Like many people, I fell in love with the idea of vanlife after watching youtubers, discovering documentaries like Expedition Happiness, and following tons of vanlifers on Instagram. The media does an amazing job of making vanlife look like everyone’s dream life, but now that I’ve lived on the road for over a year, it’s time to make that obligatory “realities of vanlife” post.
The truth is, vanlife is not all good views and campfires, there are a lot of layers to vanlife that a lot of people never talk about. Between working long hours to be able to sustain my life on the road to driving out of our way to get WiFi when we need it, to the van being an absolute mess more than 50% of the time, #vanlife really resembles real life a lot more than people think.
This past week, we encountered every vanlifer’s nightmare: a two day mechanic visit. My van, Sequoia, is over 20 years old, and it was about time that the entire cooling system needed to be replaced. This was not only a huge financial setback, but it was also a huge wake up call because of the time it took to fix. This van is our home, and without it, things can be very stressful. We were lucky enough to have family to stay with for the night, but if we hadn’t, things might have gotten even more costly.
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The thing is, at this point, vanlife is just life. It is different than normal house life, but it’s just the way we currently choose to live. We’re used to the complications and frustrations, but it’s important to highlight those things because not everyone who loves the idea of vanlife will actually like living the vanlife.
Vanlife is dusty
We’re living outside. The thing a lot of people don’t understand about vanlife is that we aren’t living in the van—we’re living out of it. We spend almost all of our time outside, especially when there are friends around, which means the floor of the van is almost always dirty, the rug can always use an extra shake, and dog hair hides in the trickiest of places. Vanlife is not a luxury lifestyle. It’s truly the dirtbag movement of the 21st century, and while social media makes it look like the dream life, it’s super important to highlight the fact that this is a dirty lifestyle. You won’t be showering every day or even every other day, your feet will always be dirty, and you’ll always have to move stuff around to make room for life.
Camp isn’t always a good view
While we love a good view, and definitely wouldn’t shy away from driving up some sketchy dirt roads to reach one worth sharing, not every night is spent at an insta-worthy camp spot. So often, we’re staying in parking lots: or Walmarts, Cabela’s, and rest stops next to highways. Whenever we’re in cities for errands, or even tricky areas like Olympic National Park, it’s easier to stay in a safe parking lot than risk being kicked out just for parking in a prettier area. But the good news is, parking lots are usually not that far from somewhere beautiful to go right when we wake up for a good breakfast view.
Vans are tiny homes to the next level
The tiny house trend is still going strong, but the thing with having a van as your tiny house is, vans are really tiny. Most of them are less than 80 square feet and most of that space is taken up by the bed (aka the most important place in the house). Van living requires you to be an extreme minimalist. It’s a sacrifice for travel to give up having lots of material things. We watch TV on a computer or phone screen, only own the clothes that fit, and have to wash dishes more often, but the small space is still home, even when we’re in the most foreign places.
Van chores suck
Seriously. Van chores suck. And with such a small space, we’re doing them all the time. Dishes are hard to wash in such a small sink, water is complicated to fill, and grey water smells… horrible. Don’t even get me started on black tanks. If you want to live in a van, you have to prepare to get down and dirty because you can’t call a plumber when your sink won’t drain. Instead, you might end up with a floor full of grey water to mop up.
But Vanlife is wonderful
But, despite all of this, vanlife truly is the dream life. It is ultimate freedom, it is adventure, and it is beautiful. We find ourselves in the most stunning and unique places, and even though vanlife can be a little stinky, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. It’s my life, and it’s what I need at the moment, so even though my floor is dusty, and I definitely need to get rid of a few shirts, at least I have a cool view or two in my future.