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Home > What is home?

What is home?

March 28th, 2017 at 11:49 pm

Anybody have any ideas? If so, I would love to hear about it.

As my camper car project continues, it was inevitable that I would start to ponder this question, and if this... car... could be it?

My best definition of home so far... and I confess it's not much of one, but I think home is a place where, when you are there, you can breathe a sigh of relief, knowing that you have returned....

Right now, I have two beds: My old closet bed (hehe) and the new car bed (oh my). You know, just reading that, I realized that I may not be a "normal" person. I dunno, it's amusing to me at least. I may also be easily amused haha.

Anyways, I noticed that when I lie down in my closet bed, I physically breathe a sigh of relief. However, I have yet to do that with my car bed, even though I plan to exclusively sleep there from now on. In my mind though, the car is still this "other place" that I do not yet acknowledge as home.

However, as I got stuck in traffic today, it dawned on me that getting stuck in traffic was irritating only because I was eager to get home, whereas for VanDwellers, since they are already home, I imagine a traffic jam would be more of a minor inconvenience.... Hmm, could my perspective eventually shift like that as well? After all this, I sure hope so.

Anyways, I finally got some sleep last night in my car bed. It was kind of intermittent, only because a friend of mine texted me last night. Otherwise, I slept just fine.

I also built a platform for my toilet bucket today. About the only thing I can imagine worse than pooping in a car, is pooping in a car, on an uneven surface that could potentially topple the bucket over. Maybe. The space is tight, but even the remotest of possibility was unacceptable to me, and so, a sturdy, level platform had to be built.

Luckily, compared to the bed frame, this wasn't as difficult of a project, so I was able to get it mostly done today. I also snapped a couple of pictures for show-and-tell:





There are still some small additions or changes I need to make, so this isn't the final version yet.

And so, as the sun sets, I am settling into day 3 of me living in my car... in my garage. Baby steps. Oh, and please feel free to tell me your ideas of home.

10 Responses to “What is home?”

  1. CB in the City Says:
    1490787495

    Home is where you can kick back and be nothing but yourself.

    I think you would probably not feel "at home" while in a traffic jam, because you are actually still on the job, navigating the car.

  2. Tabs Says:
    1490834583

    Haha no, I'm not ready to take off my pants in the middle of a traffic jam yet so that wouldn't feel very homey.

  3. LivingAlmostLarge Says:
    1490888718

    Have you considered ever getting a van? Or is that the next step after this car?

  4. Tabs Says:
    1490896208

    I originally started with a van, but ultimately went with a Prius instead. There is simply no other vehicle that I am aware of that is capable of minimal, intermittent use of gas, and automatically regulate the AC....

    My current plan is to basically drive this car into the ground, and hopefully that's something far out like 15 years from now, where assuming all goes well, I will pick up and rebuild another Prius and keep on rolling.

    But a lot of things can happen in 15 years so who knows? I guess only time will tell....

  5. ceejay74 Says:
    1490898536

    Did I miss your method of cleaning said emergency toilet, should it need to be used? (Maybe I'm going too far with that question, but it is a curiosity point now that you're talking about these things...)

  6. Tabs Says:
    1490901520

    That's a fair enough question. Basically, you take a large trash bag to cover the bucket. Inside, you place two grocery bags and well basically you poop in it.... Once done, you very carefully tie up the two grocery bags, and then you wrap to seal the larger outer trash bag, followed by the screwing back the relatively air tight bucket lid.

    The larger trash bag inside can collect several more of these doubled-bagged doo-doos until I can get to a proper trash dump, where then I can pull out the entire bucket, tie up the larger trash bag and pull it all out and dispose of it.

    Now, I know all this sounds really gross... and that's why I didn't go into the details haha. However, this is a fairly common system that many VanDwellers use, and believe it or not, but it is much better than the commercial portable potties that involves chemicals, moving parts, and stuff sloshing around.

  7. Tabs Says:
    1490908156

    Oh wait, I might have slightly misunderstood the question, but the basic idea is that, if all is done correctly, the bucket should remain spotless. If not, it's still a failsafe to protect the rest of the car. In which case, it would require a garden hose and an outdoor area somewhere and well, maybe lots of paper towels and detergent or something. Worst case, the buckets are cheap and can always be replaced.

  8. ceejay74 Says:
    1490922185

    Ah, gotcha! I didn't think about liners. Curiosity satisfied! Big Grin

  9. VS_ozgirl Says:
    1491023471

    Tabs you have made me think about what is home... Your cardwelling idea is certainly an interesting concept... What would you do to relax on a Friday night for example? Visit friends, spend time in a café or bar? Where do you have that is safe to park your car for long periods of time? What about showering, would you join a gym or something so that you can have use of their facilities at any time? Part of the nomadic idea is thrilling but it has made me appreciate aspects of our home (like relaxing on our big leather lounge suite on a Friday or Saturday night). Are you going to have some sort of tarp and portable table and chairs so that you can stretch your legs and sit outside when there's nice weather?

  10. Tabs Says:
    1491029024

    Relaxing on a Friday night? Well, basically, I can hang out pretty much anywhere for usually until say 9pm? This includes visiting friends, where basically I will have to meet them at a public place or their place, right, such as bars or cafe. Actually, I don't drink, so maybe not bars so much, and I also would prefer not to spend too much money, so this will be interesting indeed....

    Yes, the main source of showering is through a nationwide gym. I really need to work out anyways. Naturally, they also have bathrooms, and these gyms are often open 24 hours, so I can use that whenever.

    And yeah, I fully agree with you about appreciating one's home. I used to take the bathroom and shower for granted, but I see now how wonderful and convenient it is to essentially have them at your disposal whenever you need it. Transitioning to cardwelling will most certainly going to be quite the lifestyle change for me.

    I also have a nice sofa that I will miss as well, when I transition full-time.

    As for tarp and lawn chairs, it's a possibility.... I need a bit more time to figure out these details, but they are lower on the list of priorities right now. But I do have something in mind... but I'll blog about it later when I get there.

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