Thinking About Living on the Road? (Part 4 of 4)

Jay Jay Jeffery
Jul 23, 2017 · 7 min read

-What We Should NOT Have Brought-

Maybe I should change that to what “I” should not have brought because most of the things on this list are things I brought not my husband. In parts 2 and 3 of this series I told you what we brought that was indispensable and what we wish we’d brought with us on our 1 year road trip but this list is to help you recognize what you don’t really need. “Having less is more” is no joke. Being over packed gets really annoying as you have to dig through things you don’t want to find what you want.

Of course you need clothes. But not as much as I brought. We each brought an entire chest of clothes plus a pile of jackets and a drawer stuffed with underwear, socks, hats, and scarves! Way too much clothing! Half way through the trip we stopped at my in-law’s house and we left one trunk behind splitting the other between us. That was still more than I needed. When it comes down to it there is no one to impress on the road. You could wear the same thing every day and as long as it’s clean the next person in the next town won’t know it’s not a new outfit. I love dressing up but I found that it was the practical clothes that I wore the most.

How absurd of me to bring as much jewelry as I did. A few essentials are fine but jeez if we’d been stolen from it would have been terrible. And we were too busy biking and kayaking and swimming for me to wear any of the gaudy rings and necklaces that I enjoy so much at home. Don’t bring them. Leave them in storage. And that goes for other things that are valuable to you.

There were a couple books that I used almost every day. But books are heavy and take up a lot of space. Again ½ way through our trip I left an enormous heavy bag of books at my in-laws house because I never even looked at them once. If you love books put them on an iPad or nook and save space! Or download some audiobooks for the drive. The only books I actually used regularly were the 3 manuals for the online course I was taking and my plant identification book that I used religiously after every hike we went on, trying to remember and identify new plants we met along our way.

It pains me to say it but I brought way too many herbs. I love them and made tea a lot but the issue is that when you’re on the road, there are plants everywhere to make tea from. I didn’t need to bring 10 different jars of herbs to make teas I wanted. All I needed to do was go on a little hike wherever we parked and harvest a few on the spot. Even in the winter there are things to find. Oh and on that note, they will steal your herbs at the border of Canada and the US so be informed about your rights with that.

Oh my gosh did we bring a lot of shoes. Ugh. Even my husband went overboard on the shoes. We had 2 pairs of sandals each, hiking boots, tennis shoes, rain boots, biking shoes, slippers, and dress shoes… WTF? We used just about all of them though. Other than the dress shoes. We worked on farms and needed the mud boots for that. We went on some good long hikes and needed the hiking boots for that. Certainly needed our Chacos. I don’t know what to say but we surely could have and should have been more choosy about our shoes.

I brought crafting stuff and paints and guitars and even a ton of stuff for writing. You really don’t need all that. Sure I dabbled with all of It at least once but I suggest choosing one thing you want to spend your time doing and only bringing that. For me it was writing but I didn’t need oodles of pens and paper and notebooks. You can always get stuff on the road when you need it. But there are so many things to do already that you don’t need to pack more into your van. Go hike, explore the small town you’re in, talk to your neighbors, ride a bike, swim in a creek, go rock hounding. One thing you don’t need to do is sit on your ass in that van anymore than you already will.

I mean a bear did try to get in the van. Maybe it was good to have. But we never used it, it was $60 and it was kind of scary just to have in the van. What if it went off? You’ll have to decide if it’s something you want mattering on where you’re traveling. This goes for any kind of animal repellant such as for mice which managed to get into the van at some point and eat our bread. We switched things up so that was no longer a problem. But that bear spray? I was more afraid of the moose and bison than the bear. Especially since Trill got attacked by a moose (see that story here).

(image found on google free for reuse)

Yeah, we brought our machetes and everything else in our bug out bags because hey 2016 into 2017 wasn’t exactly the most stable year to go out on the road. But turns out nothing happened. No zombie apocalypse or financial crash. We all sat around wondering when it would erupt and it didn’t. Yet. We’ve still got the machete’s but I’m not sure what else we could have used them for on our trip. We never really entered dense jungles. Most of the time you can just walk through a forest, no problem.

(image found on google free for reuse)

They are so awesome though! But we never lit a candle. We had LED lights and they worked just fine. Plus the candles melted everywhere. Sure they’d be good in an emergency but so would a flashlight with extra batteries and they don’t make a mess. On the thought of candles, I have to add that we tried that method of making a heater out of a few tea lights and a terracotta pot. Before I attempted it Rob told me all the ways it was not going to work by just explaining the physics of it. Something about energy and BTU’s and not enough … Anyways I tried it and it didn’t work. Don’t bring candles.

When it comes down to it, bringing too much of a good thing is how your travel wagon gets so full. But along with that good storage methods are key. You always have to work with any issues your vehicle has. For the VW Van who’s oil and engine we needed to check regularly that is where the crux comes in. The engine is in the back under where most of our big items hung out. So we had to unload the van every time we had to get in the engine compartment. Annoying to say the least but one of those things we couldn’t find a way around.

Keep a look out for my post on VW Van Mods that we did that helped us out along the way. Especially if you have a Westy, but even if you don’t some of these ideas can be applied to almost any vehicle.

Jay Jay Jeffery

Written by

Living in an 80sqft VW Van. Interested in city planning, live music, herbalism, writing, experience, crypto, and small business

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