The Not-So-Great Side of Van Living: 6 Challenges

We are fast approaching three full years of van living. Wow, has the time flown! Van life is awesome. But there are a few challenges.

When we started this crazy brave adventure, we didn’t know we’d be on the road this long. Winging it, as usual, we didn’t make any long term plans.

We rented out the house and told ourselves we’d live in the van “until we didn’t want to any more.”

Many of our friends figured they’d see us back in the neighborhood in a year’s time.

And who knows, it could have gone like that. Two people (and a large, 12 1/2 year old dog) in a low top van…. It might have been a little hellish.

But it wasn’t.

We loved van life from the start and really never looked back.

Three years later, although Milo has ended his adventure, Dan and I are still going strong.

There are so many, many things we love about wandering in our tiny, low-budget van. We may never quit.

Buuuut… this post isn’t about all that.

Today, we are focusing on the stuff we don’t much like about van living. So join us on an excursion to the less-awesome side of our van-life adventure.

Here, we share six challenges we have learned to live with in three years on the road.

Cold Mornings

We expected to follow perfect 70 degree weather around the country. But it doesn’t always work out that way.

If we’d known how often we’d wake up to frosty windows, maybe we’d have designed our van differently……. um, nah!

We are happy with our build. And we’ve made our peace with some of the less convenient aspects of our life on the road.

But cold mornings are not one of them.

Our teeny home is 98% warm enough for whatever weather we encounter. We did a touch of insulating. But wanted the HEAT to dissipate more than we wanted the cold to stay out.

And we carry high quality sleeping bags from our backpacking days. We can sleep comfortably in temperatures down in the low 20s (Fahrenheit). As long as we are snug in our bed, we are cozy-warm.

But those early mornings, when the sun hasn’t yet warmed our little home, can be rough.

We’re talking gloves and frozen toes rough. Rough enough for a running conversation about heaters. In fact, we recently added one.

After a cold couple of days in Wyoming, Dan ran into a “ranch store” for propane and came out with a tiny, $20 electric heater. It sucks power like nobody’s business. But when we woke up to snow a few days later, it was kinda nice to have. Maybe cold mornings won’t suck as much now.

Gross Public Toilets

We don’t regret our decision not to carry a toilet . But there are times where public toilets are just, well…. gross.

Plastic porta-potties, public parks and local picnic areas tend to have the most offensive facilities. Especially in states where little money is devoted to public services. (Lookin’ at you, Texas. And you, deep south, USA.)

But there are many reliably clean restrooms. Truck stop chains, rest areas, and coffee shops generally have terrific facilities. And camp hosts do a terrific job in most forest service pit toilets.

And so, this aspect of van-life is avoidable….usually.

Losing Things… in 66 Square Feet

Our living space is tiny. And every item we own is either essential or deeply sentimental.

Each item has its place. Yet, we are constantly losing things! We’re always rummaging through the “junk drawer.” Or pulling everything fricken’ thing out of the cupboards.

How frustrating is this? Very!

It’s my fault (mostly). I have a penchant for organizing… and reorganizing every few months. But then again, Dan has a penchant for shoving things into random spots and forgetting about them.

Doing Dishes

To be honest, doing dishes is (maybe) one of the worst things about house life too. But in a van, the badness is quadrupled.

In designing our van, we planned to do 99% of our cooking outside. We weren’t keen on grease and food smells befouling our tiny space.

And it didn’t seem practical to devote space to large tanks of fresh water and gray water.

And so, we wash the dinner dishes outside with water heated on on the camp stove… Usually in the dark, often in the cold.

And, though we spritz them with a vinegar/water solution, the dishes are never squeaky clean. Such is dirtbag life.

The whole process is a little impractical and frustrating. Sometimes it’s chilly or wet or sweltering too. I’m lucky that Dan doesn’t mind it half as much as I do.

Medical Care, Mail and other Nomadic Challenges

This one’s a biggie. Now that we’re on the road, we’ve had to make many adjustments. Our medical insurance, car insurance, and permanent address have all changed over the last few years.

We are super lucky to have awesome family members who forward our mail for us. And they make space for the boxes of rocks I send them, too!

We are also lucky to have a health insurance plan available that gives us access to care throughout the country.

But figuring out this stuff on the fly hasn’t been great. Last summer, our auto insurance was discontinued and we had to scramble for a new one. And our old health plan didn’t allow for medical care out of state (Found THAT out the hard way!)

Again, I feel extra fortunate. Because Dan has infinite patience with bureaucracy, and he’s managed to stay on top of these things.

Thanks to family and friends, we get our mail. But it sometimes takes a while to catch up to us.

And we’ve become permanent Florida residents to make all of this a bit easier to manage. We have family in Florida. Though we think this state is a more than a little crazy, we spend more time there than anywhere else.

In short, these nomad-life challenges are frustrating and time consuming. But it all works out in the end, right?

Lack of Privacy

Dan and I are serious introverts and privacy is important to us. You’d think, living in our own tiny wheeled-universe would grant us all the privacy we need. And it often does….

But we often have neighbors a few feet away, especially in towns or rest areas or harvest host spots. During peak summer, almost every park and campground is packed on weekends.

Our beloved Stevan is many things, but roomy ain’t one of them. And — as we often mention — we live OUT of the van not in it. We cook outside, hang out in our chairs and hammocks, even do yoga (sometimes). In busy or crowded places, we feel like we are on view.

This is one of the reasons why we love long, bumpy dirt roads and secluded boondocking spots: Privacy. Lots of it!

Though we get along swimmingly, we sometimes need a bit of privacy from each other too. Especially when washing up or working.

I tend to wake up early and enjoy a quiet hour of coffee, word puzzles and correspondence. Dan stays up later and enjoys quiet work time — or video games — long after I go to sleep.

No Regrets!

It’s not all rainbows and unicorns on the road, but we are all in!

To our way of thinking, the positives far outweigh the negatives. And the challenges on our list are not so bad at all.

Best of all: you can design your van, and van life to match your own preferences. Maybe you enjoy the social aspects of busy campgrounds, or have the space to build a proper sink and kitchen.

To our way of thinking, the freedom and adventure of travel far out way these less awesome-aspects of van living.

We’d love to hear from you: Planning to hit the road? What van living challenges do you anticipate?