車宿美學 53歲時，我開著露營車重新開始了生活

If you're considering downsizing, retirement, or traveling, a tiny home on wheels could be an option. With limited resources, I decided to ditch the house and hit the road, and I'm gonna show you how I did it. Let's get started with the kitchen. So remember, I was working on limited resources, so everything that you see here for me was a non-negotiable. When it comes to my stove, I have a two-eye propane ram stove. This was important to me because my van is solar-powered. If it's a cloudy day or I run out of energy, I want to make sure that I can still light my stove, and with propane, you can do that with a lighter, and the propane can also go to your furnace, and we'll get to that later. Underneath my cabinet, I have a microwave and all of my cleaning supplies, but if you come over here to the sink, I wanted a really deep sink. A lot of people, when they move out of a house, they miss those conveniences, and this deep sink does that for me. Also, the birdbath, if you're ever caught and can't get to a Planet Fitness, this really helps. Also, with the sink, the hose runs really far, and so if you need to shower outside of the door, you can, or rinsing off at the beach, little conveniences like that really make a difference. Also, I am always equipped with 18 gallons of clean water. This is really amazing because even if I run through it, I have extra water for any emergencies. Keeping a lot of water on me has not been very difficult, but if this is new, I just want you to do a reframe. Think about if you just need water for an event. You're gonna go to Publix, you're gonna go to Walmart, you're gonna go to those big chains because they have a water dispenser. You have access to that. Also, a cheat code is keeping a water hose with you, and I always have one under here. If you're at a travel station or a location that has a water spout, you can always go in and check with them and say, hey, do you mind if I grab some water? Is this fillable? Also, if you're at a dump station or a place where you can do things like that, they usually have a spout, but they don't have a hose. Keep a hose on you at all times. And also, there are apps for these things. You will be prepared. You don't have to worry about that. As far as the wood, I really loved the contrast just against the color. Bringing some ColourPop in there is still a clean look. That's all preference, but my kitchen honestly functions like a studio apartment. Realistically, when I'm in my kitchen, I feel very comfortable. I cook way more in the van than I ever did inside of my home. I don't know if I'm living out my childhood dreams of easy bake oven or my dollhouse dreams, but I like the size of it, and I also do get to plan things out and go smoothly. Having a view also removes all the time. Sometimes I like to take my time and cook all day. Along with me being a mom, this kitchen is so perfect for my son. Him cooking, it looks like the kitchen is made to suit him, and so I've been including him with his chores and teaching him how to cook. We're navigating pancakes right now, but we're doing that, and it's just so beautiful to watch because it's all made for his size, so I love it. The most amazing part of my kitchen is honestly my cutting board, and that's because my cutting board is one of those slash items. It has a multipurpose. This is a desk and a cutting board. Yes, cooking and making sure meal prep is there and having a great view is really important, but also, I'm a mom, and I don't want my child to lose the stability just because we live this type of lifestyle. So he has his desk that has a view, and his chalkboard is right by him. When my son is with me, everything is pretty stable. We are either at the library or at our host family's house, and he has consistent internet, and he's able to get everything he needs done. But also, when he's with his dad or I'm on the road by myself, it's very important for me to have access to the same things. So I will set up here, and I'm uploading my videos, and I'm making sure I get the content out to you guys and getting my work done. You can make time to get your work done as well. Just pick your office for the day. That's really the hardest question that you have. Doing content creation means that I do have to get online sometimes, so I had to figure out reliable internet wherever it is that I'm traveling to. For that, I'm using internet service from Connect 10, who's the sponsor of this video. Over here is my router, and this works really great for my situation because it's completely mobile, meaning I can take my van anywhere, and I'm still able to be online. For example, my son is with his dad this weekend, so I decided to come out to St. George Island, have some me time, and enjoy the nature. So I have uploaded that footage already because I have my Connect 10, and later this evening, I'm gonna get cozy, and I'm gonna stream some shows. Connect 10 provides coverage for 95% of the United States and Canada, so I could practically go anywhere in this van and still have internet. They use coverage from several major carriers, and then they select the fastest one available. That way, you always have access to the fastest internet available. This setup is perfect for me because I spend half of my time in town with my son, and the other part, I'm out traveling. Moving from place to place just wouldn't make sense to get a traditional internet plan because it can't move the way my Connect 10 can, but they do also offer options for stationary homes. And because you can get internet service basically anywhere, their internet service is a great option for rural homes, especially because traditional internet services aren't provided there. They have a variety of data options that range from 50 gigabytes all the way to unlimited, so that you can find a plan that not only fits your usage needs, but your budget as well. And their customer service is responsive and helpful in case you do have any issues or questions. If you wanna find out more about Connect 10 and their internet plans, check out the link in the description below this video. Thanks, Connect 10 for sponsoring this video. When downsizing from a home to a tiny space, you don't have to worry about losing your sense of style or comfort. The entire space becomes a reflection of you. For example, in my kitchen, I still wanted it to feel like a regular house, a regular kitchen, a regular home. So what I did was put my kitchen on display by using magnets and zip ties. Get you some of those. You need them. My knives are hanging up here. And for my cups, I have my large mug, my glass, and my tiny mug on display, my spatulas and utensils, and my seasonings. I also chose to do a color backdrop on the wall. And I chose to use an actual home shade for the window instead of one of those metallic window covers that you see. And those were all options. By not boxing myself in, I chose to still treat my van like a home. These are home things. If you're downsizing, you're probably wondering, how am I gonna fit my home into this van? And I wanna tell you that the key is storage, storage, storage, but you have to be intentional with it. So all of this is storage, but the key is how you use it. For example, when you first move in, you might put things in a certain place, but I want to encourage you to move it around. You do not want inconveniences often when you're in a tiny space. Change it up to fit your needs. For example, my son is eight, and his snacks being up here did not work for me or my sanity, okay? We had to move them on the lower level. Now he can get his crackers and his oatmeal and all those things right there for him. And everything that I need to cook is up here, so all my seasonings. He's not worried too much about that. Next, make sure you have your junk drawer just so you feel comfortable. We wanna make sure that you take your junk drawer from your home to your van. Yes, I still have one, my utensils and everything like that. And also, when we talk about decorating your van to look like your original home, your napkins is a big part of that. You can still drill those things up here. And another touch that I like to add is adding some motion sensor lights. And they're just magnetic, and they stick right here. And when you get up at night, they pop on. It reminds you of home. You can make the comfort however you'd like. Often people think that you won't have enough counter space in a tiny home, and that's simply not true. I think it depends on the build that you have. And again, my build was centered around having the view, okay? So my entire kitchen setup is over there because I want the view over here, which left all of this open, which is also why I didn't put a shower inside of my van. A lot of times when watching videos, just like you probably are, I heard a lot of people say that they either had trouble using their shower or it ended up being storage. And so I just opted for the storage on the front end. We wanna make your tiny home comfortable, but we don't want it too comfortable. I'm telling you, you do not wanna be laid up in the bed trying to get your work done. It's not going to happen. Get you an office chair, okay? So this office chair is amazing. It saves me from bedriding all the time because even though working at the beach seems amazing, working at the beach is very difficult, okay? So at least get out the bed. So I have my office chair. It fits amazing under my desk slash cutting board. And you know what I have underneath this chair? More storage. That is where all of my son's educational and schoolwork and all of my coloring books that I need to keep me sane. Also right here, we have my pantry slash closet. There are a lot of slashes on here, okay? Get you some slashes in your tiny home because you gotta fit everything on. So all of my clothes don't fit in here, just the stuff that needs to be hung up. And so I will remove that stuff and then you have all of the pots, pans, and cups and all of that stuff here. Now, be open to moving your things around. That is not originally where I had these things. My pots and pans were actually under here. And remember, my son was having issues grabbing things. And so when you have an inconvenience, just fix it and don't judge yourself. Just move it around to what feels comfortable. And as you get used to your van, you'll see what feels better for you. I would love to say that my fridge stays stocked, but that's not the truth. I live off girl dinner. But when it is stocked, everything goes in here. This is my fridge. It usually has some kid art on it. The only problem I have is that it is solar powered. Now this is beautiful because when the van runs out of power I can turn on the van and it will power my fridge. But in the winter times when it's just gloomy and you know, I will grab a small cooler and I keep it on the van as extra. If you plan to travel all the time, you'll probably have more solar. But unfortunately, when I got this built, I did not know I was gonna be living in here 100% of the time. So I'll just give you that heads up. Make sure that you have enough solar power. And if not, carry a little cooler. It's not too inconvenient. I promised that we would return to the furnace and here we are. So down here, I have the furnace under my fridge. And what happens is that I take the propane hose off for the stove and I swap it and I put on the furnace hose. I turn on my thermostat, which takes a little bit of solar power electricity and it powers straight through. And it is very quick. I originally purchased this van as a vacation home and I ended up living in the van because I invested all of my money into a business a year later. And I ended up going bankrupt in that business. In the midst of transition financially, I needed a way to be a stable mother. I don't think that just because you go through a difficult time or need to transition from one thing to another, that your life needs to be unstable. I think that I still deserve a beautiful place to live to feel safe and to still have a life that I feel like I don't need a vacation from. Yes, I'm going through a lot of things financially, but who says I don't deserve to go to the beach or have a vacation? It might look different and it might be on a different budget, but this allows me to choose me and take care of me first. My quality of life should not be determined by how successful I am. Whether I'm up or down or transitioning, this is beautiful and I love that. Originally, I thought that I wanted an RV, but after finding out that I could build out a Ram ProMaster, I decided on this due to the size. I'm 5'3", I have a son, and when he leaves, it'll just be me. And so I just wanted to make sure my home always fit my size. If you're having trouble finding a van, you can look for a dealership in another state, which is what I did. I ended up buying my van for 44,000 brand new from a dealership in Colorado. And then the builder took over from there. And so I did not actually go out and get the van until it was completely finished. My build-out was 50,000 and that covered the entire design of the van. We chose what my non-negotiables were, made sure I had everything that I needed. So my monthly expenses, honestly, are about $1,500 a month. Most of that is my bankruptcy payment because it's 650. I told you guys I'm getting my life back on track and so make sure that you account for that when it comes to doing your monthly budget. To dump my toilet, it's about 10 bucks. To fill up my water, it's $1.50 for five gallons. I don't have an electricity bill because my van is solar powered. I pay for gas, I pay for groceries. So if you're looking to go into this lifestyle, those things are not gonna change. I did monitor and audit my subscriptions because those can get really out of hand if you're not paying attention. And that's pretty much it. My bills come up to $1,500 a month and that's mostly groceries and my bankruptcy payment, so. Now this is the most important part of the van. Where do you go to the bathroom? Ta-da! It's a toilet with a view. This is my toilet. I have a flushable toilet. It is not composting because I don't know how to work that stuff. I just needed a toilet that worked. There are wipes for your pleasure. I have toilet solution because you want the solution for the stuff to do what it needs to do. And I have toilet shoes because you're gonna have to dump it and you don't wanna dump it in your regular shoes. So I keep all that beautiful stuff right here. And then we just close that on up. All right. When we first moved into the van, this was originally a whiteboard and it had pictures and that was great. But when we moved into the van full time, one of the most important things to me was making sure that my son did not feel any adjustment in his school life or anything like that. And so I made the decision to turn this into a chalkboard wall. And this actually is deeper than it looks. In every single place that we've ever stayed, a house, we had a chalkboard wall. And I just assumed that that was done. But changing this to a chalkboard wall in here really changed my mindset that your tiny home can be just as resourceful as your full time space. So don't get clouded in your mind to think that something has to stop just because you decided to downsize. Next, a full size mirror was a must for me. Okay, do you see all this hair I have? I had to make sure I could whip it and put it in my ponytails and stuff. No, but like seeing myself and being able to know what I look like before going out was very important to me regardless of where I stayed. And it also works as a great divider. So as like a safety visual from the front. So it actually slides right here behind this when I'm driving and also up here for storage because storage, storage, storage. Our clothes that we wear the most are under the bed. Things that I need like my skates for my hobbies and life jackets and all those things and the clothes that we wear the most, they're stored right here under the bed. Do not forget to put your storage under your bed. And this is my bedroom. I love it, welcome. So over here, we have our little nightstand area. So I have a mirror to, you know, do my makeup and do all my hair and put in the ponytail and stuff. And this is the thermostat I was telling you guys about and some different remotes, right? I also have a holder for lights. All around the van, you might see these little magnets and that is because I use battery powered lights to help conserve solar power. As far as the bed, it also converts to a picnic table. That's how it was when I purchased it. But I love to keep it in the bed format just because I put a lot of comforters and pillows and things like that as well as just, it's a lot to change it back and forth, but I love that I have the option. And on top of the bed, I have a heated blanket, a fleece blanket and two more smaller blankets here. We don't ever wanna be stuck outside and be cold, but also I don't need them always all the time. So I just made it a part of the decor by folding it and putting it under here. Now, as far as my bedroom television, we used a electric blind shade and with this remote here, it comes down. It is zip tied, so you can't do it right now, but you just press the button and it comes down. We place our projector and we're able to catch a movie and the remote for the projector itself. And of course, more storage. My books and journals and all different types of things are all stored here. Welcome to my garage. Don't judge me, I'ma let the garage up, okay? Everything is here. I have space for extra clothes. I have my lawn chairs, my grill. I be grilling up some crazy, okay? I have my heater, my washing supplies, makeup. I have my fishing supplies under here. Oh my God, everything. Everything in your garage, all right? Just move that to right here. Make sure that your bed can be used for storage when you're doing your build. I think that's just an amazing tip, okay? If I could leave you with any words of wisdom, first I would say, make sure that you have a solid community, whether it's the people that you know that need to support you as you make this transition or making a new community. I had to make new community. And right now my son and I have an 18 month lease with a host family, which means we have access to park on their property. And it's like, we're always on a campsite. So we have access to power and we have access to a shower. And it really gives my son the stability that he needs being in school. My main question that I'm always being asked is how are you doing this as a mom? Community is the answer. And even if you have to go choose and create new community, I highly suggest you do so. I do not pay to stay with the host family because they saw what I had going on. And also it doesn't make a big difference in their bills as using the shower every now and then. The second is be aware that this lifestyle is going to put you in close proximity with yourself. And you might not like what you see. This lifestyle is going to reveal to you how you have been contributing to your own exhaustion. And sometimes that's not easy. So just give yourself grace and don't judge what you see about yourself. Just slowly try to make changes. And third, please do not hold yourself back from living or think that you have to have failure or success to enjoy life. You should be enjoying your life just off rip, okay? You don't have to use success and failure as permission slips to do so. You can go off and restart your life as many times as you want to. And it doesn't have to be big. Just start with a tiny thing each day. What would the you that's living this life be doing today? Or would they be doing the thing that you're doing? So just make tiny changes, atomic habits, and understand that you have everything that you need. If it feels good, go towards that. And if it doesn't, move away from it. Leave it at that. If you guys would like to follow along with my journey, I would love to have you. On Instagram, you can follow TheCharlieVarenCafe. And on YouTube, you can find our vlogs and all of my work and content from before at Samia Burton, S-A-M-I-A B-U-R-T-O-N. Thank you, bye.