#VanLife: Just a Fad or Here to Stay?
Before 2018, it would seem that living out of a van was something reserved for vagabonds, ill-fated family camping trips, or people really down on their luck. Now, the hashtag #VanLife has over 8 million tags on Instagram, R.V. park’s stocks are soaring, and new companies emerge almost daily to support the new trend of living out of a vehicle.
But, these van lifers are the farthest thing from vagabond: they are hippies that are actually clean, they outfit their vans in hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment, and they actually work from wherever they choose to park their vans.
Van life is a way to make the most out of remote work, it’s a way to live the life that Marie Kondo inspires us all to lead, and it’s also a great way to see the world. But, is #VanLife just a fad? Or is it here to stay?
A Perfect Storm for #VanLife
When my grandparents retired, I remember them buying a conversion van to cross the country with. This was not the shiny new vans that you come across today: sure, it was new, but it was also bright blue on both the outside and the inside, and there wasn’t any trendy Nordic-inspired decor to be found inside. Oh, and they didn’t feel the need to create an Instagram account to document their voyages. In fact, this must have been in 2006, and Instagram hadn’t even been invented yet.
These days, life on the road isn’t reserved for retirees and their big blue vans (the whole family actually used to call it The Big Blue). In fact, interest in living out of a vehicle has been steadily on the rise since around 2017, and it doesn’t show signs of stopping.
So, why the sudden interest? A combination of several factors. The emergence of gig-based work has given people opportunities to dive into the world of freelancing, remote work, and one-off jobs that together pay the bills. Even if some people do still do the whole 9–5 thing, they now have the freedom to do so wherever there’s a good WiFi connection. And, without a monthly rent, most people are able to cut back on working hours as they don’t have as many expenses to worry about.
There has also been a big shift in thinking amongst millennials: they’re sick of buying things (including houses and cars) and want to live a simpler life. Capitalism just isn’t cutting it anymore, and a minimalist lifestyle has become the rage thanks to people like The Minimalists and Marie Kondo, and books like Essentialism. There has also been a huge movement towards embracing the fact that the best things in life aren’t actually things, but rather experiences. What better experience than ditching all of your worldly possessions and hopping into a van for the foreseeable future?
The Big Boys Join the Fray
In theory, van life sounds like the penny-pinchers dream, but there’s also something very paradoxical about the movement too. Like many things that live on Instagram, the #vanlife hashtag is all about aesthetics. Some of the vans you’ll see there are totally decked out: in a “simple” way that clearly costs hundreds of thousands of dollars to pull off.
Some van lifers take the DIY route, but even so, a van remodel can be expensive. It’s obvious that they either worked for a long time to save up, took out a loan, or are able to ask their parents for help.
And, if you want to buy a custom made van ready to use, you could use a company called Benchmark Vehicles. The company typically sells its beauties for between $100,000 to $300,000 — and that’s not including the van. That’ll set you back an additional $40,000.
Other companies that have benefitted from the van life movement are, of course, R.V. parks. All of these new-age vagabonds in vans need to park their rigs somewhere, after all. In fact, two mobile home parks, Sun Communities Inc. and Equity LifeStyle Properties Inc. have enjoyed enormous returns on their stocks since the housing market crash. 4,100% returns, to be exact.
New applications that help make van life possible have also emerged. One, in particular, RVParky, will tell you where you can park your van for the night. It isn’t the only app with this feature, either, I found at least 5 others that promised to do the same. There are still more apps that work to bring together fellow van lifers in the hopes to create a community. It can get lonely out there on the road, after all.
Whether van life is just a fad or here to stay is hard to say, but in the wake of the coronavirus crisis, it has become even more popular. With many relegated to remote work and in-person meetings off the table, for the time being, life on the road sounds better and better. There are obvious downsides to van life, such a fuel prices, pollution, and the undeniable fact that a nomadic life can become lonely after a while. Whether or not these downsides will be the downfall of van life can only be determined with time.
Originally published at https://expeeriences.com on September 16, 2020.
