Living Alone in a Van as a Woman 50 Honest Tour Daily Life

Living in a van might sound crazy but I can tell you firsthand that it has given me a sense of peace and groundedness that I never found in a house or in an apartment or any other way of living. I'm Laurie and let's dive deeper into that. Welcome to my little kitchen. It is four feet long by two feet wide and I absolutely love it. I came from sort of larger award-winning chef's kitchens and I don't know, there was something overwhelming for me about that. It's almost like when I'd open up the drawers and the cupboards and see the multiple sizes of pots and pans, I was like, I should be using all that. I should be throwing these huge parties. I don't know. It was overwhelming. So I have one large pot, one large pan. I've got a few knives. The very bare minimal things that I use when I open up my drawers, I just feel peace and I love this pared down kitchen and I use every inch of it. In terms of appliances, I have, well, four, including the fridge. I have a cooktop, toaster and the Nutribullet. It's all I use. Love it. I do have a Ninja Air Fryer toaster oven that I kind of pop in and out depending on the length of the trip I'm going to do in this van. But for now, this is all I brought. So works great. Having just one burner hasn't made a difference for me because I love doing one pan type of meals, frying up vegetables, throwing in some protein, whatever like that. Simple, done. And often I actually eat out of the same pan because it's just less dishes. The choice of an electric cooktop as opposed to a propane or a butane, I just don't like the ideas of those gases in the van. They kind of scare me. And maybe the off gas thing. I don't know. I just like the electric. And because my solar system and my battery system are so robust, it's not a problem using this electricity. I have a 3000 watt inverter. And what that does is it takes the power from my batteries and turns it into 110 volts. So you can just plug anything in that you'd use in a normal house. So love it. Easy, small, efficient. And I've got everything I need with that. Prepping in this small kitchen is super easy. They talk about like three point kitchens and this is literally a one pointer. So everything I have is super accessible. There's very few things that I can't do in this kitchen that I can do at home. So that's all I need. This is an isotherm marine fridge. It is a three cubic foot fridge and freezer combinations. So I can go for two weeks in this fridge. Absolutely perfectly. It is deep and it's been awesome. Actually, I originally, they installed a Dometic fridge in this van. And not only was it not a great setup, it was so loud. This isotherm, it is silent. So love it. Well, there's a lot of sinks you could go with in a van. And I chose, you know, it's a fairly large size and undermount as opposed to overmount. I found that the overmount one, you're just putting crumbs and you couldn't, it would get caught in the creases. So this you can wipe easily, goes inside the sink. And when you don't want to look at, if there is mess in there, you can just close it up. I have a water filtration system, which just great for drinking water, gooseneck to be able to wash feet outside. If you're sandy day at the beach. Yeah, it's a great system. It's big enough to wash Tessa. I know some people think that's gross, but I do disinfect it after I wash her. So I like a big sink. I love how the efficiency of my under sink cupboard area, cleaning supplies, everything I need under there, laundry, et cetera, here is garbage. And I just love this, all my little things that I need tucked away. And one of the reasons why I chose to actually go the under the chassis gray water system, rather than a lot of people have their gray water, they just have, you know, two or three or five gallon containers underneath here. And it just goes right down is you then lose all of this storage. And so very convenient to just have easy when you go from a home to a tiny, you don't want to be right. Or at least I didn't want to be rigmarole rolling around with a lot of those inconveniences, let's say. So I just love this area. Well, after living in a van for way more years than I ever anticipated, I have dialed this kitchen in to the most efficient and effective setup, storage, implements, everything that I need. And I love it. I'm happy that I'm a shrimp at only five, six, because it allows me to sleep East West and Boho builders, they create a inset, which allows actually a full size mattress with only two inches chopped off the bottom. One little change I made after living in this van for a of months is the mattress height. I was just feeling a little bit too like touchy on the heady. And so I got a four inch, which I was a little nervous that this that would be comfortable or not. But it's actually great. And the added room above my head is it was worth the little change. One question I get a lot, why so few windows in the van, people think they want to have all the windows, super purposeful for a number of reasons. One safety, just the fewer windows, I don't know, I just feel safer, sound attenuation, as well as heat and cold, the more windows the just you don't retain what you want to retain, obviously cool in the summer and heat in the winter. The other thing is, is I really believe humans were made to we are cave dwellers, like we are we feel safe in small places. And I have the best sleeps in this little cave than in any sort of big, huge room that I've ever slept in. So few windows, very purposeful, and it was the right call for me. So another design decision to make is whether you would like a fixed bed or a convertible bed. With my lifestyle, it didn't make any sense to have another configuration other than a fixed bed. This is raised, it gives me a ton of room underneath for a garage, it fits my bike, my stand-up paddleboard, gear for hiking, Tessa's gear, it's just a, I love it, it's tucked away underneath. And I did not want to rigmarole with opening and closing a bed every night, that just felt like a bit of a nightmare. Now for some people, their lifestyle, they need that. So, but mine, this is what I needed. When I'm up in the bed, this is like the no work zone. So when I'm up here, I'm reading scripture, I'm in prayer, I'm reading a book, snuggling with her, and just chilling and being. And during the day, I transition to my desk or the stand-up area, and that's where I do the majority of my work. I just love sitting at this desk. I have the view, and I have my scripture, or I have my work. Whatever it is I'm focused on, that's all. I noticed in my office at real life, home, house life, whatever you want to call it, there was just so many distractions. And I sit down to prayer, to read, or to just like my brain. I don't know if it's my brain, or I think a lot of us are dopamine dependent. We're just all like sparkly things, distractions. There are no distractions here. I love this area. It scooches right into me if I want to be close, want a little space. This lagoon table has been fantastic. It's not big, but I'm not a big person, so I don't need a bunch of space. I just love tucking myself in here. If I want a little privacy, if I'm parked somewhere, just scooch that out. And like it's weird, but I love this little desk. I don't know if fan life changed me really, but it had me realize who I actually am. And so there was this deep inquiry of why were parts of my life not feeling peaceful? And I think I was outside of like my truth. And when I look at right from when I was 16, and my gap year, went and sort of nomad around Europe, and my favorite adventures have been motorcycling around the States, and Canada, and Mexico, and Europe. And this, like traveling, seeing new sites and new adventures, like it does something to me. And that was sort of dampened down, or I just didn't realize it as much. And it is so crystal clear to me. That's why I pivoted from having to find or wanting to find a piece of land to, oh, I don't want to be tied down to a piece of land. I have my place in Vancouver that I use, and go and support my parents, and see my friends, and I have my life up there. But this lifestyle is, it's like who I truly am. And that I discovered in these last three plus years. Originally, I was a bit nervous going out in a van by myself. So I did a full stealth outside, no ladders, no nothing hanging off my van. After three years, I realized I never felt unsafe. There's maybe two occasions where I just had a sense, so I drove away. But other than that, I feel very secure in here. It does lock. I have a dog who will alert me if somebody's snooping around. And I do have a couple of protections. And then, you know, as a little hack, you can put men's large shoes out your door. And that will alert people that maybe you're not just a single female in the van. So if you're trying to do this, or thinking you might want to do this, this adventure as a woman, and you're a touch afraid, I would say just step out. And when we step out in courage, we realize what we're made of. And we realize that there's this whole incredible world out there that that you deserve to experience as well. When living in a van, you want to make sure your daily experience isn't super cumbersome. So I designed the closet to be high enough that I could hang things without having to bend down and also so that your sleeves aren't dangling on the floor. So that was the height reason has ample room for shoes. I love this design of the cubbyhole for the blackout blinds, it's tall enough for the really large ones that go on the front windshield, but also for all the littler ones. A lot of people have to shove them sort of up there and lose all the storage from above your headliner. So I got the white top adventure headliner shelf, and it's been fantastic, lots more storage. And it also is the and gives me the ability to use curtains instead of actually having to blackout the front of the cab. And the mirror is for maximizing views, as well as it just makes the place feel bigger, let's face it, mirrors do that. Originally, I had this bank of drawers on the right hand side, but last minute I switched it, I thought I better use this more as like a bedside table. And it turned out to be an awesome switch because at the very end of this whole process, I asked Boho, who are the van builders, am I missing anything? Like you guys are pros, what am I missing? And they said, the one thing we recommend is you put a little step on this bottom drawer to easily access the bed. So it was a great switch from there to here. And then boom, we got this little bonus step. Let's talk toilets and bathrooms. So I have had the black tanks, I've had cassette toilets, I've had compost toilets, I've used all of those things. And for this build, I just didn't want any of it. In a small space, I just did not like the idea of having any funkiness in this. This is my kitchen, this is my bedroom, this is my office. And no matter how well you maintain some of the other systems, I just found that there was always a little funkiness. So I have a very strange satisfaction with being able to just pee in a mason jar or a coffee can or something like that and put the lid on. And when it's convenient, I go and I pour it out somewhere. And then for the other, once a day, there's cafes, restaurants, rest stops, I'm at the gym. And if I am out in nature, you have a shovel and you make sure that you leave no trace. This is responsibly done. And really, if we think about it, we did not have plumbing till about 150 years ago. So for millennia, human beings found a way to do their business. Humans are the only species that figure we need all these other accoutrements to do our business. And really, if we get creative, we don't need all that stuff. And I love that none of it is in my van. So the other component of a bathroom is obviously the shower. I've had fixed showers, I've had convertible showers, and neither worked for me. So in this one, I chose something different. I way prefer this outdoor setup. I love being in nature. And I just, there's something freeing about showering outside. So this has been great. And it's mounted purposefully very low, because when you spend all the energy and time, which these do, heating up the water, and you're outside with a low flow shower head, it's kind of a fine mist. And so what I found on my first one, which was mounted higher is by the time it hit my body, it was cold. So this one's mounted literally head height. And then when I'm in a city, you know, I've planted fitness, I go to different gyms. When I'm in the country, I'm bathing in a river or in a lake, and also sponge bathing in the bath. So with all of those options, you can keep very clean living tiny. The reason why I did the higher fixed bed is so I could have a ton of room in my garage. So this is where on the right hand side, I keep my 24 gallon water tank, six gallon hot water tank, and a lot of storage for bikes, paddle boards, all the fun things. And then on the left hand side of the garage is my full energy bank. When I first started living in a van, I thought that 300 watts of solar would be sufficient to juice the 400 amp hour of lithium batteries. There was a few too many times where it just wasn't. So with this one, I went with 400 watt solar on the roof to juice those those batteries. And I've also got this inverter, which allows me to use all of the appliances in the van, it converts the power from these batteries to the 110 volt, whereas a lot of the systems in there are running off the 12 volt, which just goes right to the batteries. So that's been working really well. The other way that these batteries are charged is a DC to DC inverter. And that just happens when you're driving the van, it juices the lithium batteries. One of the things I wanted to make sure is that I had enough power to be able to go off grid for at least a few weeks. And actually a few weeks is if you have enough power to go for a few weeks, you have enough power to go forever kind of thing. Because if you've got the solar, of course, and this system is more robust than I even need it. And that gives me comfort. I can also plug in there's shore power cable if there if I ever needed it, but I haven't. So another sort of daily experience I wanted to be convenient was to have all my controls, eye level and accessible and all in one place to just keep it sort of minimal looking. This shows me how much water I have. It shows me how my batteries are doing. It's I can turn on and off my convert and my inverter to save energy as my as my lights, as well as my hot water tank, my hot water heater. And this little baby is one of my favorites. It's my heating system, which I turn on most mornings when I'm camping in the cold. And it's a diesel heater, so it splices into my diesel tank. And so I don't use any extra power. So when I'm cold and I'm pumping that thing through, there's usually not a lot of solar. So I love that it is splicing into my diesel heater. It's an SBAR it's called. They're great. They're from Germany and they make a great product. One thing I was a little concerned about setting out was like, am I going to be lonely? And actually, in that first two or three months before I got things figured out, there was some deep loneliness. Like there was some, what have I done? I'm in the middle of nowhere by myself, like a real sense of aloneness on the planet. And that was good. That was healing. It was it was wonderful. No complaints. But then as I got rolling and I discovered, oh man, I am just I can go visit all my friends. I have a lot of friends all over the western states and, you know, a lot of the states, but I've only traveled western and go visit them, be self-contained. And then as well, having a van or having a rig is like having a puppy. When you are out on the side of a park and you have your doors open and you're out reading a book or you're with your dog or whatever you're doing, like people come and they say, hi, it's very social that way. And then, you know, those are short interactions. But then meeting other vanners or other travelers, other nomads, those are longer connections. You'll actually sit and maybe, hey, let's have a happy hour together. Or, hey, let's go for a hike together. Hey, let's go paddleboard like that. So you meet a lot of people as you go and they're like-minded people. So it's actually more lonely as a single person living in a closed apartment or home than living in a van that's open and you're mobile. It was unexpected. Well, thanks for touring my little tiny home with me. I know time is valuable. And if you have any questions, feel free to put them in the comments below. I try to keep up on those. And as well, if you'd like to stay in contact, my website is laurieliving.com and that will be listed below as well. So thanks for visiting.