Does somebody here maybe live in a caravan or something similar like this. How is it? Do you miss something? Do you like the freedom of it? Do you live in a caravan because you are a minimalist or did you became a minimalist because you live in a caravan?
How does the caravan affect the minimalistic lifestyle?
We lived in our caravan for 1 1/2 years from 2006 and enjoyed it. We saved quite a bit of money however insuring the car and the caravan were the biggest hurdles as you need a fixed address.
You also need a site that will accept your post or have a pobox. We had to give it up due to medical reasons and the hassle was then finding a suitable place to live.
Many sites will not allow you to stay for more than 10 or 11 months and then you have to up and chuck and this is normally in the winter months. Also in the winter months you will probably use a lot more gas and have to put up with frozen water barrels and frozen waste masters.
Travellers seem to manage just fine. If you have a relative or good friend who will accept your mail, it should be technically possible to do it. And if you insulate your water gear, it shouldnt freeze south of Watford.
There are a lot of narrow-boats moored on the riverbank near me, and I know people are living on many of them. My wife used to work in the local post office, and the boaters all collected their mail from there.
At one time the idea appealed to me to either live on a boat or in a coach converted to a motorhome, but I don't think I would want to do it now that we are in our 70s. Too much heating required, too cramped, and too many other problems like water supply and emptying the toilet etc. A caravan for a holiday is great, but I know I'm always glad to be going home to a nice warm house with plenty of room to move around. I also enjoy pottering around in my workshop in the garden, which I couldn't do in a caravan that I was also living in.
I think I would get claustrophobia living full time in a caravan, especially in winter. When we go away with ours in the summer we mainly only use it for sleeping in. We are out somewhere most of the time. Now that we are retired we hardly go out much at all in winter. If we were confined to a caravan, that would drive me crazy, but in a house there's always something to do.
Quote: Originally posted by Colin21 on 26/10/2020
There are a lot of narrow-boats moored on the riverbank near me, and I know people are living on many of them. My wife used to work in the local post office, and the boaters all collected their mail from there.
If these people have fixed moorings, they often have gardens, sheds, the lot. Granted the 'boat' is going to be smaller than your house (most of the time. Some of these wide-beams are bigger than bungalows inside.). I think you would have to start out pretty early on in life to accept the limitations though. I have often thought i could live in a caravan, but could i really? Probably not.
I used to follow the blog of a couple who lived full time, travelling around Europe and it did look fun - but they weren't trying to work, so it was more like an extended holiday.
There was another blog of a couple in this country, trying to live and work at the same time. As others said, the biggest problem was staying in one place - they ended up swapping between 2 or 3 sites in a small area but it looked like hard work; they had an awning with a washing machine in it, for example, that had to be moved every time.
Quote: Originally posted by Colin21 on 26/10/2020
There are a lot of narrow-boats moored on the riverbank near me, and I know people are living on many of them. My wife used to work in the local post office, and the boaters all collected their mail from there.
If these people have fixed moorings, they often have gardens, sheds, the lot. Granted the 'boat' is going to be smaller than your house (most of the time. Some of these wide-beams are bigger than bungalows inside.). I think you would have to start out pretty early on in life to accept the limitations though. I have often thought i could live in a caravan, but could i really? Probably not.
There are a couple of fixed moorings near me, presumably the land has been bought by the boat owners, but these are mainly wide-beam boats. They are really lovely and very well looked after, and I would imagine they are easily as big as a bungalow inside. However, the vast majority of the boats in this area are narrow-boats, and they are just moored on the towpath. The main problem for them is probably emptying their toilet tanks. These have to be pumped out at a boatyard, so they have to be taken to a boatyard every now and then. What happens if the boatyard is closed due to Covid lock-down?
The toilet thing is obviously something to be thought about. I would think boat yards would have to remain open, if only for the loo/hygiene side of things. I knew of someone living on a narrow-boat with kids. They had to do a mile or two up and down the canal every so often, so as to keep near their schools.
A day of all things motorhome and campervan. The show is held both in the main indoor arena and across the grounds. Catering, hot drinks and food options are available. Easy access to the site and free parking included. Win one of five pairs of day tickets
Topic: Living in a caravan?
