A Quick Q & A, Van Life Style

 Hey Y'all,

I had the idea to do a van life specific Q & A, but finding questions was harder than I thought. Eventually I came across this blog, and took the questions from there.

• How do you find places to sleep as a van lifer? 
• Sometimes is fairly easy, and you find a parking spot or campground, and hunker down. Other times it seems everywhere you try has no overnight parking signs. That's when we scour the apps, and other online resources. We like all the same ones I'm sure you've seen mentioned before. One website, that admittedly needs some updating, is  freecampsites.net but it's still a decent one to check if the others are coming up with nada.
• 
  
• What is the hardest part of van life?
• For us it's the yucky days. If it's storming outside for hours on end we don't really want to venture out, but we also get bored just hanging in the van. We have a blog post recently about our rainy day activities, but they're still the hardest part.
• 
  
• How do you get insurance for your camper van?
• It was much the same as insuring any other vehicle. We called our current insurance provider, explained our van and it's usage, they explained coverage options, and our insurance was started on the van that day. We did research a few other options, but found they didn't offer much more, but the cost difference was huge.
• 
  
• [Couples] How do you manage a relationship in a tiny space?
• Much the same as before, just less space. We spend time doing our own things, for example Amanda crafts, reads, plays sims, and Chris games, codes, etc. Most outdoor activities we do together. We both are content hanging out together but doing separate things. All the adventure, and planned activities we do together. 
• 
  
• How do you cook meals living in a camper van?
• We've yet to cook in the van, but with the new storage cabinet we can! We do all our cooking outside, either on the Blackstone or the bottle top. We also keep meals on hand that don't require cooking, for those stormy days or days we don't want to cook.
• 
  
• How much food can you store in a van ?
• We have a small fridge, and enough storage space for more than a weeks worth of food. Longer if we use less fresh ingredients. We typically restock once a week anyhow, and try to meal plan a bit between trips to see how far/long we can go. We did 10 days once, but did eat out twice during that time.
• 
  
• Do Van Lifers have storage units?
• Some do, some don't. 
• We fell into the selling most, but not all category. We kept our bedroom furniture, kitchen table, game systems, games, movies, books, kitchen stuff, and office stuff. We sold TVs, LR and Den furniture, appliances, bookshelves, cars, etc..
• 
  
• How do you make friends while living van life?
• We tend to keep to ourselves. We've also found most others do too. Occasionally we'll have a conversation with a fellow traveler, but in those instances it's usually just once. While Chris is a more chatty person, we both don't feel the need to make friends everywhere we go.
• 
  
• On Working and Van Life
• We are currently just doing the social media thing, and it's work, but not really an income. In the next year or so we plan to add in some workamping.
• How does workamping work?
  Workampers usually receive more than one type of compensation, ranging from a free or discounted campsite to free utilities to fully paid wages. Work camping is usually offered at established campgrounds and RV parks, but some state and national parks will offer volunteer exchanges.
• 
  
• On Hygiene and Van Life
• If we aren't somewhere that has a toilet, we have our own. We just add the bag, and some wood shavings, and go. We do not poop in the van. A public toilet is never that far away.
• We also have an outdoor shower but prefer to utilize the gym when we don't have one available. We typically only shower every couple of days, unless we've done some sweating or gotten dirty.  

Do you have any questions for us? Leave them in the comments below!

Thanks,

The Outlands