Adding tons of storage with a high top minivan conversion.

so I'm here with Debbie and Debbie has a Dodge Grand Caravan as well what year is yours 2013 2013 and she has something kind of special that I have just fallen in love with it I would love to show you so let's go look what she did to her van she put a high top I love it I am seriously seriously thinking about doing this before you had the top could you sit up in this oh yeah as well yeah with this Frame but look at how much storage she added by having this top put on she's got bins all the way around there and all the way up in here yeah take out one of those bins see how look how long this is look at that this is another there's more yeah it goes all the way up there it's all extra storage from this top so you not only can stand in your van just about right yeah that's pretty good pretty close and and the slope of the roof this is the tallest place okay and then back here it's a little lower yeah but I'm fine because at least I can stretch my back yeah stretch out I like your hanging baskets there yeah these are those ones you get they're in the kitchen area and they come in a set of two I used to have these turned upside down on top of my shelf so that I could slide my stove in and then had my dishes okay yeah I wanted an extra shelf back there somehow that's then I didn't need that anymore I just downloaded you know just downsized yeah so now they've come in handy in here I've ordered one more fan I really like these fans because it's the lightest built in oh okay so I'm gonna have one on each side so depending on where my head is I'll always have air or I can have double you know plenty of light yeah and then you've got cross Breeze here and not the light in my eyes I can use the light ah I see okay and then I can get rid of something yeah and then you have a cover for your toilet yeah this like this is one of those Reliant hassock type uh ottoman toilet oh okay and this is just one of those baskets that you buy to put your Afghans in the living room or something oh you do the width of the thing it plops right down it was that is a great idea pretty colors and you know it looks just looks like a stool it does yeah you can my friend has hers right in the doorway and she always just had her the plastic toilet there so I told her about it and and it looks so pretty I think that's a fabulous item what store did you get that at Amazon oh it wasn't Amazon maybe we could get a link for that okay yeah there's tons of them yeah I think they're called rope baskets or something okay oh anyways and uh that's great pillows they're all storage okay so being full time you have to be prepared for spring and summer and winter I was like 15 because I thought I was going to Canada and Alaska so I've got all these warm things and then I get to Canada and we camped by a lake for over two weeks and they had all these unseasonably hot temperatures it was hot okay I never think it's hot you know right and even going through Washington and Montana it was hot and all the way through Idaho it was just unseasonably hot and then I just cut across and came down by myself the Washington Oregon and California coast yeah as far as San Diego okay and um I uh I needed to do it I needed to find out that I could do it find places to stay I mainly use the I Overlander app it worked out fine I mean I never felt in danger at all at any point this has been helpful I just made that out of a bag and it just keeps like I honestly think it's helped the temperature stay even all around instead of having those cold spots yeah so that's worked out pretty good yeah so what has been your hardest part about being full-time that maybe you didn't expect or maybe you expected it but it was harder than you thought to spend a long time by myself constantly moving you know and that's that's when I realized that wasn't as not my favorite way of camping like Urban stealth or sometimes I find a campground you know here and there but um it just I don't really enjoy camping alone that much okay I'm not one of those ones that has to take off in the boonies for weeks at a time but that's never been I enjoy people yeah I'm a people person too yeah once in a while it's nice to be by yourself you know do your own thing but then to know that you know I can call so and so or I can drive over there they'll meet people I can I just totally understand what I'm gonna take a week and get away and go somewhere else but you come back to your group you know or something like that you've got a lot of friends out here so I have places places I can go and see people like I think it's wonderful what how is doing for women and actually for all where can I people my age but the majority of the women out here are my age easily you know and the majority of the people out here are women that I've met there aren't that many men are aged okay compared to how many women are out here yeah they're finding this new freedom and a safeness that they didn't think they could find you know and because I haven't ever felt in danger wonderful besides by myself yeah I mean you seem very content and happy this is good for me yeah let's take a look at your back she has a something else that I really like that I'm gonna I told you that I'm gonna steal this other idea from you okay all right so during the day it serves as when you're driving you know it keeps all everything in there instead of bungee cords oh that's true too and look at that it just folds down with a piano hinge yeah and like sorry it's so dirty but adjustable legs look at this how the construction I want to show it's just a small piano hinge actually and then you have a what like a little bracket here yeah yeah look at that that is ingenious and then you clip it up with one of these eye hooks yeah and I I had the bigger drawers here you know the little 11 inch or 12 inch oh yeah and they were fine but I wanted to put my chairs back here so I went smaller okay get rid of some stuff and then now I can check my chairs yeah instead of fighting with them because when I put wood pull over at night you know trying to do the stealth thing or whatever I wanted to do the minimum of Shifting so that totally freed me up from having to lift my chair up get it out of the way and you know so I only have to do very few things to just hop right in the car everything else I can do from inside these work great as uh this is my trash can back here oh okay oh that's a good idea actually it's a cereal box and it opens like that for years this used to fit perfectly over here so and that's how all my Walmart bags that always fly go flying in the window okay yeah so I'm gonna look for a smaller version to fit it somewhere else look how interest you are you just put a little cut the little hole in there huh and everything's held together by fit basically and you know this is just a piece of wood that was a little piece of something but yeah you need a wall there but you know instead of having your cargo box up there you lifted your roof basically it's all comes down to I wanted to stand up you wanted to stand up I decided I was going to stay with this vehicle not go big or not change it and you you added so much storage though that I was glad because some people didn't hear they're having this back show but that was important to me for cold weather and I have some winter gloves and hats on one side and in the back I oh I have a I mean I know it's a it's not the Biagi brand but it was a different brand and they fold down to next to nothing and it's a suitcase oh okay and then I have a foldable tote bag that clamps down because I at some point I want to get to where I just fly home for visits or I just you know instead of putting all the miles on the car and stuff so that's why I have a suitcase with me it doesn't take up a lot of room I have a tote bag for on the plane you know you're ready for anything I'm ready for anything and that's and that's another thing about not storing my winter clothes you never know when the weather's going to change around here that's true you know it's it's me it's not worth making it hard to get to you know oh this this is definitely a home on Wheels you did a wonderful job of setting it up I mean and look at all this room you have here and a lot of that's everything's gonna go I'm still working on whittling stuff out you know yeah because I I spent a month at my daughter's in August of Alma it's August to September it was hot so but I whittled down I had two storage units because I still had stuff left over from my folks I had stuff left over from my sister she passed away in 2020. yeah so but I I'm not got to be the order of the holder of the stuff so I did finally go through a lot of it on down to three quarters of one storage unit so it took me a month though because it was so hot I could only work two or three hours in the morning and it was just sapping me the humidity so what do your kids think of your lifestyle they're pretty good about it my son was all for it that's even in the beginning and my daughter's only thing she said is you need to get a dog mom um it's like I never had a dog why would I get one now you know when I only have this much room yeah I I just don't I didn't have pets so I'm not missing them but that was her thing is you just need to get a dog for safety okay so she sent me some recordings of her dog barking out the patio door at the lawn guys you know because he was a big dog so I still have those videos yeah and I've only had one time where I actually queued it up because I saw somebody wandering in a parking lot at a Walmart didn't need it and there were other people there if other people are there I don't worry even if I don't know them because most people are good yeah and so if I'd rather camp with me and five other people that I don't know and feel safe because I know the percent large most people are good whereas me and one other vehicle then they got a 50 50 10. you know what it is yeah I'd rather have it be that way you know that's that's a good way to think about it I I feel the same way do you ever Stealth cam yeah I have I got a city I'm a little more self-conscious because of the panels now but I really don't know that they're that noticeable oh this is my bear bear trash can that I didn't get to use I decided to bring it instead of I was using a five gallon bucket for trash with a Gammy bed and this takes up less room I like the size yeah it's made to go on in a backpack you actually store your food and as you eat the food you put your food trash in the bottom oh so that the Bears can't open it look at that but it's it's you get the airflow goes through it and it just deflects the Heat well that's nice yeah so it's called the luminat I like to get like maybe a link for that one and they come in all kinds of sizes you can buy six foot squares you can buy ten foot eight by ten titanium is why it's 20 feet long you know I'll put this away later so would you say that you would mostly use it as an awning or just like as a cut you would just put it over your clam and mostly I just put it up I haven't done I haven't tried doing it on I don't have any tint poles yet well you've done a great job and I want to wish you continued happiness on the road well I've really enjoyed your get together oh it's been fun I didn't know anybody in California that did this and I'm finding well we're just we're just kind of starting out like a little group here in California and yeah so I will definitely catch up with you at the we're gonna actually try to start some groups in deaf different areas too yeah okay yeah I've got some ladies interested in starting some groups there's going to be one in Florida um definitely Liz and her friend um Karen are gonna start one in Colorado I haven't seen Colorado yet yeah yeah so I'd like to go visit her on her land yeah you've attracted some good people yeah it's been fun yeah it was a it was a great event yeah and you know I was happy to do it because there was you know some new people we did it for the new people more so than the more experienced one but I think that as we started talking thing talking about things the more experienced people offered so much help as well you know it was very interactive well I like like even right now like if you remember something you go get it and say oh and this is what I use this for just odd little things yeah just it is it's the little things this is just what someone needed to here but and then showing everybody's van you know was very inspiring yeah that was fun yeah absolutely I thought because usually I'm really tongue-tied on camera um that's nice either that or I'm just not just you know yeah it is this is how I'm living right now yeah but I do like that saying about on that house I'm not homeless I'm houseless there you go I don't want a house right now right right I really don't I'm on a list for Senior High Senior Apartment at some point but it's going to be years before they get down to me yeah so I might as well be doing something else there you go get on the list but do something else in the meantime don't wait just don't if not now when is my motto because I I might not feel well enough in a few years you know might as well do it now I credit you uh this is wonderful it's a pleasure meeting you and I hope we stay in touch oh thank you [Music]

Channel: Travel Grandma

Views: 24,488

Keywords: minivan high top, travel grandma, solo woman vanlife, solo woman lives in minivan

Id: pTzAfZetGDE

Length: 14min 53sec (893 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 06 2022