Pros & Cons Of Van Life

So you want to know if living in a van is as dreamy as it looks on social media? I will be the first to admit that I’m guilty of staging photos that typically require me to shift our mess from one side of the van to another. It’s almost impossible to keep it looking picture perfect and sparkling clean all day long. There’s always dog hair that needs to be swept up and miscellaneous items that need to be put away. The plus side is that straightening up a 60 square foot space is fairly easy and only takes a few minutes.  There are daily challenges associated with this lifestyle that you probably won’t see on social media. This post is from our perspective, and I think it’s important to consider that what is a con for us might not matter to someone else and vice versa. You’ll want to assess your own situation, what is important to you, what kind of comforts you’re not willing to give up, etc. I would consider both Nate and I to be pretty low maintenance people (him more than I). I was confident that it would be fairly easy for us to adapt to having a significantly smaller space, but I honestly thought daily life in the van would be more challenging than it is. In our experience so far, the pros far outweigh the cons. 

Cons

Let’s start with the not-so-good stuff. In our experience these are things that we feel would have deterred us from trying van life. We struggled with this stuff at first, but it didn’t take us long to adjust and adapt. 

Showering

It isn’t always the easiest thing to find a place to take a shower. Our van is equipped with an outdoor shower set up, but using it requires us to be in a somewhat remote area. We typically shower at gyms and yoga studios, but that usually requires a fee. You can avoid this inconvenience by putting a shower inside your van, but we opted against it in order to save space and keep a more open layout. 

Space

This one is pretty obvious, and I’m sure it’s the main reason a lot of folks decide against van life. If you plan to be solo, it will be a little easier than it is for us (two people and a big dog). There are times when I certainly feel very crammed. For example, if one of us is cooking in the kitchen and the other needs to get by, someone will have to press themselves up against the cabinets to make room, which can get irritating no doubt. Our layout gives us the option to convert the back area of the van into a lounge which really opens up the space. If one of us is in the kitchen, the other can be in the lounge. It also gives our dog Tonkins more room to walk around. Nate and I are very close and have never needed much time apart, which lends itself well to living in such small quarters but every now and then it would be nice to have more alone time or space to ourselves. 

Putting Things Away & Doing dishes

Before driving anywhere everything must be put away. This isn’t a huge deal, but it can get daunting when you’re feeling lazy or need to head somewhere in a hurry. Cleaning dishes has also become one of my least favorite van activities. Our sink is on the smaller side, so water often splashes around and it can get messy. I try to use minimal dishes when cooking to avoid extra clean up. There’s really no option to leave dirty dishes for later either. They must be done and put away immediately otherwise the van turns to chaos.

Adjusting to Toilet 

I was a little uneasy with the idea of a composting toilet. When we were planning our build I wasn’t even sure I wanted to deal with having one in the van. We decided to play it safe and invest in one anyways, but I had no intention of using it for #2 unless it was an absolute emergency. In fact, we went almost an entire year before we ever used it for anything other than #1. Since we were spending almost all of our time in cities it was easy to find public restrooms to do our business. Once we started spending more time in remote areas, it became clear that we needed to use our toilet the way it was intended. The first time I tried it I hated it, but now it feels completely normal. Once you get past the initial trial period it’s totally not as weird as it seems.

Looking for places to dump and fill our tanks

There is nothing worse than being all set up in a remote camping spot only to realize that your grey water tank is full and your fresh water is empty. We’ve definitely found ourselves driving around aimlessly for an hour trying to find a place to dump. My best advice for this would be to map out a plan for your tanks. Get a general idea of how long you can go in between dumping/filling and then try to be near the appropriate facilities when you are getting close to empty/full. Having a plan in place should make your life significantly easier. There are a few resources that make finding dump facilities easy. We use the iOverlander app (which is also great to find places to camp). SaniDumps.com is a good resource to use as well. Also, state websites will usually have a map of ‘Safety Rest Areas’.

The possibility of your van breaking down or needing repairs 

The biggest downside of van life for us so far was when our van broke down. It was totally unexpected and we honestly hadn’t planned for it. I highly recommend having a backup plan in case your van needs to go to the shop for any kind of repairs. Ours took almost a month to fix, we had to get it towed 200 miles and since we had to stay with family out of town we weren’t able to work. This was a huge financial burden for us. I wish I could say that we had money set aside for this kind of emergency, but we didn’t. We had to max out our credit cards and it took months to recover. Don’t be like us, have a solid plan and money set aside for emergencies! 

Pros

I feel like the good parts of van life are pretty obvious. It’s what you see all over social media. More freedom to travel and explore, waking up to the sun rising over the ocean, being in a new place every few days, etc. These things really do make it all worth it!

Saving Money + Financial Freedom

We’ve been able to reduce our monthly bills quite a bit. We no longer pay for electricity, cable, internet or rent. The common assumption is that we spend a lot more money on gas, but that hasn’t been the case for us just yet as we haven’t done much long distance travel. If your main goal with van life is to save money, you could certainly stay stationary in one area to avoid spending a ton of money on gas. We also save a significant amount of money on our travels. No more hotels or airbnb’s, and having a kitchen means a lot less dining out. One unexpected benefit that we experienced this year was a lot less stress surrounding the loss of our jobs due to Covid-19. It feels like a huge weight has been lifted off of our shoulders knowing that we have significantly less financial obligations.

The Ability to Travel More & Be On Our Own Schedule 

We love that we never have to worry about making it to a specific destination to check into hotels, airbnb’s or campsites. We’re always on our own schedule and have been able to experience each destination in a totally different way. If we end up really liking a specific spot, we can choose to stay longer if we want. 

Convenience of always having our stuff

We never have to pack for anything and we always have the comforts of home with us. We love that we can pull off the road and make lunch anytime we see a killer view. Being a picky eater, it’s really nice to have your pantry and kitchen with you at all times. We never have to worry about bringing a change of clothes to the gym, and always having our toilet means no more port-a-potties or gas station bathrooms. 

Customizing Our Space

I always like to say that our van is the miniature version of my dream home. I loved that we were able to customize and design it to be exactly what we wanted. I was so sick of paying extremely high rent to live in places that I didn’t enjoy looking at. We couldn’t afford to design a whole house, but we COULD afford to splurge on a few nice elements to make our van the aesthetically pleasing space I’ve always dreamed of, just miniature sized.

Getting a dog & Never leaving him at home

Nate and I both dreamed of getting a dog for years. The problem was that we couldn’t find an apartment or house to rent that would allow us to have one, and we didn’t want to leave them behind when we went on trips. Van life solved both of these problems for us. We got our dog Tonkins almost immediately after finishing our build, and having a mobile home means we never have to leave him alone for long periods of time.