Woman’s Low Cost Living in a Renovated Camper Trailer

hey everyone in this video we're meeting up with a young woman who's experimenting with small space low-cost living in a renovated camper trailer living in a trailer isn't necessarily a new phenomenon but we still thought it would be interesting to talk to Arielle and find out why this housing setup was appealing to her what the pros and cons are how much it costs and where she parks it so let's go meet up with her [Music] I love the fact that I live in a structure that I own I own this wonderful space that I live in and not a lot of people my age can say that and I'm really really happy and proud to be here the fact that I didn't have to put a lot of capital into this place that I live in and I have the freedom to stay as long as I need to or also I can use it as a stepping stone to save money and go where I want to go or kind of change my plan and maybe get a van or move to a new place or new province that is so valuable I've been downsizing every time I move I find that I sort through all my things and get rid of things that I don't need because it just makes the moving process easier so when I moved here I had gotten to a point where I really didn't need to get rid of a whole lot of stuff to fit everything in and when I moved in it felt empty because I actually didn't have enough things for the storage in this trailer when you walk in there's a really nice open seating area I have a bench and my favorite space is the kitchen and my dining table I do so much cooking it's mostly when I spend my time doing in here so to have this open space for my entertaining kind of kitchen area is super important to me I love that it's the focal point and then there's a narrow space where I have my closet and my bedroom is also a really big space in the trailer so the two priorities are really lovely because all I do is sleep and eat and it's perfect the windows in my bedroom are one of my favorite things because I can see the moon and the stars and the Sun in the morning that wakes me up my bathroom is is really nice it's super small but it's just big enough for me to stand in and I do have a shower but without running water I'm not using it right now yes I cook with propane and my oven is propane as well but my fridge is electric and I have two propane tanks at the front of the trailer that feed my stove this is a 1984 Thierry Taurus camper trailer it is 28 feet mostly original all of the fixings are original my fridge my stove my oven all original the air conditioner as well I bought it from an absolutely lovely couple who did all of the renovations themselves with intention to live in it and they decided to sell it and I was extremely fortunate to acquire through them so I did not build it but I appreciate everything that they've done to build it so I bought it for 6,000 Canadian and I figured that it would pay for itself in two seasons of living in if I couldn't live in it over the winter which is great lovely it just really beats paying $900 a month in rent it's nice to live out in the country and have the birds and wake up to sunshine and go to sleep when the Sun sets it was worth it even if I don't stay in it for two seasons right now it's parked at a beautiful farm property that's no longer in use so it's not a production farm property it's this wonderful elderly lady who doesn't mind that I live on the edge of her property that she doesn't visit anymore she lives quite a ways back from me so we actually have a lot of private space from each other but we're also very close so there's a lot of security in this space so I pay her about $200 a month for rent just so that I can plug into her hydro I don't use water I just bring in 5-gallon jugs and I use it for all my dishes and just washing my face and brushing my teeth in my drinking water and the system works really well I refill at work or at my friends houses or I go to the water store and just get a spring water refill and it's about ten dollars a week if I'm not filling up at friends houses which is still quite reasonable I can actually shower at work or I have a gym membership so I can shower at the gym after hours as well so I'm super super fortunate to be able to have those resources makes it very easy to live this way without running water my toilet is sort of a compost based toilet I actually have a separating system so I separate liquids and solids and it works great for one person I don't think I need to make any changes it is insulated but it's not a very heavy-duty insulation I am going to try to push it as far into the winter as I can I did stay a few nights in the trailer over the winter this past winter and it was actually really reasonable I was able to get the temperature to about 9 degrees overnight I use a propane heater just to warm up the space when I get home and then an electric radiator heater to maintain the temperature while I'm sleeping for safety and I think that I can go pretty far into the winter if we have another mild winter as long as the snow isn't too bad but we'll see if I can't stay in the trailer for the winter I will house it or stay with a friend or just rent a room somewhere it's pretty open I'm gonna see how it goes [Music] so I work full-time at greenhouse which is really amazing I work crazy hours I'm not home very much which makes it a lot easier to be here and I think we'll help in the wintertime as well because I only have to come home warm up the space for a couple hours while I cook and hang out and then go to bed so I think it's quite reasonable I did cut out reflective window coverings it's this wonderful reflectix insulation and I pop it onto my windows and it allows me to keep this space a lot warmer and wrink retains the heat a lot better so I don't have to run the propane heaters as much it was a natural progression to find a space that I could have all of my stuff in one small area that I didn't have to rent from another person it was just what I needed I don't feel like I live very minimally because I have shoes and I have a full closet and I have lots of blankets and I have lots of kitchen things but I suppose that I do live a little bit minimally because this is it this is all I have plus a bike and my car and it does definitely allow me to allocate money towards future goals that I haven't decided on yet which is exciting [Music] if you want to follow Ariel's adventure you can check her out on Instagram also please share this video if you liked it don't forget to subscribe and thanks for watching

Channel: Exploring Alternatives

Views: 702,169

Rating: 4.9184031 out of 5

Keywords: RV, life, tour, renovated, renovating, trailer, camper, camping, alternative, low, cost, housing, home, rent, house, interior, minimalist, woman, budget, cheap, how to, documentary, micro, mini, interview, exploring alternatives, minimalism, heat, heater, air conditioning, electricity, grid, on, water, kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, composting, toilet, 2019, Canada, save, money, invest, mobile home, sustainable

Id: lh0c3oAAovU

Length: 7min 49sec (469 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 14 2019