Van Life Essentials That You Can’t Live Without

Throughout our entire build process we thought really hard about how each part of our van layout would function. Each decision was intentional in order to use the small space as well as possible. Everything has a place and a reason why it’s where it is. But when we first left after finishing our van build we obviously weren’t sure how it would really do. Well now that we’ve been living in our van we have added and gotten rid of items in order for it to be the best it can be. Here are our top van life essentials that you can’t live without!

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Velcro & Magnets

If you have anything on the countertop it will inevitably fall off while you’re driving. If you don’t mind moving a million things before getting in the front to drive then that’s fine. But if you want to be able to leave things where they are no matter if you’re parked or driving then you want to have things attached somehow!

Magnets work really well because you can use them to attach to the metal of the van. We use these magnets to attach one side of our black out curtains to the side of the van. That way no light gets into the cab helping us be stealthy as well as keep the heat in the back.

Velcro also works really well especially if you buy the strong kind of Velcro! Velcro allows you to easily move things and then put it back in that spot.

We use a Velcro square to hold the top of our Nature’s Head Composting toilet up so it doesn’t hit you in the back when one of us is using it and we’re parked on a slant.

Sticky mounting squares are another option although they’re not really designed for you to move the item. If you move the item it will most likely rip the mounting square.

We used these sticky mounting squares to mount plants on our countertop. But that wasn’t a great idea because every now and then we need to water the plants. Well I went to pick up the plant to water it and the mounting square ripped. So we swapped that out for a Velcro square and it works a lot better!

Hooks, Hooks, and More Hooks

Hooks are literally one of the most helpful things you can have in your van! They serve so many purposes and it’s so easy to have them in so many different places.

We have cup hooks on our back two cabinets to hang our towels to dry after we shower. It’s at the back of the benches so they are tucked away but it gives them a place to dry. Above our sliding door we also have hooks. We hang the van keys on these when we’re in the van so that we always know where they are. We also hangs masks there so we can quickly grab one. If we come in and have a wet jacket we hang it there too! We also have two cup hooks for our washcloths so they have a place to dry after use.

You don’t have extra floor space to just drop things so you need lots of options to hang items. Some can be permanent (for example, our keys always go on one hook near the door) and others can be for temporarily hanging items up (such as when our towels are drying).

Headlamp

A headlamp is something that we always travel with. We each had one in our backpacks while traveling internationally and we still use them all the time in the van. We also always bring them with us when we go out for a hike just in case it takes longer and it gets dark.

You never know if you’ll need to go outside and check something around the van. Or if you have storage that’s only accessible from the back door you definitely want a headlamp especially if you’re out on land where you might encounter any wildlife.

These headlamps are way brighter than our phone flashlights. You can obviously hold it in your hand but wearing it on your head allows you to do something else with both hands which makes it so convenient!

Black Out Curtains

These black out curtains are seriously the best! We use these clips to hang them along our headliner shelf. It creates a really nice partition from the cab. It also gives us privacy when we don’t want anyone to see the back of the van. We just loop one of the curtain holes in the top of the clip so it’s easy to open and close them whenever we need.

They also do a really good job of controlling the temperature in the back. When it’s cold they help keep the warm air in the back. We can actually notice a difference in the temperature if one of us goes up to the front to grab something.

Water Filter

We have this UV water filter so that no matter where we fill up on water we know it’s filtered and drinkable. This gives us so much peace of mind when it comes to finding water. We always try to find water sources that we know are potable water but sometimes you can’t be completely sure.

This water filter sits on the floor underneath our sink. It’s super easy to install and it doesn’t use any electricity which is an added bonus! There are four different filters that the water goes through.

The filter comes with a dedicated faucet. So on our countertop we have our main faucet and then the small faucet next to it with the filtered water.

Seriously this filter makes the water taste good no matter where you fill up whether it be a random gas station, rest stop, or a park on the side of the road.

Read More: How to Choose a Van Layout

Containers for Upper Cabinets

One thing we noticed early one is that driving in a van with all of your belongings is much different than driving a regular car. We never used to think about where things are in the vehicle while driving or how everything moves when you make a sharp turn. But now it’s something we think about constantly!

Items in our upper cabinets tend to move around the most especially while making turns or driving on bumpy roads. Putting everything into containers is one of the best ways to limit items from moving. It also helps organizes each cabinet to make it easier to find things.

We have these open containers for things like salt and pepper, olive oil, cooking spray, cups and mugs, and snacks that we reach for often. Open containers like that still keep everything contained but make it easy to grab what you need! Then we have some of these containers with lids. They stack really nicely underneath the open containers allowing us to use the full height of our upper cabinets. In 60 square feet we want to be able to use all the space we can!

We use these soft containers for our clothes. Being slightly less structured allows us to store our clothes really easily. They come as a 6 pack so we each have 3 of them. I store larger shirts and sweaters in the biggest one, bottoms in the medium one, and underwear and bras in the smallest one.

Cabinet Latches

All your stuff inside your cabinets can be organized into containers but if you don’t have cabinet latches to lock your cabinets closed then all your stuff will end up on the floor. You definitely need some kind of latch to keep the door closed so that it doesn’t open every time you go over a bump or take a turn.

There are a bunch of different latch options. Some people use child locks, magnet latches, roller latches, press in and out latches, and more. It doesn’t matter which one you choose as long as it actually stays closed!

We chose these roller latches and they work so well! They are really strong but aren’t too strong to where it’s hard to open the cabinet to get something. We’ve only had one of the cabinets open once while driving and it was a really, really rough road because a jar of peanut butter that wasn’t in a container moved forward and pushed the door open.

Natures Head Composting Toilet

This is one item we heavily debated. It is very expensive. There is no debating that it’s a big ticket item. When we were originally designing our layout we thought we could go without a bathroom and just use bathrooms around us. You would be surprised by how often you can find public bathrooms at rest stops, gas stations and other public places!

But after renting vans without a toilet we realized how much more flexibility having our own bathroom gives us. We’ve been in both cities as well as out in nature on public land and realize it is really an essential! Yes, it’s expensive but it makes the van so much more livable.

It means that we can stay in all kinds of places like BLM land and scenic locations where there are no facilities. And although everyone that has a Nature’s Head says that it doesn’t smell we didn’t know if we actually believed them. But now we understand because seriously it doesn’t smell. It works by separating liquids into one container and solids into another.

Window Covers

Window covers give you privacy when you’re parked near other people. You also definitely want them at night when the lights are on inside your van because it becomes really easy to see inside even if you have good tinted windows! Window covers also help as insulation to control the inside temperature of the van.

We have Reflectix for our front windshield and cab doors. They simply stay in place up in the front and allow us to use the swivel seat on the passenger seat while still having privacy. For our back windows we have Thinsulate that we covered in fabric with magnets along the edges. They really help insulate the door area a little more.

USB/USB-C Charger

This thing is gold! We got it when we rented vans in both New Zealand and Australia. We used it all the time because we could use it while we were driving to charge our phones as well as our laptops.

Well now in our own van we still use it every single day! While we’re driving we use it to charge our phones. But then once parked we also use it to charge our laptops.

We actually have AC outlets in the back but we’ve never used them to charge our computers. We always just use this USB charger and our DC outlets because it’s so much more efficient!

DC Outlets

DC outlets are a lot more energy efficient than AC outlets which is why so many people opt to put them into their van conversions. We knew we wanted them but had a hard time finding ones that had a combination of cigarette outlets as well as USB ports.

These have two so on one side there are 2 USB ports and on the other side is a cigarette lighter port. Having both types gives us more flexibility for how many things we can plug in at once.

Blankets

Even if you chase the warm weather you still want a few blankets. We thought we would be welcomed into Texas with warm weather and instead were faced with a very unusual snow storm. So it’s best to have a few just in case you encounter unusually cold weather.

We have two fleece blankets that we use on top of our comforter on especially cold nights. That way we each have an extra blanket on top to sleep. Then we also have this blanket that we use outdoors on the beach or whenever we want to sit outside.

We also have a junk blanket. It has some insulation and paint on it from our build so we don’t really care about it. But when we had a leak it was really helpful to throw it down and not care if it got completely soaked. Or when we come in and our shoes are really muddy we use it to clean things up.

Camp Chairs

We didn’t really use our camp chairs when we were around cities. Just because we didn’t really want to pop them out in a Cracker Barrel parking lot. But out in nature or on pubic land we use them every day! We sit outside and drink our coffee. Or they are really nice to use if we have a camp fire so we don’t have to sit on the ground.

If you don’t want to spend a lot you can get inexpensive ones at places like Walmart or during end of summer sales. We store them in one of our benches. They are easy to take out and put back in with our layout so we find ourselves using them a lot!

Microfiber Towels

Living in a van has made us super aware of how much trash we produce. Every time we go grocery shopping we instantly have a bunch of packaging to throw away. Every time we finish a food item or use a bunch of paper towels we have another pile of trash.

So we are consciously trying to reduce how much trash we produce by using less paper towels and single use items like that. So we’ve completely switched to using microfiber towels instead of paper towels. We use them to dry our dishes and wipe down our countertops. They dry fast and then when they get dirty we wash them with the rest of our clothes.

We also have these microfiber towels that we use for showering. We find they dry really fast which makes it easier in the van where we don’t have a ton of extra space for them to dry.

These are just some of the items that we can’t imagine not having in the van. This obviously isn’t every single thing we have but things we use on a consistent basis that make life in the van easier for us!