Essentials for VAN LIFE (GADGETS & GEAR)

0:00 Welcome back to our channel guys! If you're new here.. I'm Andre. And I'm Lisa. And we are back in our van.. but not to travel! We are in our van to share with you some of our essential van life goodies. Now these are things that won't break the bank. It's actually not part of the van necessarily

0:16 These are things you can use.. Whether you not in a van? I guess? More so for van life! But it is focused on van life and these gadgets are going  to enhance your travel experience. And we found these things after... Look we've been now in a van for... a while. And we live full-time in our van now. Now, we're not in a van. We're in a motorhome.

0:34 So I should just put that out there. But these things will add to your life in both a van and a motorhome and make your travel experience and full-time van life living experience just so much better. Broadly five categories we'll quickly touch on. Water. Because water is a challenge for everybody.

0:48 Laundry and dishwashing. Because we love that topic! Then we got some security aspects. We got some monitoring things And then a general category right at the end. Right at the end I'll tell you what has been our biggest, biggest improvement to our van life experience. It's something cheap, something portable

1:03 And something that I never thought I would use firstly or that would make our van life experience so much better. I remember saying.. Hey, I think we should get some of these.. And Lisa is like huh! No! We don't need that! Anyway, we'll show you that later on! We're Andre and Lisa

1:19 Does it look like I know what I'm doing? See you should have had the ice cream at the top and then I might have gone up. Full time travelers and nomads since 2018. This year we travelled to Italy and bought a 20-year-old campervan called Milli. Slowly we kept making our way south, via France

1:32 And we're currently near Malaga, Spain to see us through the worst of winter. Okay let's get straight into it! We start with water. Water is a challenge for everybody because that's one of the things that determine how long you can actually stay in your van.

1:58 Now it's fairly easy to find water wherever you go. But we've got a fairly big water tank.. Well actually it's not that big. It's 80 liters I think? That's fairly big. Yes, that's fairly big. A lot of vans got portable jerry's they put under the counter with little pumps. That makes it, I suppose, a little bit easier to refill. Or not?

2:16 In our case we have an external filling point.. Maybe we can offer you some ideas and suggestions  to make your life a little bit easier. First and foremost. We use a dedicated hose for filling potable drinking water. This is something you should always do! Just a side note if you can avoid

2:33 using a source close to a grey water dumping point. Or even worse.. a cassette or black water point. Try not to use those. Try and use a source from somewhere else. Often we don't want to move the van to add water to the van. One of our best additions to that has been a jerrycan.

2:48 Just a water container that we can carry 20 to 25 liters in. We actually got two of these. And normally they're empty ,but now at least we can carry an extra 50 liters of water And makes it super simple for us to take the jerrycan. Go to any tap that's got potable water and bring it back to the van. Use a nice big funnel and squish it back in there.

3:07 And this has allowed us to stay in a place like San Remo for 10 days while camping for free, right on the ocean. Without having to move our motor home and lose that precious spot. So it may seem simple And it's not expensive but it really, really can add to your motorhome or van life experience.

3:24 To improve the quality of your water you can get an inline filter for your hose. So when you actually put the water into the tank you  can put that attachment on there. That'll filter a lot of your sediment. And it's actually surprising how much sandiness we see in our water tank.

3:37 We also have a water pump that's got its own filter, but it would be good to avoid getting sand in your tank. One of the nice things we've added to our van was an actual built-in water filter. So it's got a little tap next to our basin. And it's connected to our water pump so we open it up

3:53 and that we can safely drink water from our van. It's actually made quite a big difference because we don't like buying water anyway. And at least we know we can drink the water. With this filter we can get about 10 000 liters before we have to change the cartridges. There's an alternative for you if you don't want to actually make the investment and put the filter in your van.

4:12 You can use a portable filter. This is something we've actually been traveling with. So I'll show you that quickly.. This is a product from a company called Survivor Pro. And this is the filter that we've been using for about three years While traveling all around the world. And with this filter you can filter.. literally.. sewerage water.

4:29 Just not salt water. It's very compact. Super light. It's got some hoses. It's got a pump action. It produces about half liter of water per minute. Now if you want to see more on these filters check out our video on travel gadgets we did earlier this year. I'll link up here.. somewhere...

4:44 And we actually show you the electric version of this. It's slightly bigger, but you don't have to do a manual pump. And even though these are a little bit of an investment. Having filtered water... the peace of mind that it gives you... And the cost saving not having to buy water.

4:58 It's really well worthwhile. Or, just to avoid using plastic! This is something you should have either way. In case of natural disaster or some other pending doom and gloom and you need to filter water. Water is THE most critical aspect. Okay! Our next category is dishwashing and laundry.

5:16 Oh yes favourite category! Even though we don't love doing the dishes or laundry There are some things that can really make our life a lot easier. Now the first thing that we've got.. Have we got it? I got it right here! This is definitely not an essential but because doing dishes in a van is in quite a small and cramped space

5:34 I found that this makes the process so much easier and more convenient. It's a small compact little draining rack Where you can stack many plates, bowls, glasses, everything on it. and that just goes on top of this very absorbent mat. And you can take this with you whether you're doing dishes inside the van or at a campsite.

5:50 And this can just be put in the wash afterwards. Yes we just hang it outside to dry every day. Or somewhere. It dries very quickly. Super convenient! I thought it was a luxury but now I feel like it's a must-have. If you are taking your dishes to a campsite sink to wash You need to carry them somehow.

6:06 So for this we have got these amazing buckets with  foldable handles. I don't know about amazing. I've got one right here . Now the reason why we like these.. Is because they got the handles. And we got more than one of these and they just sit inside each other. It's one of those few things that I said 'let's buy more' and Andre said 'no'

6:26 And later said 'we should have got more'! What makes them so nice is, firstly that they're fairly compact. We actually always keep one in our shower for some odds and ends to keep in. I use one in the garage to keep my hoses in. I use one of these for in an emergency to drain some of my grey water.

6:44 And of course you can do some laundry in here if you want to. And then we've also got something else for doing laundry.. This guy! Which is dedicated for laundry. So if you don't know. This guy is called a Scrubba bag and this is actually a super lightweight fabric and it's specifically made to do laundry in.

7:02 It's got like a rougher section in. We also look at this bag in our travel gadget video so you can check that out. But in essence you put your garments in here. You add some detergent or water. You roll it closed like a dry bag. You work it a little bit. In our case we just chuck it in one of our buckets

7:18 and drive around with it for a bit. Drive some bumpy roads. Voila! Super easy! So I do recommend for van life. Now obviously we do try and get to a laundromat for the bigger items. But we run almost every morning so we have lots of sweaty socks.. And they pile up very quickly! And that's actually one of those challenges ..

7:35 What do you do with all your stinky laundry? And if they're wet, where do you hang them? And if it's not good weather, where do you hang it? So when it's van life when the weather's good, it's great. You hang your clothes outside and they dry by the evening. But often that's not the case.

7:47 Often we have to hang our wet garments inside the camper And for that we've got these cool telescopic poles. That we put up in the shower.. Which we put up in the shower and in the bathroom. And on them we can hang all our dirty laundry. Either on hangers, or we've got these little S-hooks

8:01 Which we can't live without. We have got, I don't know, probably more than 10 or 20 of these. We're constantly using them to just hang things. The last thing when it comes to laundry... The last thing when it comes to laundry is mesh bags. Now we have loads of these in all various sorts and types.

8:20 These are both for keeping your delicates together when you do use a laundromat. And keeping things together when we do laundry in the Scrubba bag and we want to just wring them out and not lose things. And then also we have this one which is a nice drawstring mesh bag. For when you go and use the toilet facilities in a campsite.

8:38 So when you go to the shower you can put your shampoo and shower gel. Your clean underwear. Things like that in here. Go to the shower, hang it up. It keeps all your things together and dry. Okay so the next category is sort of monitoring systems. Now some of these you'll be familiar with

8:53 And the major ones will include the absolute essentials for van life. Just to give you a bit of peace of mind. So that will include a smoke alarm. It's one of the cheapest things you can get, and as long as you keep the battery alive, it'll look after you. In addition to that what we found quite important is a carbon monoxide monitor.

9:12 And we've actually made use of our carbon monoxide monitor before.. Unbeknownst to us one of our batteries started acting up. And it was releasing sulphur gas. So it alerted us to that and helped a lot. I'll link up here to a video we made when that happened. It was an interesting period because a lot of stuff was breaking in the van..

9:30 So make sure to check it out! If you haven't seen this. This is one of our newest additions and this is actually one of the critical things. It's a three-way thermometer. So it's actually got two external probes.. Or units, modules? Whatever it's called. And then the unit itself will tell you the temperature.

9:45 So right now you can see it's 26.2 degrees inside the van. Not too bad for winter in Spain! Now these two. The one is actually outside the van in the gas compartment. That gives us the external temperature. And the other one is in the fridge. But our fridge is off at the moment..

10:00 Otherwise we'd have a lot of off food! But the critical part of this is actually monitoring your fridge temperature. Because we use a three-way fridge and it's actually quite surprising how it fluctuates depending on the ambient temperature. You've got to be quite careful it doesn't actually get too cold.

10:15 it's really important to keep your fridge at the right temperature. Both for economy of your usage of gas As well as not letting your contents either freeze or perish. Lastly on the monitoring there's two more things that I can recommend we do. One being, you have to be able to check the health of your battery.

10:32 Now this is for both your car battery - the one that starts your car. And the one you use to power your devices. Now in our case we actually got three batteries. One we keep separate and is dedicated to electronics with a built-in inverter. Then we have our car battery it runs our water pump and our lights.

10:49 And then we have our main battery which just runs our vehicle. You have to be able to know what the health and levels of each of those batteries are at any point. Because that will also extend their life. If you want to keep it super simple you can buy a little voltage monitor. It can actually show you the the draw. The current draw on your battery.

11:12 As well as the the level and if you are charging it with an external source like solar or alternator or battery to battery charger, it will tell you that as well. I think if you're in a motorhome a lot of that stuff's already built in for you But even so.. When we bought this van it did not  have solar panels...

11:27 Not good... Anyway. We learned the hard way. Okay so let's move on to our second last category - security. So there's probably three things I want to show you. One being very simple but one I really love. Because it's so simple and easy to use. And that's what we use for our steering lock.

11:45 Because I think it's as important to secure your... vehicle.. or your van. Access to your van. As it is to secure it from being driven away. Exactly! The last thing you want is to come back and your whole home is gone! You can do it number of ways. You can get gear locks.. Or steering locks. We've got one that's actually super simple. It's just click in..

12:03 Click out. I find it super convenient. Even if you just stop for five minutes at the shop Make sure to use your steering lock. The last thing you want is come back and get a surprise. And on that .. We can also recommend getting yourself a Wi-Fi connected security camera. And we've actually had amazing luck with ours, because

12:23 we bought one with a built-in battery and it literally has lasted for four months without being charged. And this just gives you so much peace of mind when you're away from your van and you can quickly connect to  it have a look inside your van and know that everything is okay. Now in this case you do need a wi-fi hotspot in the van for the camera to connect to. But that's something we do anyway.

12:41 So we have a little router inside the van that's always powered and provides the wi-fi for the camera and it's always also our wi-fi hotspot. And if you have pets that you leave in your van then this is  also a good way of being able to check up on them. Another small and simple thing is a small document safe

12:59 And you can find these fairly cheap. Just big enough to be able to put your passports in. Because often you don't want to be walking around all day with your passport on you. You want to leave it somewhere safe and secure. And having a small little box like this.. at least you know those  documents are safe. It also can be for a bit of cash. Anything like that.

13:15 That if your van does get broken into, at least the most important things will not be stolen. Yes, at least it's going to make it a little bit more difficult. We've got a very nice little safe -and it's got to be bolted down  to the chassis. It's super convenient if we need to access our passports. We can do that very quickly.

13:30 And we also use it to store a wallet if we need to. And also our backup hard drives. Because this is something we all forget. If someone does break into your van and you have a hard drive with footage on it, you don't want that to disappear either. Even though you may need further security for other things like laptops and bigger items...

13:48 This is the very least that you really need to do. I agree. All right! The last thing in security is something that might seem odd. I think if you're in a van you might have other options. But we live in a motorhome and physical control to access your van when you're inside it, is quite important.

14:07 Especially if you're wild camp and you're concerned that somebody might be able to open an external door. The reality is a lot of these cab doors is very easy to open from the outside. And this is so cheap and so simple and yet it's probably the most effective way of ensuring that your cab is secured from the inside.

14:22 So what we do is we take a normal ratchet strap. Aand we secure each end onto the handles of each  door. And we just tighten them. That's the way we leave it overnight. Nobody can open those doors, no matter what. If they want to come in here, they have to come through a window which we'll probably notice.

14:38 The main door we keep latched from the inside. So it just gives you a little bit extra peace of mind. You can even do the same if you're concerned with leaving  your van. We sometimes do that. Yeah we do that. We ratchet the front doors and exit through our side door. Because we trust the lock on that a little bit more.

14:56 All right! That wraps up security. Our last category is a general category. So we lump everything in together. But these are probably the most useful individual items. When you're sleeping in a motor home it's important to get  a good night's sleep every night and sometimes you even want to sleep in the day.

15:10 So in order to do this we have two items that are really important for sleeping. I'll demonstrate. First one is a sleeping mask. Now very importantly, not just any sleeping mask. These sleeping masks allow you to open your eyes while you are sleeping. It's got a little recess over here so that you don't put pressure on your eyelids or your eyelashes while you sleep.

15:31 We have been using these for years after using ordinary sleeping masks And there is no comparison. It is well worth investing in a pair  of good sleeping eye masks. It does take a bit of time to get used to sleeping with an eye mask always. But it does mean you can sleep almost anywhere once you're used to it. Now I feel slightly naked if I don't have one.

15:48 To accompany the eye masks is another critical element for van life. It's obviously always noisy here and there, and we always sleep with silicone ear plugs. Not just ordinary ear plugs, but silicone earplugs. You can mold them to your ear, and what's important  is that they are soft

16:04 So that if you do sleep on your side they don't apply any additional pressure on your ear. All right. Now another super, super handy addition to our van is the little stove we use outside. You buy these little... I'll show you while I talk. Most of you have seen them in the homeware section of the supermarket or even the hardware store.

16:26 Or camping section. Camping section of course. They normally take little gas cartridges. We found them not to be super efficient on the gas cartridges But you can still get by. The reason why we like having an outdoor stove Is to, especially in summer, it's nice if you are able to do so to just cook outside

16:43 and also I don't particularly like frying food inside the van We don't use our portable stove with the disposable canisters. We actually use a hose that we connect to our LPG system And then we can use the little stove outside the van like that. Which leads us straight onto the next addition. This is a slightly more pricey thing

17:01 And everybody might not be able to justify, but that's to convert your gas to a refillable system. Normally how you do that is you either put an underslung tank in there Or now you can get an actual gas cylinder which is legally refillable. If you do want to do it right you want to install an external filling point.

17:21 Because then you'll probably be able to fill this tank almost anywhere in Europe. If you are in many different countries, this becomes more  and more worthwhile doing. The hillside of Spain is littered with discarded gas cylinders from the UK. As the saying goes.. Because the reality is, if you go somewhere, you can't just exchange your gas cylinder or have it refilled.

17:41 Every country in Europe - even within the EU believe it or not! Has their own system. With their own connectors... They have their own regulators. Everything is  unique to that country. So you either have to throw your bottle away. In some countries you're not legally allowed to buy a bottle because you need to have an address.

17:58 Because we have a three-way fridge and a gas heating system in the van It is important to have gas wherever we go. Now as you go into the colder months you do tend to use more gas We found for the fridge for example - this fridge can probably run for 40 days on about 11 kilograms of gas.

18:14 Maybe we can add - just back to the monitoring system - is you should be able to monitor the level of your gas or your  LPG So that you know when you're close to empty as well. That's a little bit harder. We can't do that yet. We just have to hope for the best. And obviously gas run out in the middle of the night, when it's raining.

18:30 Almost wrapping this up! Second last item on our general list is... One of those things that we find absolutely indispensable. And that's a very, very good rechargeable vacuum cleaner. Man I can't tell you! We can't live without this. We are we are known to annoy people around us a little bit with our vacuum cleaner.. But this thing...

18:48 Mamma mia.. When you live in a small space keeping it clean is really important and can be challenging. And having this just makes it so much easier. We see it as a bit of an investment. So this one's got a lithium battery... We obviously charge it as we go off our solar And it's just nice to whenever you trample in some dirt or something just quickly vacuum it up. Fantastic product.

19:09 Okay but now is the last one, I promise. The last, the final item. This is something that I really never saw myself using regularly. It was more for me. It was... and now I honestly can't imagine us doing van life without this. This has changed our life in such a way that it allows us to wild camp for long periods of time

19:30 There's three things you need to look after when you wild camp. You need water. You need to dispose of your grey water and you need to dispose of your black water. Those are the big challenges. That's in addition to your energy requirements like electricity. Now what we've learned is that if you don't actually pee inside your toilet

19:45 It does extend the time you can go without having to empty it. Significantly. Secondly, if you don't pee in your toilet then it doesn't smell bad. It actually doesn't smell as bad as you expect. So what we've decided to do is, wherever possible we use... an alternative solution..

20:04 We are in a motor home, so we should say that we have a cassette toilet. That's right. But no matter what toilet solution you've got... Pee bottles! It's very important to get the right  pee bottle. Especially for females.   Well I think for a guy you can pee in any pee bottle. You don't have to be that fussy.

20:21 I think they're the only thing that's important is a very  good sealable lid. It's got to be screw on and it's going to be watertight. But importantly for a woman is to have a handle which is quite comfortable to hold. And to have the angled neck. Surprisingly these are actually really easy to use.

20:38 For me. For obvious reasons. It's also, from a guy's perspective... it's easier, because you know, we tend to not always aim a  hundred percent. And camper loos are really low! Yes! So either - a tall guy like me - have to go very low down. Or I just use a bottle!   Even in places if only Andre is using the bottle,  it still means we can extend our toilet life.

21:05 If we know we're going to be somewhere we really,  really want to stretch it, then we both use it. It's so easy to go and empty one of these. No matter  where you are, you can find somewhere suitable. Yeah we bought like a 3-pack of these guys on Amazon. Each one takes just over a liter.

21:19 And you'd be surprised how quickly you go through them! It's a good way to make sure that you're drinking enough and staying hydrated too. Okay I'm gonna put the pee bottle away now. Okay on that note let's wrap this up guys. Thanks for watching as always. And if you enjoyed this video, smash that like button!

21:35 Subscribe to our channel to keep following us as we continue to travel through Europe for another year in our campervan. Yeah we are still in Spain, and we in the next couple of months we're going to start making our way through Portugal into northern Europe. And we'll see you next week! Thanks for watching!