How to Turn a Van into a Comfortable Home for $365 | No-Build Van Life

so let's Jump Right In here and take a look how am I going to turn a blank space nothing in it into a comfortable little home an apartment on Wheels hi everyone welcome back to my next video now this is an unusual shot here I'm standing in front of you hul in the town in front of big mountains that's not something I normally do I'm in Anchorage Alaska right now I have flown home to ankorage to spend time with my son I didn't want to drive so I flew in and I rented a U-Haul and I'll do a video on renting a U-Haul as opposed to driving uh and I think you'll be surprised just how cheap it is to fly and then rent the U-Haul it's saved me thousands but while I was here I I need to stay in the U-Haul um I'm going to take trips around Alaska I'm spending a lot of time with my son obviously but I'm going to travel around Alaska and see it so I wanted to outfit the van to be comfortable while I was here it's surprisingly cheap and I am completely outfitting it to live in so this video is all about the essentials of living in a van so I went around to thrift stores uh I went to Walmart uh Sportsman's Warehouse and I went to a Home Depot and got everything I needed to make this a comfortable home so let's Jump Right In here and take a look how am I going to turn a blank space nothing in it into a comfortable little home an apartment on Wheels let's do that now so here we are inside a blank open full-sized van so we're going to go through the list of Essentials what you really just kind of have to have and I'll have a price as I've said I've gone to thrift stores and bought everything I could at thrift stores then at Walmart a little bit of Home Depot and those things will get you about as cheap as you can get into living in a vehicle now of course this is a full-size van and so I'll narrow it down for you if you're in a car or a minivan or an SUV things will be pretty different but the essentials are still going to be the same now you want to replicate the four primary functions of a house if you think of that way what do I do in my house I might have 3,000 ft house but there are still really only four functions that you do in that house number one you sleep I mean you need a a warm dry comfortable place to sleep so you sleep that's a bedroom the second function is a kitchen you got to eat so you have to set up some kind of kitchen number three thing that you do in a house is you go to the bathroom you have body waste you have to get rid of you have to stay clean you have to take showers all those things that happen inside a bathroom we need to duplicate inside here and finally you have Leisure and work and Recreation so you might have a big living room or you just Leisure and you just sit around you have a TV maybe you have a game room so you need a place to sit comfortably in your house and of course outside of your house let's go ahead and get started right now we'll start with the bedroom because you got to get a good night's sleep if you don't get a good night's sleep ah boy you're just going to be hurting so the first thing you have to do is you got these wheel wells and they are a problem so you need to know how long the wheel well is this one's about 36 or 37 in whatever I do for a bed and I'm going to do a cot it's got to have space for 36 or 37 I'd say 38 just be care just be generous first thing I did I went out to a Sportsman's Warehouse cuz they have a big selection of cots and I bought a cot so there is my bed how simple was that this was $119 at uh at Sportsman's Warehouse it was on sale and uh it's a it seems like a really high quality it's an Alps I'll put a link below to everything uh at Amazon so you can just order it off Amazon usually save a little money when I bought this it's 8 2 in long and there's a leg exactly in the center I knew that would go over my wheel well so now I've got a place to sleep and I got a lot of storage underneath I haven't drilled a screw or cut a piece of wood or done anything I haven't cut plastic this may or may not be comfortable enough for you to sleep on just by itself but I'll guarantee you this in the winter when it gets cold all the cold air will come right through there and it'll make it cold so the next step of what I suggest you do is buy a Backpacker sleeping pad because they EX exist primarily for warmth and secondarily for Comfort here's the camping pad you've probably seen these at Walmart you can get them at Walmart lots of places you can get them higher or lower prices believe this was $18 if I ever tell you the price is wrong you'll I'll put up a a sign saying what the right price was but I'm pretty sure this was $18 and if you this isn't as comfortable as You' like uh I would just go to Walmart or order off of Amazon a little uh a little inch and a half two inches of memory foam topper next you want to think about blankets now of course you probably have blankets at home so just bring the blankets you have you don't have to go out and buy them blankets are just like clothes in the cold you want layers layers are critically important by having multiple sizes multiple layers you adjust the blankets to the temperature and that's so why I really like and suggest that you buy a range of sizes but I'm assuming you have your own sheets you probably have some blankets but because you're going to be in the van you might be colder than you think even if you go to the desert in the winter you'll probably be colder than you think so this is a blanket that I bought at a thrift store it was $9 but it's pretty darn thick uh I think this will be very warm and comfortable in the winter this is a light thin blanket and it was $9 these both these blankets are in really good shape uh I got this for $9 at a thrift store there's our bedroom the most important thing is done you've got a bed in a place to sleep we need Organization for our van for all the stuff we're going to have in here you really want to get organized right from the beginning and so I have bought a number of organizational tools first I found this at a thrift store it was $7 and it fits perfectly in this location uh you're going to have to find a way to keep the drawers themselves from opening I would suggest a bungee cord around the middle and then a little dowel or stick you find on the woods to keep all three from opening but as you can see that fills in this really good space if I'm sitting on the bed it gives me a place to put stuff next I bought a pretty big set of drawers so I picked this up at Walmart I couldn't find a larger one for for any less money this was like I think this was $24 and some change at Walmart and so I think it will set here you know I can cook on this I could sit right here uh I could put a laptop here and watch uh my videos or whatever I'm doing everything of course in here is metal if you have a newer minivan or car you're not going to have much metal at all so that's a a drawback uh but if I have something with magnet I can just hang magnets and hang lots of things off them but all I have to do is run Bungie cords across here the next thing I got was a two drawer filing cabinet and I know that sounds pretty weird so as you can see my two drawer filing cabinet fits perfectly here the door closes just fine I checked it so it's such a handy handy thing to have a a two drawer filing cabinet you know you got a lot of stuff you carry just for the rig and so that could all go in here be stacked up be neatly organized it's heavy of course that it will last forever and never you couldn't hard ever destroy it unless you go at it with a sledgehammer and I hope you're not going to do that I thought for 10 bucks it's amazing okay last but not least for organization I picked up three of these totes see I got a lot of space here that I'm not using and I want to I want to be able to use every inch that I can so as you can see these will go right under the bed and that is a huge plus you're going to get an amazing amount of good or uh organization by putting a couple of totes underneath the bed digging to the bottom of one of these big totes is a real pain in the butt I like the half height ones much better you just get two of them okay so far I have got a ton ton of organization and for not much money let me tell you something I like for organization even better and that is cheap duffel bags this one was $8 this is a pretty nice duffel bag so what I would do is I would keep um bedding so you have all your winter bedding you're not going to be using that in the summer so you it will go in here you have uh winter clothes or summer clothes they will go in here this was $7 and it's actually the bigger one I'm not sure why how their pricing works but uh and then one of these could be dirty clothes now of course the next thing is a bathroom you have to duplicate the function of a bathroom you need to be able to remove your bodily waste poop and pee of course and you need to be able to stay clean and shower you know I'm going to talk to you about a 5 gallon bucket I mean I have used a 5 gallon bucket in a van or some vehicle for 20 years I this can't be improved on now you can buy the seat Walmart sells seats I didn't buy one I thought about it but I think they're $15 $20 I just sit right on it you can also use pool noodles or even pipe insul this isn't the only choice but this is five bucks and it will last you forever it will never fail so you got your 5 gallon bucket for poop you got to have something for pee you need a pea pot you got to have a pot to piss in you got it for all the other stuff you're going to need a basin a water basin uh I can wash my hair in here even if you have long hair you can do your dishes in here you can do a a sponge bath on all over you should have washcloths and towels in your home you just bring bring them with you for in between just plain old wet wipes I mean just plain old wet wipes that's basically all you need to stay clean now one of the big things you have in a bathroom is a mirror this is a little cougin um Camp mirror I like these a lot you could find lots of places in here to hang a mirror you need a mirror now let's talk about kitchen you're going to need a stove you just got to have a stove you you could eat all cold food that would be an option I like a stove I went to uh Walmart and bought this single burner propane stove two pack of propane bottles you might want to get butane instead there's a lot of advantages to butane there's disadvantages they had a butane stove at Walmart but they were out of fuel that's why I didn't buy it because the fuel is an issue so these just screw on I much prefer the little uh flat Co but they're not wasn't available locally that's it just put your pot on here it's tall and it's ungainly but it works and it packs down to nothing okay next you're going to need a couple of pots and pans and I bought these at the thrift store and I was actually pretty darn surprised by their quality and condition a two4 pot so if you have a can of chili you can throw a can of chili in here but if you want to make some spaghetti you can also uh cooked spaghetti you're going to need a frying pan you're going to fry a hamburger occasionally you're going to make grilled cheese sandwiches and of course you probably have them at home just bring with you whatever you have at home this one was five bucks I thought that was a really good deal the interior is surprisingly good shape and this is tall the non-stick is quite good and I paid eight for this so a lot cheaper than you're going to get at a store next up in our kitchen we need to get organized so I recommend that you take a tote and dedicate it to the kitchen and that way if you're going to cook outside it's all in a tote you pick the tote up you go outside and you cook I bought this silverware 50 cents each if you don't have silverware you can take with you thrift stores where you want to buy silverware you can buy one at a time and then I would just put that down here inside then I'd keep this done and I could then cook inside or outside one more thing we need if in the kitchen is a cooler there are people who don't use coolers in their van life and that's wow that's amazing I wish I could have done that I've never been able to do that for a cooler I use a 12volt compressor fridge I for for probably a year or two I used ice man ice is just such a pain but if that's all you can afford that's what you have to do right now you're going today then an ice chest is obviously the answer so I picked this up and obviously it's not a traditional cooler but neither is it a cooler price I got paid $4 for this I'm in Alaska visiting my son as I said and in Alaska people freeze fish to mail home a lot and that's kind of what these are designed for four bucks at a thrift store I didn't hesitate I bought this thing right up amazingly we so far have for not much money uh replicated all the functions of a house except the one and that is lounging well for me I have always just used uh my bed as my chair I'm not sure how that'll work with a cot I've never owned a cot before I'd have to sit on something so my knees weren't on there but I believe I could be comfortable sitting in this chair if I'm outside I'm not going to sit on my bed of course this uh that's you're going to need something else besides that so I bought a chair I believe I got this at Value Village I also went to Goodwill and so I did both of them and I found a pretty nice good conditioned chair it's very solid and well built I think it's going to last uh and it was five bucks and I can sit on it in here you know I could just sit right here if I wanted to not sit on the bed five bucks for a chair and I'm just sitting right here and pretty darn comfortable doing it and of course then I can take it outside and have an outside home as well an outside camp outside when you set up your outside Camp you need a you need a table and you also may need a work table inside as well so this is just a simple TV tray um I think this is going to last a long time this was $7 at a thrift store one last thing you're going to need to replicate your house is you have Windows and even though this is a cargo van I have quite a lot of Windows and you can't just have your windows open all your Ables will stare at you see what you're doing and who wants that that's where reflecti comes in now this is not actual reflecti uh this is a clone brand but it seems very good I bought it at Home Depot they didn't sell reflecti I just sold this clone brand I'll just compression fit it into the windows cut it to fit the windows push it in and they usually will stay if not I can get magnets that'll keep the heat out in the summer and it keep the heat in in the winter so this is just this is money well spent this was 10 bucks for um 10t 24 in X 10t so that's it I have duplicated all the primary functions the four primary functions of a whole house I'm doing it all in this 60 square ft I think that's pretty amazing I've done it for cheap I'll keep it running total it'll be up down here and down in the description I'll have a link to everything on Amazon that you'll need uh again hit thft Stars first you're going to save a lot of money at least 2/3 of the price if you go to a thrift store and I know it seems expensive at a thrift store seemed that way to me however go to Walmart even and it seems outrageous there you go a complete Essentials van build for not much money uh I hope this has been helpful to you that you see that you can get the essentials of living in a van or or a vehicle of some kind for really cheap not much money and easy no work I didn't cut a single board I didn't drive a nail I went to the store I bought some stuff I threw it in there and now I've got a really really comfortable home and I get this visit with my son and drive over all over Alaska and have my own little apartment on Wheels I really like that and I hope you've gotten an idea oh yeah that was a good idea I can do that because you can uh you really can't do that so if you got anything out of this video Like Us on YouTube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later and remember die with excess memories not for I wish I could have wish I had have die with extra wonderful memories you'll be glad you did bye now

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 1,830,146

Keywords: car, van, RV, Full-time, nomad, camper, camp, boondock, travel, caravan, tiny, house, RTR, Bob Wells, Nomadland, CheapRVLiving, Cheap RV Living, vanlife, van life, how to live in a van, van dwelling, van tour, van conversion, living in a van, camper van, van build, diy van build, sprinter van, van living, #vanlife, van dweller, campervan, vandwelling, diy camper van, RV Life, Living in an RV, Class B, Class C, Truck Living, Living in a car, boondocking, Living in a RV

Id: ZHbl1lqkzcM

Length: 18min 23sec (1103 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 18 2023