Dirtbag Life: Keeping (sort of) Clean on the Road

There are lots of wonderful things about living in a van. If you live on the road, you can catch every sunrise, explore beautiful new places, travel wherever you wish.

But cleanliness? Nope. It is not easy to keep clean on the road.

In almost three years in our van, we’ve settled into somewhat tidy existence… and we’re okay with that. In this post, we’ll share some advice about how to keep clean(ish) while living out of a small, no-frills van.

In our “house life” we showered every day. We ran nice warm water over our dirty hands, brushed our teeth with running water. And we took it all for granted.

Not so in our van life. These days, we have to plan for showers– laundry too. And hot water is at a premium. But after a few years on the road, we’ve developed systems that work to keep us (moderately) clean… “dirtbag” clean, anyway.

A Certain Amount of Dirt

When van camping, there are things you can do to keep neat, clean, and organized. But, know this: Whatever you do, it won’t be quite as clean as it was back home.

Our most important piece of advice is lean into it. Van life isn’t for sissies. Van folks have earned a dirtbag reputation. And — at least in our case — that isn’t entirely undeserved. We’ve gotten used to less frequent showers and laundries. A little dirt under our nails, a little dust on the dashboard, the bed, the counter…pretty well everything. When you’re living in a van, this is par for the course.

It’s okay though. We chose to live outside and have come to expect that the outside will live INSIDE as well.

There will ALWAYS be dirt. It is (literally) everywhere!

But there are a few things we do to keep ourselves — and our little home on wheels — clean and tidy.

Keeping Shipshape

After many months traveling, we’ve developed organizational systems. Every item in the van has its place. And — usually — we can find whatever we need immediately.

Bug screens? In the cupboard under the bookshelf.

Magnets? Stuck onto the inside of the barn doors.

Atlas? In the driver’s side seat pocket.

Vitamins? Next to the fridge.

Flashlight? Passenger seat pocket

Every morning, I take a few minutes to put away the stuff that migrated to the counter on the previous day. This clean up is quick and kind of fun. Reaching and stooping and stowing stuff is my form of “van yoga.”

Periodically, we re-organize our space, donating the stuff we just don’t use to thrift stores along the way. We are always trying to perfect and optimize our storage space.

So yeah, our first piece of advice is to optimize the organization in your van… and review it periodically. It will take you a while to figure out what you really need and where you can stow it.

And then you’ll do it all over again a few months later. That’s okay, just part of van living.

Everyday Habits

Doing dishes in our no-frills set up isn’t fun. We cook outside. And we do dishes outside too– usually in the dark, with water heated on our camp stove. And then we spritz the dishes with vinegar water, dry them off and put them away.

The routine is the same, wherever our kitchen happens to be.

Usually one of us cooks… and the other stands out in the dark scrubbing. (Can you tell this is not my favorite van-life thing?) We do it… right after we finish eating. Because dirty dishes are a hard NO in a van. We don’t want to attract critters. And we don’t want to wake up to crusty cold dishes that are even harder to wash.

We have other habits. We make the bed every morning. We put out a little welcome-mat type rug to minimize what we track in. And we use a small dustpan and broom to sweep out the stuff we do track in.

We keep our toothbrushes and toothpaste in a super convenient location to make sure we don’t forget to use them. Ditto with nail clippers and hair brushes.

If we’ve been boondocking for more than a few days and are starting to get a little um… ripe, no problem! We heat up water on the stove and and take a sponge bath in the van. We have several washcloths, a collapsible basin, and towels for this purpose.

Dirtbags, yes. But we take care of the important things.

A Few Weekly Washes

There are several things we do weekly– well, weekly-ish— to avoid full-on dirtbag existence.

Laundry

We wash our clothes about once a week. (Our laundry bag is always full at that point.) While at the Laundromat, we wash our rug and all our bedding too.

Laundry isn’t the best part of life on the road. You never know what your going to get when you pull up to a laundromat. Some are sparkling clean, some are full of broken and duct-taped machines. Or super expensive. Or super crowded. But even if you’re a dirtbag, ya just gotta.

Showers

When we first started our crazy brave adventure, I worried about finding showers. But now I know that they are easily found and (usually) private, hot and relatively clean.

Finding showers is surprisingly easy. If we are in a populated area, we find a Planet Fitness and shower with our membership. If not, there are campground showers at nearby state parks.

Our last– and best– resort, is a small town recreation center. The Western US has a bunch of these. They cost between $3-$6 for a day pass and often include use of a pool and hot tub. When all else fails, we’re not above using truck stop showers in a pinch. Some laundromats have showers as well, especially in areas with lots of hikers and tourists.

If you are stuck for showers, you can ask the friendly folks at small town visitor centers. They’ll point you in the right direction.

We always wear shower shoes in public showers. Foot fungus is just a little too dirtbag for us. My beloved yellow crocs have squished cross so many shower floors in so many places!

Fridge Clean Out

Another weekly (ish) task is cleaning out the fridge. Our cooler style fridge is awesome. But it quickly accumulates all sorts of detritus. Stuff leaks, or spills or who knows what. After a few days there’s always something gross in there. And liquid… unexplained liquid.

To clean it, we take everything out, and wipe down the insides with disinfectant wipes. It’s not so bad… gives us a chance to re-organize.

Occasional Clean Ups

I’d like to say we wash the outside of our van frequently. But we just don’t.

Maybe this is due to superstition. After our first ever car wash, Stevan blew a spark plug, and we had our first (and only) emergency car repair. We do wash the van when it really (really) needs it… um…. not real often. Like, twice.

When we moochdock (i.e. visit family) we take the opportunity to run all our kitchen stuff through their dishwasher.

We also empty out the “chuck box” periodically and wipe it down with disinfectant. Ditto for the dashboard.

A Messy Trade-Off

That’s pretty well it. Our van life isn’t spotless. But it is “clean enough.”

….And we are dirtbags. But not entirely.

After almost three years in our little home, we’ve made our peace with it.

As with so many aspects of van living, a little dirt is part of the trade-off. For a life of wandering and crazy, brave adventure, we we’ll take it.