#winterinthevan

[ladyclementine]

Surviving Winter in a Van

Well...My partner, David, and I have been ‘living the van life’ for the past 5 months. Funny that I finally get the motivation to write about it in the dead of winter, one of the most miserable van-life experiences you can have. So it goes...

It seems a dreamy existence - get up and go whenever and wherever you like, have all of your possessions on hand everywhere you go...Basecamp is home. But it’s not all butterflies and daydreams. We both still work full time jobs and have to spend our ‘vagabond days’ close to home, which is currently in Colorado. Unfortunately, neither of us are snow birds. We very much appreciate warm weather, and our hobbies correlate with that. While we are lucky to have such a beautiful place to call home, the winter cold can be brutal, wherever you are, and we cannot yet pack off to Mexico anytime the temps dip below freezing. So I thought it couldn’t hurt to write my first post about how we are surviving winter in the van. Maybe it will help others in similar situations, or maybe it will remind me to never do this (for an extended period of time) again. 

1. Layers. When it gets below zero we are certainly not flouncing around in our skiveys. We go to bed with our comforter, quilt, both sleeping bags, flannel pajama pants or under armour, hats, jackets, sweaters, and most recently, the AMAZING PATAGONIA CAPILENE ONESIE! I’m in love. In fact, I’m thinking of also installing a zipper in the front crotch so I can still use my pee funnel. Be prepared to slip into some cold sheets, get nice and toasty overnight, and have your heater at the ready to prep you for the morning opening of the cocoon. 

                                           Chilly Mornings

2. Be prepared, but Insulation can only do so much. If you know you will be spending some serious time in the cold while pursuing the van-life, take time and money to insulate right. However, a van is only so big and you can only insulate so much. It’s going to be cold regardless, so be ready to deal. Things to note - Windows are going to leak cold all over the damn place. Insulate them well, but you can also take the insulation out during the day when the sun can shine in and warm up your space. I read another blog where they stuffed pillows in their window spaces at night to block the cold. I wish we had put more insulation in our floor, since a lot of cold comes in from under the van and if I’m not wearing my big wool socks and oscar the grouch slippers at all time, my cold feet bring the chill in to the bone. Pieces of carpet would be good, but would get way too dirty and soak up moisture. Still pending on ideas here.

3. Get a heating element. We have solar, but electric heaters take up so much energy they are practically useless in the van. We are borrowing a Mr. Buddy heater that runs on propane. We pretty much only use it before bed and when getting up in the morning. It heats up the place pretty fast, but the heat doesn’t stick around for long. We have a carbon monoxide detector in the van for safety, and we do not run it while sleeping, even in the negative degree weather.

4. Ventilate. Be aware of moisture build-up. Though it seems counter-intuitive, given how damned cold it is in that metal box of yours, we recommend cracking your front windows at night. We noticed that we were steaming it up in there pretty heavily, and there was a lot of condensation forming on the inside of the van, which then turns into ice or mold, neither of which are ideal. No one wants to scrape ice off the inside AND the outside of their car windshield! Cracking the windows allows the air to circulate a bit, and while it doesn’t fully take care of the problem, it does reduce it quite a bit.

5. Memory foam is awesome - but it doesn't like the cold. I love memory foam, and it was very convenient to be able to cut our bed to size with a memory foam mattress, but when it is freezing out your bedding is also frozen. Get used to a rock hard pillow. You'll start to sink in once your precious body heat softens it up.

6. In fact, everything freezes. Seriously. All of our water is frozen, so no dishes can be done, which means eating out a lot more, drinking water must be used for brushing teeth, and anything else liquid is useless. Dish soap, medications, shampoo and conditioner...Laundry detergent? Make sure you have powdered on hand. Pee bottles? Go, then dump, or you’ll have a big block of piss-in-a-bottle taking up space until the spring thaw. 

                                                No Laundry Today :(

7. Drain your plumbing. We have had multiple problems with water leaks from our foot pump set-up. We use a marine foot pump with tubes connecting to our fresh water and gray water tanks. These are attached with hose clamps and worked just fine over the summer, but once the temperatures started fluctuating drastically things got a bit more complicated. We forgot to flush the system when we had below zero temps and a piece of the piping from the faucet split and now sprays water everywhere (working on currently). The attachment points at the pump itself also started leaking when the temperatures changed too much, despite our hose clamps that seem to be working everywhere else, leading to more water leakage and a fear of water/mold growth under our flooring. Eep. Needless to say - just do it manually for a couple months. 

8. Get used to less sexy-times. Just being real here. It’s freezing, you hardly want to lift your nose above the covers, much less remove all your warm snuggly clothes. So unless you have superior fort-building skillz and room for all those blankets...So if you are a couple in a van take every opportunity you can when you can. 

9. Budget to eat out more often. It’s a dangerous habit, and not something you want to get TOO used to, but you’re already saving on rent by living in a van, right? When you wake up and you can hardly bear to get out of bed, your eggs are frozen, water is frozen so you can’t do dishes...Well, you’ve got to eat something. Also, tea. Lots and lots and lots of warm, delicious tea. 

                                   Frozen Meatballs

10. Take advantage of the Holidays. Have friends in town? Family? Staying in one area long term? House sitting is the way to go. Offer your services taking care of a lonely home or pet(s) that need left behind. Fair exchange - They get free care and you get a hot shower, television, and heat. Beautiful. 

11. Laugh about the little things. What the hell are we doing? We hate cold! I love looking at and playing in snow...when I know I have a warm place to go and marshmallows topped with cocoa afterwards! But despite how miserable it can be, it is also awesome. We must be some tough buggers to stick around the Rocky Mountains in our not-so-well-insulated home. It’s a lifestyle choice, and it says something about much we want this life. We both get frustrated, but we make up for it by laughing at sharing curry right out of the pan to save on dishes, trying to figure out how to pee into a bottle (as a girl) in a onesie, and nuzzling very cold noses. We don’t have answers to everything, we are constantly learning and changing how we do things, and we certainly don’t have a fancy rig with all the perks, just like most other people out there doing the same thing. Just know that it won’t last forever, and it is making you a more resourceful and (crazy) awesome person.