August 23, 2023 • 23 mins
What's it like to swap the nomadic freedom of van living for the bricks and mortar security of a house? As I temporarily exchange my van life for house life, I've encountered an array of emotions and hurdles. The transition hasn't been smooth sailing— navigating my way from sleeping under the stars to being confined within four walls can be challenging, especially during a blistering heatwave.
You don't always realize the significance of comforts like like a hot shower, or the convenience of free-flowing water until you've lived without them. Yet, transitioning from a van to a house isn't all about the luxuries. It's also about the challenges—dealing with the clutter, the disconnect from nature, and losing the endless possibilities that van life affords. You may think it's easier, but you might also find yourself yearning for the simplicity of van life.
Speaking of simplicity, I also discuss a less talked about element of van life—burnout. The relentless search for parking spaces, the need to stay active, the pursuit for resources—it all adds up. Transitioning to a sailboat or taking advantage of house sitting programs has been my way of combating the burnout.
Join me as I share all the ups and downs of the journey as we traverse through the trials and tribulations of transitioning from van life to house life (and back again)!
Links mentioned:
- Trusted Housesitters: https://www.thewaywardhome.com/trusted-petsitters/
- Rover: https://www.rover.com/become-a-sitter/
- The Landing: https://www.hellolanding.com/
Connect with Kristin Hanes and The Wayward Home!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 0 (00:00):
So for the past number of days I think it's been
about six days I've been livingin my sister's house in the
Beaverton Oregon area, trying toescape a brutal heat wave.
In Hood River and Portland it'sbeen a hundred degrees for days
on end, and so we're takingrefuge in this wonderful house
with air conditioning while mysister is out on a vacation, and
it's been a blessing.
And also it's been prettydifficult to move from the van
(00:22):
into the house, and you might besurprised when you hear that In
fact, a lot of my relatives sayoh my gosh, you must be so
happy to sleep in a big bed, youmust be happy to be in a house.
And when I answer them well,I'm not really that happy about
it they get pretty confused.
So I figured in this episode ofthe Wayward Home podcast I talk
a little bit about what it'slike transitioning from a van
into a house and also, on theflip side, what it's like
(00:45):
transitioning from the houseback into the van.
I also want to touch on vanlife burnout, which is the time
you really do want to live in ahouse, is when you're just tired
of living in a van.
You really need a break andthat's the perfect time to live
in a house, and I'm going to goover some options on how you can
take advantage of living in ahouse when you do experience van
life burnout, because that'salso a real thing.
(01:07):
My friends over at engineerswho van life have been
experiencing van life burnoutthemselves while up in Alaska.
So in this episode of theWayward Home podcast I just
wanted to talk about transitionstransitioning from a house to a
van, transitioning from a vanto a house and kind of what that
feels like and the difficultiesand the positives of those
transitions.
Let's go, hey there, I'mKristen Haynes with the
(01:29):
waywardhomecom and I spend halfthe year in my camper van in the
US and half the year in mysailboat in Mexico, and I hope
to inspire you to livenomadically too.
So this episode of the WaywardHome podcast is all about
transitions, and this wasinspired by the fact that I
moved into my sister's house anumber of days ago to beat a
heat wave in the Portland Oregonarea, where temperatures have
(01:50):
been in the triple digits and wewould have had to drive at
least five hours to find coolertemperatures.
So we figured staying in herhouse while she's on vacation
was the best option for us.
However, we have gone throughsome interesting emotions during
this transition to living in ahouse, which made me think this
is a great time to discuss someof these transitions in a
podcast episode, because livingin a house, especially during a
(02:13):
heat wave, is not as exciting asyou might think it is for
someone who's living the vanlife, because, you know, I live
the van life because I love it,and so I wanted to talk a little
bit about some of the feelingsand challenges I have when
moving into a house, and alsothe positives, because I feel
really lucky that I do have thisgorgeous new house to live in.
It's a blessing, and I knowthat many people are stuck on
(02:34):
the streets without airconditioning and they're just
having a very hard time throughthis heat wave, and so I do feel
lucky and I am very grateful,and so I wanted to get that out
of the way first, because Idon't know what I would have
done if I didn't have this houseto stay in during this heat
wave.
But it also is challenging, andI think that's sometimes hard
for people to understand wholive in a house, because when
(02:57):
you're living in a van, you knowthe world is your oyster.
Every day is a new adventure.
Every day you're in nature,you're exercising, you're
hearing the birds, you'resmelling the fresh air.
There are changes in your life,you don't get stuck in a rut.
It's really an amazing feeling,especially being an organ.
We love being in Hood Riverbecause we windsurf in the river
, we climb on Mount Hood, weclimb on Mount St Helens, we're
(03:20):
going on walks and we're meetingpeople, and just every day is
different.
And when you're suddenly thrustinto a house environment, things
suddenly become the same, andthat's a really interesting and
hard transition, especially atfirst.
So I've always noticed thefirst couple of days of living
in a house are when my feelingsare the strongest.
It feels jarring and amazing atthe same time, which is kind of
(03:44):
hard to describe.
The first thing I notice isthat, wow, I get this really hot
shower in a wonderful cleanbathroom.
There's endless running water,I can do my laundry, I can put
my clothes in drawers, I canreally spread out and I can
enjoy that air conditioning, thekitchen and everything that
comes with having a house, andso at first it just feels
(04:05):
Incredible.
But then I tried to sleep forthat first night in a house and
that's where things really startto go wrong.
First of all, it's really hardfor me to sleep in a real bed, a
bed that has box springs, youknow, that has plush feel to it.
Our van in the bed is onlythree inches thick.
It's incredibly comfortable andit's foam and it's wonderful
(04:27):
and it's probably the best, mostcomfortable bed I have ever
slept in.
And so it's kind of funny whenwe transitioned to sleeping in a
bed in a house, because ourfriends and our family always
say how excited we must be tosleep in a quote real bed, and
when we tell them we actuallydon't like sleeping in a bed,
they all look at us with areally weird expression on their
(04:48):
face, like how could you notlike sleeping in a real bed?
But to be honest, the bed in myvan is actually a queen sized
bed and both of us fit verycomfortably in that bed, and we
built out the van so that it hasmaximum air flow, so we have
windows in the back of the vanand on the sides of the van, and
so when we're sleeping in therewe just get this wonderful
fresh night air washing over ourfaces.
(05:10):
And so the first thing wenotice about sleeping in a house
.
After the bed that's kind ofuncomfortable is the fact that
there is not that fresh air justwashing over our faces.
And you know, even when it's acool night and the AC is turned
down, we open the window intothe bedroom but we still, you
know, there's not that air flow,and that's something that's
really hard to get a custom to,as you're breathing in this more
(05:34):
stale air in a house and youdon't have exposure to that
fresh natural air that we'rejust so used to.
And so the first few nights ofsleeping in a house are actually
quite challenging for both ofus.
We find ourselves feelinguncomfortable, we don't sleep
well, we roll around a lot andthis might shock you but I
eventually end up sleeping onthe floor.
I get to a point where I justcan't handle the bed anymore,
(05:56):
and so I make myself a littlefloor bed and really all that is
is a couple of comforters onthe floor and I lay down on the
floor on those comforters, andit's a firm surface, it's hard,
and then I start sleeping better.
I get used to not having thatfresh air in my face and the bed
becomes more comfortable and Iget used to sleeping on the
floor.
But really in almost everyhouse I sleep in, I end up
(06:19):
sleeping on the floor andsometimes when I tell people
that, they again look at me likeI'm insane, like I'm a human
from another planet and maybe Iam at this point, after living
in a van for so long, I am kindof more of a feral animal than
an actual civilized person.
And so definitely the bed andthe sleeping is the first major
(06:39):
hurdle when it comes to thattransition to living in a house.
The next transition is sort ofsimilar, along that same
wavelength, in that we aresuddenly very disconnected from
nature, especially during a heatwave.
When there's not a heat wave,living in a house is easier
because we go on walks, we siton the deck, we open the windows
, but during a heat wave, sincethe air conditioning is running,
(07:01):
we have to leave everythingreally shut up.
And the only time I actuallyopened the windows in this house
was early in the morning when Iwoke up around 630 or 7am and I
opened all the windows, just soI can hear the birds chirping
and just so I can hear the windand the trees and feel that
fresh air on my face as I'mdrinking my coffee.
Because when you live in a van,you're living outside a lot of
(07:22):
the time, and when you're notoutside, you're sitting in a
chair or at a table or in thebed and there's airflow.
Your windows are open, yourroof fan is open, sometimes the
side door is open.
We have a screen that we lovecalled the bug wall that fits
over the side door of our van,so oftentimes we can just have
that side door wide open, and sothere's always a very fresh
(07:46):
exchange of air inside the van.
And when we're not inside thevan, we're outside, so we're
doing some sort of exercise orwe love just setting up our camp
chairs and sitting outside, andso when you're used to living
almost full time outside, it's avery jarring experience to
suddenly be living full timeinside.
The other day we were here andthe wind was rustling the leaves
(08:08):
of the trees behind the houseand Tom looked at me and said I
see the wind rustling the trees,but I can't hear it.
And we look to each other andwe're like there's something not
right about this, there'ssomething so weird.
So you become very disconnectedwith nature when you start
living in a house.
You can't hear the sounds, youdon't really know what's
happening outside.
(08:29):
Even if it started to rain, youwouldn't really know if you
were inside of a house.
The air is always the sametemperature, it always feels the
same, the air has the samescent to it, but when you're
used to living outside, younotice all those changes.
You're like, oh, it's windy now, or it's raining, or there's
been a temperature change, or,oh, a storm is coming, I can
(08:50):
smell the rain.
There's all these indicatorsfrom nature about what's going
on outside, and so that's a veryjarring experience when it
comes to transitioning into ahouse, and something we
definitely both struggle with atfirst.
So during a heat wave, both ofus also had this intense feeling
of being trapped.
The other night I think it wastwo nights ago I ended up just
(09:11):
pacing around the house.
I was walking back and forth, Iwas feeling like a dog that
hasn't gone on its walk for theday, and I couldn't go on a walk
because it was too hot, and soI found myself pacing around.
I was feeling really antsy andreally miserable and
uncomfortable, and I finally hadto settle down my nerves by
doing a half an hour yogasession just to breathe deeply,
to get into my body and out ofmy head.
(09:31):
But I have this feeling ofsometimes feeling very trapped,
and I figure that's what a wildanimal feels like when they're
in a cage or that's what a dogfeels like when they're in the
house all day.
It starts to feel like I'm justinside these four walls and I'm
not outside, and it's a reallyweird feeling.
And so that's anothertransition that I have to get
used to over a period of severaldays living in a house.
(09:52):
Another thing I have to get usedto is my stuff.
Suddenly, instead of my stuffbeing contained in this
perfectly small capsule of acamper van, my stuff is
everywhere.
Oh my gosh, when we startliving in a house we pretty much
bring everything in.
You know, the food that we'reeating out of the van on a daily
basis, our laundry, ourcomputer stuff, and this time we
actually unloaded the entireback of the van so we could sort
(10:15):
through some of our bins andclean out the back of the van,
and so the garage here is justfull of our van stuff.
The house has our stuffscattered all over it and it
becomes kind of overwhelming.
You're like, oh my gosh,there's just stuff everywhere
and all these rooms, and thehouse is big and so there's
stuff in three different storieson this house, and so that can
be kind of weird.
You sort of forget where youput things.
(10:37):
It looks like everything's indisarray.
You don't have a home for youritems, cause in the van.
You have to be highly organizedor you end up living in a
complete pigsty.
You know, I always know whereeverything is in the van, so
living in a house it's kind offunny.
I just don't know where thingsare.
And another thing that's weirdis that I'm used to being around
Tom every day, like very closequarters with Tom, like we're
(10:58):
within 10 feet of each other,and so when we're in a house
it's like wow, I'm here on thethird floor.
He's down two stories below me,and so we become a little more
disconnected from each other,which is really interesting.
And so we're working on stayingconnected in this really large
space.
But what's interesting and whathappens after a period of a few
days is we start to get used tobeing in the house.
(11:19):
You know, this becomes our homebase.
We stop noticing that we'redisconnected from nature, the,
you know, the floor starts tofeel more comfortable and we
start getting used to having alarge amount of space and all
the positives that come with thehouse.
You know the positives likehaving endless hot water and
laundry nearby and a bigrefrigerator and a really
(11:40):
comfortable large couch tospread out on.
We start to get used to allthese amenities and amazing
things about a house which, forus, feels extremely luxurious
after living in a van, and sothat's something that's
interesting that we starttransitioning into living in the
house and then we're livinghere and we start getting used
to that environment, becausehumans are adaptable.
(12:01):
We get used to whateverenvironment that we're put in,
and so now I'm starting to feellike, oh, this house feels like
home and we're starting to gotoward the other end of the
transition, which is loading thevan and getting back out into
nature.
But that becomes hard Becausewe're used to everything in this
house.
We're used to having our stuffspread out and stored.
(12:22):
It's nice having an empty vanto run around and do errands in,
and so things start moving overto the flip side of the
equation when it comes totransitions.
And that happens to us everytime, and I also find that
extremely interesting.
When we start living in a housefor a while, then we start
really melting into theexperience of being in the house
and the thought of loading upthe van and doing everything it
(12:44):
takes to get back out into vanlife starts to sound really
difficult and cumbersome.
For example, now we have toload up all our bins and
windsurfing boards andsurfboards back into the van,
reorganize all of our clothesand food and then get back into
that pattern of I call ithunting and gathering, which is
kind of what it's like to livethe van life.
Every day you're searching forsomething.
(13:04):
You're searching for water,you're searching for a trash can
, you're searching for food,you're searching for a place to
sleep, you're searching for ahike or the best windsurfing
spot, and so your life becomesabout searching and so you're
not really spending a lot oftime in one place pursuing the
things that you might want topursue, like.
For me, one of the challenges ofliving the van life is trying
(13:26):
to find time to work like recorda podcast or really work on my
business, and when you're in ahouse, in your stationery,
there's way more hours in theday to pursue things like
working or playing the guitar ordoing yoga or these smaller,
simpler hobbies that become alittle bit more challenging when
you're always on the move, andso the thought of going back and
being on the move again is veryexciting to me.
(13:49):
I'm thrilled to get back outthere and go to the gorge and go
to the mountains, but itbecomes more of a struggle to
transition from the house backinto that van lifestyle, and so
I found that to be veryinteresting that that happens to
us all these three stages oftransition from going from the
van to the house to slowlymelting into our routine at the
(14:10):
house and getting used to that,to then moving back into the van
again and dealing with thosefeelings and issues of that
constant movement, which is whywe live the van life in the
first place.
We love the adventure andfreedom of moving around, but it
does come at a cost of that.
You are constantly researchingand moving.
You can set up van life whereyou're moving less, where you're
(14:33):
at a campsite for many weeks ata time and we have done that
where we're working on the vanor I'm working on my course for
my website or various aspects ofmy online business, and we're
more stationary, but a lot ofthe times we're moving around a
lot and other van lifers willattest to that as well, and so
it is nice to be able to sit fora while and just be in a house
(14:54):
and not worry about as manythings as we worry about when
living in the van.
So that brings me to the nexttopic I wanted to bring up in
this podcast episode, which isvan life burnout.
And usually you know that goeshand in hand in what I talked
about before, which is thehunting and gathering aspects of
van life, and this isespecially challenging if you're
working a full-time job, likemy friends over at engineers who
(15:15):
van life, and you should gofollow them on Instagram and
they have a podcast called VanLab and I love seeing what
they're up to.
They're in Alaska and theyrecently had a post on Instagram
about how they wereexperiencing intense van burnout
, which was always looking for anew place to park, an activity
to do.
You know where are the besthikes, where are the best
grocery stores, you know whereto dump, you know out water and
(15:37):
get new water.
These are all factors we alwayshave to be thinking about and
living in a van and one of themat least, is also working
full-time and also trying tomaintain that work schedule
while being on the move andsearching for all these things,
and so that can lead to van lifeburnout and I've definitely
experienced that before as well,and it's something that happens
(15:58):
to the best of us and I tend tohandle that by making switches
in my life.
So we have a camper van and asailboat and I think that's the
perfect combination to deal withvan life burnout, because, you
know, in a van you're in a verysmall space and you move around
a lot.
As I said before, where oursailboat is 41 feet and it feels
more like you know the size ofa larger RV, there are separate
(16:21):
areas for cooking.
I have an oven, I have a, wehave a table with benches which
can seat four people, we have anarea that has settees you know,
that are facing each other, alounge area, a separate bedroom,
a separate bathroom, and we goat a much slower pace.
We stay at anchorages longer.
You know, when we sail we'removing slowly, and so to just
(16:42):
have that variety of van lifeand boat life really helps us
with van life burnout.
And throughout this entire timeof living in the van and on the
boat, we've also done a ton ofhouse sitting and the times when
I love house sitting the most,or being in a house, is when I
am at that point of van lifeburnout and that's not happening
now, because I love being inHood River in Oregon and hiking
(17:05):
and windsurfing, and so I wasnot having van life burnout when
we started living in mysister's house this week.
That was forced house sittingdue to the heat wave and so that
made it more challenging.
But when I really am tired ofvan life and the constant
movement, I really love livingin a house, and so we've done
tons of house sitting.
A lot of that has been in SanFrancisco, where we've lived in
(17:26):
a house for up to a month everyyear.
So the combination of van life,boat life and house sitting has
been pretty much our savior inthe whole.
You know nomad life system,which you're on the move a lot,
and it doesn't have to be thatway.
You can also be you know anomad who books Airbnbs for six
months, so you can pretty muchcreate your own nomad life, but
(17:47):
we've done it by just creatingthat variety within our
lifestyle.
If you do experience that vanlife burnout, there are some
good ways to deal with that, andthe first thing I mentioned
before is house sitting and Ihaven't tried this program yet,
but trusted house sitters is aprogram that's really popular
amongst van lifers and alsopeople living in sailboats.
It gives you an opportunity tolive in a house for a while.
(18:10):
It could be just a couple ofdays, it could be a few weeks,
and that's a really great way todeal with van life burnout.
I know some people go and livein beautiful places, like
engineers who van life did oneup in Alaska.
I know another van life couplewho did one in Costa Rica.
That lasted, I think it was acouple of months and they just
(18:30):
had to care for one pet and theowner left them this beautiful
house and even a car so theycould get to town and do
sightseeing in the area.
So trusted house sitters is areally great way to get yourself
in a house if you really needto get out of the van for a
while.
And it's a membership program.
I think it's over $100 per yearfor an annual membership, maybe
110, 120.
(18:51):
You can go look at it and signup if you want, but that gets
you endless house sits and ifyou think about it, that's super
affordable.
It's way more affordable thanrenting an Airbnb to get into a
house and if you love animals,trusted house sitters is a great
way to go.
Another one I did was Rover andthat's more specific to a
certain area.
I think it's helpful if you areliving somewhere in a city and
(19:12):
you sign up for Rover, you cantake dogs on walks, and what I
did a lot was house sit.
So I stayed in people's homeswhen they went on vacation and I
ended up having a number ofclients in the San Francisco Bay
Area and they all had thesebeautiful homes and that was
really necessary to me whenliving in the Bay Area Because I
think I got van life burnoutway more often when in the Bay
(19:34):
Area, in the boat and in the vanwe were in a city, you had to
stealth camp.
It just wasn't as fun andcomfortable as being out in
nature boondocking when you knowyou're legally allowed to be
there and you're in suchstunning beautiful places all
the time.
Living in a city is not as fun,and so I was house sitting way
more when living in a citybecause it felt like a necessity
(19:55):
to me, and so trusted housesitters and Rover is a great way
to get those house sittingneeds met and get you out of
your van for a while, if you doneed a break or if it's too hot
out or for whatever the reasonyou want to stay in a house.
And another way is just friendsand family.
When people go on vacation,they often like someone to stay
in their house.
You can offer to water theirplans or get their mail, take
(20:18):
out their garbage and justgenerally watch over their house
, because it's better ifsomeone's moving around.
You know parking in thedriveway, using the house when
someone's out of town, and soyou might just want to ask your
friends and family if they'regoing on vacation, or even if
they know someone who's going onvacation, and you can do a
little bit of house sitting toadd some variety to your van
(20:39):
life.
Of course, you can always useprograms like Airbnb to rent out
a house for a little while.
That'll be pretty expensive andit's not for everybody, but
that is an option, so you cancheck that out.
And there's another reallyinteresting digital nomad
program called the Landing, andthe Landing operates apartments
in like 400 cities across theUnited States and they have two
tiers of membership.
(20:59):
If you join their moreexpensive membership tier, you
are guaranteed an apartment fora certain number of months.
If you book six months you geta deal.
But I looked in the Portlandarea and it seemed like they
were charging about $2,500 amonth for an apartment, which is
pretty expensive but depends onyour budget and what part of
the country you're in.
And that price actually wentway down if you booked a six
months in an apartment and theyhave the landing standby program
(21:23):
where apartments are $1,500 amonth.
But that comes with a littlebit of insecurity because you
could get kicked out and they'llgive you like a three day
notice if someone from thepremium program wants to stay in
that apartment.
So you can just move and youcan move into another landing
apartment, either in that samecity or in a different city.
So if you're super flexible,for $1,500 a month you can just
(21:45):
use that program, get a niceapartment, get out of the van
for a little while, catch up onwork or whatever you need to do.
And I was tempted to try thatthis summer.
But I have so many friends andfamily in the Portland area I
deem that to be unnecessary andI really just prefer being in my
van in the Gorge and in themountains.
It's really my chosen lifestyle.
I'm thankful, I'm happy tochoose it and I'm not forced
(22:06):
into it like a lot of people.
But yeah, those are my thoughtsabout transitions into and out
of the house and how to dealwith van life burnout by living
in a house, and so I hope youfound that helpful and I'd love
to hear how you deal with vanlife burnout or any of your
concerns about transitioning ifyou're living in a house,
transitioning to a van, and youcan always email me at christen
(22:27):
at the waywardhomecom and Ialways answer and read those
emails.
Thanks again so much forlistening to this episode of the
Wayward Home podcast.
Remember to sign up for mynewsletter.
It's thewaywardhomecom forwardslash email.
I'd love to connect with youover email.
I send out lots of van lifetips and tricks and sailboat
living tips and tricks and juststories from my life on the road
(22:48):
, and a lot of my readers lovethat because a lot of them
aren't nomadic yet and it givesthem an idea of what my
lifestyle is actually like.
So head on over tothewaywardhomecom forward slash
email and I'll see you overthere.
And thanks again for listeningto this episode of the Wayward
Home podcast.
So for the past number of days I think it's been
about six days I've been livingin my sister's house in the
Beaverton Oregon area, trying toescape a brutal heat wave.
In Hood River and Portland it'sbeen a hundred degrees for days
on end, and so we're takingrefuge in this wonderful house
with air conditioning while mysister is out on a vacation, and
it's been a blessing.
And also it's been prettydifficult to move from the van
(00:22):
into the house, and you might besurprised when you hear that In
fact, a lot of my relatives sayoh my gosh, you must be so
happy to sleep in a big bed, youmust be happy to be in a house.
And when I answer them well,I'm not really that happy about
it they get pretty confused.
So I figured in this episode ofthe Wayward Home podcast I talk
a little bit about what it'slike transitioning from a van
into a house and also, on theflip side, what it's like
(00:45):
transitioning from the houseback into the van.
I also want to touch on vanlife burnout, which is the time
you really do want to live in ahouse, is when you're just tired
of living in a van.
You really need a break andthat's the perfect time to live
in a house, and I'm going to goover some options on how you can
take advantage of living in ahouse when you do experience van
life burnout, because that'salso a real thing.
(01:07):
My friends over at engineerswho van life have been
experiencing van life burnoutthemselves while up in Alaska.
So in this episode of theWayward Home podcast I just
wanted to talk about transitionstransitioning from a house to a
van, transitioning from a vanto a house and kind of what that
feels like and the difficultiesand the positives of those
transitions.
Let's go, hey there, I'mKristen Haynes with the
(01:29):
waywardhomecom and I spend halfthe year in my camper van in the
US and half the year in mysailboat in Mexico, and I hope
to inspire you to livenomadically too.
So this episode of the WaywardHome podcast is all about
transitions, and this wasinspired by the fact that I
moved into my sister's house anumber of days ago to beat a
heat wave in the Portland Oregonarea, where temperatures have
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been in the triple digits and wewould have had to drive at
least five hours to find coolertemperatures.
So we figured staying in herhouse while she's on vacation
was the best option for us.
However, we have gone throughsome interesting emotions during
this transition to living in ahouse, which made me think this
is a great time to discuss someof these transitions in a
podcast episode, because livingin a house, especially during a
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heat wave, is not as exciting asyou might think it is for
someone who's living the vanlife, because, you know, I live
the van life because I love it,and so I wanted to talk a little
bit about some of the feelingsand challenges I have when
moving into a house, and alsothe positives, because I feel
really lucky that I do have thisgorgeous new house to live in.
It's a blessing, and I knowthat many people are stuck on
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the streets without airconditioning and they're just
having a very hard time throughthis heat wave, and so I do feel
lucky and I am very grateful,and so I wanted to get that out
of the way first, because Idon't know what I would have
done if I didn't have this houseto stay in during this heat
wave.
But it also is challenging, andI think that's sometimes hard
for people to understand wholive in a house, because when
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you're living in a van, you knowthe world is your oyster.
Every day is a new adventure.
Every day you're in nature,you're exercising, you're
hearing the birds, you'resmelling the fresh air.
There are changes in your life,you don't get stuck in a rut.
It's really an amazing feeling,especially being an organ.
We love being in Hood Riverbecause we windsurf in the river
, we climb on Mount Hood, weclimb on Mount St Helens, we're
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going on walks and we're meetingpeople, and just every day is
different.
And when you're suddenly thrustinto a house environment, things
suddenly become the same, andthat's a really interesting and
hard transition, especially atfirst.
So I've always noticed thefirst couple of days of living
in a house are when my feelingsare the strongest.
It feels jarring and amazing atthe same time, which is kind of
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hard to describe.
The first thing I notice isthat, wow, I get this really hot
shower in a wonderful cleanbathroom.
There's endless running water,I can do my laundry, I can put
my clothes in drawers, I canreally spread out and I can
enjoy that air conditioning, thekitchen and everything that
comes with having a house, andso at first it just feels
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Incredible.
But then I tried to sleep forthat first night in a house and
that's where things really startto go wrong.
First of all, it's really hardfor me to sleep in a real bed, a
bed that has box springs, youknow, that has plush feel to it.
Our van in the bed is onlythree inches thick.
It's incredibly comfortable andit's foam and it's wonderful
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and it's probably the best, mostcomfortable bed I have ever
slept in.
And so it's kind of funny whenwe transitioned to sleeping in a
bed in a house, because ourfriends and our family always
say how excited we must be tosleep in a quote real bed, and
when we tell them we actuallydon't like sleeping in a bed,
they all look at us with areally weird expression on their
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face, like how could you notlike sleeping in a real bed?
But to be honest, the bed in myvan is actually a queen sized
bed and both of us fit verycomfortably in that bed, and we
built out the van so that it hasmaximum air flow, so we have
windows in the back of the vanand on the sides of the van, and
so when we're sleeping in therewe just get this wonderful
fresh night air washing over ourfaces.
(05:10):
And so the first thing wenotice about sleeping in a house
.
After the bed that's kind ofuncomfortable is the fact that
there is not that fresh air justwashing over our faces.
And you know, even when it's acool night and the AC is turned
down, we open the window intothe bedroom but we still, you
know, there's not that air flow,and that's something that's
really hard to get a custom to,as you're breathing in this more
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stale air in a house and youdon't have exposure to that
fresh natural air that we'rejust so used to.
And so the first few nights ofsleeping in a house are actually
quite challenging for both ofus.
We find ourselves feelinguncomfortable, we don't sleep
well, we roll around a lot andthis might shock you but I
eventually end up sleeping onthe floor.
I get to a point where I justcan't handle the bed anymore,
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and so I make myself a littlefloor bed and really all that is
is a couple of comforters onthe floor and I lay down on the
floor on those comforters, andit's a firm surface, it's hard,
and then I start sleeping better.
I get used to not having thatfresh air in my face and the bed
becomes more comfortable and Iget used to sleeping on the
floor.
But really in almost everyhouse I sleep in, I end up
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sleeping on the floor andsometimes when I tell people
that, they again look at me likeI'm insane, like I'm a human
from another planet and maybe Iam at this point, after living
in a van for so long, I am kindof more of a feral animal than
an actual civilized person.
And so definitely the bed andthe sleeping is the first major
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hurdle when it comes to thattransition to living in a house.
The next transition is sort ofsimilar, along that same
wavelength, in that we aresuddenly very disconnected from
nature, especially during a heatwave.
When there's not a heat wave,living in a house is easier
because we go on walks, we siton the deck, we open the windows
, but during a heat wave, sincethe air conditioning is running,
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we have to leave everythingreally shut up.
And the only time I actuallyopened the windows in this house
was early in the morning when Iwoke up around 630 or 7am and I
opened all the windows, just soI can hear the birds chirping
and just so I can hear the windand the trees and feel that
fresh air on my face as I'mdrinking my coffee.
Because when you live in a van,you're living outside a lot of
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the time, and when you're notoutside, you're sitting in a
chair or at a table or in thebed and there's airflow.
Your windows are open, yourroof fan is open, sometimes the
side door is open.
We have a screen that we lovecalled the bug wall that fits
over the side door of our van,so oftentimes we can just have
that side door wide open, and sothere's always a very fresh
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exchange of air inside the van.
And when we're not inside thevan, we're outside, so we're
doing some sort of exercise orwe love just setting up our camp
chairs and sitting outside, andso when you're used to living
almost full time outside, it's avery jarring experience to
suddenly be living full timeinside.
The other day we were here andthe wind was rustling the leaves
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of the trees behind the houseand Tom looked at me and said I
see the wind rustling the trees,but I can't hear it.
And we look to each other andwe're like there's something not
right about this, there'ssomething so weird.
So you become very disconnectedwith nature when you start
living in a house.
You can't hear the sounds, youdon't really know what's
happening outside.
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Even if it started to rain, youwouldn't really know if you
were inside of a house.
The air is always the sametemperature, it always feels the
same, the air has the samescent to it, but when you're
used to living outside, younotice all those changes.
You're like, oh, it's windy now, or it's raining, or there's
been a temperature change, or,oh, a storm is coming, I can
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smell the rain.
There's all these indicatorsfrom nature about what's going
on outside, and so that's a veryjarring experience when it
comes to transitioning into ahouse, and something we
definitely both struggle with atfirst.
So during a heat wave, both ofus also had this intense feeling
of being trapped.
The other night I think it wastwo nights ago I ended up just
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pacing around the house.
I was walking back and forth, Iwas feeling like a dog that
hasn't gone on its walk for theday, and I couldn't go on a walk
because it was too hot, and soI found myself pacing around.
I was feeling really antsy andreally miserable and
uncomfortable, and I finally hadto settle down my nerves by
doing a half an hour yogasession just to breathe deeply,
to get into my body and out ofmy head.
(09:31):
But I have this feeling ofsometimes feeling very trapped,
and I figure that's what a wildanimal feels like when they're
in a cage or that's what a dogfeels like when they're in the
house all day.
It starts to feel like I'm justinside these four walls and I'm
not outside, and it's a reallyweird feeling.
And so that's anothertransition that I have to get
used to over a period of severaldays living in a house.
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Another thing I have to get usedto is my stuff.
Suddenly, instead of my stuffbeing contained in this
perfectly small capsule of acamper van, my stuff is
everywhere.
Oh my gosh, when we startliving in a house we pretty much
bring everything in.
You know, the food that we'reeating out of the van on a daily
basis, our laundry, ourcomputer stuff, and this time we
actually unloaded the entireback of the van so we could sort
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through some of our bins andclean out the back of the van,
and so the garage here is justfull of our van stuff.
The house has our stuffscattered all over it and it
becomes kind of overwhelming.
You're like, oh my gosh,there's just stuff everywhere
and all these rooms, and thehouse is big and so there's
stuff in three different storieson this house, and so that can
be kind of weird.
You sort of forget where youput things.
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It looks like everything's indisarray.
You don't have a home for youritems, cause in the van.
You have to be highly organizedor you end up living in a
complete pigsty.
You know, I always know whereeverything is in the van, so
living in a house it's kind offunny.
I just don't know where thingsare.
And another thing that's weirdis that I'm used to being around
Tom every day, like very closequarters with Tom, like we're
(10:58):
within 10 feet of each other,and so when we're in a house
it's like wow, I'm here on thethird floor.
He's down two stories below me,and so we become a little more
disconnected from each other,which is really interesting.
And so we're working on stayingconnected in this really large
space.
But what's interesting and whathappens after a period of a few
days is we start to get used tobeing in the house.
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You know, this becomes our homebase.
We stop noticing that we'redisconnected from nature, the,
you know, the floor starts tofeel more comfortable and we
start getting used to having alarge amount of space and all
the positives that come with thehouse.
You know the positives likehaving endless hot water and
laundry nearby and a bigrefrigerator and a really
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comfortable large couch tospread out on.
We start to get used to allthese amenities and amazing
things about a house which, forus, feels extremely luxurious
after living in a van, and sothat's something that's
interesting that we starttransitioning into living in the
house and then we're livinghere and we start getting used
to that environment, becausehumans are adaptable.
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We get used to whateverenvironment that we're put in,
and so now I'm starting to feellike, oh, this house feels like
home and we're starting to gotoward the other end of the
transition, which is loading thevan and getting back out into
nature.
But that becomes hard Becausewe're used to everything in this
house.
We're used to having our stuffspread out and stored.
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It's nice having an empty vanto run around and do errands in,
and so things start moving overto the flip side of the
equation when it comes totransitions.
And that happens to us everytime, and I also find that
extremely interesting.
When we start living in a housefor a while, then we start
really melting into theexperience of being in the house
and the thought of loading upthe van and doing everything it
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takes to get back out into vanlife starts to sound really
difficult and cumbersome.
For example, now we have toload up all our bins and
windsurfing boards andsurfboards back into the van,
reorganize all of our clothesand food and then get back into
that pattern of I call ithunting and gathering, which is
kind of what it's like to livethe van life.
Every day you're searching forsomething.
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You're searching for water,you're searching for a trash can
, you're searching for food,you're searching for a place to
sleep, you're searching for ahike or the best windsurfing
spot, and so your life becomesabout searching and so you're
not really spending a lot oftime in one place pursuing the
things that you might want topursue, like.
For me, one of the challenges ofliving the van life is trying
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to find time to work like recorda podcast or really work on my
business, and when you're in ahouse, in your stationery,
there's way more hours in theday to pursue things like
working or playing the guitar ordoing yoga or these smaller,
simpler hobbies that become alittle bit more challenging when
you're always on the move, andso the thought of going back and
being on the move again is veryexciting to me.
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I'm thrilled to get back outthere and go to the gorge and go
to the mountains, but itbecomes more of a struggle to
transition from the house backinto that van lifestyle, and so
I found that to be veryinteresting that that happens to
us all these three stages oftransition from going from the
van to the house to slowlymelting into our routine at the
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house and getting used to that,to then moving back into the van
again and dealing with thosefeelings and issues of that
constant movement, which is whywe live the van life in the
first place.
We love the adventure andfreedom of moving around, but it
does come at a cost of that.
You are constantly researchingand moving.
You can set up van life whereyou're moving less, where you're
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at a campsite for many weeks ata time and we have done that
where we're working on the vanor I'm working on my course for
my website or various aspects ofmy online business, and we're
more stationary, but a lot ofthe times we're moving around a
lot and other van lifers willattest to that as well, and so
it is nice to be able to sit fora while and just be in a house
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and not worry about as manythings as we worry about when
living in the van.
So that brings me to the nexttopic I wanted to bring up in
this podcast episode, which isvan life burnout.
And usually you know that goeshand in hand in what I talked
about before, which is thehunting and gathering aspects of
van life, and this isespecially challenging if you're
working a full-time job, likemy friends over at engineers who
(15:15):
van life, and you should gofollow them on Instagram and
they have a podcast called VanLab and I love seeing what
they're up to.
They're in Alaska and theyrecently had a post on Instagram
about how they wereexperiencing intense van burnout
, which was always looking for anew place to park, an activity
to do.
You know where are the besthikes, where are the best
grocery stores, you know whereto dump, you know out water and
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get new water.
These are all factors we alwayshave to be thinking about and
living in a van and one of themat least, is also working
full-time and also trying tomaintain that work schedule
while being on the move andsearching for all these things,
and so that can lead to van lifeburnout and I've definitely
experienced that before as well,and it's something that happens
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to the best of us and I tend tohandle that by making switches
in my life.
So we have a camper van and asailboat and I think that's the
perfect combination to deal withvan life burnout, because, you
know, in a van you're in a verysmall space and you move around
a lot.
As I said before, where oursailboat is 41 feet and it feels
more like you know the size ofa larger RV, there are separate
(16:21):
areas for cooking.
I have an oven, I have a, wehave a table with benches which
can seat four people, we have anarea that has settees you know,
that are facing each other, alounge area, a separate bedroom,
a separate bathroom, and we goat a much slower pace.
We stay at anchorages longer.
You know, when we sail we'removing slowly, and so to just
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have that variety of van lifeand boat life really helps us
with van life burnout.
And throughout this entire timeof living in the van and on the
boat, we've also done a ton ofhouse sitting and the times when
I love house sitting the most,or being in a house, is when I
am at that point of van lifeburnout and that's not happening
now, because I love being inHood River in Oregon and hiking
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and windsurfing, and so I wasnot having van life burnout when
we started living in mysister's house this week.
That was forced house sittingdue to the heat wave and so that
made it more challenging.
But when I really am tired ofvan life and the constant
movement, I really love livingin a house, and so we've done
tons of house sitting.
A lot of that has been in SanFrancisco, where we've lived in
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a house for up to a month everyyear.
So the combination of van life,boat life and house sitting has
been pretty much our savior inthe whole.
You know nomad life system,which you're on the move a lot,
and it doesn't have to be thatway.
You can also be you know anomad who books Airbnbs for six
months, so you can pretty muchcreate your own nomad life, but
(17:47):
we've done it by just creatingthat variety within our
lifestyle.
If you do experience that vanlife burnout, there are some
good ways to deal with that, andthe first thing I mentioned
before is house sitting and Ihaven't tried this program yet,
but trusted house sitters is aprogram that's really popular
amongst van lifers and alsopeople living in sailboats.
It gives you an opportunity tolive in a house for a while.
(18:10):
It could be just a couple ofdays, it could be a few weeks,
and that's a really great way todeal with van life burnout.
I know some people go and livein beautiful places, like
engineers who van life did oneup in Alaska.
I know another van life couplewho did one in Costa Rica.
That lasted, I think it was acouple of months and they just
(18:30):
had to care for one pet and theowner left them this beautiful
house and even a car so theycould get to town and do
sightseeing in the area.
So trusted house sitters is areally great way to get yourself
in a house if you really needto get out of the van for a
while.
And it's a membership program.
I think it's over $100 per yearfor an annual membership, maybe
110, 120.
(18:51):
You can go look at it and signup if you want, but that gets
you endless house sits and ifyou think about it, that's super
affordable.
It's way more affordable thanrenting an Airbnb to get into a
house and if you love animals,trusted house sitters is a great
way to go.
Another one I did was Rover andthat's more specific to a
certain area.
I think it's helpful if you areliving somewhere in a city and
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you sign up for Rover, you cantake dogs on walks, and what I
did a lot was house sit.
So I stayed in people's homeswhen they went on vacation and I
ended up having a number ofclients in the San Francisco Bay
Area and they all had thesebeautiful homes and that was
really necessary to me whenliving in the Bay Area Because I
think I got van life burnoutway more often when in the Bay
(19:34):
Area, in the boat and in the vanwe were in a city, you had to
stealth camp.
It just wasn't as fun andcomfortable as being out in
nature boondocking when you knowyou're legally allowed to be
there and you're in suchstunning beautiful places all
the time.
Living in a city is not as fun,and so I was house sitting way
more when living in a citybecause it felt like a necessity
(19:55):
to me, and so trusted housesitters and Rover is a great way
to get those house sittingneeds met and get you out of
your van for a while, if you doneed a break or if it's too hot
out or for whatever the reasonyou want to stay in a house.
And another way is just friendsand family.
When people go on vacation,they often like someone to stay
in their house.
You can offer to water theirplans or get their mail, take
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out their garbage and justgenerally watch over their house
, because it's better ifsomeone's moving around.
You know parking in thedriveway, using the house when
someone's out of town, and soyou might just want to ask your
friends and family if they'regoing on vacation, or even if
they know someone who's going onvacation, and you can do a
little bit of house sitting toadd some variety to your van
(20:39):
life.
Of course, you can always useprograms like Airbnb to rent out
a house for a little while.
That'll be pretty expensive andit's not for everybody, but
that is an option, so you cancheck that out.
And there's another reallyinteresting digital nomad
program called the Landing, andthe Landing operates apartments
in like 400 cities across theUnited States and they have two
tiers of membership.
(20:59):
If you join their moreexpensive membership tier, you
are guaranteed an apartment fora certain number of months.
If you book six months you geta deal.
But I looked in the Portlandarea and it seemed like they
were charging about $2,500 amonth for an apartment, which is
pretty expensive but depends onyour budget and what part of
the country you're in.
And that price actually wentway down if you booked a six
months in an apartment and theyhave the landing standby program
(21:23):
where apartments are $1,500 amonth.
But that comes with a littlebit of insecurity because you
could get kicked out and they'llgive you like a three day
notice if someone from thepremium program wants to stay in
that apartment.
So you can just move and youcan move into another landing
apartment, either in that samecity or in a different city.
So if you're super flexible,for $1,500 a month you can just
(21:45):
use that program, get a niceapartment, get out of the van
for a little while, catch up onwork or whatever you need to do.
And I was tempted to try thatthis summer.
But I have so many friends andfamily in the Portland area I
deem that to be unnecessary andI really just prefer being in my
van in the Gorge and in themountains.
It's really my chosen lifestyle.
I'm thankful, I'm happy tochoose it and I'm not forced
(22:06):
into it like a lot of people.
But yeah, those are my thoughtsabout transitions into and out
of the house and how to dealwith van life burnout by living
in a house, and so I hope youfound that helpful and I'd love
to hear how you deal with vanlife burnout or any of your
concerns about transitioning ifyou're living in a house,
transitioning to a van, and youcan always email me at christen
(22:27):
at the waywardhomecom and Ialways answer and read those
emails.
Thanks again so much forlistening to this episode of the
Wayward Home podcast.
Remember to sign up for mynewsletter.
It's thewaywardhomecom forwardslash email.
I'd love to connect with youover email.
I send out lots of van lifetips and tricks and sailboat
living tips and tricks and juststories from my life on the road
(22:48):
, and a lot of my readers lovethat because a lot of them
aren't nomadic yet and it givesthem an idea of what my
lifestyle is actually like.
So head on over tothewaywardhomecom forward slash
email and I'll see you overthere.
And thanks again for listeningto this episode of the Wayward
Home podcast.
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