a lot of people dream of quitting the
rat race living a simple life or to coin
the modern terminology today a
minimalist life and living in a small
space such as a caravan and motorhome
canal boat or simply downsizing to a
smaller flat or studio apartment i have
been full-timing in my Airstream for many
years and I was in caravans before that
so i thought i'd give you a tour of my
Airstream and show you that to live
simply to live this minimalist lifestyle
by no means does that mean going without
and by no means does that mean roughing
it. Right now it's November so we're in
the winter and i would say when your
full timing during the winter two things are
pretty essential one is a hard standing
pitch so you're not dragging mud into
your caravan or motorhome the whole time
the second is a mains electric hookup I
find that very useful in the winter. In
the summer i go off grid and I've made a
video about going upgrading my Airstream
i'll put a card down here and i'll put
a link in the description below right
now i'll take you inside and show you
around my Airstream. So this is a European
airstream 532 sadly not made anymore but
the good news is that all the major UK
manufacturers Swift Bailey Elddis Lunar
and Coachman they all make this layout
It's called the classic two berth end wash
room layout and the main advantage of
this layout is the fact you have
everything from a huge lounge kitchen
and a big washroom at the end in a
fairly compact body shell which means
you don't need such a large tow vehicle
and you can go more places with it
of course the downsides are you only
have the one living zone which might be
an issue if there's a couple and one of
you wants to sleep on if you doesn't and
of course the second payback for that
freedom is the fact that you need to
make up your bed every night from the
lounge you can have two singles and a
double. I make up the double every night
people say to me do you not get fed up
with making the bed every night
sometimes i do but you know what every
evening I have to go through a ritual of
taking the dog to the dog walk cleaning
my teeth changing into my jammies and
extra five minutes to make up the bed it
doesn't make a huge difference and the
advantage of having all this extra space
and the maneuverability and tow ability
of a smaller caravan to me far outweighs
the disadvantage of making up the bed so
staying with the lounge area i'm going
to show you what's under this seat which
will be a huge reassurance to those of
you who are worried that it might be a
little bit cold in the winter
well look at this
this is the central heating and hot
water boiler it's a system called Alde
from Sweden and it runs just like a
domestic central heating system with a
boiler there's a hot water tank in here
and there we have radiators all the way
around the trailer with a lovely soft
gentle silent heat that permeates the
entire fabric of the caravan it runs off
mains electricity we're plugged in at
the moment and it runs off bottled gas
okay staying in the front of the trailer
now just show you some of the places
that i put things so you have a drawer
you here
that's underwear you don't need to see
in there this drawer is technology cables
hard drives and as a little tip I've
started putting all the leads and stuff
in these little freezer bags which just
makes finding the lot easier
This is the shoe and boot cupboard under
the seats you may have noticed we have
the bedding as we get to the higher
level many of you who caravan will
already know that you should only put
lighter items in the upper lockers for
towing stability and if you store things
there permanently
it just means you don't have to keep
faffing around and repacking when you
sell on the road so this is Tupperware's
food containers plastic bottles
this one is t-shirts and jumpers put the
light on really shouldn't I and then
this one here I've got saucepans to
source and the milk pans also in this one
and these I love because these were
originally my parents
these are 50 years old and still going
strong and milk
and on the other side I've got the tea
spare tea coffee and snacks like the
prunes and the nuts health health health
right turning our attention now to the
central unit here in the middle is where
I keep my tablet my phone I need to tidy
that up actually kitchen towel dog
biscuits now along the top I have the
fruit basket clothes pegs and dog
biscuits here is the table the table
comes out of there
cutlery draw and I just have six of
everything really
and very minimal number of utensils this
is Dougal's drawer of Dougal's bits and
pieces from towels
to balls to combs
rubbish and recycling not very
interesting but we've all got to do it
then this is where I keep my handheld
vacuum cleaner few books hats and gloves
first aid kit pens and garlic the
general everything drawer matches spirit
level torch that kind of thing and it
finally in here is my blender and large
frying pan and a few food items
everybody asks what this cupboard is, it's
really boring it's just the extendable
aerial if you watch TV which I don't
here
fabulous stereo here and then this in
the cupboard
I've got herbal teas insulated mugs four
small glasses for those four large
glasses and four little dessert pots and
some little bits and pieces that's all I
need are not these glasses especially
small ones they are wine glasses they
are whiskey tumblers juice glasses
you don't need a huge array of stuff if
you can get stuff that is multi-purpose
all the better
and then on this side four bowls also
got a couple of these larger Bowl
suitable for pasta. Unbreakable cafetière
favorite mugs especially my favorite
mug, Calmac, love it
four small melamine plates four large
melamine plates and finally my chopping
board and my cheese grater Next to the
kettle spices tea mugs tea pot and tea. When
you're on the road you just need to do
that. Next to the fridge in here we have
oils pasta my water jug and breakfast
cereal, bits and pieces potatoes cocoa
peanut butter and finally colander and
sieve. This is brilliant
steamer, you can boil potatoes and steam
vegetables at the same time spiralizer
which i just bought which is brilliant a
potato ricer for making MASH without
lumps and then a larger teapot for when
we have guests will excuse me before we
get to the bathroom just need to get
lunch finally on the go because I'm
starving
cheers right before i show you around
the bathroom
I've just come outside to talk about the
car the car makes an ideal place to
store items that are not sensitive to
the heat and the cold and you're not
going to need very often so for example
spare paper towels dog food things like
that they can go in the car right and
finally into the bathroom where I have
my wardrobe and in my wardrobe obviousy
clothes a box to put my wellington boots
and the ruck sack in which Dougal
travels on the motorbike a nice area
here for toiletries sink under the sink
normally that's for my second lot of
bedding but is empty at the moment
because the beddings in the wash and
then cleaning stuff below in this recess
over the toilet just cleaning staff
laundry liquid things like that somewhere
to hang the motorbike helmet behind the
toilet is a laundry bin and finally the
shower compartment which during the
winter kind of doubles as a storage area
where i keep my rucksacks with my
computer camera gear and stuff like that
in the summer you can put it in the car
but in the winter because it's sensitive
to the cold and you want to have it
fairly close to hand I keep it there
it's not ideal but I can't really think
of anywhere else to put my computer
equipment just now that brings us to the
end of the tour of my Airstream
hopefully show you that living simply
does not mean going without and it
certainly doesn't mean roughing it i
will admit now that i have a corner of
my Mum's garage where I keep some of
my stuff so at the moment my kite
surfing kit, generator,
my deck chair for the summer they're all
in my mum's garage because i'm not using
them at the moment
some people might say that's cheating
but where are the rules how can I be
cheating if there are no rules you make
up your own rules you set your own
parameters i hope to be making some more
of these videos about how to live simply
the rate of about one a week for the
next few weeks months years alongside my
regular videos my vlogs and things that
people have been enjoying so far if you
have any questions any subject you'd
like me to cover about living simply not
necessarily caravan related then please
leave them in the comments below
not the dog in the comments on
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so just leaves me to say thanks for
tuning in