are daytime highs of 75F and lows of 55F or so. During the peak of heat in the day, it might be a bit warm, but it goes down at night and makes it comfortable to sleep. I start and end the day with a hoodie, and definitely take it off during the day. Sometimes shorts depending on temps.
Having both rear doors and a side door is great for van ventilation. If it gets hot and stuffy during the day, I can open up the back doors and the side door and get a breeze going. This will completely exchange all of the air in the whole van in minutes. Of course you are exchanging that air for ambient air, but if there is even a slight breeze it is amazing. You can’t do that in an RV. You can do that in any normal van.
I sleep at night without a heater. Normally two heavy blankets is good enough to keep you warm down into the 40F’s. A couple times I’ve had to sleep through temps in the high 20F’s, and I had to break out a third blanket. Your body stays warm, but your face is pretty cold. Instead of a mattress, I currently sleep on some blankets and a 3/4″ eva foam mat because I like a firm bed. Eva foam is the same stuff that they use as the soles of many athletic shoes. It is just squishy enough and helps keep me thermally insulated from the cold van floor (I sleep on the floor). I don’t have a dedicated sleep space as I wanted to use the space for multiple things. I sleep on the floor at night and then pack everything up in the morning so I can use it for other things.
Mail And Packages
“Where does your mail go?” Whenever I’m asked this question my response is “what would I actually get in the mail?” Aside from license plate and driver’s license renewal stuff, almost anything I need to exist or do business is available online. All of my bills are either direct withdrawl, auto renewal, or I can login to my account and pay online. As for the address on a license, I suggest finding a friend or family member that will let you “live” with them and use that address as your residence. Which is actually pretty sweet because you may have multiple states to choose from. You can find one that has advantages such as taxes, less restrictions, cheaper insurance etc.
You might actually want to order things online and have them delivered though. There are a couple possible options for this.
1. You could have something sent to a friend or family member that is located in the area that you will be at in the future.
2. For a minimal fee of roughly $5-10, you can have any package sent to a UPS store. Contact the UPS store where you wish to have the package sent. Ask them the specific details about having this done. It usually involves putting your name, phone number, email in the shipping address, as well as the physical address of the UPS location. When the package comes in, they will contact you via the info on the shipping label.
3. If you buy on Amazon, there are often Amazon lockers around that you could have items shipped to. They aren’t available everywhere, and not every item can be sent to them, but this still might be an option. Do a Google Maps search of Amazon lockers for your area.
4. Order an item from a box store and have it shipped to the store for pickup.
I have had trouble with getting actual USPS mail delivered to an address that isn’t your residence and/or you aren’t officially registered to receive mail. In this case you can either have mail sent to the people that do live at that address, or if possible, maybe have your name added to the acceptable recipients at the post office. It hasn’t happened for other carriers, just the USPS.
Data
At this point, most of my life is data in the cloud. Photos, music, files, notes, videos, basically everything is in the cloud. The most important part of keeping this system going is high speed internet, which I have been able to get. My data in the cloud is probably safer than it ever was when I didn’t use the cloud or had things analog. There are multiple choices for this such as iCloud, Google Drive, or Dropbox. The platform you choose will probably depend on whether you are a Mac and IOS person, or a Windows and Android person. By having things in the cloud, I have way better access to them than if they were tucked away in a box somewhere in my basement. From any crazy remote location. As long as I can get internet.
Income
One of the biggest challenges for most people is how to have income while being mobile. There are many ways to do this, the question is which works best for you. I think the first choice would be having some sort of income stream via the interwebs, like an online business or remote work that you can do from a desk. This is perennial and doesn’t require any wasted time searching for new work as you travel around. Depending on your area, you could even have a normal job working normal hours. The challenge here would be the changing weather all year. There are few locations that are temperate enough to comfortably live in a vehicle all year long (at least for me). You could do seasonal work as you travel around as well. Depending on the job, you could end up making decent money in a short amount of time, and living off of that money for the following months.
All of this hustling might seem like more effort than it is worth, but I would encourage you to do this at least a little bit. Especially if you’re not really sure what you want to do in life. Every location has it’s own popular industries. Jobs that are non-existant in one area might be plentiful elsewhere. Check out sites like Craigslist and Indeed.com and see what is available. Ads that say “hiring immediately” or “need somebody today” are pretty good bets as they will most likely be less picky about a hiring a nomad. One of the best parts about vanlife is that you don’t need a ton of money to get by. You have more options than if you are living stationary. You could find the perfect opportunity 200 miles away be able to literally drop everything and start work the next day in a new city. This is the freedom of being mobile. Being mobile is actually a huge benefit in a lot of ways. You can say yes to last minute random things in different locations, when others must say no.
The most valuable thing to me in this regard is the networking and exposure to new ideas that you wouldn’t normally come across. You may find work doing things that you never knew existed and it may lead you in some great new direction. Or it might be 5 days of work that you are now absolutely certain you never want to do again. It is a crazy short iteration loop.
Banking
This is done mostly online, although you may need to do some banking in person from time to time. Many banks have locations all over the country. Most banks are a member of some kind of ATM network that lets you withdraw and deposit cash if you happen to need that. Also, many banks allow you to deposit a check using their phone app by taking a picture of the check. Any funds from online income streams should be deposited straight into your bank account. For a quick $10 in cash to do laundry, I recommend doing cashback on a debit purchase rather than hunting down an atm.