Are you curious to know how different living in a caravan is to a house? This video follows my morning routine and I mention the quirks. I promise, it takes me longer than 3 minutes to get ready in the morning!
I’ve been living in the caravan for over a month now and starting to get into a routine – even if the view and the rest of the day keeps changing. I now know which cupboard I’ve put my tea in and where the toaster is best kept.
There really are no big inconveniences and it’s well worth the few hassles. I’m looking out my window at people in tents and smugly enjoying my warm surroundings with table and chair.
The main difference is the water. I turn on the water pump in the morning. It’s best to turn it off at night to stop being woken by the sound of it randomly working. When I use the taps, the running water can take a while to start smoothly before the water pump kicks in. I’ve been told to not drink the water from the taps, which mean I have bottles of water ready for teeth cleaning and adding to the kettle.
The other difference is the bathroom. Every time I use the toilet, I’m checking how full it is and wondering what day I should empty it. I’m currently making use of the shower facilities at camp sites. Any water I use means less water in my fresh water tank and more water in my grey water tank meaning I need to empty it sooner. Plus the water in the base of the shower doesn’t drain completely, which means cleaning it straight afterwards.
The video is with the caravan at a powered site. An unpowered site means my caravan is not plugged into the power and I’m running off the battery and using gas.
One day I’ll add solar panels, but until then, running off the battery means the normal electric kettle and toaster don’t work. I boil water in a pot on the stove using gas and have either muesli or french toast for breakfast. The fridge switches from running on power to gas and I’m learning that I need to turn it on and off a few times before the gas ignites and works.
I’m currently experimenting with a friends 12VDC to 230VAC inverter which plugs into the cigarette lighter socket in the caravan and uses the battery power (yes, there’s randomly a cigarette lighter). This allows me to use some electrical devises. I’ve found it won’t recharge my laptop… it possibly uses TOO much power?
The water pump works and I can run the hot water on gas too. Overall the only changes in the morning routine is my food and drink!
After my morning routine, I usually have 3 options for the day. I’m either packing up the caravan and moving camp sites, or having a working day in the caravan on my laptop (writing to you) or I’m sightseeing. Today was sightseeing until 3pm and now I’m working on my laptop. Tomorrow will be packing up the caravan and I’m slowly getting faster.
Do you have a question about living in a caravan or anything about my experience? Leave the question in the comments below and I’ll aim to answer it in a blog soon.