We have been living in our van for about 8 months now. During the process of moving into the van, we had already gotten rid of quite a few things. One of the things that helped me was the “Minimalism Game”. A game where you clean up for a month. On day 1 you get rid of one thing, day 2 two things, day 3 three things, and so on. At the end of the month, for a 31 day month, you got rid of 496 things.
After our trip through Scandinavia, Germany, The Netherlands and France, we now have a better knowledge of what we need and what we use.
What we got rid of
Most of our trip was during the summer. So we mostly wore our summer clothes. The clothes we didn’t wear the whole summer season, we got rid of.
I am very much a fan of creative projects. In the van I have a box full of macramé stuff, sewing supplies, tools to make my leather bow ties for rescue animals, … During our travels I’ve taken out the crafts box a bunch of times. But there were still some things I hadn’t touched. All the craft supplies I haven’t used, I can take to the thrift store.
Our cat Willem’s stuff wasn’t safe either during our van clean up. In the van we thought an automatic timed feeder would be handy. It was, only Willem had cracked it pretty quickly… Got rid of that. For Willem’s adventures we brought a flexline, one of those dog leashes which retracts again. We donated that one. In real life an ordinary long cord seems to work better for us. A lot of toys we also donated to a shelter. When traveling, Willem mostly seeks out his own toys (mice). We did keep his two favorite toys in the van.
We have also cleaned out the ‘garages’. I cleaned out my toolbox and packed it better. I have found an old ammunition box at a flea market. It stores (almost) all my tools. We also got rid of the extra gas bottle. At the start, we thought it would be handy to have an extra gas bottle with us. But so far it’s just been in the way. Not worth the space.
Better organisation
We have very limited storage space in the van. If one item has to be taken out of the ‘garage’, it’s chaos. Everything comes crashing down because all of our stuff is packed so tightly. The whole organization falls over when one thing is taken out. To make it more convenient to store, I used rubber bands and hooks.
I also reorganized all the empty spaces in the rest of the bus. Every inch is important! For example, I was able to hang our backpack, fly screens and hammock behind the passenger seat. This has created so much more space in the garage!
Why declutter?
During the trip, stuff just keeps accumulating. For example, I’ll buy an extra blanket that I found somewhere locally (because it truely is a bit chilly at night, and a good souvenir!). These items take up space. Many VanLifers or Tiny House residents have the “1-in-1-out” rule. When one thing comes into the house, one thing must also go. I try to apply this too, but I don’t always feel like it. So once in a while I need to sort everything out.
In addition, we have a temporary extra family member! Our foster dog Joey is coming along on the trip. Joey also needs his belongings, such as food and water bowls, bed, toys and food bag. Joey is used to a crate and he really needs it. I notice that he really needs a small dense space where he can unwind. This is also much more pleasant for us. He will not be all restless and in the way. Also during the night he does not bark when he sleeps in a bench.
To ensure that the dog Joey can also live comfortably in the van, I decided to sacrifice one of the ‘garages’ and convert it into a bench space. That means all the contents of that garage will have to go or get a new place!
Last Words
Since our temporary dog is joining us on our adventure, and needs a crate space, I decided to sort out all our stuff again. A lot of stuff that we normally store in the garage has been sorted out. Some of it will be taken to the thrift store. Some of it has been given a more convenient storage spot.