Hope I won't regret this: Does anyone here live in a van?
That's the question. I am not very social so I never really talk to other people in their vans, but I get curious about their experience. Here being anonymous seems ok to ask.
I live in one, in case it's not clear. I know there's a lot of people who do the same so maybe there's someone here. Probably not but it's worth a try. There used to be a van dwellers community on reddit, but mostly americans and instagram people.
There are many issues (with my social phobia, people being 90% of them), but I like it a lot for one thing only, freedom.
Only recently I traveled for some months, which was awesome, mostly because of the outback. Otherwise most of the time it was staying close to work, but I still loved it so much always be close to the beach which I would never be able to afford otherwise. And over time I learned the safe places to stay, so I didn't have much issue with not being able to sleep because of noise.
But it's certainly not for everyone. Most of the problems don't bother me at all, when I can have so much freedom. But for most people it would be too high of a price to pay, or they don't enjoy the benefits that much.
I do miss having a house though, specially one with lawn and trees. But the cost is more than the benefits, specially since it means I have to slave my life away to pay for it. If I was super rich and could buy something in a nice place I would though.
Edit: I wouldn't mind if I could solve the issue of having to find a toilet every morning, which some times is quite urgent. But that's a city problem. In the outback it's... sort of a lot easier. If you ignore the cold and mosquitos when you do your business or having to find a place and dig and then bury it. But it's better because you always know you will find the place and it won't take too long.