The Power of Simplicity: Inside a Minimalist Prius Home!

next video today we're meeting Alex hi Alex hi nice to meet you and you're in a Prius I am and every time I meet someone in a Prius I'm just awestruck but uh well it's the wisdom of the choice because of the great gas and the electricity the environmental controls but also that it's tiny how how do you live in a Prius you change every day every day I rearrange every day I get rid of a couple of things and every morning I think I need to get something bigger I know right but then later in the day I'm like no this is good so who knows what I'll do but yeah it's challenging it there yeah it certainly is every time you uh you go to the gas station though you know why you like you have a Prius absolutely right yep and it's just uh it's so reliable yes and that that was really my top concern like I would love more space but I reliability is more important although the Sienna I would love a hybrid Sienna if anyone wants to gift me one right yes then you get you get the best of both worlds after you've put out a whole bunch of money yeah yeah that's the that's the problem with the Sienna yeah I just drove one the other day they keep calling me don't you we want to get you to see I'm like not for 900 a month no not for the rest of my life no no uh but they also have the amazing um it's a big generator on Wheels essentially yeah really efficient generator on Wheels yeah and so you get uh environmental controls like air conditioning tell us about that uh it's wonderful like on a hot night or a cold night I just set it where I want it and the engine just pops on every once in a while sometimes once every 20 minutes just depends on the temperature but it's a little hard to get used to that when it kicks on I find that if I put a fan on you know something it kind of evens out that noise change so and and air conditioning yeah the air conditioning is really amazing yeah um and it doesn't draw much gas no not at all and the engine's designed for that so it won't it reduce its life at all no and so uh how long have you been on the road it's in September September so pretty new yep yep we came from Maine and I stopped in Michigan we stayed in some houses you know for a couple weeks with friends and then I went to Washington State stayed with my brother for a little while and got a very part-time job for like a month and then came down here very slowly right along the coast it's beautiful and you're full timing I am yeah yeah because I have no home to go back to at the moment it's being rented so that's good that's good that's the best of both worlds it is the income yeah and someday this might be done yeah and you got a place to go yeah yeah so it's it really is and it's also it is my income so I can't imagine selling it because then I would have to be careful but now I know I have a monthly income right it's a little bit of a cushion right and so uh you're not on you're young yet you're not on Social Security no I'm 58 so this is I just have to be careful use a little bit of savings once in a while but right just I don't spend a lot right yeah so why why do this I mean uh I mean that's that's what everyone asks is yeah why you know I just want some Adventure I want to see the world I want to have you know being in one place 40 hours a week working and you can't really go very far and like you're really missing out and tucked way up in Maine I was really felt like I was missing out right so I'd never really traveled so and I don't want to travel once a year you know on vacation I want to wherever I want to go so if I can get a job on the road that would be ideal right yes yeah exactly yeah if you can uh you and most of us have found that that you need to before you hit Social Security uh you have to so I did I had a pretty good a pension that I was living on but I would find that I would slowly dwindle my in savings and then I would want to replenish it and your dog is in the car but you have a dog yeah that's a little challenging he takes up a lot of real estate even though he's not big yeah of extra bags of food treats you know water dish yeah well rather than talk about how you live in it okay yes why don't you show us okay okay let's do that I don't know what you want to see first well there's so much yeah it's hard to know where to start we'll start in the front yeah so I didn't take out the front seat by myself which is extremely easy oh you did take it out yeah okay good yep I didn't really need to in order to sleep in it but it just felt much more spacious to not have that in there that's one thing that surprises most people is how long the Prius is yeah it's longer than like a RAV4 I can't sleep in a RAV4 I'm five nine um when I did have the seat I had to slide it forward and then bend it forward but anyway so even now you're not sleeping on the front seat no no I'm just using it for storage yeah it's my this is so I have a refrigerator this is a joy tutus because of your video I thought that's impressive yeah um you know I just store a few things I don't even know what's there anymore most of the stuff you have you just never use right I do have a fire extinguisher I keep one pair of extra pair of shoes down here this is my blue Eddie the smallest one which if you can get a bigger do it because it doesn't last that long no no you always want to get the most power electricity that you can yeah I just did it because of the size right but I think what I would do next time I would get a smaller refrigerator and a bigger battery but with the Prius you're able to keep your battery pack your charge no problem yeah yeah it's just that you know if I turn the engine off and I go somewhere then eventually it runs down it doesn't take that long but I have my one of my Waters here and I have this little rubber thing to keep from sliding because it used to slide a lot so that's the front I do have you know hand sanitizer extra dog bags just whatever you can tuck them everywhere everywhere Corner everywhere yeah so this is where I store Bagels food so it's just easy I can just open it up grab his tree shovel out his food got more dog bakes there oh and I do have I did buy these screens window socks mm-hmm which I have not used here because they're no bugs not here in quartzite almost done but it's really nice and you know it's hard you with the reflectix which I have you tuck them up here and then you can actually slide them down a little bit so you get a little bit of privacy and you can still get air so that's nice I do recommend getting these for your windows oh yeah so you can have them cracked you can have them cracked yeah right yes and they're really easy to put on they are just glue just tape really so I kept I I still have my back seats I didn't take those out right if I did I'd have a lot more storage yes uh so this is my closet which I greatly reduced the other day by a huge bag full so I have a few tops in here I can't remember my underwear is up there and I only wear two pairs of pants I found like I just don't need the five or six pairs that I brought I just get your comfortable Pairs and that's it and then this kind of covers it up but it's also my dirty clothes this is my laundry and I highly recommend uh detergent sheets oh instead of liquid because even the bag is biodegradable and I only use half a sheet per load really nice and I use dryer balls instead of dryer sheets much better and it takes up less space these are all the reflectix I ended up I had another Prius and I made my window coverings and I made them real pretty and decorated the inside and then my car got totaled oh no so I'm like I'm just gonna buy these and they do fit better and they are thicker and they're more rugged so that was worth it but they don't make them for the back window so what I did was I bought a a front Shield and then I just cut it to fit the back right I did put fairy lights here which is nice at night or very nice opening if you're this is my kitchen here so I like to it's nice to have a little light over the kitchen this is actually where I put my feet but during the day I put my pillow here and I cover it up because I don't want Bagel walking all over my pillow right and I have an extra blanket over my feet which I got at the wrtr they were giving them out for free brand new blankets because the cold comes right down from here and my feet were just always cold so this made a huge difference people are always uh think you can't be comfortable in there but oh I imagine you sleep really well I sleep very well yep I act so here that's this so I have a oh this is extra stuff I have piece of plywood because it there's a slight bump in this Prius a lot of priests have a big dip I only have a slate but I put that in there then I put some of this rubber mat and I just needed a little something more and then I have got all kinds of sheets on it I think it's a three inch Millard tri-fold or something like that probably learned that from your side I learned a whole lot from your side okay and since we're back here this is my kitchen so I had to buy a hitch and have it put on and then they have this basket and I didn't it's hard to get I couldn't find a good trunk that fits on it that's waterproof unlockable right they're like an inch too long or whatever just didn't fit so I had to get this cheap thing which is nice and white which is really it's light and I screw I put bolts through here so you can't steal it right but it does leak a little bit and it gets dusty so I put everything in bags most things so I have one of these little stoves that you see yes those are great those are pretty common they are and I have my French Press which I no longer use because then you have to deal with grounds right but you know maybe someday I'll get back to ground coffee and a collapsible bucket this is nice for bathing and I do have a shower tent I don't have it here but that's handy so that's how you're staying clean you have a shower tent yeah you have a USB shower a pump or no no no just that and I took sometimes I take a shower but it also just like the wet wipes and actually I prefer to use soap and water but so when I first started doing this I kept this seat up so I would kind of like wash back here or sit back here and read and then I realized that it's just really not that comfortable so I put I put the seat back down still there and I have it a little bit padded and then I put my I have a two sleeping bags which I put together because one was just too confining and I have them spread out over here so Bagel can think that he's in bed with me but not really be because he's off the mattress and I know you're going to ask about the bathroom of course so this is my bathroom It's gotta be small yep I do have a back at the camp I have a little tiny bucket with a noodle taped on it just for like if I had some terrible emergency but I haven't I mean this it does the job and you got to be flexible you do you got it in a Prius you got to be very flexible yeah I'm gonna do a video about that this will be actually be kind of fun oh um let's talk about your channel you have a YouTube I have a YouTube channel it's called Uh bagel and a Prius RV YouTube Instagram and Facebook um I do because we go to the dog parks a lot and just because he has Paws I bought this thing it's waterproof on one side and cloth here so that I pull it over everything so that he can and still comfortable yeah still comfortable I have these headlamps so I I wake up at like five in the morning and it's dark so I just have a little bit of light I'll put one of these on and it bounces off the ceiling so I have some light but it's not blaring and knees of course on this side I tuck my phone in oh it stays split and I can just tap on it and see what time it is and my glasses I stick in there too nice that's really very clever handy very clever so you lounge if you're in the van car lounging it'll be up in the front seat I guess I do Lounge here I don't it's not all that comfortable like it's really not a good size for doing computer work like I do it because I have to but I'm I'd need my legs farther away and I need my arms farther away so well you've set up a camp and you're probably just outside yeah yeah what I I think the trick to maybe having a vehicle is having an outdoor space right which I don't really have so if I had a tent or just a canopy anything would be good so that's what I need to get next and for people who have dogs if you go on Hikes this is a really nice oh yeah you just push the button right and then they can drink right and I figure if the water never goes back in I could drink out of it too sure yeah I have one of those yeah very nice yeah that's very handy up here I have boots and shoes and I I just know like stuff I don't need but I keep thinking I might you know I'm an OT so I might do a traveling job so in case I have like work clothes you know a few things and winter clothes because I might be in a winter state so I'm probably I'm way I have too much stuff most of us well no one in Prius has too much stuff but I do need a place to put my stickers yes yeah yeah I just I kind of like the extreme Challenge yeah this yeah it definitely is that yeah so are you going to stay in it for a while yes because I have to pay it off yep so although Toyota was willing to work with me but they weren't going to bring it down you know to make it worth it right of getting a different one but I had another Prius and I had it lifted which it was really nice to have it lifted even an inch and a half like it makes a difference big difference yeah and I had a trailer hitch I had everything tinted windows but then I got rear-ended waiting for a school bus I had to start all over and I'm not lifting it again right someday I might if I keep it yeah even though they're very small and that's an inconvenience I think the the closeness the low to the ground is actually a bigger problem yeah I mean I've swore a lot going through some of these BLM lands like yeah there's large rocks sometimes and if you go at night you cannot see them no so yeah an inch and a half would be helpful yeah it's amazing how well these uh the Prius will work out if you make it yeah and then you gotta accept the love hate sweet and sour yes that's just but that's part of life yeah yeah some would say the best part of life yeah then you meet all these great people who are living their vehicles yes you know you have an instant bond yeah no matter what size vehicle right right it's fun well Alex thank you so much for sharing your home with us in your life I really really appreciate it thank you thank you tell us again your uh YouTube channel bagel and a Prius RV YouTube Instagram and Facebook very good everyone go check her out yeah thank you thank you for all your inspiration and all your videos I've been watching it for like four or five years oh thank you I appreciate it okay folks I hope you've got some really great ideas here and some inspiration I'm sure you did if you did like us on YouTube subscribe to the channel hit that thumbs up button and we'll talk to you later bye now

Channel: CheapRVliving

Views: 90,927

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: tUzeZTe6BlM

Length: 16min 19sec (979 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 01 2023