Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Hi lovely people!
In my last post, I shared that we left van life and moved into a condo last September. I mentioned a few of the lessons I learned in that blog, but definitely not all of them!
So that’s what I wanted to tackle today…
Disclaimer:
Let me start with one note: I am totally glad we had this epic experience. It was hard, no doubt. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
A lot of the lessons I learned came from hardship, which can paint van life in a negative light. But I wouldn’t say it was a negative experience. There were negative parts to it, and I don’t think we were the best personality fit for the lifestyle. But I’m glad we did it, I’m glad we stuck it out, and I’m glad we can tell our kids one day that their crazy parents lived in a van once 😵💫
Lesson #1: It Helps to Have Money
Going into van life, I thought we’d be saving a ton of money. We didn’t have to pay rent, which is a huge expense.
But the more we traveled the more we realized: the van life accounts you see on IG are folks who have a lot of money or make a lot of money from content creation, which makes van life easier and more fun.
We discovered the lifestyle itself was actually pretty expensive: gas isn’t cheap, camp sites on the West coast where we traveled were $100+ a night, and all the cool adventures we wanted to do costed money!
We often opted for free activities, like hikes or beach walks, but we ended up not missing out in the places we traveled because we couldn’t afford to try the restaurants there or experience the main attractions. For example, we really wanted to go surfing in California. But renting a board for a few hours in the place we looked was $75! Doesn’t seem like a ton, but when you’re on a tight budget, it feels like a lot.
On one income, we were pinching pennies, and we had to miss out a lot unfortunately.
Lesson #2: Working Remotely Doesn’t Always Work
Before van life, I thought if you work remotely, you’d have no trouble traveling.
Boy was I wrong. For starters, here in Colorado, almost every coffee shop you visit has free wifi if you order a drink. Not so on the West coast. There were so many times I’d pop into a coffee shop to work, only to find they straight up didn’t have wifi!
I envisioned working at cute, independent coffee shops our entire trip. And we still visited a lot of those. But we ended up going to starbucks more than anything else because it was the only place with wifi in the area.
On top of that, I don’t know about you but I don’t like taking work calls from coffee shops. The environment is really loud, and it’s hard to focus. I take a lot of calls in my job, and it’s important I stay focused on them, so this was a bit of a hurdle for me.
I think if you have the money, something like Starlink would be a much better solution. Fast wifi, anywhere? My dream. We couldn’t afford Starlink, so we opted for unlimited data. That was useful at times (usually in big cities), but in rural areas it didn’t matter because we had 0 reception.
In the end, I would say even though my job is mostly remote, I don’t think it was conducive the for the van lifestyle. People who work remote on the road usually are making content about van life, which obviously is a lot more flexible than a 9-5.
Lesson #3: Have a Flexible Schedule
This ties into my above lesson, but working a 9-5 while traveling is tough.
We stuck to a tight schedule while we traveled and only had a few days in each location. Oftentimes those days were weekdays, which meant we couldn’t start exploring the area until 5pm. Poor Nathan just hung out during the day, waiting for me to finish work.
I love my job way too much to sacrifice it for van life. But if you want to really experience an area, you either need a flexible schedule or time off. That’s why moving forward, we’re going to get time off for vacations instead. So much less stressful!
Lesson #4: Be Okay with Confrontation
Both Nathan and I are rule followers, for the most part. Aaaand I don’t love confrontation. I mean, who does?
Van life is a lifestyle of confrontation. As hard as we tried to pick legal, safe, respectful locations to park for the night, we got yelled at three times, once by a security officer.
I didn’t expect this, but in most of the places we traveled people really did not like us. They treated us like homeless people (which like, to be fair isn’t entirely wrong🫣). I just didn’t expect to be looked down on so heavily.
It’s also a lifestyle in which you must be very comfortable asking for help. Which is something I’m not good at.
We had to rely on our families a lot for some of the months in the van. We parked a lot at my in-laws, borrowed their tools for the construction of the van, and they graciously allowed us to use their trash service. During Christmas I had to ask my family to keep my gifts in their home because I couldn’t fit them in the van. We also had to store our stuff at my in-laws house.
Personally, that felt really yucky. Our families were so kind and generous with us during the whole experience, and I’m so grateful for them. But internally, I hated putting this huge burden on them. I like being independent and self-sufficient, and van life is super humbling because you just can’t do it alone very well. It was a good lesson for me to learn, but not a place I want to be in ever again🫠
Lesson #5: Optimize for Ease
We designed our van from scratch, and we had no idea what we were doing. A lot of our van design made sense, and I’m really proud of what we created. But a good rule of thumb if you’re designing any tiny home is this:
Optimize for ease. If something is difficult to do, it’ll be a thorn in your side before long.
Take our toilet for example. We had it stored in our bench, and in order to use it you’d have to lift it out and set it on the floor. That was easy when the toilet was relatively empty. But when it was full? There were some times I almost couldn’t lift it out! It became so annoying over time.
Lesson #6: Have a Purpose (Besides Travel)
Our purpose for doing van life was to travel and see the world. A valiant objective, but not enough of a reason to keep us passionate about van life through the thick and thin. After all, you can always save up PTO and book trips from time to time to scratch that traveling itch.
I think in order to do van life successfully, you need a bigger reason. Creators on IG have “content creation” as their reason, which isn’t just their passion, it’s their job. Some van lifers are huge rock climbers, and need to travel to find new places to climb. Some are nature photographers, a lifestyle conducive to travel.
To a certain extent, your job and passions need to align with van life in order to do it long term. For me, my job had nothing to do with van life. And while travel is fun to me, it’s not my #1 passion.
Lesson #7: Beware of “The Grass is Always Greener” Mindset
The world is constantly telling you the grass is always greener elsewhere.
It’s a mindset we all know to avoid. But often it slips into our minds like this: “when I get that promotion, then I’ll be happy. When the kids get older and I can sleep through the night, then I’ll be happy. When the house is clean, then I’ll be happy.”
Guess what? You arrive at your “happy” and it doesn’t feel how you thought. So you fixate on the next “happy.” And you’ll just keep chasing “happy” your whole life.
Before the van, I thought “once we can travel, then I’ll be happy.” That’s a lie. Traveling is fun and exciting. But it didn’t make life anymore fulfilling. It wasn’t my “happy.” Nothing is. Nothing but Jesus.
Regardless if it’s van life, a change in career, or a big move – I encourage you to ask yourself whether you believe this next step will make you happy. Because it never does. And your reasons have to be more solid than that.
Even in our new home, I fell into this mindset. We had a pipe burst the day we moved in, ruining half our house. Mitigation and repairs took 6 months! I caught myself thinking, “once the house is fixed, I’ll be happy.”
This summer, I’m focusing on contentment. I love the life God’s given me. It’s simple, and it’s boring, and it’s beautiful. I’m not traveling anymore. My camera roll is less glamorous. I do a lot of chores. I have a cat that still bites my ankles, despite my efforts in training him.
But my home, my lifestyle – that’s not my “happy” anymore. And I’m better off for it:)
Final Thoughts
If you’re thinking about trying van life, I wouldn’t immediately tell you to drop the idea. A lot of people thought we were crazy when we decided to do van life. I’d be a hypocrite if I thought you were out of your mind.
But I would tell you van life is hard. Harder than normal life. It’s not a cheat code to save money and travel at the same time. You trade affordability for discomfort, access for compromise, relaxation for hard work. If you’re willing and prepared to make that trade, go for it. But know what you’re trading before you sign the deal.
Moving on, I probably won’t share a ton more about van life. But I wanted to close that chapter properly! I’m so glad we did it. But I am so glad to be out of it 😂
Til next time!
Xoxo, Annabelle