The WORST bits about full-time motorhome living

Okay are we ready? What are we talking about? We're talking about the worst things about living in a motorhome. Okay. We've got a little t-shirt. Yes. A Wandering Bird and a Life Beyond Bricks. We're basically just showing off your boots. I was going to say everyone needs to cut off their breasts. Sorry. Hi I'm Kat from Wandering Bird where we try and help you make the most of your motorhome and campervan. Today I'm joined by the lovely Tash from Life Beyond Bricks. Hello. And we are going to talk about the worst things, worst things about living in a motorhome. We have been living in our van since lockdown now for the last six weeks, seven weeks on full-time, non-stop, totally in the van and you young lady have been in your van full-time non-stop since? March 2019 so just over two years now. Has it really been that long? Yeah. That's terrifying. Yeah yeah it's quite scary. Wow. Yeah. Sold our house. Yep. Moved into a van. Yep. Didn't look back. No. Had an epic time. Yes. For those of you who don't know, Tash pops up every now and then because I've known her for But the worst bit. We're supposed to be serious. This is the worst. Sorry. This is the most horrendous thing about living in a van. Do you want to go first? Would you like me to go first? You go first. I have a list. Mainly because I asked my husband what his worst thing was and I want him to remember. The worst thing for me about living full-time in a motorhome is probably the lack of privacy and space to yourself. Because they're just always there. All the time. All the time. Like even now we're filming this outside because he's inside and he's working and he's on... If you can hear gravel and stones going just ignore it. But he's on the phone so I'm having the outside because he's got to work. And yeah in a house that was a lot easier to manage because there were doors and locks and space. Yeah that's probably the biggest thing we're struggling with from our point of view because we work from the road as we travel. During the evening and stuff it's fine. On weekends not a problem at all. How about you? What's your worst thing? I've just... Do you know what? I don't know because a. I didn't know what we were talking about so I don't have a list. I didn't forget. No. That's fine. Off the cuff. Go on. Off the cuff. So John what's your worst thing about living in the motorhome? John's coming into shot any second now. There he is. There he is. Go on then John. What's the worst thing about living in a motorhome? Wow see this is the thing because we're probably biased because we've done all the like get all the kinks out if you know what I mean. So when you first moved in can you remember all those two years ago? Do you know what? I think the worst thing at first was in terms of moving from a house was not knowing what you would need therefore you brought everything with you and then all of a sudden you were like ah we've got no storage space and then once you start going into payload and you realize that you don't have any. So yeah so that was that was tough. I guess one of the worst things is probably just not having a constant water supply and a flushing toilet. Yeah. But it's a bit you learn to manage it so I wouldn't say it works. But it's a trade-off isn't it? Yeah. Other things that I'm struggling with living in a van long time are storage is a big one. Yep. Because especially because I don't think we planned particularly to be in the van for this long we only came over for a couple of weeks and we just keep extending how long we're here for but initially things were in weird places and stuff that you wanted more frequently were in a cupboard like underneath then you had to go get and yeah it was just faff. Yeah I would second that on the storage front. Yeah. You know you have some things that you don't use all the time. Yeah. But you kind of need to have them hanging around. Yeah. That that's that's quite tough because obviously everything has to have a specific place and you have to kind of plan what do I use more frequently what do I not use a lot. Yeah. And you have to learn to let things go. Yeah. Which I didn't realize was something else I used to do in the house. I have backups of things. Yes. Like you take like when we moved out and I had like 50 different types of like shower gel or moisturizer. Yeah. I used to buy them when they're on offer. Or you buy the bumper pack of toilet roll. Yeah. Or cleaning products. Yeah. So yes that is that. I did that yesterday actually. I got I got told off. So we have a spot in our cupboard for Kellog's Crunchy Nut Corn Flakes. It goes and it fits in the box and it works and it was I think it's a 500 gram box. But yesterday I bought the 1000 gram box which is a kilogram. But you know just go with me because it was on offer and I was like yeah this is like pretty much the same price as the fact that it doesn't fit. I have to say sorry side note when I did see the size the first thing I thought was that is a huge box of Crunchy Nut. But the kilogram was a four quid and it was for 500 grams. Yeah. And the kilogram I was like that makes sense. Yeah. But I hadn't considered the storage. This is one thing I would say is a trade-off from a cost perspective. Things tend to be cheaper in bulk or in bigger packs and you can't do that in a van. So I have to say that's probably one thing I would say actually that is a bit of a pain. You have to kind of go for the smaller which tends to be more expensive because it's more convenient because you have to fit it in there. So yeah your storage and how you shop. Yes definitely. Another thing which is difficult on this one because we've lived on a boat for so long so we got used to managing it but laundry. Having been used to a house now for the last however long we've been locked down for a year and a bit. Going back to we need to find a laundrette. Especially on beautiful camps like this where there's not a lot of facilities which is great. Yeah. But then we've got to find a laundrette. And I'd forgotten that that is just takes a few hours. It's not the end of the world but trying to get a motorhome into a place where there's a laundrette. Especially in the UK. Europe's easy because I haven't got supermarkets and stuff. Dead straightforward. The UK is less convenient. Yeah again I would go for that because sometimes a whole day will be planned looking on for a laundrette or all those Morrison's ones that are outside. They're wicked because obviously normally. They have them in Morrison's? Oh okay. I didn't know that. Okay so the outside external laundry locations. Morrison's and service stations tend to be the two top places they are and they're fantastic. Find them through another website. So John, John and Mandy compiled a google maps on their website and tried to put in all the locations of the photo maze. So you can go onto their little which is done through google maps and it will show you the locations. But yeah you can on a Monday. Thank you. So yeah but you can also just google like photo me or revolution thingies. So yeah they're really good. The external ones. Didn't know that they existed. That makes a lot more sense because yeah trying to get a motorhome especially with us with a trailer. Yeah. Into a car park. Yeah Morrison's would be a lot easier to get into. And they smell really nice as well. Because you know like when you do the laundry because that's one of the things about using laundrettes. Yeah. Is sometimes it kind of takes all the nice smell out of your clothes when you dry it. Yeah. And also your clothes tend to shrink and get funky fresh if you do it too hot. We've been using laundrettes a long time now. So we lived on boats for 15 years and I never had this issue. But maybe. I don't know. I think it depends how high you do the drying. Yes I think it does. You know. So again it's all a learning curve. It is a learning curve. That's true. So yeah. But yeah the outdoor ones are very very good for that. And Morrison's also. Sorry Cypress. They're really good because they're one of the only places that are actually actively installing and keeping LPG points at their petrol stations. So Morrison's a bit of an all-round winner. If you can find one that's got the laundry the LPG and of course if you get their app and go shopping and get all their points. Nice. Go Morrison's. I think my last worst thing which at the moment isn't an issue because the weather is gorgeous is dealing with a wet dog and wet clothes. Yes. And muddy boots. But mainly the wet dog in a small space. Yeah. And we don't have a garage and we don't have an outdoor shower. Although we do have the Lifesaver which is fantastic and that's got a shower attachment. But I've forgotten the pain of wet dog and the smell and just the general carnage of when he goes swimming and having to deal with that. Yeah I would go with that as well. When you go out and it's wet and you come in and something I don't always remember but John always thinks of is that if your clothes are all wet as soon as you bring it into the van instant you know condensation and humidity everywhere. So yeah that is that is a downside actually. One of the things we like about our van and I don't know if you've got this as well actually is we've got the heater bit in the bathroom so you can hang up wet well everything and put wet shoes in like wet trainers and whatever and it'll dry overnight. Yeah we don't have that. I think Swifts are quite well known for having that actually but we don't have that unfortunately because we've got a separate shower and toilet. Oh yeah you've got that. So but we do use the shower to obviously hang the wet stuff in. But yeah no that is one thing actually is wet items in a van. No I mean we're really scraping the barrel trying to find bad things. I know I feel a bit like maybe this wasn't my best my best work because obviously like I say I'm biased now because we've all these things are worth the compromise they're worth the trade-off of living the lifestyle. Well yeah otherwise we wouldn't be doing it. Exactly but in fact on that note actually in the winter time it's hard when you're if you have cupboards on the back wall like we do and then if you don't let enough air in there they get damp and moldy and everything gets wet. Yeah it's just sort of managing. So a similar thing to like when you want to go off like we've been here for a few days when we go off remembering to take everything out so that things don't rattle and bang and cause chaos and locking cupboards. Simple things that you only think about when you leave your home but if you're in a motorhome all the time it's so easy to miss something. Yeah John has many many microfiber cloths and tea towels on emergencies for yeah there's a rattle there and taking the shelf out the oven and out of the microwave a little plate thing and yeah remembering all this stuff so actually I've got a pre-trip departure checklist. Try saying that three times really quick because you can't. Pre-trip departure checklist. I've read it once but we'll take it we'll take it and yeah I'll leave the link to that below so that you can go through and make sure that you've got everything ready before you set off on an adventure. Is there anything else that you hate? You can tell he maintains our van can't you because that wasn't even on my list. It just magically happened. No that's fair yeah maintenance because if you need something to do so we actually moved out into a static caravan for a week whilst ours was being serviced, hab checked, MOT'd etc etc. How often do you get yours hab checked? Every year yeah. We tend to do ours every other year we tend to do one ourselves and then we'll get it properly done unless we think we've got an issue with the gas and then we don't but that's a whole other video and we won't go into that. Cool and if you've got any worse bits if you spend a lot of time in a motorhome or a van something that you're worried about by all means drop a comment below and we'll do our best to answer it for you. You can follow Tash on Life Beyond Bricks you can follow us at Wandering Bird if you're not already a subscriber we'd love to have you and share more tips with you and I think that's about it. Thanks for your time I'll see you on the next video. Bye!