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His "Can I live without my precious possessions?" answer is the most engineering LOL thing I've read all day: "Pile up my crap. Anytime I need something in the pile, take it out of the pile and save it for later. Monitor usage." Thank you for posting this.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it deserves to be slightly more nuanced than that. There is a category of things that are small, used rarely, but very necessary. Medicine & tools always come to mind. For me, if I don't use my screwdrivers for a year that doesn't mean I should get rid of my screwdrivers.
Arguably, it means just that. If you only use a tool once a year, you should just borrow/rent them when you actually do need them. Our lives are cluttered with occasionally used 'just in case' items that we really don't need.
Did you consider buying a camper van? They are quite common as a lifestyle traveling around Australia, in the US people use giant RVs but these are not practical at all and not a conscientious selection.
#vanlife was on the fringe about 5 years ago, but it's starting to gain wider acceptance in the US. I would hope that within five years Volkswagen will finally bring the California T6 to the States. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volkswagen_California
>, I have a pee bottle and a 5 gallon jug. Line the jug with two trash bags, and cover the poop with kitty litter. Then toss it in a dumpster. 1.is this legal to dump trash in somone else's dumpster without owners permission? 2. Is it ok in the US to dump poop in dumpsters? I know nursing homes incinerate poop but not sure if there is a law specifically against dumping human waste.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think it deserves to be slightly more nuanced than that. There is a category of things that are small, used rarely, but very necessary. Medicine & tools always come to mind. For me, if I don't use my screwdrivers for a year that doesn't mean I should get rid of my screwdrivers.
Arguably, it means just that. If you only use a tool once a year, you should just borrow/rent them when you actually do need them. Our lives are cluttered with occasionally used 'just in case' items that we really don't need.
Last year after getting made redundant from Cisco I was looking for work but there was nothing for 4 months as a Devops guy near where I live but there was plenty in London. I was actually considering either getting a van to sleep in, or a narrowboat, and working in London with London rates, then coming home at the weekend.
I'd love to know a cheap way of converting something liveable, bearing in mind most offices have showers so I don't need that, just to provide for my family.
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I don't think you really have to do it in a van. If you're going to work remote and don't mind being lonely, you can buy a house just about anywhere in the country, which means you can find a house for $50k instead of $500k. If you check out his list of things he likes about van living, most have more to do with working for himself rather than all the traveling. He doesn't come across as one of the wanderlust folks.
All of the work to make this van livable could have just as easily been done to a shack in the woods. The biggest hurdle these days is reliable internet if you want that. You would need a better bathroom situation than "the nearest McDonalds" too, but well water is often an option. The one question he didn't answer is how he bathed. It's very easy when you're living as a lonely bachelor to slowly morph into Grizzly A…
No. But trading it for a van doesn't sound more pleasant.
His "Can I live without my precious possessions?" answer is the most engineering LOL thing I've read all day: "Pile up my crap. Anytime I need something in the pile, take it out of the pile and save it for later. Monitor usage." Thank you for posting this.
So why didn't he just buy an RV? Not to take away from his accomplishment, but isn't this just the most engineery thing to do? Instead of leaning on another industry that has spent decades perfecting exactly what he is trying to build, he spent all the time he could have used actually exploring the world building what is certainly an inferior solution in every regard.
Because RVs suck for a lot of things. First, you're restricted where you can drive. You won't be touring the finer dispersed camping sites down some bumpy, rock-strewn forest road in an RV. Or even (for example) Going-to-the-Sun Road in Glacier NP if your RV is outlandishly large. Second, anything bigger than a camper van and your choices of paid campsites is reduced. For instance, over the U. S. Labor Day holiday I'…
You could probably get a Ram Promaster SWB with pop-up roof for about what an equivalent VW van would sell for, were they sold here. If that's too spend, there are always 10-20 year old Roadtreks that are in good shape for under 30K, and if you get a Ford or Dodge based one it's even quite good off road with a locking differential.