Our Best Van Life Tips & Tricks, Top 5

 Hey Y'all!

Today we're going to share our best tips & tricks we've found over the past 2+ months FT van living. Feel free to leave yours in the comments below!

Top Five:

1) There is no "right" way to travel.

We find we like travel best when we drive for a few hours and stop for a while. We also don't really like driving at night (and missing all the scenery). We don't follow the 222, or 333, or any other rule, but we typically stop around the 3-4hr mark, and stop for 1hr to 1 day. We have noticed stopping more with closer destinations the gas milage isn't as great as it was that first big trip, but it's still pretty good. What's your travel rule?

2) What works for others may not work for you, and that's okay!

We find we love travel centers, and regular old touristy stuff just as much as (if not more than) the off the beaten path/ hard to find locations. We like doing a little research about a place, then really digging deep once we arrive. 

2B) We really wish google maps had an avoid interstate option, the avoid highways is not the same, since it has you avoiding so many roads and not just interstates.

3) We quickly realized taking the canopy was going to be a must for us.

4) Hitch mounted storage was a game changer.

The canopy (which was originally bought from Academy Sports for $50 for doing craft shows) is the perfect shelter to hang out outside if it's only raining a bit. Somewhere to stay in the shade on warmer/sunny days. A place to cook when raining. So may reasons it was a must for us! We rearranged yet again, bought a hitch mounted storage thingy from Ollie's, and expanded our storage space. In the rear (on the hitch) we currently have all our kitchen supplies, the canopy, and our chairs. (you'll see in the upcoming van tour!) There is still more space available, and I'm sure we'll rearrange yet again soon, lol.

5) Sometimes it's size vs cost.

Just because the larger size of an item may be cheaper in the long run doesn't make it better for van living. Space is a huge factor, sometimes more so than cost. We're currently using up what we had previously, but our shampoo for example is rather large, and we've realized we could save so much space with the smaller sizes. For us the space on this outweighs the added cost per oz. Another example is propane, the larger bottle is cheaper overall, but takes up far too much space for us, so we are using the 1lb bottles, and keep 2 on board. This may change come winter, when we need to run heat.

What are some of your tips, tricks, and van life ideas? Let us know in the comments below!

Thanks,

The Outlands