After our first van trial on the North Shore we came back with some new ways to utilize the van. We spent a week traveling across Wisconsin and Michigan. This time allowed us to be more comfortable in the van and make it even more like home.
Below are some changes we made that allow us to live more comfortably in the van for trial #2.
Added a hitch cargo carrier with storage bin. Between 2 adults, a baby, and a dog, we have a lot of items. We had everything jam packed into our van and you could barely see the van floor. We have attached a cargo carrier onto the van and store large items here. We use this for items we know we won’t need until we “make camp.” Things like the pack n play, camp chairs, yoga mat, and hiking poles are all stored in this bin. It makes a huge difference in the van!
We got a tire cover. We were super excited for this addition to our van. We figured it would be the perfect advertisement for our road trip plus how cool does that look?! We are extremely pleased with our cover from customtirecovers.com
Ditched excess spare clothing. Even though we’ve been long term road tripping before, the art of minimal clothing is always a learning curve. We have too many clothes taking up unnecessary space. We ditched what we hadn’t used. It never ends and I still feel I had too much on trial #2. Since we ditched excess clothing, we were able to move all of our clothes to the overhead storage compartment. On the first trial trip we had them stored under the bed. This was extremely inconvenient to get clothes when needed.
We have also added hooks to hang the umbrella stroller in the overhead area. This frees up more space on the floor to move. We opted for the umbrella stroller verses a jogger stroller because of the small size. Perfect and compact for travel.
The sink is now completed. This was a van build project in the works since Andy started the van renovation. The sink is one of the items in the van that needs to be “set up” once we get to camp (the crib is another item that needs to be “set up” once at camp.) The sink is an awesome “luxury” add to the van!
The bug doors got installed. A lazy day at camp allowed for time to finally get the nets installed. We were excited to get these up so we can enjoy hanging out in the van with the doors open. A cool breeze and no bugs makes for better van living.