why live in a van? — slim rims

Cause it beats living in Jersey.

I’ve wanted to live on the road since I was 18, when I toyed with the idea of taking a year off from college, throwing a mattress in the back of my Nissan Pathfinder, and driving around the country talking to people. I still regret chickening out. Since then, I’ve been pushing van life off into “the future.”

Doug first started thinking about it in 2016, when he stumbled across some van life vignettes on YouTube. He floated the idea of living in an RV to his ex, but she dismissed it. Which was for the best; disagreements about van life were kinda the least of their problems. Doug never wanted an RV anyway.

Why not?

The short answer: Because RVs are expensive and corny.

The long answer: When I was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Malawi, I lived in a one-room house with no electricity. I had to get my water from the well, and I pooped in a hole. My friend lived in a house with electricity and indoor plumbing. It was nice by Malawian village standards, but not by American ones. My friend’s home was basically a depressing apartment; mine was an authentic Malawian experience.

I’d rather live in a van that knows it’s a van than a U-Haul that’s pretending to be a house.

Doug’s into how stealthy and clandestine a van can be. You could park in any residential neighborhood if you needed to, and no one would think anything of it. And building it out has been a satisfying personal project.

“I’m really into repurposing things,” he told me. “Like all the wood that I had in the attic, it’s been a pleasure reusing that and giving it new life. I feel like buying an RV would have been more impersonal and therefore less of an adventure.”

I couldn’t agree more. In Malawi, I was inspired by how people would repair and repurpose everything. (The most impressive example was seeing a bike mechanic patch a flat by tying it shut with a scrap from a plastic bag). Not only is it good for the planet, it also saves money — which is pretty important when a bike mechanic and a seasonal worker decide to build a home together. All told, this project will end up costing about $43,500, including the cost of the van. It’s a lot, but it’s not unattainable. If we can do it, so can you.