3 Reasons to NOT Do Van Life.
1- Small Space-
As much as we all love Vanlife it does come with some challenges and some un comforts. And one of those un comforts is space! Now yes the hole point is not to be cooped up in your van all the time and to get out and explore but there are times where you're in your van for a good part of the day. This definitely depends on the weather or just what you have going on that day. For our van it’s about 90 square feet of living space and we all know that’s very small to hold and live in. Logan and I have found out that for meal times one person is in the kitchen and the other in either out side or in the back of the van what we like to call the dinning room or living room. This is because there is not enough space for the both of us. This is just an example of how small things are and that if you like your open floor concept and you can each be in a different rooms in your home doing your own things then living this way might not be for you. Because your space is not your own anyone and you just have to be ok with that when you live in 90 square feet.
This also goes into consideration is when you live in such a small space this means you are limited to the amount of things you can have. Even with Logan and I traveling part time at first in the van we realize really quickly that you only have room for the essentials. This isn’t a life style of having a ton of things like multiple shoes or an abundance of clothes. The best advice I can give you if you have items you just can’t let go of. Keep a few things in a storage unit or at a family member’s home and you come back and switch items out ever few months or so.
2- Going To The Bathroom In Front Of Each Other-
It’s pretty obvious you may have to poop and pee In Front of your partner if you have a toilet in your van. This all depends on your setup. Do you even have a toilet? Do you just go number 1? Do you have a pee funnel? Do you only rely on public bathrooms? All of these things have Pros and Cons to them. And it also depends how comfortable you are with your partner. We’ve talked to other travelers that when they do go to the bathroom the other person leaves the van to let the other have there time. And some people just don’t care. They go when they have to doesn't matter if their partner is making bacon and eggs right there by them. It all just depends on you and what you can live with and not live with. Even if you decide not to have a toilet in your van and you only rely on public restrooms. Well for the most part that’s not a problem at all but there are places where they don’t offer bathrooms for the public or you have to buy something or its in the middle of the night and you have to go and your not by a store or somewhere that has a bathroom. All of these things you have to think about and yes for the most part you can find public bathrooms but when you can’t it’s not so good.
3- The Struggle Of Constant Change-
This is a huge challenge and something we all think about all the time. The struggle of constant change. You always have to be on the lookout or plan where you're going to sleep every night. Just think about it. You're out traveling and you don’t have a set place to go back to at the end of the day. The challenges of constantly trying and finding a safe place to sleep can be challenging and gets old when it’s every night. When we do find a good place to sleep we tend to go back to it for a couple nights. Aside from the constant change of finding places to sleep there are many other things that are always changing like as simple as finding places to fill up your water and finding places to clean or dump your toilet. It can also be a constant change of finding places to do your laundry each month. With all this being said you can see that it's a lot to have to do on a daily and weekly basis and yes its a good bit apart of the life style and if you hate the constant change and not having a set routine then this lifestyle would be challenging or just something that you don’t do full time.
