I wanted to compile a list of our favourite van life essentials and cool things for vans which have made life easier. (I don’t do affiliate links here, these are purely items I have found useful and want to try to help you).
1. So one of our best camper van accessories is a collapsable washing bowl. We use this not just in the sink, I hand wash underwear more often than the bigger clothes, so this is great for a small wash. You can buy one from Outwell here.
2. Another van essential is an expandable garden hose for all those places where you can’t park right next to the tap, we use this instead of a normal plastic garden hose as it takes up much less space, and as we all know, space is key.
3. Mike put a pull up bar on the van which we’ve covered in a couple of instagram reels. This hammock chair is a van life luxury item and we are so happy that we have it! It even has a little pocket on the inside for a phone (or chocolate!)
4. One of our must-have items for vanlife is eco toilet roll. We have a couple of toilet choices but for where we have to go and dig a hole in particular, we want to use natural toilet roll. The Cheeky Panda uses 100% bamboo, no chemicals and they donate money to the World Land Trust to offset their carbon. You can read about their commitments here.
5. She-Wee. Now this took a bit of practise in the shower. Top tip for how to use a she-wee: don’t hold it tight against your body, allow a bit of room for… flow (!) You can thank me later!
6. Walking poles. We love to hike and the routes we do are normally quite long so I always take a set of walking poles with me. I think they have the stereotype that only ‘older’ people use them but honestly one of the best things ever! Let’s make walking poles cool! You can get some great lightweight ones that pack down small from Robens here.
7. LED detachable and rechargeable light. We have this in the cab as our cab lights don’t work, but the fab thing is that it is detachable so we have used it to help others jump start their vehicles etc and it is super bright. It’s just really useful for when the head torches are packed away.
8. Tupperware. We saw loads of stories online of people getting mice in their vans so we just put everything in tupperware, bread, stock cubes, sweets you name it, it’s in a tupperware!
9. Mozi net for the door. We wanted to get a bug net over the door before we took a trip to Scotland (for obvious reasons!) so we found a magnetic screen door net for a house and we just adapted the length to fit the van side door. Top tip: we attached the fittings velcro to the van using Gorilla Glue tape. Best thing ever!
If you want to find out more about our van conversion journey you can read our blog here.
To follow our EU roadtrip, you can do so here.
For other van related blogs you can check out this page.
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