[Inspiring Music Playing]
>>CLARISSA: So I got into the van life, a few years ago I'd say, I started researching it.
I came across this guy's Instagram page that was living in his Prius. So I was like that would be so cool
I've always wanted to travel, do big road trip across the country.
So I started looking at that and then,
since I grew up camping, that kind of snowballed into
oh I should get a camper that's way more realistic than a Prius,
and then it became this road trip that I took across the country and then
the rest is history. It's just become my full-time lifestyle.
[Music Playing]
When I first started, I was just traveling, like I think it was about 3-4 months.
So I wasn't working. I'd saved up money. Then I came to
Victoria BC fell in love with out here. I needed money.
So I'm working two jobs right now, working six days a week currently.
So I don't have exactly all the freedom that I once had.
But now it's kind of just like weekend trips here and there when I can
and kind of just exploring the island. Usually in the summertime...
I took off last summer
I did a huge road trip all the way down to San Diego.
So when I can, not as frequent as I would like at the
moment, but it is what it is. [Laughter]
[Music Playing]
I grew up in a fairly small town
so kind of just wanting to break free of that; and then coming out here
and like seeing the mountains and the ocean
was just mind-blowing to me.
So yeah,
just the whole vibe and the people and the beauty of it
is really what has made me stay here and not go back to Ontario.
I've been living in my van for two years now.
[Music Playing]
So this is my van Nancy Jean.
She is a Dodge Ram Roadtrek II and she is 36 years old, so 1983;
an older man had it, so I bought it off him for
$5,000. I did just rip out the flooring, make new flooring,
reupholster and paint. That's kind of it. And then just
decorated it to make it seem more homey. But yeah...[Laughter]
The big beautiful Nancy Jean. Come on in!
So back here is my bedroom. It's a fairly big bed.
I have storage above which has a bunch of my summer clothes in it right now.
I have my bathing suit, some sweaters. I have some electronics up here as well.
Underneath the bed there's a little bit of storage.
Underneath the bed is also where I have my furnace,
so in the wintertime when it's cold, I have my furnace that's built in. It runs off propane.
So that's under there. Also, on either end here
there's the propane furnace under that one and then
I have my water tank for my sink underneath this one.
So there's not a whole lot of storage actually underneath where there's typically storage.
But I have some lawn chairs, and some other like jackets,
and stuff put back under there; and then there's the kitchen
here.
I just have some
dry food up there,
some cooking stuff up there. I also have a two burner stove
so that's how I do any cooking, if I do any.
My cutlery
in here, then I have my fridge.
I'm not gonna open the door though because
the door is broken at the moment
so every time I open it, it kind of falls off.
The more you hang around me, the more you realize that there's small little things that break in here
that I don't know how to fix, so that's one them.
The fridge also runs off of propane and then in here,
I just have like all of my dishes, dish soap, Lysol,
all my cleaning supplies underneath there as well.
There's my sink here. My sink at the moment
isn't actually working, but for some reason the water pump isn't working
I didn't use it all winter
I was just scared of the water freezing, but I filled up my water tank and the water is not coming out,
so that's just another thing I have to figure out how to fix.
In here, we have my closet, which is much bigger than I think I need. If I were to redo my van
I'd probably wouldn't have a high closet, I'd probably have this shorter so it makes it more open in here.
It's a little bit messy as well
but I have my clothes mostly hanging in here, my socks and underwear above here. Inside of this door here,
there's actually a port-a-potty.
I just recently started using it because I figured the only way to find out how to empty it is to fill it up
so I just started using it and then had to figure out how to empty it.
So yeah, there's a little port-a-potty toilet that I just use to go pee.
I don't put toilet paper or anything down there,
strictly just for that. But I try not to use it if I don't have to. And then, I also just have a bin in
there with some more clothes, so yeah, just more storage area in there.
And now, I have entered what I call the living room, also the cabin "driving cabin".
So yeah, this I actually have had quite a few friends over recently and we all like hang out up here.
This chair swivels. The front one
can, I usually just keep it turned around but there's
like a fair amount of seating up here. These both have seat belts as well
so if we need to use them while driving we can but typically I don't really have anyone driving around with me, it's just me.
There's also storage underneath both of these.
So in here I kind of just have my tools
and all the stuff that is kind of like a garage.
Like all my garage stuff would be under that seat. And in here, I just have some like more blankets,
pillowcases. That's also where my house battery is, which I'm sort of having an issue with at the moment.
But yeah, that's where that's kept.
So the house battery is in here and it runs my lights, my water pump
and also I need it to run my furnace.
Unfortunately, the furnace doesn't just run off of propane which is a little bit annoying
so if my battery is dead then I don't have heat just because that
fan in there uses the battery. One of the things that I love but
also might change if I had the opportunity, the ceiling here is actually all cushion fabric ceiling which I think is kind of neat.
However, these skylights which I also love but have had issues with. Last winter,
they were leaking. So water had leaked in here and just having fabric up here with moisture like really kind of scares me.
I feel like if I had the chance or the money
I would rip that out and put like wood ceiling just because I'm nervous that like mold might end up in there
so that's one thing that I would change if I could.
So Duckie is probably my favorite little
thing in Nancy Jean and Duckie is right here.
Saving concussions is what I say his job is. It's quite sharp;
and while I was renovating this, my dad, God bless my dad, every time he would be exiting the vehicle
would smash his head on that, so I had put it up there
because of my dad.
[Music Playing]
Some of the things I struggle with living in the van
would definitely be the winters. It's Canada. The winters are, can be a bit harsh. When things break down,
I am not a handy woman at all!
I try to fix things on my own all the time,
if you take a look at my closet door there's about four attempts to fix the thing.
So I struggle with things like that but that's about it,
just kind of breaking down and the weather. But those are things I've also gotten used to so I don't think of it,
it's too much of a struggle now. It's very much just a part of my life now.
One of my biggest struggles being in the van and that was June of last year, I had appendicitis.
So I did about a week of recovery from surgery in this van by myself and
that is the only time during this journey that I had felt like these four walls could not be any smaller.
So yeah,
that's probably the the biggest thing I had to go through is like a health issue, in a van, at those times
it would really be nice to just have like a hot shower and like more space.
The places I park at night are usually
like near parks or in parks
because you're not in anyone's way. As long as you kind of move in the morning and keep it moving and there's public bathrooms.
Usually near parks, there's public bathrooms, so that's nice.
You just don't want to be outside a residential area it's the biggest thing because they don't like that,
they'll complain. There's one main street here in Victoria that I've been living on for about a year now like not every single night,
I keep it moving every couple of days.
But that's kind of my go-to spot and there's quite a few other van lifers that are living there at the moment as well.
Here on the island, there's definitely a community of people. There's like a housing crisis.
It's crazy expensive to live here.
So a lot of people have been moving into vans.
I really wish that living in a van helped me save money. It definitely can, if you do it properly.
I'm still only like 24 years old and I still like to go out and have a good time and I eat out downtown.
I'm downtown six days a week working. So it's really hard to, you know, bring meals for every meal of the day.
But if you do it smart and you really pay attention you can definitely save a lot of money.
It depends if you're traveling far or not.
Like I don't spend that much money on gas right now because I'm just in the city.
But if you're traveling lots, gas will be a big part of your spending.
What do I like most about living in a van?
That this is all mine. Everything in here, these are all my things. This is all I need.
It's mine. I own it. The freedom that can come with it, that can come with it, is awesome.
Even though I don't have a whole lot of that at the moment; and just the people I meet, the people it attracts,
the opportunities, I feel like it's given me is what I love the most.
My future plans, I'd say, would be to live in this van for as long as I can,
I mean, I love her, but realistically she's like 36 years old which is pretty old for a vehicle
so the time will eventually come where she might not run anymore.
But I think the long-term goal would be to like own a piece of property somewhere up Island and like
have a little tiny home on it or I don't ever want to get rid of Nancy Jean
so I think I'm gonna park her on that property one day.
But yeah,
I think it'd would be good to have like my own spot somewhere here on the island and still live out that tiny home lifestyle
but a bit bigger. One day I want to have a family and kids and stuff. I can't fit all that into here so got to upgrade eventually.
[Music Playing]
I think one message I would like to get across is that you don't have to be like traveling full-time
to be living in a van. I did that at the beginning.
I was traveling all over, had so many amazing memories; and then
you know the money eventually runs out and I had to get a job and had to settle down somewhere. I did anyway.
So I think what I want to get across is that
you don't need to go somewhere crazy,
you don't have to do all these crazy things to live in a van.
That's the greatest thing about doing it is you make it how you want it.
You live your life the way you want and that's what this van represents.
[Music Playing]
>> MAT: Be sure to subscribe to Exploring Alternatives
and check out our playlists for more stories like this.
You can also follow Clarissa on Instagram @clarissakiing.
Thanks for watching.