How to Shower and Stay CLEAN when living in a car, van or RV

[Music] welcome back fellow nomads today we're going to talk about taking showers or better more accurately staying clean if you live in a car a van or an SUV now that's the first question people ask is well how do um take a shower if you live in the car or if you live an SUV a van and the answer is you probably are not going to take showers oh you've got to take shower and you'll be filthy Instinct you'll be flies buzzing around you like like Pigpen in Linus in in Charles Holt Schultz no no for thousands of years people have stayed clean without hot indoor running water that's just old pure luxury that we're so used to and we enjoy so much we think we can't live without it but in fact we really can you can live without that without any problem it doesn't sound very pleasant and it is it I miss taking a hot shower whenever I want it's it feels good showers will get you cleaner than any other method of cleaning but you can get plenty clean without a shower it's just a shower feels so good and so you think I can't do without the comfort of a shower but you really can so I'm going to tell you how to taste a clean perfectly clean living in a car van or SUV and we'll also talk about how to take showers because you can take it's a little more complicated but you can do it so we're going to cover both and later on we'll talk about how to get water and how to set up a shower actual shower room things like that but for now we're just talking about staying clean everything you need to do to stay clean is right here basins people have been using some kind of a basin to stay clean forever you fill the basin with water you get some washcloths I forgot to bring washcloths out but you all know what wash clothes are you take the washcloth get a wet you wipe your face sharp you just wipe everywhere no big deal today people been doing that for a very very long time and it works today we have wet wipes and so boy these are the cat's meow everyone should carry wet wipes quick hands face crotch armpits especially if you keep your crotch and armpits clean and not smelling you're going to be a good shape you can just use up you can just use your water just out of a basin your washcloth washcloth this is easy and for the armpits and crotch especially because let's face those are the places that smell we all know that we're not pretend antibacterial wet wipes are the key there you you bath you bathe yourself with using this method then you go after the crotch the armpit with antibacterial wipes and then that's going to kill the germs and the bacteria which is what makes you smell and then you use your deodorant whichever kind you use their natural unnatural there are all kinds of different thoughts on that and I won't cover that that's for you to figure out for yourself your big boys and girls so right off the bat just a water to be some and what about soap for soap I use a doctor Bonners all my soap ends up on the ground I I don't have a disposal system I don't have a gray water tank or a black water tank so I want to use soap that's not going to harm the earth I use all dr. Bonnar's I put it in here and I mix it very tiny amounts it's super concentrated I have a 16 ounce bottle and I couldn't find it for this video it's tucked away somewhere because I feel one of these these will last me forever I wash my hair with this I wash my armpits with this I wash my dog with this I have a Coleman stove that I cook on and you know if you've ever seen a Coleman stove you cook on it they really get get crummy cruddy looking I clean that and it cleans it just like 409 wood or anything else I have a countertop in my trailer I spray the counter top with this dr. Bonners is such a great thing I just can't recommend it it's better for you physically it's better for the earth is cheaper a bottle is expensive I got a 16 ounce bottle I believe maybe even 32 a t3 oil that's the one I use tea tree has a certain add a sceptic effect to it and it's mostly all-natural it's a couple things that are chemical names that I don't know what they are but even they claim even those are natural I love dr. Bonners armpits crotch using the spray bottle so I can get right up in the crotch you got to get up in there you know you want to keep clean come on folks we all got crotches and they all stink so you got to get up there so that's that's the tool you can always you bar soap and germ X some kind of alcohol hand hand wiping you go in the bathroom in your band and your in your poop bucket we've talked about a video about that you go read it last thing with this man I just I'm not a germaphobe but come on if you're not 100 on your hand and soap and water under seek running water after you poop I want to use this so I use that a lot the antibacterial wipes I think those are really critical for your armpits keep your orders down and it really well whether you use whether you live at home or not you'll find an antibacterial wipe any quoits the cheapest one they just do exactly the same which brand of wet wipes I have found this is the Walmart I have found this to be not only the cheapest but the best the others and I've tried them all I've used them extensively I've bought a three pack just like gifts of the Pampers and the Huggies and and the no names all of them Walmart's simply better and I don't know why it can both be better and cheaper but it is it's what I recommend so there you have it this will keep you clean it will be a little harder because you got a big surface area to do with this way so we'll look at easier ways but this is all you need to stay clean right here okay ah here's a really good method of staying clean well here's to let me just show it kind of showing you both this is a just this like three I believe this two-and-a-half or three gallon bucket it's black which is what I wanted it to be you bought or so you set this out in the Sun on uneven L this is already warm to the touch it so you put a gallon or two or three in here water and you put it out in the Sun on any kind of an 80 degree day 70 degree day it takes longer the cooler it is but eventually the warm water will be warm at the minimum at lukewarm plenty warming up the shower well okay so I got a bucket full of water what am I gonna do with that wow you got a handy-dandy got a handy-dandy pump this is a Novation I really like it it has a plug in here that if you can really see that if I undid this there's a port there uh and I comes with a cord that goes to a USB you can plug you can plug this into anything that will plug power USB you can plug it into your phone you've got a bunch of USB devices and a way to charge them and so you use that so it's it's got its own battery and it charges off USB very simple it's got to be in that's in the water and the on/off switches in the device it's not very handy and think eventually this thing a break but it gets great reviews on Amazon which is why I'm recommending it pump comes on so you put this out of the Sun this isn't it's kind of been a cool day the sun's been in behind shadows but even this is comfortable I wouldn't hesitate to to use this but it's plenty long enough to you set this up on a box or something you can wash your hair and you got some pressure you can easily get your armpits you get down up up this is a good method this is just the the buckets $4 at Home Depot it's just a black in the paint department this was expensive it was thirty nine I believe but you can buy these with DS cell D operated D battery-operated that work really well this one just has to be either rechargeable battery which is what makes it worth or not to keep buying D batteries but pumps are pretty easy to find and cheap now you got to have a lid because you're going to carry this around I don't want to dump my water every time you know I'm not going to recirculate it back in if I'm taking a bath I just did that to show you so I didn't waste the water this is called a gamma lid you can also buy this at Home Depot this is $7.50 this has one on it let me show you what am I doing with that lid you just it's got its own threads it's got aa it's got a gasket the white gasket so it should be watertight I've not found them to be particularly watertight maybe I'm not doing it right and it just screws on and and now it's watertight enough you set this in your van while you're driving it's going to slosh around a bit but it's not going to slosh out and leak you turn it upside down I found that they do leak but I can live with that I just my plan is not to turn it upside down this is called a gamma lid it's 750 at Home Depot oh you can get it there you see gamma seal lid let me show you how this works if I can figure it out how to do it don't this is what you'll buy I've already done this one we can't do it again you put it on you get just a rock here you're doing the rock but if you have a hammer or a rubber mallet would be ideal but a rock will do it just fine just pound around it has a you can't really see it because it's black it has a its own rubber seal on the inside and you pound it on really good and the threads this has its own thread which is what the threads here are going to groove match into 750 at Home Depot it turns your bucket into a sealable bucket a really good thing I'm really going to recommend these to you now you get it from Amazon as well and I'll put a link up at the bottom there more Amazon runways so much more it's like twelve thirteen dollars on Amazon go to Home Depot so here's hot water you want a shower fine hot water you doesn't cost you anything the Sun warmed it up you just set in a chair because this is going to be heavy you could set it up on the roof of your van and come down another good way is a pump up sprayer this was ten dollars this is the Home Depot brand HDX is their name ten bucks at Walmart pretty tight let me take this off here and I don't know how well you're going to be able to see that and then it's this is actually kind of flexible that's nice and for ten bucks and then this adjusts for a spray see that's pretty good spray if you've watching if you're washing your hair and you blast your hair away with that that's going to bring it out and and you're going to paint this black you're going to go to Walmart and buy or anywhere and buy a spray paint that says for plastic I would go rough lightly with a very light grade sandpaper and sandpaper a little bit wash a good sandpaper at dry it really clean it really good paint this blacks it this and Sun this will get really warm because it's smaller and you can even now this is a little awkward because of the long handle but you can still completely get into everywhere you want to get in just the way it is but this actually comes off and then and now wood works just fine - you know that's quite a bit of pressure it's got a button you just push down off pump it if it starts to loses pressure and as it goes down it will and I'll put that back on there for now really good thing these are really good things these how simple with just the shower if you can set up a shower enclosure and I'm going to show you how you can set up a shower enclosure you can you can take a shower pretty easily and you don't now of course the old-fashioned way is to what people have been doing for thousands years is put a pot on a fire put it on your Coleman stove and warm out the water you can do that too you could set this out in the Sun if it was in the winter and that's not getting warm enough warm up a quart of oil a quart or two of water pour that in here and you'll have plenty fine water for a shower so this is not hard to shower out here to stay clean this will keep you clean and smelling fresh just these things this will give you the comfort of a shower which is really what you're looking for ok so what's next let's see what motion we'll talk about how to get water in either another video or another segment of this video if this is going to be too long I'll put it in another video finally let's talk about solar showers I'm big big fan of solar showers you fill this this is a small one they come this is I believe two and a half gallons and they come in three three and a half I've a lot of people by the fives bear this in mind you buy a 5-gallon shower and you want to put up on the roof your van so that it's up on the van and the hose the showerhead set hangs down water is eight pounds to a gallon five pound a five gallon one of these is 40 pounds can you pick 40 pounds up and lift it over your head and put it on your van and you lift it up and hang it from a tree limb if you can't buy a smaller one this will get warmer faster a couple things I'm looking for in a solar shower and why I bought this one I have a link to this one on Amazon I think it's around 20 dollars that's the going rate for most of them a lot of them have a stopper that you shove in here I hate those things I mean I really despise them they're hard to get in and out and once they're in the they get hot and they get cool and they kind of just lock into place and they're very difficult I'm looking for one with a screw closure I can always get that open and closed I just don't do it too tight and you can get it off so that's one thing I'm looking for and you're looking for a really good strong area here I think this is one of the better ones because if you actually do hang it from a tree or from the side of your van this these will is the weak point and they'll break this one strikes me as unusually good up one thing that's really handy is to have these tabs velcro tabs for for this and my dog has found some to bark at so that it's not always dragging in the dirt you know you don't want I don't want my showerhead dragging the dirt and on-off switch for the showerhead some of them make you do this this is how you actually literally you bend them and that's how you turn them off that doesn't seem like a good thing to me you're looking for a good showerhead and this is I didn't have it full of water because it'll just be a pain and it opens closes opens I hope you can see that opens and then closes the one side will be up any color black probably this one's silver I'm not sure why this side is clear with a black you fill this side and you hang it with this hanging out to the Sun so you've got a little cute little thermostat which does work and actually it works pretty well I found it pretty accurate and this one you'll notice the shape and at first I thought this is a crazy idea but it's a diamond shape and the outlet hose is here at the very bottom of the diamond this is how it will look if you hang it this is how it'll look at you hanging and the reason is so that as the water comes down it doesn't just pull up here it's forced into the hose it actually works quite a bit better go come on this is a good one summer shower I'll put a link up to Amazon I've been really happy with this one some of them are very durable and this one is proud to be drover how do you get water and I'll just jump ahead a little bit to that segment you're going to want to carry a white hot water bottle you can hook this up to any hose they're kind of a pain in the butt because you're going to have it hooked up to the hose you don't have to go to the hose so I put a Y on it with these that allow me to open and close it individually so if you're filling one gallon bottles which is what I'm usually filling I found that to be a lot easier that's what I recommend and I always so I don't run the risk of getting dirt in it I always leave it sealed by to hang and then I'll just I'll just hang that somewhere out of my way but jugs this is what I'm using for jugs I do carry a a reliance five-gallon reliance that sets here I'm not carrying it on this segment of the trip when I'm making this video I usually do but uh well not if I'm not I don't feel it because it's it yep pack eight pounds per gallon it's 40 pounds for this jug and I don't want to carry that weight unless I need to so I'm not even carrying that now this is what most of you will be using just plain old jugs this is the best this Rubbermaid jug but they're hard to find this I have to find them at thrift stores and they're dalgo on this Arizona tea jug is the best bug I've ever found these jugs for forties these are really quality the failure point on these is the lid the rings and the lids are the failure points you're going to lose them these have far superior lids look for these they're almost even worth of buying it to drink the tea to keep the jug so jugs okay now so we got a way to make hot water we got up we got running hot water with our sprayer and with the pump if you want to take a shower in the van how are you do that well I'll show you I'll show you a couple ways first this is just a kitty I didn't even take it out the box we're gonna return it I just want to show you the box this is a kiddie pool inflatable pool it's 48 inches 45 inches something like that you can inflate it in the bottom of your van and step inside of it and actually take a shower inside your van it's a lot better if you have a high top but you can do it with a low top by just kneeling down in it this is pretty fragile plastic I would always cover that with a couple towels or a sheet or something you'll get sopping wet but you wring it out and you put it outside to dry in the Sun so how are you going to hang how do you get the water from splashing everywhere a really good way and I couldn't find a who looped show you is go buy a hula-hoop and hang it from something along your roof you can just hang it from a bungee it's not going to weigh anything and then you use I have it out here oh I have a shower curtain I don't think I brought it out with me up so you got to just plain old shower curtain with rings so you hang a hula hoop and it's got you know it's got these rings and you can use zip ties you can use spring clips just use a piece of string whatever you're using can hang it around it will hang around the hoo loop and then you kneel down inside of it this is on the this is on the ground you're kneeling inside it Hulu or do you just buy a tarp if I buy a tarp we'll do this every bit as well and it's cheaper more useful so that's really what you should buy I just I'm actually just have this to show you if you put this around the hula hoop and you use one of these two things a pump of some kind or all kinds of different pumps I'm just showing you one example there's lots of them oh one more way to stay in something else to stand in this is a mixing tub this is right on there mixing tub from Home Depot same thing here I mean I'd ever use this I'm going to return it I'm just showing it to you I don't use this you can put this down in the in the on the floor of a van kneel down on this set in this you got a high table Bandstand in this put your hula hoop overhead put your shower curtain your your six white tarp around you so that it drapes down inside and keeps the water from splashing around and you shower right side your van and this is cheap I forget how much this is it was twenty bucks or something it will last a long time a little more difficult to carry these I have if I were going to carry this I would I've got this hitch haul in the back of this box I would just bungee it down on the top or in between these two boxes I kept it it down there I'd figure out a way to carry it if this is something I wanted to do this is all I need to do to stay clean is this whole system here and I just don't bother with any of this but some of you won't be satisfied with this numbers show giving you options so okay so I think we've covered everything I want to say you can see how to make your own shower these three methods give you the actual shower give you hot water very easily and cheaply none of these are all these are all less than twenty bucks well the the pump is more it was 40 at the bucket was four so it's still awfully cheap and you're taking a shower and room is an issue this takes this takes the least room if you use it all up it folds down in this size because room is an issue say you have a car but you got a car an SUV you can carry that no doubt about it it's actually smaller than this although I'd be carrying all this anyway uh this is next smallest you can see that's really small this is only a one gallon but you could take a good shower you can get your hair clean that's one of your big questions how am I going to get my hair clean so there you have it really easy to stay clean it's no big deal even if you want the comfort of a shower you can arrange that next in the next segment I'll show you how to hang a tower enclosure so you can get outside which is going to be a whole lot more comfortable okay so I'll stop there and we'll move on to the next segment of outside shower enclosures okay thanks for watching like and subscribe watch the rest of the video and we'll meet again next time goodbye my fellow nomads you you

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 620,006

Rating: 4.9279146 out of 5

Keywords: live, living, van, car, suv, RV, clean, shower, pump, Dr. Bonner, Ivation, solar, vandwelling

Id: 3D8639Te2nk

Length: 23min 35sec (1415 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 16 2016