Life lessons learnt in a Van

May first this year marked six months of vanlife for my boyfriend, casey and i. happy vanniversary to us! but what have we learned?

life in a van is certainly not for everyone. for some of us though, it presents a creative opportunity to explore an alternative and minimalist lifestyle firsthand. it may be misunderstood by some people, and it certainly doesn’t fit into the playbook of life that is prevalent in a lot of society, (you know..high school, college, marriage, house, family) but i was never one to play by those rules, or any rules really. life is one great adventure, and it has so much potential to be interesting and passionate and filled with experience every day; we just have to do what makes us feel alive.

it’s wild how many places our van has taken us in the last six months, while simultaneously seeming like it was just yesterday that we moved in. a lot has changed in our tiny home and in my perspectives on everyday life. living in a van full-time will challenge and change you, mostly mixing up our views on societal norms and how we own our time. it’s really just a fun way to live a little differently and find other methods of doing the ordinary tasks that take up some of our time.

i wrote up something on my blog rockmeetssoil celebrating half a year of van life and attempting to answer some common questions like, what was the most difficult part of moving from a home into a van? how do you deal with not having your own bathroom? where do you put all your stuff? how can you live so close to someone for so long? can you still eat well on the road?

living in a van can be difficult at times, but when you can say that your home has taken you all over the american west to 15 national parks and 11 monuments (so far), numerous hot springs, state parks, skateparks, and bodies of water..it’s kind of, sort of completely worth it