- When you live in such a tiny space
you end up spending so much time outside.
So really the tiny space itself
it's just for like cooking, showering, sleeping,
that's all you need.
Hi, my name is Jamie.
- My name is Kelsey
- And we travel on the road
in a converted school bus, creating videos.
(upbeat music playing) - [Narrator] This is Relocated
where we tour the living situations
of people who choose to live
off the beaten path.
- [Kelsey] So currently we are in Oregon
on the coast of Oregon.
We don't live in one specific place.
- Currently we've traveled through nine states
with the goal of hitting every single state in America.
- [Jamie] So we've been on the road now
for three months and it's been a blast.
We don't plan on stopping anytime soon.
- [Kelsey] So before this,
we actually lived in England.
I was studying, doing my master's degree,
playing basketball, and I met Jamie there.
And then we moved to Connecticut with my parents.
We lived there for eight months
while we were converting
the school bus that we currently live in.
- [Jamie] This was a blessing to live with her parents
cause it enabled us to save a lot of money.
And really get ready for this trip.
So it took us about eight months in total to build the bus.
Once we completed the build,
we lived in the bus in Kelsey's parents' driveway
to kinda like iron out all the little kinks
and like figure out all the little things
before we hit the road.
- It was a pretty smooth transition.
We actually were planning on leaving in March,
but obviously COVID happened
and changed everyone's lives, including ours.
So we slowed down a little bit more,
lived a little bit longer in my parents' driveway
while we continued to save up.
And it actually allowed for us
to kind of make a better adjustment
to living in the school bus
before we started traveling in it full-time.
(upbeat music playing)
- [Jamie] So the only thing about where we live now
is that this used to be your regular yellow school bus.
We get so many looks like on the road
when we're driving, like we ever get, two things,
like you guys are crazy
or wow, that's really cool what you're doing.
- [Kelsey] So whenever we're going places,
we definitely stand out.
And then I'd say another thing
that's kind of unique to our living arrangement
is the bathroom situation
and the shower situation.
The key to showering in a school bus
is you have to preserve water as much as possible.
So, you gotta turn it on,
you gotta scruba dub dub,
then you gotta turn it off
and you gotta scruba dub dub,
and then you gotta turn it back on,
and it's just like, it's not a normal shower.
We have to fill up with our own water,
We have a hundred gallon water tank.
And then our toilet,
it's a composting toilet.
It's not nearly as bad as you might think
or how we thought it would be in the beginning.
- So yeah, that's my job,
to empty the composting toilet.
And it's really not that bad.
We empty it probably once, once a month, I'd say.
- [Kelsey] It's pretty much like fertilizer,
which is.
- It just smells like soil at the end of the month.
Another unique thing about this bus
is we have a solar set up.
So all our power electricity,
we get through solar panels.
So we can be anywhere,
we can be parked on the beach,
we can be parked on a cliff,
whatever, we gonna get electricity
through our solar panels, so that is clutch.
So no two days for us look the same.
Some days we might be driving like four hours
and then we might be parked somewhere for two weeks.
In a typical day, we'll try and get up,
we'll work in the morning till like 12.
And then we like to spend the afternoons
exploring the new area that we're in.
- If you stay inside a tiny space,
you can go a little bit crazy.
So it's important to get out,
get some exercise,
and we definitely try to work that
into our everyday routine.
Some days we'll be on a beach,
some days we'll be at truck stops,
some days we'll be at Walmart.
So it really is a new adventure every single day.
But we also, I feel like, don't feel like we're working now.
Whereas like before, like having a nine to five,
I would just look forward to the weekends
every single week.
And now like, we actually love what we're doing,
so it's like. - [Jamie] We get to wake up,
create videos,
film stuff, edit stuff,
travel to really cool places.
- And it's genuinely what we both love doing, so.
- [Jamie] So it doesn't really feel like work.
(Kelsey laughs)
(soft upbeat music playing)
- [Jamie] So in terms of finances of this lifestyle,
living in a converted school bus,
traveling the country,
it costs us 26,000 to build the bus.
That included like all the mechanical work
that needed to be done to the bus itself.
The engine, new tires,
purchasing the bus on eBay,
that was $3000.
- [Kelsey] And another thing
that's actually unique about our bus
is we've raised the roof,
so that is included in the cost.
In terms of our monthly expenses,
they've definitely gone down quite a bit.
We're mortgage free now, which is really nice.
We don't typically have to pay for parking.
There's a lot of different ways,
you can kind of boondock.
There's a lot of applications out there
and it's a very common thing now.
So it's pretty easy
to find parking in most places.
Our main expenses are our data plan,
we have unlimited data,
so that's $85 a month.
Really got an amazing WiFi out of that.
And then our other main expenses
are gas, obviously.
- I'd say gas we pay probably like 500 bucks a month.
- [Kelsey] I think we've been traveling a lot,
especially in the beginning
so our gas expense has been a little bit higher
than most people's property would be.
And then food obviously, is a big one for us.
We're huge foodies
and we don't eat out nearly as much as we used to,
especially when you're remote in a remote area,
you're not going to go out and buy a coffee
or go out and get food.
It's just more convenient to eat here.
So definitely saved a lot on that.
Water's mostly free when we fill out,
we've only been one time.
Another cost that we have is insurance.
And for the whole year,
it was like 420 bucks
for the whole year to insure the bus.
So compared to a house or even a car, I mean,
it's really not that bad. - It's a huge win.
- [Kelsey] A lot of people think
it's a lot harder than it is.
- [Jamie] It can seem very overwhelming at first.
There's so many things to consider,
like where are you gonna fill up with water?
Where are you gonna park for the night,
but once you've done it for a couple of weeks,
you get to know a system,
like you figure things out yourself.
And it's really not that intimidating.
- [Kelsey] Just the idea of living in such a small space
kind of scared me,
but honestly, you don't need as many items
as you think you might.
Originally, we went with a 36 foot bus
and we honestly feel like we could go smaller now.
- [Jamie] We'd never go back to living in a big house.
I think we enjoy the concept of living in a tiny space.
It makes you appreciate everything you have
and it limits you so you don't clutter your life.
And I feel like mentally,
it gives you like a clearer head space.
- [Kelsey] I think we have moments
where we might be feeling down,
or we might go through a rough patch.
Like last week I fell off a scooter
and then we drove right into the Oregon fires.
And that was like a rough couple of days,
but there's no point where
we've seriously regretted living this lifestyle.
I feel like at the end of the day,
the high highs are so much better than the low lows
and it makes everything more than worth it.
I think the pace of life
that we're living at now
is really slowed down
and it's allowed us to appreciate everything
and spend a lot more time together as well.
- [Jamie] And we figured if we didn't travel
at this time in our lives,
there probably won't ever be
a better time than now to do it.
Hence why on the side of the bus it says,
if not now when?
If you're thinking about
doing something similar to what we're doing,
maybe you wanna live on the road,
maybe you wanna convert a van.
Anything along those lines,
my advice to you would be start.
You can spend so much time
watching YouTube videos,
trying to research,
and it gets so overwhelming
and you can just stress yourself out.
Find yourself the vehicle,
find yourself a bus and get started.
You'll learn as you go,
you'll start ticking off tasks
and it won't be as overwhelming as you think.
There's never gonna be a perfect time.
So thanks for listening to us ramble on.
But before you go...
[Kelsey] Make sure you subscribe to Bustle below.