Things You Miss (or Don’t) When You’re Living in Your Car
When I began my car-dwelling adventure in 2017, there were a lot of things I didn’t realize I was giving up. As I navigate my life in a traditional home, I’m slowly discovering all of the things I went without during my vanlife journey. Here are a list of things I didn’t realize I was leaving behind when I began my car-dwelling life.
1 . Paying Rent
Watching a large sum of money disappear into a dark abyss once a month has always been a sore spot. I have had to slow down on my spending when it comes to travel and experiences. Budgeting in this new large expense was something I didn’t have to do for 14-months so it has been difficult to fit it back into my routine. Paying rent has also caused me to be even more appreciate of the daily luxuries that come with living in a traditional home.
2. Hosting Friends
One of the big reasons I decided to move into an apartment was that I was feeling isolated and alone in my endeavors. Now that I’m back in a traditional home, I have the privilege of inviting friends into my space - to share a warm meal, talk about life in a comfortable space, and enjoy the cozy atmosphere of home.
3. Running a Dishwasher
My roommate and I we were sitting in the living room watching Netflix together one evening when I heard a very suspicious noise coming from the kitchen. Thinking that our kitchen was flooding, I nervously asked my roommate “What’s going on? What is that noise?”. She reassured me, saying that she had turned on the dishwasher a few minutes prior and the noise I was worried about was the draining of the water. I had completely forgotten what a dishwasher sounded like.
4. Lounging
Imagine coming home from a long day at work, changing into your comfortable jammies, grabbing the nearest snack, and flipping on the TV to your favorite show and “chilling out” for the evening. That is a evening routine I haven’t gotten to enjoy for over a year. Everyday I had to have some sort of plan on how I was going to spend the rest of my evening because “lounging around at home” wasn’t ever a viable option. Though I enjoyed being constantly productive and efficient with my time while living in my car, I think it’s important to find time to relax and rest from the busyness of life. I recognize that giving myself the time and space to rest has been great for my mental health.
5. Singing in the Shower
Did you know that Spotify has a playlist called “Songs to Sing In The Shower”? You know you do it, and I know you do it. For 14 months I had to bathe in public showers and didn’t have the luxury of carelessly singing along to my favorite tunes.
6. Using a Shopping Cart
Not having a pantry, refrigerator or freezer while living in my car changed the way I prepared and ate food. Luckily, I was committed to my health so I avoided the obvious choice of eating fast food everyday, but that required me to go to the grocery store everyday to buy ingredients for that day’s meals. Not having a way to store food limited my food choices but also meant that I wasn’t able to buy a large quantity of food at one time. During my van-life journey, I never needed to use a shopping cart for my groceries, and only needed to use a shopping basket on occasion. This also helped me be more cost effective and environmentally friendly by eliminating food waste!
7. Waking up to Fully Charged Electronics
Being able to plug in my phone at night before going to bed has been a game-changer for me, especially since I rely on the alarm clock on my phone to wake me up in the morning. In the winter, in addition to worrying about having enough battery for my phone to last through the night, I also had to think about how the cold weather was going to drain my phone battery.
8. Seeing Your Outfit in the Mirror Before Going Into Public
There’s nothing like going out in public and realizing your shoes don’t match your outfit, or you have a stain on your pants, or your hair looks like it got hit by a tornado. Everyday became a Russian Roulette of clothing disasters, but I learned to stick to a handful of favorite outfit combinations, and I was relatively well on my way to avoiding outfit mishaps. Having an apartment with ample access to mirrors has definitely taken the mystery out of my morning routine. Maybe that makes the process of getting ready in the morning a little less fun, but maybe I’ll become more bold with my outfit choices now that I can test them out before I take them out in the public.
9. Cooking
Eating was made a lot simpler while living in my car, because I mostly ate single-ingredient meals (mostly raw vegetables and minimally processed forms of protein), but I definitely missed the joy that comes with creating a healthy wholesome meal with my hands. The manual labor of cutting raw ingredients to throw over a hot pan has always given me a satisfying feeling.
10. Working From Home
I’m extremely privileged to have a job that allows me to work remotely, but while I was living in my car, I didn’t taken advantage of my WFH privileges as much as my coworkers because I didn’t have a home to work from. Occasionally, I would take my work laptop on a trip or on the road and work in a coffee shop at my vacation destination, but for the most part, I was commuting into the office daily to get my work done. Now that I have a home office, I have the option to work from home when I simply feel like it.
