DOES VAN LIFE SUCK? 5 Things to Consider Before Living In A Van
Wondering if van life sucks? Here are 5 Things you should consider before living in a van:
Filling up your water tanks
If you have a sink and/or a shower in your van, you’re going to have to find somewhere to fill up your tanks every week. Where will you fill them up? And how easy is it to access your water tanks?
We have two water tanks - the one for the sink is under the passenger side back bench and the one for the shower is under the drivers side back bench. For us, filling up our water tanks is a process and takes teamwork.
We typically fill up at RV dump sites, friends and family houses, and anywhere we can find free public places to fill up.
Where will you go to the bathroom and shower?
We didn’t want to worry about where to go to the bathroom or how often we were going to be able to shower, so we built it a full bathroom with a toilet and shower in our van. A lot of other vanlifers don’t have this luxury, so it’s something for you to think about!
For a list of pros and cons about having a bathroom in your van, check out this blog post.
Where will you sleep at night?
This is one of the most stressful aspects of van life, so be prepared to not know where you’re going to sleep in your van every night. It’s one of the not so glamorous parts of van life because you’re realistically never going to be sleeping where you see all the beautiful photos of vans online.
Most of the time we sleep in truck stops, rest areas, walmart parking lots, etc.
How are you going to make money?
One of the most overlooked and most important parts of van life is money! It’s all well and good to live off of your savings until you run out of money and have to go back to a 9-5 job. We believe in creating a brand through social media that can pay you while you’re on the road so you never have to go back to that soul-sucking job.
Being able to make money from the road allows you to travel stress-free and enjoy the places you visit. If you want to learn more about creating an income online, check out our Creator Club program here.
You can also learn about the ways we make money on the road in this blog post.
Knowing the ins and outs of your van
If you had someone convert your van for you or bought a used van conversion from someone else, make sure you get all the details about each moving part of it! Vans are complex and often have solar, battery banks, inverters and electrical parts that you probably don’t know much about. Make sure you learn the basics so you can troubleshoot your own system if something goes wrong.
