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Lessons
Why Van Life
24:42 2Understanding What You Want
03:02 3Breaking Down Your Budget
22:39 4Determining the Overall Best Layout for your Needs
03:52 5Bed Type
11:50 6Van Details: Bathroom or No?
07:37 7Van Details: Temperature Regulation
12:31 8Van Details: Power Management
14:05Van Details: Storage
07:02 10Van Details: Cooking
03:07 11How To Actually Live In Your Van
02:30 12Van Life: Where to Sleep
07:17 13Quin’s Sprinter Van Tour
37:11 14Quin’s Box Van Tour
24:55 15Van Tours: Keon’s Van
05:34 16Van Tours: Shaiden’s Van
11:19 17Van Tours: Brandon's Van
01:05 18Quin’s Van Life Tips
17:26 19Workshop Recap
00:46Lesson Info
Van Details: Storage
(soft music) All right, let's talk about storage. This is something that you really need to think ahead on. I would say it's kind of a defining characteristic of your build. Some people like to have massive empty cavities where they can put big things under the bed or whatever. Other people like to compartmentalize and really know exactly where everything's gonna go and every drawer has its function and kind of well thought out cargo where it's all gonna go. I'm definitely on the side of, I like to think about what's gonna go into every little space. My first Sprinter had a garage under the under the bed that was completely open and it was just way too big. Anytime I turned around a corner, everything would fall on top of each other. I didn't have enough stuff to even fill the space. So ever since then, I've kind of been more mindful of where everything's gonna go. Even like how many pots and pans can fit in this drawer and kind of even just like placing it in and knowing exactly wha...
t the capacity is of it. Continuing with this pot analogy, I don't like to have an extra two inches on the top that's not being used. So I'm gonna make that drawer exactly the size of that pot so that I know that I'm using every inch wisely. So yeah, storage is a really big topic and it's a really technical topic because you don't wanna have too much 'cause then you run the risk of of things falling around when you're driving, or even running the risk of filling that space with unnecessary things that you don't need. And then you're... That's not ideal either. On the flip side, if you have too little storage, what tends to happen with me is I end up throwing stuff on the bed and that's annoying 'cause anytime I wanna just jump in bed for the night, then I have to move everything, maybe transfer it up into the cab area. And then the next morning, it's just another step. You take the stuff from the cab area and throw it on the bed. Not ideal either. So it's really important to strike the balance of having just the right amount of storage. It's super ideal to know what's going where, what drawers are for what items. Really, for me, mapping out the storage areas and where I want them, how big to make them has come over time. I'm on my sixth build now. And at this point, it's really just second nature for me 'cause I know I'm only gonna have one pot and one pan, I'm not gonna have two or three. It's just wasted space in my opinion. I have four plates when in all reality, I usually just use two, but if I have guests over, I wanna have four plates. So I know that's what I need to allocate for. So over time, you kind of know generally what you have in the van, how much space it takes, where the most convenient place in the van would be to have those plates. And if you're trying to nail it on the first try, like where to put all your storage and how big to make it, I think you just have to be ultra conscious of your lifestyle, of your needs. Maybe even like get all the stuff, lay it out and and just try to visualize it because it really is kind of like a make or break thing in my opinion, if you have like a good flow to the storage of your van, if you have just the right spaces for your needs, it's one of the most satisfying things. At least for me in this build. Definitely something I wanted to keep with me but not be in the way in this build, was a surfboard. And it's a six foot, four inch surfboard, pretty wide, pretty thick. It's just a big thing to carry with me and you can just embrace the surf lifestyle and put it on the ceiling but then you're gonna be hitting your head on it. I didn't really want to do that. So what I ended up doing was I made a secret surfboard stash that actually goes through my kitchen cabinets and it's completely hidden. So when I'm pulling out my drawers in the kitchen cabinet I know there's a surfboard underneath there, but your average person would just think it's the drawer, right? So in my mind that's pretty satisfying to have that ready, available, not in the way, but what I had to do was I had to plan for that. I had to like literally from the ground up, I knew I wanted that there. And then I built everything around it. Maybe you want bikes or maybe you have something else that's like just really big and important to your lifestyle. With bikes, really, you have to raise the bed pretty high. So that is an obstacle that you have to think about. You have to measure out your bikes and really just put your bed right in that sweet spot. So that goes into planning out your storage as well. If you have any of these big items then you just gotta build around that. Another, I like to call it the brain of my build. Another big thing in my van is where I keep my photography equipment. All my drones, all my lenses, expensive stuff. Even my laptop goes in there. So just, I like to keep all my expensive stuff that pertains to my career in one organized place that's also very secure. Locked, everything like that. So this is a really important part of my build. It's probably not important to some of the other van lifers, not as important, but it's just the idea that you need to know what's important to you and build around that. And for me, that's a crucial part of my build. And one of the reasons I feel the need to have this secure place in the van for my valuables is I've been broken into multiple times and I tend to take my van down to Mexico. I took it all the way down to South America and I was broken into in Chile, in Columbia, Ecuador a lot of places, honestly. And after losing so many things and having to replace electronics it's just a really important thing for me to have that security leaving on a backpacking trip, leaving it at a trail head. After having been broken into so many times, I'm constantly worrying if my valuables are safe. So that strong lock, that secure space is extremely necessary for me.