I lived in a Honda civic for ~2 months in Oakland/Berkeley, and am semi nostalgic about it now that I have a regular housing situation. I would usually mess around at a late night cafe until ~11-12, use the bathroom, go setup car for sleeping and then drive to a good spot. Wake up and go straight to the gym, light workout, sauna, shower, bam ready to go before 8ish. The main downfall was that I am 6'1 and a civic is not ideal for comfortable sleeping.

If you really want to try it though just do it some night, I started by just folding the seat down and putting a sleeping bag and pillow across it. It is pretty uncomfortable, but the absence of repetition really slows time and makes each day seem more vivid. Also if you have any qualms about using public restrooms you will get over them real quick.

Interesting idea. Thanks for sharing. Did you have any issues with attempted break-ins in the car at night? Or was it generally safe?

I imagine people don't usually break into cars that have people in them.

He was living in the East Bay. Thieves there do attempt to steal from cars that have people in them. Also, vandwellers often take steps to make it appear there is no one in the car, so thieves mightn't know until after they've broken in.

Unless the desire is around building it yourself, why not just purchase a small ~20 ft Class-B or Class-C RV? They have all the amenities built-in (including a toilet, shower, and waste storage tanks). Brand new they can be expensive ($50k+) but these depreciate quickly and you can find them routinely for a fraction of that.

If you're in the US, a motorhome counts as a house. Which means loans are mortgages: 15-30 yr terms and tax-deductions on property-tax and interest. (2018 may change that of course).

You then have to pay to park in campgrounds, and those fees are a huge added expense. Vans are absolutely horrid as houses, but they can hide themselves among normal vehicles to stealth camp on streets and same their owners money.

How about a box truck? Seems like it would be a lot easier to hack up the box than a van and you start with much more usable space. They won't look out of place parked on a street either, especially in the lower rent parts of town. You also don't have to worry about cops looking in those pesky windows.

Some van dwellers get a gym membership and use the facilities there. If it's a widespread chain then this can work for travelling to multiple cities.

Shit: rest areas, walmarts, starbucks, cathole in the bush, or a porta-potty in the van.

Shave: Grow a beard, truck stop restrooms in the morning, you'll blend right in with the truckers doing the same.

Shampoo: In the city swimming pools are a decent bet, sometimes you can just ask if you can just shower and they'll let you. Gym memberships like Planet Fitness can be reasonably priced for just the shower. In more remote areas, campgrounds are a good source of showers, sometimes free, sometimes a modest fee. Plenty of van dwellers will even setup a cleaning area in their van, usually some sort of bucket they can stand in a pour heated water over them selves, or at least a sponge bath.

I'm not a fulltime van dweller, I started off just skipping out on hotels during 2-3week long road trips, eventually moved into my car (Pontiac G6) for 6months in the Boston area. Now its more sporadic, a month or two here and there while doing some long distance hiking.

Reminds me of a joke I've heard:

What's the difference between a thru hiker and a homeless person? Gore-Tex.

> eventually moved into my car (Pontiac G6) for 6months in the Boston area.

That's crazy! May I ask where you parked in the evenings?

I wasn't right in downtown Boston but a bit north, I often parked between a few different Walmarts in the area or at the office park the company I worked for had their office in.

Though I guess I phrased that a bit poorly, I spent Dec-Mar in the Boston area and fled south after some significant snowfall in January and February (record breaking snow in 2015). While moving it was almost always in rest areas or trail heads (backpacking on the weekends).

There is a section on that: http://thevanual.com/health-and-hygiene

If you have a bigger vehicle and are doing some modifications you also can fit it onboard - basically add the same kind of bathroom setup any other small RV would have (small enclosed/encloseable space, shower-pan as the floor, chemical toilet, fold-out sink)

You forgot the most important S of all. How do you explain to your date that the vehicle _is_ the destination?

If your social skills are good enough, your date will explain that _their_ place is the destination.

What if they live in a van too?

Then I guess it won't be a problem for either of you.

(Assuming some minimum degree of limberness and agility.)

There's movie on Netflix called Talulah that begins with this premise.

Do you meant Tallulah from 2016 starring Ellen Page [1]?

[1] http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1639084/

Yep.

Just pick the right date, some of them would be quite excited.

What would be exciting about going back to a guy's van?

I mean, the whole thing is a living standard compromise to save thousands on rent. That doesn't make it an exciting destination - quite the opposite.

> the whole thing is a living standard compromise to save thousands on rent.

Actually I think you would find that almost universally, that's not the outlook of van dwellers.

> What would be exciting about going back to a guy's van?

I'm a heterosexual man, so nothing at all would be exciting for me.

But I'm willing to consider that others would find it exciting. And quite frankly, I can think of quite a few ladies I know who might.

You have not explored a viewpoint other than your own on this topic.

> that's not the outlook of van dwellers.

> You have not explored a viewpoint other than your own on this topic.

What is the outlook of van dwellers?

You're not really considering the demographic here. Pretty much all of the vandwellers I met are surf or climbing bums and some girls are absolutely into that - not to mention a few were girls anyway. Not everybody is after the clean cut young professional life.

> What would be exciting about going back to a guy's van?

So she can tell her girlfriends that she did it in a Van. Jokes aside, isn't it true that most women just wanna have fun / adventure? So it might be a new thing, depending on the lady in question.

Saving money on rent is a side effect of vanlife, not the premise. Many do it for the geographical freedom.

> the whole thing is a living standard compromise to save thousands on rent

Is it though?

3 S's: Starbucks, Starbucks, and... rec center.

Your problem living in a van in SF would be parking somewhere reasonably quiet without being harassed by cops, ticketed, or towed.

Its actually not that hard, Ive only been woken once at night.

Shave? You just need a small basin with some water and a mirror you can hang. And even the latter isn't strictly required.