The First Van
Ahhh, my first taste of tiny living. I just dug out my old hard drive and discovered a folder from 2020 named ‘Van Life’, full of images from my first few months of life on the road. The van was a VW crafter, just a little short wheel base, low roof, tiny version of the big panel vans you usually see people living in. We’d already used it as a weekend camper, but after deciding to sell the house and go off on a permanent wander, we just made a few adjustments to our little van rather than starting a new build straight away. For us, getting out on the road was more important than having the perfect set-up straight away.
A few things we added when the crafter evolved from weekend warrior to full-time home…
The roof vent. Previously, we relied on the tiny sliding window, and cracking the cab windows for ventilation. We knew it wouldn’t be enough for the obscene amount of coffees we’d be making so more airflow was needed.
The double swivel seat. Being able to flip that bench seat round was a game changer. It became a dog bed, a sofa, and a dumping ground. All essential needs in a tiny space.
The shelving unit. In a van, I think hidden storage is essential. The bottom part of this new addition (on the right in the above photo) housed all the ugly things like food packets and the bin. Up above, I kept some open shelving so I could curate nice things until my heart was content.
The mini sink and tap. Previously, on weekend trips, we just used a jerry can with a tap and an old jam pan as a sink. We were usually at campsites anyways so we’d just trot along to the dishwashing facilities with our antique pan and clean up there. Now, we needed somewhere to do our own dishes, but didn’t want to lose a huge amount of bench space so we opted for the tiny bar sink.
Everything else in this van was incredibly simple, which is a trend I’ve carried on with all my little homes. The electricity set up was none existent. It was (and still is) a small goal zero power bank, which I simply charge from the 12v socket in the cab when driving. It’s enough to power phones, tablets, occasional laptop usage, and it powers all the USB rechargeable lights.
The bed was a small double, which was a sofa by day, and pulled out at night. Throughout the day, I kept the duvet rolled up inside a giant cushion cover which sat on the sofa, which I honestly still believe is one of my best ideas yet.
For a toilet…. honestly, I used to believe in sharing everything online but these days I’d like to keep a bit of mystery. Maybe I’m getting old. But there’s plenty of info out there about creative camper van toilet usage so get yourself over to YouTube for inspiration on where to empty yourself.
The one thing this van didn’t have, which turns out is absolutely essential, is heating. We were lucky that we set off on the road during summer, so we survived, but as it turned colder we realised we’d have to make a change. If things did get too cold, we’d book a campsite and use the electric hook up to run a tiny electric heater, but out on the road that wasn’t possible. I’m a firm believer in dry heat being the best heat, and a log burner was going to be needed while living in a van in the Scottish highlands, and the crafter van was simply too small to have one safely. This was when we sold up, and moved onto ‘This Cabin Van’…