Hi all I have now been houseless for the last 6 months now and what a six months it has been .from handing the keys to the estate agent on 7th August it has been pure joy. The few days leading up to the moving out day were very hectic has you would expect them to be. Mostly with running around clearing all the bills and the like fortunately I had been clearing the house of it contents over the previous 6 months selling off as much as possible.
There was never any second thoughts about what i was about to do I had been researching for the last three years on the possibility of living a life on the road.
If you take a look on youtube and search for the real hardcore motor homers that have given everything up either by choice or forced into a life on the road these are the people that learn the tricks and have all the tips to help you make your life in your campervan or motorhome more enjoyable.
I will say now if you have any doubts whatsoever about making this move do not do it if you are forced into making this move take a positive and confident attitude and look forwards to a new start. If you are sure from the start and have some finance,s this will make the transition a little easier but please bear in mind that the money will only buy you comfort living on campsites every day is just the same as living in a house .
Going out and looking for water taps ,looking for a nice spot to sleep,finding toilet facilities, going to a laundrette or indeed finding one nowadays and having a decent long shower is a thing of the past. Try this at home from getting up in the morning fill one 2 ltr bottle up with water that is all you can have for the day for everything your drinks for your personal washing your cooking and the washing of any pots you use and even for flushing the toilet. A tip for you if you save the water you wash and clean your teeth with plus the water you cook and wash the pots with in a bucket you should have enough to flush your toilet waste .
Having toilet and shower facilities on board are a great plus but remember to empty your toilet and lose your gray waste responsibly you will need to go and a campsite .
When you have your motorhome will you have solar panels Do you need them will you have a lesure battery and use an inverter what backup plans have you got if you run out of gas for your heat and cooking .
Are you prepared to place a tin cup over a candle to make a brew or try to warm a tin of bean's. Would you be prepared to go to bed at 5 pm just to keep warm would you go into the bushes on a busy layby to do your business and bury it then burn the toilet paper.Or you can poo into a plastic bag and find a doggy bin.?
Can you cope with having a rag on a stick wash for a few days on the run are you prepared to hand wash your socks and undes every other day. Wearing clean and well ironed clothing every day is not practical and the carrying of a full woredrobe of clothing is near impossible most of us carry two or three sets of summer clothes then come winter two or three sets of winter clothes .
Before i sold up completely i lived in a self build camper for one full year only going to my house and using it has a place of work between normal working hours anything else was done from the van and everything above-mentioned was tried i even spent so time prententing to be drunk getting in and out of bed with a gas fire on the floor and cadles lit around the place.
The idea behind this was to see if in a state of drunkenness i would set fire to anything I did by the way . I also sat in the van with a gas fire full on with the commercially available carbon monoxide alarms fitted in an attempt to set them off
Now what about the cost of living in a van this is quite hard to work out becouse everybody has different needs if your going to travel up and down the country your fuel costs are going to be high if staying in one area for a few weeks at a time your spend less on fuel ! cooking in the van will always be more cost effective than eating out all the time. The money you save by not moving all the time and finding a few laybys to sleep in few nights a week ! would more than cover a few nights on a campsite. So balance it out a little a bit of rough and a bit of smooth In other words it can cost has much or as little as you wish.
The van life to me dictates the type of clothing you will wear i tend to wear hiking and walking boots along with heavy and loose jumpers and tops.
The van life is a great life but it's not and never will be a bed of roses
The freedom you gain is priceless and worth more than all the possessions you will ever own.
