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Hope I won't regret this: Does anyone here live in a van? (aussie.zone)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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That's the question. I am not very social so I never really talk to other people in their vans, but I get curious about their experience. Here being anonymous seems ok to ask.

I live in one, in case it's not clear. I know there's a lot of people who do the same so maybe there's someone here. Probably not but it's worth a try. There used to be a van dwellers community on reddit, but mostly americans and instagram people.

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[–] DempstersBox 6 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Whelp, I'm in the US.

Have lived in a pickup (a little old 90's toyota-great truck), a school bus, a stepvan, on the back of a bicycle, and now a school bus again.

There were a couple apartments and a few warehouses smattered between them.

I'd love to visit Australia someday, met some funny fuckers from there.

I do think the US lends itself pretty well to living in vehicles, as much as it is shunned. As long as you keep moving and present cleanly, nobody generally has a clue. But all our infrastructure is built for vehicles, and it's just...super easy nowadays, honestly.

Like I have constant power and internet. Garbage and wastewater is as simple as stopping for fuel.

Amazon dropboxes for buying bullshit online.

Homeless? Fuck no. I built this into my home. The state just wants me to have an address so they can send the tax man and cops in the door. Fuck them

[–] horse_battery_staple 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Hey, you do you, but I'm pretty sure if they want to find you they can

[–] Valmond 1 points 1 month ago

If the stakes get high enough? Sure. But otherwise why would they chase you at all?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

No idea how it is in the US, but I imagine it's the most car centric country in the world. I know from reddit that there's a lot of people living in cars there.

How was it on the bicycle? I want to do that... did you stay in cities or wild? How do you do with all the water that needs to be carried? I wouldn't do it on a city though. Staying on a tent in a city is too exposed for me. But I love the idea of even more freedom, not having to worry about car registration, fuel and fines.

So you have toilet in the car? My basically just have waste water from brushing my teeth, so it just goes straight to the street. Isn't it too much issue to handle that? Though it must be nice to not have to look for toilet...

And your power is not solar?

Ordering things online, or anything that needs an address is still a big challenge for me. I'm trying for the first time ordering something to a post office and I'll go get it to see if it works. I don't think there amazon dropboxes here, but even if there were I would never buy something from amazon..

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I did it for a week while driving around New Zealand, does that count? 😀

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Kind of... It's kind of like being in a hotel for a week and considering that you lived in one. Though you did have the actual experience then of not always having a bathroom or shower around

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It's funny - the trip in question was five years ago, and you're right in that the van had neither toilet nor shower. But, I don't remember either of those being an issue to me. I remember showering at a friend's place, I must have showered other places. I honestly don't remember.

How do you do showers? Membership at one of the gym chains? Ad-hoc community pool visits? One of those solar camping showers? All of the above?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Ehehehe, you guessed well. All of the above, plus beach showers when it's not too cold. Camping showers for when I'm in the outback. It's not usually a problem, and certainly wouldn't be in just 1 week, but it's a defining part of it.

I say having to find toilet is a much bigger issue, but even then rarely really a problem.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Isn't there literally an app for that?

I've never needed to download it, personally - but you are probably the perfect target audience for it if you don't have it already.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

I use open street map which is very good. And I can add things when they are not there so other people can see it. But some times it's closed in the morning, or I'm parked too far away.

[–] Sicklad 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yep, bought one in the UK and have been travelling in it for 5 months, in Turkey now about to go to North Cyprus and wait out the cold before making my way back to Europe for spring.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Isn't the UK right handed, like here? How do you do with that? How did you take the car to europe?

[–] Sicklad 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

Yeah it's right-hand drive, not a problem but can be a bit sketchy merging onto roads where I don't have good vision to my left. Took the ferry from Dover (England) to Calais (France).

Also I've decided to go to Georgia instead of Cyprus, think I'll get bored there as I'll be restricted to the Turkish side.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

My brother has lived in one for about 3 years now, built it himself from a Ford Transit. He does exceptionally well with ladies and a van has had no impetus on that.

He tried living in Sydney but it was apparently horrific, what with the aggressive parking laws and terrible road layouts. He's vowed never to return.

I'd argue his diet isn't great, as he doesn't have much room to make varied colourful meals, but he doesn't seem to order takeout so maybe it's not that bad.

He's incredibly social and performs in theatre's throughout Melbourne, van life didn't seem to hamper that. Everyone seems to want to hang out in his cosy RGB wood panelled surprisingly clean funk wagon. He's 27 and saving a boat load of cash.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Sydney is not the worst. The worst one is Byron bay by far. I've never seen a more hostile place. But I certainly hope never to come back to Sydney either. NSW in general is pretty bad, with Queensland much more open to people living in cars.

I don't like doing stuff in the van. I do kind of well too, but the other person has to host. I don't feel well with random people coming in my van. But I know a lot of people are very social and do that. As long as they are quite... Party people destroy van life for everyone and end up making the councils hunt us. I imagine it's what happened in Byron bay.

Diet is an issue... I would still like to know how to fix that other than eating out, which is pretty expensive. I certainly eat better when I have a place to stay.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I spent many years living homeless in vehicles, in America though.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

How long ago was that? Was it out of choice? I struggle with the concept of being homeless. My van is my home, I have a roof to sleep under, so I don't know if I'm homeless. If a home can only be a fixed place, then yeah.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

I have a friend who lives in a van. Nice guy

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I don't and haven't, but it's something I'm curious about. I'd love to see a bit of the country that way. How do you find it?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

There are many issues (with my social phobia, people being 90% of them), but I like it a lot for one thing only, freedom.

Only recently I traveled for some months, which was awesome, mostly because of the outback. Otherwise most of the time it was staying close to work, but I still loved it so much always be close to the beach which I would never be able to afford otherwise. And over time I learned the safe places to stay, so I didn't have much issue with not being able to sleep because of noise.

But it's certainly not for everyone. Most of the problems don't bother me at all, when I can have so much freedom. But for most people it would be too high of a price to pay, or they don't enjoy the benefits that much.

I do miss having a house though, specially one with lawn and trees. But the cost is more than the benefits, specially since it means I have to slave my life away to pay for it. If I was super rich and could buy something in a nice place I would though.

Edit: I wouldn't mind if I could solve the issue of having to find a toilet every morning, which some times is quite urgent. But that's a city problem. In the outback it's... sort of a lot easier. If you ignore the cold and mosquitos when you do your business or having to find a place and dig and then bury it. But it's better because you always know you will find the place and it won't take too long.

[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001 1 points 1 month ago

Is it down by a river?