MEET LAURA - EXTREME MINIMALIST LIVING FULL-TIME IN A DODGE GRAND CARAVAN - LIFE IS SIMPLE AND GOOD!

hi I'm Lulu and welcome to Lulu's way I'm really glad you're here I'm here with my friend laara today and we have on dresses dresses where did we get our dresses the thrift store I bought this one um I did a video on this dress I remember I bought this back home before I said this would be great for Florida yes and I was correct she got it at a thrift store down here that it that she came home with a stack home the beach home she came home yes when she came home to the beach with the three of us um when she came back to the beach she had a stack of clothes that were gorgeous gorgeous clothes yeah and this is one of her dress wonderful finds yeah yes so today we're going to do a van tour of oh I forgot your name we're going to do a van tour of Lara's van so um she lives in a Dodge Grand Caravan um and she lives in it fulltime fulltime in a in a in a and everything she owns is in this van and you will be shocked at how little stuff is in this van yes it will be like no vour you've ever seen it'll probably be over in 10 minutes that's right yes okay let's do it girl all right let's do give me five girl oh let's do it again you know how to do this oh miss Mary Mac Mac Mac all dressed in black black with silver buttons buttons buttons all down her back back back ask my mother mother mother for ents to see the elephant elepant elephant jump over the fence he jump so high hi hi he hit the sky sky sky and he didn't come back back back till the 4th of July July July see goofy totally goofy nuts is that your friend yeah oh she yeah she's got to go figure out who this guy is really nice handsome guy looks like a viking what is the what year and model is this so this is a 2020 uh do Grand Caravan GT GT yeah whatever that means oh sounds very fancy I guess it's that the steering wheel heats up the seats heat up no way honest to God the steering wheel heats up yeah the steering wheel heat I've never heard of such a thing yes okay so you have the stow and go seats yes and you've chosen to have one upright I do and there you are sitting in it so it's kind of like your recliner it's wonderful and but I chose it because of of you watching your video from your Minivan and you used your under your seats the floor under your seats for your cooler and I thought well I could use that as my basement yeah instead and then have a chair that I can sit up and eat if I like okay so all the other seats are down they're not removed not removed they're down okay and why don't you take them out just for resale just cuz I don't need to I don't need the extra space okay if you needed the space you'd be like they're gone but you want to think about keeping it intact as best you can yes so you're not screwing things in the walls and you're not yeah but it's really more that I more about not needing more storage space right right right yep okay so when you sit in here you sit like is this where you sit to have your meals and stuff usually sometimes I like sitting on the floor I have good flexibility a little bit of yoga going on but I like to sit up here too and I put my foot up and relax and so it's worked out great and what do you got going on in the got a I've got a little table I bought this little table thing now look at that yeah so it's worked out really really well better than I expected you use this you use this little table I do does it hold much weight no it doesn't hold a lot of weight just to put a little something there but it will hold my plate just fine and uh my cup can sit right here so it really does work out yeah yeah and then it's like a little office it's your office yeah my pens and my little notebooks it's really been a wonderful Edition that's a nice little thing mhm yeah did you where did you get that I got this one at Walmart and it was $10 yeah $10 wow $10 I was thoroughly impressed yeah very nice and it's and it's held up it's held up wonderfully cool yes very cool so what else do you got here let's see what do you keep under the do you keep something under the seat right here oh I just keep my slippers right here and I keep my little broom cuz we know we're inundated with sand right now so I keep my little broom right here yeah and a trick that I decided to do with this F so is not to wreck the carpets um is on the floorboards I just use a half of a towel this way I can throw them in the washing machine and if God forbid I'm dragging mud in on a rainy day I'm not getting it all over these carpets yeah yeah that's been really it's a good hack good that thing that's a really good hack yeah yeah good and then what you got going on on the other other side oh you have a you have a t-shirt on your on your seat I do I love isn't that a cute idea yeah only only because I love the T-shirt but not to wear so in Dolphin Island Alabama they have the um um estuarium and they rescue Turtles but living my best life swimming free that just explains me completely yeah that's cool okay so I'm looking at you VIN it doesn't look like there's much stuff in here oh no and and this is really normally how I would be in here you would sit right where you're sitting yeah oh you know what another important thing about why I kept this seat is because in my old van every time I got in I was immediately on my knees and it just felt a little bit odd to be crawling so much yeah so with the chair I get right in and I sit down and I'm not just crawling around on my knees all the time yeah yeah so that's been good but this is my normal this is my normal State of Affairs yeah I have my uh I have my little one burner stove that I use to cook and I cook everything in here um first thing in the morning I make my coffee just C right here set the stove right down and you got this nice open space to do things that's we and normally I can push this back a little more too cuz it's just uh it just folds in half and uh I'm going to demonstrate so what I've done for my bed is that I've used egg crates that you put on top your mattress topper the egg crates and I set them inside my sleeping bag because my sleeping bag was the perfect width and length and it's it's been phenomenal and very very comfortable to sleep on let me see open up that the bottom of that and so it literally just has egg crates folded over inside my sleeping side of a sleeping bacon and you just zip them up and then that's your bed Z them up and that's myed that is your bed and it's so comfortable because I've tried all the so you just you just have it leaning up in the back to have it be a lounge chair in the during the day day correct yeah sit in that but what I like to do to give myself more room in here is I literally just do this and I've got I've got more space than I'll ever use right and then if I want to be up more then I can use this space as well yep and uh there it is and now the only inconvenience is that I have to set my bed up every night you know put my sheets and my blankets on but I'm retired now it's not like I'm rushing from destination to destination so it works just fine works just fine yeah and that's what's behind you you just stack you stack all your bedding behind you yeah in the morning I stack all my bedding behind me um folded nicely cuz the wrinkles are no good that's not a good thing in B life so this is the back this is so the you have that towel there just covering everything so it just looks nicer just make it look a little nicer you know and when you open that back hatch you know you're not just seeing bedding and a clothes bag yeah but what surprises most people is that every piece of clothing I own is in this tote bag wow everything uh All Seasons everything and then this is just my little laundry bag bag and you know we do laundry just like we do in a Sticks and Bricks you know once a week how often once a week yeah yeah but now that we've been out here at the beach we're not changing so much I'm not changing so much and uh once every two weeks you know and then this is my cooler I don't I don't have a refrigerator on purpose I have my small cooler which works wonderfully for me and I do ice about every 4 days with the weather we've been having cuz it's been hasn't been 85° yet so the ice is lasting about 4 days for me nice so it's been it's been wonderful yeah um so you just have a small cooler and you just go to the cooler that's right Y and and really I have enough food between my cooler and my dry goods 5 days worth of meals so it's just fine for me yeah and then over here so in a house your kitchen is where your magic happens so to speak and so this is it this is my kitchen my pots and pans are all here my silverware one of each one one of each one plate one bowl how many of each one you're killing me Lulu and I actually did purchase a small cutting board recently oh nice um and I have one big pan Which I keep reluctantly but it is necessary a 10-in fry pan um and then all in here my dry goods and my coffee and my tortillas but any dry goods that you would keep in your pantry that's what I have in here and I have a ton of food I have a ton of food in here and then my orange is in my little fruit bag and so it's my whole kitchen and when I get in to make my coffee all I got to do is reach over I mean it's that simp yeah cuz you're just you're sitting right on this cushion yes and you can reach everything I can reach every single thing and what's in that that little pretty blue container there oh gosh oh yes my This Is My Pretty P jug slash toilet paper slash wipes bag oh and it's so easy to clean cuz it's one of those it's all plastic inside yep and uh that works perfectly that works really very very well for me yep and what about what's over here what's this stuff oh yeah so that's my shoe bag the blue and white bag is my shoe bag all every all your shoes are in there all my shoes all my shoes that I have on this planet are in there and so it's not many and that's fine because we've been at the beach a month and a half and I've worn my flip-flops the whole time and then my little toiletries bag and my purse wow yeah very nice our friend Indigo Lynn gave me these when we were at compressco I love them they're wonderful at night yeah they put off a lovely light in here and it's just now what's that pretty purse right there uh my friend Connie I had seen this at her home about 15 years ago now now and uh the next time I saw her which was a couple days later she gave it to me she says I wanted you to have this and inside I keep my um cuz you know you don't keep a lot of things but I keep my little my little baptismal shoes oh that my mom had saved and I wanted to keep them but you know in the van you don't keep a lot of things and so I keep them in here that's so cute so they both mean a lot to me so everything in here means something to me Y and so well yeah my sister gave me this for my birthday because it turns out we both love Snoopy and uh we didn't know that about each other until recently and then this lovely little turtle I got when I was in Hawaii years ago and that little wreath was made by the uh gulla people in South Carolina so so that's really cool and this picture is very special to us all because of Lulu we met a wonderful couple here on the beach and Tom and Linda and Linda does watercolor she danced with Lulu so this is from Linda she made each of us a painting to put in our vans which was so so nice of her to do and they're lovely it's a they're a lovely couple we were really blessed to meet them yeah so it's just amazing how little stuff is in here yes I mean any minivan that I've seen on any on any video that somebody that lives full-time it is packed from the top to the bottom yes and this is just very organized very little I love how you don't you know you don't have your stuff stacked up to the ceiling no even on this side that you're not using um you're not never never you're never using that space But you need that space to feel you need to feel head space I totally get that yes I've always that's even in my last van I had a chest of drawers and you know those plastic drawers but they just couldn't go above the shelf I had to be able to have that headspace that like you call it y it's it is very important to me and I've never been a clutter type person so I can't have a lot of clutter around me yeah what's that that green bag right there oh this is so cool so my oldest friend and I for years and years and years we would travel together once a year fly in rent a car and one year we went to Washington State and this was in 2007 and uh we put 1500 miles on that rental car and did the whole Olympic you know National Park and all of that so couple years ago her birthday popped up and I found this company Rumple and this is a blanket and it's made from recycled bottles really yeah which is really cool and of course because it's made out of plastic it's very warm right but I can also lay it out on the beach if I want and the sand won't stick to it yeah and it's got a lovely picture of the Olympic National Park so when I got one for her I thought well I ought to buy one for myself and do you use it a lot every night well not not this week but when it when it's cold when it's cold that's your extra blanket and I love that it's in a bag yeah it's got its own little bag so it's nice and neat that's what I'm seeing you just like everything neat just the way I do it and look at how little stuff you have in here yeah has look at how little all this open space and you live in this full-time and you have everything you need yes everything everything I would use in a house I have here in the van yeah I mean really you do too except you know a better setup kitchen wow yes we just have we each choose what we need well we choose different cooking methods yes exactly for sure and my cooking method requires all that counter space and that's why I have that yeah yes so let's have a look at your passenger seat what what's your store there so in here this is just a a window covering that I put up at ni oh look at how pretty that is thank you so you just stick that right in the side window over there y well I have them for every window yeah cuz of course in Van life that's what you do especially when you're staying at the Flying Jays and the Cracker Barrels you know you want to cover your windows at night it's a good idea and so I I made those and found the fabric that I liked and put them together yeah good I know over here um is just a couple of blankets really and then well my hat which I'm not wearing and never stop singing and never stop singing and dancing it's very important yay I'm always ready to dance doing the best that I can I hope you'll shake it up when I'm W so this is where I keep my sewing machine a minimalist traveling with a sewing machine yeah I keep my sewing machine right here fits perfectly it just just fit right in there and then um you know if I have to carry a passenger which is very very rare now boom it just goes right into the back yeah you have all the space in the back to put anything I'm not moving a whole bunch of things just two things and it's over and then I keep my water jugs here I carry six gallons of water at all times and um I can that two weeks I can make that last two weeks when I'm on the road yeah and and that's that's it that's it that's all she wrote I see on your door here you have all your cleaning products well you know you got to keep the van clean yes you know so I just keep my little cleaning products in here I rarely look at them I don't have to look at that so much yeah yeah and you got to use every space yeah you know to the best of your ability you've got to use every space yep and that's it y that's that's that's all I have well thank you for showing all of us how little you really need the key have a space for everything yep that is the key and have some head space I think that's those are the things that we both have we have in common you have much less stuff than me but we both need order everything in its place not more than what you need and headp space yes like don't fill it all up because you're just going to feel closed in that's right that's right well thanks Laura you're very wel appreciate it have a wonderful day here at the beach I'm always ready to dance doing the best I can bye-bye for now [Music]

Channel: Lulu’s Way

Views: 65,207

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Id: y3sJMQQp8TI

Length: 20min 50sec (1250 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 26 2024