What Van Life Taught One Couple About The Importance Of Nature & Disconnection

After building a top-of-the-line van to sell, they decided to take it for a test drive across America to live the simple life for a few weeks. Along the way, they picked up some valuable lessons on the importance of disconnecting and living with a light footprint.

We moved into the van in May 2023, directly after completing the building process. We had a few more things to finish up, but we wanted to test everything on the road before completing the build. We always wanted to try out van life since we both work freelance and love traveling, so it seemed like a perfect fit for us.

Another aspect of living in a van is that you don't have that much space to collect materialistic things that you do in a house. It was so much easier to say no to buying things we don't really need because we simply didn't have the space for them. 

We thought we would miss taking showers more! But between the shower in our van, freshwater streams, and a gym membership, we were totally fine on that front.

We were also out and about more, seeing more nature than we ever would living in a home, which made us appreciate the outdoors even more.

Balancing functionality and design should be your top priority. You want to make your space as functional as possible first, and then find a way to make it as beautiful as possible. In the end, it's your home, so you want to feel in love with your space while it also serves all your needs, and you don't need to constantly be dealing with "chores" to keep it up. Make everything as practical as possible—but pretty!—would be our advice.

Honestly, we've received endless comments saying that this is the most beautiful van conversion they've ever seen. That is the biggest compliment we could ever ask for, and humbles us deeply that we were able to make something like this ourselves. 

That's easy! Home where we feel we can be fully ourselves, feel safe, and do the daily rituals and routines that make us who we are. Usually, all we need for that is each other's presence. But the van has also become a home in that sense. 

This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.