Are you confused about how to start a van life? Everything starts with planning and perseverance to attain your goal. Van life might not be easy as many people make it seem. Van dwelling come with a lot of hardship. Everything is a matter of ones own hard work and motivation to live in such a place.
There are many things that have to be considered when you plan of living in a van full time. The first thing to start accepting the limitation of space in a van. Van dwelling needs you start changing your cliché life style of being in a house.
To think and dream of getting a van to start a full time van living might seems easy without any complications. But the reality is the contradictory. It is not easy to start a van life with nothing.
How to start a van life or Van dwelling?
Starting a van life does have some complication however it would always be worth to take that risk. The end result of starting a van life would be like a dream come true. If you enjoy traveling.
Get a van to start van dwelling
A van life’s most essential element is to get a van for your dwelling. Most of the vans can be converted in a permanent house if it is properly organised. However there are vans that are solely to fulfil the van life desire.This is the main answer to the question how to start the van life.
Van that are suitable to be converted into a house includes ford transit, Mercedes sprinter, ford transit connect, Volkswagen type 2 and so on. These vans have enough space to accommodate a family of 2 or 3 without much congestion.Living in a van full time makes you bored some times in order to avoid it we can do some essential activities too.
Organise the space:
The main essence of full time van dwelling depends on your ability to organize the space in your van. The camper van kitchen, lavatory, bed space, storage must be arranged in a way that the dwellers can live in the van comfortably.
The campervan kitchen can now be made in many sophisticated matter by ensuring the safety of traveling. It can also be portable to meet the van dwellers requirement.
It is always advised to have a campervan kitchen to make easy living in a van. Other parts are also to be given equal importance just like a kitchen. The bed room. And toilet facilities cannot be overlooked while planning a full time van life. Incorporate lot of storage space so that you can keep all the things in these storage spaces instead of keeping them lose and reducing the space inside the van. This is another thing to consider for living in a van full time.
Learn to park:
You must learn to park your can in a permanent camp spot. There are so many permanent camping spots for campervans. You should be able to gel up with the location and start learning to park in these places as per their rules.
Each campervan site there own rules and regulations that you need to follow. Ensure you have good idea about these van life rules you are supposed to follow.How to start a van life is to be thought about when you plan for full time van dwelling.
Organize you life:
Having an organized life is another quint essential character to develop as you plan to live in van. You must make sure you can put the things back in its place once you take them out. Everything must its own place in your van. While you are traveling you need to keep all the objects safely so that they don’t move around while you are on the move.
Electricity connection:
Life is not easy without electricity. A normal would not have provisions for electricity that is essential for a van dwelling. It is necessary to get additional provision for the electricity required.
For adding these many renovations have to be done.. Therefore, get experts support for doing this to ensure the connections are given considering the safety of van dwelling.
What to expect in a full time van life?
There are a lot of things that must be considered okay when you start a van life. As mentioned early there are hardships as well as a lot of fun.
Use public restrooms:
On planning to move full time in a van, you must be ready to use a public restroom when ever necessary. It is not always possible to dispose our waste during the journey. Therefore, to save yourself some cleaning job and also some water use public restrooms if available.
Secure sharp objects:
On becoming a full time van dweller make sure you keep all the sharp objects’ secured, preventing it from falling around while you are riding. This can cause serious damage at times.
If kids are traveling in the cabins it would be even more riskier with loose objects moving about while riding.
Cook when the vehicle is stopped:
Avoid cooking in you van house while It is being driven. This too is very risky for the passenger especially the person cooking. Always make sure you are parked in a safe spot before you cook.
For heavy cooking it would be nice if you can consider some out door cooking provisions like a portable stove and cooking table.
Save water in van dwelling
While traveling we can run out of water for our essentials. Therefore learn some water saving skills. U need to create some provision in your van where water can be stored separately for the daily necessity and for drinking purpose. And make sure to check the level of water on a regular basis.
So that you can be saved from any leaks in the tanks or complete exhaustion. Practice some water recycling methods too. So that you are never faced with the situation of water scarcity.
Ensure safety while living the van life
Living in van ensures a lot of safety as well as it can be risky at times. Therefore, make sure you are parking your van in a safe authorised place to ensure your safety. Make sure you have not left any valuables outside the van before you go for rest. In addition, ensure your van is locked and can not be trespassed.
As this is now your permanent home, take all the precautions you would take while in a house. Your safety is your responsibility.
Expenses:
Van life too required spending some for living. The cost of living in a van includes gas, water, grocery and so on.
In addition to these you might even have to pay parking fees if you not in a free van life camp. This parking fee may vary from place to place.
The estimated cost of living for a single van dweller is around $1000 to $2000 based on the facilities available in the van. For families this may rise.
There are the few things that need to be considered and expected when you plan to start a full time van living.