Van Life Essentials - 20 Things YOU NEED For Van Life

hey guys we're ian and anna ian's behind the camera right now and in this video we couldn't be more excited to share with you everything that you might need or have to have if you're doing a road trip or van life last summer we converted this ford transit connect into a camper van kind of it's really just a bed so there was a ton of things that we needed that you might not even think of and that's really what we're excited to share with you today we took this van on a four month road trip across the us and if you missed any of those videos definitely click up here i think you'll really like them but for now let's just jump right into the video and help you out for your next trip just to let you guys know all the products you see in this video will be linked in the description below they're affiliate links and they're a bit of commission for us so if you want to support the channel that's a good way to do it but let's start with our number one van life essential to a lifeline in the road how we get electricity this is the jackery portable power station we use this thing to charge everything our phones computers anna curls our hair with it and we make coffee with it every single morning so how do we charge this bad boy well we plug it in when we're driving we use the solar panel over here when it's sunny out and then another way is to bring it into friends houses or cafes to charge there we decided the best way to explain everything to y'all is to categorize it we are on the kitchen category right now everything you see right here on top of the yeti goes in this bin and it's from home depot it was ten dollars this is the only pan i have on the road it's by rachel ray it's a deep dish pan so i like it because it serves as a frying pan but also a pot that way i can cook my rice and boil my noodles in it and i don't have to worry about it overflowing i know a lot of people like cast iron skillets on the road you just gotta see what's best for you for me a cast iron is like too big and heavy up next we have these awesome plates and bowls they're from target so cheap like one i think is like 80 cents which is like cheaper than the dollar tree hello we have our silverware in this little straw holder we have one pair of tongs a little spatula target and then ian has these straws he loves to drink his wine and his coffee with a straw the reason he likes them is to keep his teeth from staining and i really like them because they have rubber on top this is my favorite knife of all time it's like 30 bucks on amazon i just have one knife but i like a good big knife we have these for our coffee in the morning then these for our wine or tea or whatever we want at night this is an awesome cutting board this is just great because it fits right on the edge here i highly recommend just getting a small plastic one it is from marshalls it was like four dollars this one might be a little self-explanatory but always have tupperware with you because if you have leftovers or anything you can store them in this i like to put lemons onions whatever in tupperware so that i save plastic and don't use ziploc bags that's what we have in our first bin these go right next to our yeti under our bed and behind our first bin is our second bin which we have a small little coffee pot it's about two cups that's definitely a van life essential for us and then like paper towels olive oil things that you would find in your cabinets in your kitchen at home just one thing i really want to talk about you gotta have a biodegradable dish soap because if you're doing dishes in the wilderness it's really important not to put a ton of chemicals into the earth before i talk about how we cook i want to go over our fridge this yeti is our refrigerator i do not personally like it i think that it would be great to hold drinks but for food you have to get ice every two days and then you just waste plastic bags which like makes us cringe so much so we're really trying to find a better way and a lot of you commented on our last video giving us suggestions of fridges that could run on our jackery so if you all have any more please feel free to comment down below speaking of trying not to waste plastic we have a reusable garbage and you would think that it would smell and stuff but if you empty it enough it really doesn't and we clean it out as much as we can a huge tip for those wanting to recycle on the road is that all national parks and state parks around the country have recycling which is awesome shout out to them and we usually try to save up the plastic somewhere in our car and then wait till we get to one of those parks we do quite a bit of cooking on the road um unless we're getting lazy this is a coleman butane stove i literally had no idea what it was until vanilla so don't get intimidated or anything this is butane you can get it at walmart for just under three dollars we always have two at a time in the van at least place the butane inside and then you must lock it and you turn it on and then you get fire fire fire fire next is something really important it's our water jug it's about five gallons and what i really like about it is that it's like kind of smushy plastic it's not that really hard plastic so it conforms when we put it up there and can just basically fit wherever we put it just works like a basic water jug tada if you're worried about water on the road don't fret there's always a way to find water it's pretty crazy how easy it is you can get it at walmart that is paid it's like 30 cents per gallon you can also if you're a planet fitness member go in and ask to fill it up for free in addition to that you can fill it up for free at every national park and state park most of the time so we're really blessed to live in a country that provides free water for you because that's not the case in a lot of places lastly our handy-dandy knit bags i keep my spices i keep oranges we're a little low but yeah i love these we have four and we even put some on the side of our van to like put stuff in at night and that completes the kitchen category i hope you liked it next section is miscellaneous i'm gonna be explaining a bunch of items that make life easier on the road just like these magnetic phone holders when we're looking for directions on these road trips it's easy to put up there and we're able to keep both hands on the wheel this one is really important it's our wireless fan and it will keep the temperature in here pretty cool at night it's very powerful for its size and i just hook it up right up here it will point at us sleeping in the back right under the driver seat is this sunshade it's foldable and it expands like that we use it not only for the sun but our privacy it goes up like this these visors right here to keep it up super easy and actually really cheap i think it was like 10 bucks and ian did something very clever for the other windows to give us privacy these are our do-it-yourself sun shades we bought a roll of this insulation from home depot about ten dollars and we cut it out and put velcro on it goes up on our windows just like this great for privacy great for keeping the heat out during the day and easy to take up and take down we just roll it up and put it underneath our bed something that we thought of while we were on the road which i thought was super clever is to put velcro on this side we hold it down crack the window open and then we put our mosquito net on the outside that way we get a cross breeze from the windows at night we don't do this often unless it's really hot speaking of bug nets we did another do-it-yourself project and cut out these mesh bug nuts and fit it to the back of our van also the windows in the front put them up with these magnets now we're still able to enjoy the outdoors but have the protection of the net once we forgot to put this thing up in idaho and the mosquitoes were out of this world we had 50 mosquitoes in our van and couldn't go to bed until all of them were dead it's a very bad night in van life this nifty device helps us get to the turtle up top we just put it on the side right here and i'm easily able to step up and get to items up here this one's kind of just a fun one but it is actually essential to us because this is how we get our light in the van we have these string lights that i hot glued to the top and i also have extra ones for extra light at night or also to take pictures with we just took a picture with them outside with a movie night and it turned out super cute this is also just a little fun one you don't have to have it i wouldn't say it's totally essential but we do use it every single night ian and i watch our ipad and have some snacks at night it's also collapsible which is awesome for when you're driving last miscellaneous item which i don't believe is a true essential we really only use this a few times on our four-month road trip out west but now that we're in florida we're using it a lot more it's a simple drying rack it fits right behind our seats our next category is fun just a bunch of stuff we love having on the road i wouldn't say that it's all essential the only thing that really is essential is the sponsor of the video which is cali case it's a waterproof phone case that also floats the floating feature is so important to me because i don't want to drop my phone in the water and have it sink we took this across our four-month road trip i'm sure you've seen it in one of our videos before here in florida it's come really in handy i got the new iphone 12 pro max and the underwater footage that you can get with this case is so good like it might be better than the gopro if you are interested in one of these you can use the code the other side for 20 off at checkout a couple more items that make life on the road a little more fun is our blow up paddle board right here we use our paddle boards all the time here in florida wish we had it out west but a great addition to the mobile you save money on rental gear very durable board and we bring it with us everywhere now rollerblades are fun for all those boardwalks next to the beach especially on the california coast this is the snorkel set that everyone always asks about we've been using it for three plus years around the world it's white and it's from cressy these things are travel sized and they are dope last but not least is a wetsuit which is another new addition to the mobile it's perfect for the natural springs here in florida keeps us very warm in cold water up next is beauty and wellness and a little bit of storage which you'll see a common theme in this section which are bins we love our bins this one is from walmart it's our toiletry bin we keep you know everything we need in here the only thing you really want to talk about in this section is the dr bronner's biodegradable shampoo and soap it's really important if you're showering outside kind of like how i talked about the dish though same thing goes for when you're showering to have something that's biodegradable so you're not harming the earth personally though i'm gonna give you my tip on this i don't like using this for my hair i prefer to use other shampoos it made my hair super oily so i just want to let you girls know that out there but i will say this is one of the best face washes i've ever used all right let's talk about how we shower now so i already have this set up we use magnets to put up a tapestry in the back of our van and then we'll put a shower curtain to protect the bed we have our rinse kit here it's a portable shower that is powered by a pump you just pump it like this and boom we really only use this in dire situations otherwise we shower at planet fitness or we go to an airbnb or a friend's house i will say this really came in handy on our four-month road trip especially in utah because there are no planet fitnesses and that sucked lastly in this sections are clothing bins i have an entire bin here ian and i each have one big bin that fit under our bed we got all our bins at walmart and the best part about doing that was being able to go in buy a few different sizes put them in the van see what works and then returning them so i highly suggest buying your bins in person and not online as you can see a bunch of my clothes fit in here i have you know clothes kind of in every nook and cranny in the van if you're a girl you totally get me ian only gets one bid though that was the rule oh no i'm just kidding another thing about clothes is our hiking shoes and boots a lot even asking and yes you need these on the road they make life so much easier when you're hiking you do not want to be slipping all over the place so we definitely recommend getting those ones before we wrap up this video i just want to let you guys know that we're coming out with a road trip travel guide how we did it for only 30 a day per person all our free campsites on our four month road trip and so much more so get ready for that it's coming out in may of 2021. if you guys like this video give it a thumbs up comment down below what you thought we always love hearing from you guys and definitely follow us on instagram and tick tock a lot of people have been hating on this outro but i don't give a [Music] you

Channel: The Other Side

Views: 75,442

Rating: 4.9515152 out of 5

Keywords: van life, van life essentials, vanlife, road trip essentials, van life in america, top van life products, van life products, how to van life, road trip products, best products for van life, van life must haves, van life items, things you need for van life, things for van life, van life things you need, products for van life, van life hacks, road trip hacks, budget van life, van life budget, van life gear, van life vlog, ford transit connect, ford transit connect camper

Id: OJT5nxWN-N8

Length: 11min 38sec (698 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 21 2021