Prius Hilton #8: Downsides
It’s been almost two months since I took the plunge to live out of my Prius, and things are still going well. I’m past the phase where it feels like a novelty, and I’m still happy with the setup. That said, there are a few downsides I’ve identified.
Waking up
I sleep well at night thanks to my ear plugs, as well as my sleeping mask. However, a worry I have is that it might work too well, preventing me from waking up when I actually should. One crazy scenario that’s crossed my mind involves someone breaking into my car and stealing my stuff, all while I’m fast asleep. More realistically though, I might be on-call for work and sleep through a page if I happen to be really tired.
I have been woken up in the middle of the night before from a phone call, and my alarm has always been loud enough, but that doesn’t prove I‘ll always wake up.
Ventilation
Since I keep my laundry and shoes in my car, I like to keep it ventilated. This isn’t a problem overnight, since the car is on and the AC is continuously running. During the day, I keep my windows open a crack so that the inside of my car can be aired out. However, occasionally I’ll forget to open them and it’ll be a bit musty when I get home. I guess my main worry is negligence resulting in mold, but I feel like I’m paranoid enough that it won’t get to that point.
Clothing / Style
I don’t consider this a downside for myself, but while brainstorming, I realized that other people might be annoyed by the difficulty in picking out clothes. With such limited space, having a variety of clothing easily accessible would be troublesome.
Thankfully, I have a very simple wardrobe, effectively consisting of two outfits: a Uniqlo T-shirt with shorts, and a Uniqlo T-shirt with sweatpants / joggers. Both are accompanied by the same pair of vans.
Parking
Before starting this lifestyle, I imagined that I would be able to explore all over San Francisco, even on the weekdays. The sad reality is that, while there is plenty of space to find parking overnight, not all areas will have open parking. I thought I would be checking out new neighborhoods every week, but I’ve come to accept the value in having a convenient, reliable routine. I’ll save the adventuring for lazy weekends and road trips.
Conclusion
Clearly, everything above is relatively minor, and certainly nothing listed would cause me to stop living in my car. However, I do think it’s a healthy exercise to revisit this topic from time to time so that I can be conscious of the tradeoffs.
