How did your fulltime mini vanlife started?

I got a lot of questions about my lifestyle both before, during and after I did vanlife. I think it’s fair enough that people asked me this since it wasn’t a big van I had, neither a big car but a small little Suzuki Swift. So I understand people got a little confused and asked themselves how that is even possible, but it is!

Thats why I wanted to share this with you to explain my experience, how I did it and how you can do the same in a cheap and simple way with what you already have.

Before I decided to move in fulltime, I was going in the same thoughts as many others, I need to find a van or something bigger to be able to fit my whole life in there. I started to look at prices and ended up with the conclusion that I needed to save more money before I could buy. But I wanted to do it now! I didn’t want to wait for that long so I started looking at the car I already had and tried to figure out how I could do something with that. I figured that if I take my back seats out, since they didn’t fold flat, that will give me enough space to put in a mattress. So I did, I found a really big one on marketplace for almost no money. It was a thick foam mattress so I just had to cut it to fit it in the car. Perfect!

They where laughing at me though when I came there in my Swift and wondered how on earth I would be able to fit it in there. We where 4 people trying to get it into the car, I was pushed towards the window while driving and didn’t see much, but at least I got the mattress. Haha!

Now when I had a nice and super comfy mattress in place, I needed something to cover the windows for some privacy. You don’t wan’t someone staring at you when you open your eyes in the morning. I started off with window protectors that you put on the front and rear windows to protect the car from getting too hot in the sun. They do the job but I wanted something more personal so I made curtains to hang up. Because the roof in the car was soft, I could just use a staple gun to hang the curtains. I did the same thing with my fairy lights in the roof as well to get some light and make it cozy.

What I did after this was to start going on small day adventures or just stay somewhere for a night or two to try it out, see if I liked it. And of course I did! My small little adventures only became more and after a while I thought, I think I could do this fulltime. I already had my bed, curtains, light and a few other small things like a water jug, cutlery etc.

The excitement now was huge! I started to think of what I would need to be able to actually live in there all the time. I knew I would have to down size even more (I was already living very minimalistic so that wasn’t going to be a problem), but what things should I take with me, what should I not take and did I need to buy something new? I thought of everything I was using in my home at the time in the kitchen, bathroom, bedroom and those where the things I would need in the car too.

Since I didn’t had a lot of space, I really had to figure out how to storage everything and it became like the game tetris. If I put one thing this way, then I could put another thing that way. After some thinking and trying I got everything I needed in the car and was ready for my new adventure.

So this is how I started my mini vanlife journey and there will be more posts on tips and tricks and how things where actually going at the time. There where a lot of updates in the car with storage and how to handle different things but I will save that for later. This was the start up with the most simple things.

I got the taste of freedom from day 1!