#VANLIFE : Where to…um, go! 💩 Tips on going to the bathroom and showering in a van

(Updated April 2022)

In the summer of 2020 (yep. THAT summer! 😷)  I purchased a 1997 VW Eurovan campervan because rather than sit in my apartment during the lockdown of Covid, I found this cool van, gassed it up, tossed in some essentials like a pillow and down comforter – and a box o’ wine – 🍷 and pointed it due east.  I drove across the United States and up the Eastern Seaboard all the way to Maine and back home again to Colorado, logging nearly 10,000 solo miles and “doing” van life for 3 full months.

You can read about how I found my awesome van and named her Tilly by clicking here.

The next summer, the summer of  2021 – the summer of “let’s get out and do stuff now because it seems like Covid is under control and I’ve got my vaccinations and I can’t sit inside one more minute”, I headed westward through New Mexico and Arizona, stopping in a few little-known national parks along the way – to the “left coast/best coast” to drive up the 101 and Highway 1.  My route took me all the way from Santa Barbara to stunning Big Sur, into the majestic and glorious redwood forests, stopping in one of my favorite cities, San Francisco, and on to Oregon to drive along the spectacular rocky coast, into Washington and across the water via ferry to the fantabulous San Juan Islands and then…you got it! Back home again to Colorado.

That  trip was 71 nights in the van and 7,000 solo miles and of beauty: deserts, sequoias, coastal glory and old-growth primitive rainforests.

The next summer I hit Yellowstone, Grand Tetons, The Sawtooth Range in Idaho, a concert at The Gorge in Washington State and Rocky Mountain National Park for another 21 days in the van.

And if that wasn’t enough, I traveled through Italy, Switzerland and The South of France in a swanky Sprinter-type van for six weeks, bringing my van nights to 225+

I’ve learned soooo much – about myself, what I like (trees and cool weather vs. beaches and heat!), where to find the best place to buy ice (grocery stores have 10 pound bags for the same price as the 7- or 8-pound bags at gas stations), where to get drinking water without buying plastic bottles (use a 2.5 or 5 gallon jug and refill it at any major grocery store at the filtered water kiosk, usually outside the entry doors and it costs around 30-40 cents per gallon! Sweet deal!! Good clean water and NO plastic water bottle waste! And seriously – were these machines there all the time and I just never noticed??) and I sure learned how to “do” solo van life pretty damn well.

This post is here to answer two of the most common – but indelicate – questions I get from people:

1. Where do you shower?
2. And where do you, um…go? To the bathroom? 💩 Because my van does not have either – no shower, no toilet.

Let me tackle the shower 🚿 question first. In my “normal” life at home in my apartment or when I’m traveling and staying in a hostel or an Airbnb, I shower every day or maybe every other day.  I’m a lot less into showering when I’m on the road by myself, mainly because it’s inconvenient, but also because who cares? A couple of times during this latest 70 day vanlife trip, I went a record of 5 days without showering (and that’s about 1.5 days too many for me!)

Many Rv’ers and vanlifers have found that joining Planet Fitness or a similar national gym for maybe $10/month is a great option so they can stop and shower for free at locations across the country. That’s an ingenious idea, but I decided instead on a three-prong approach:

1. Portable showers 🚿
2. Wipes
3. Campgrounds ⛺️

So lemme explain #1.  I purchased an inexpensive USB-powered water pump  and a little circular tent.  

Here’s how this works – you fill a bucket 🪣 (more on that in a minute) with water you’ve warmed up on the stove or water that you set outside in said bucket, and which has been sitting in the sun to heat up. You set up the circular tent thingy, get naked and get inside with the charged up water pump, drop the pump into the water bucket (yeah, it was a little sketchy dropping an electric thing into standing water!) hang the nozzle in the tent, turn it on and enjoy a supremely satisfying shower!

The second option is to use wipes. I carry baby wipes for everyday use (and I select the ones that are unscented or scented with something that doesn’t smell like babies 👶 – there’s a nice green tea and cucumber baby wipe out there!) I also have a pack of these amazing giant-sized soapy body wipes and use them when I’m heading into day 3.  The big wipes are pretty awesome, tbh. If you want to get really luxurious, you can dip them in cool water when it’s hot outside – or in heated water for a deluxe experience.  (hey, it’s as close to a spa as I got!)

Option number 3 is to stay at a campground every few days so that you can use the showers there. (Yes, I may have snuck into a state campground and used the showers which are there for registered campers’ use only …but only once.  Or maybe twice. 🤷🏻‍♀️) You’ll want to squirrel away any quarters 💰you get as change from purchases while you’re traveling because most campgrounds charge for the shower – for example, 50 cents for 3 minutes/$1.00 for 6 minutes and so on.

I know you’re going to find this hard to believe, but a 6 minute shower is plenty of time to wash and condition your hair, wash from head to toe, launder a pair or two of undies while you’re in there and have about 30 seconds to spare. ⏰ Try it at home – you’ll be surprised!

Here are two helpful hints for using pay showers:

1.  travel with a pair of cheap flip-flops 🩴 that you can wear into the shower – the shower stalls are not as clean as you might like and it’s kinda gross standing in there in your bare feet – and no one wants athletes foot, which thrives in warm damp conditions.  #yourewelcome
2. Set a timer ⏱ on your phone for 30 seconds less than the amount of time you’ve paid for your shower so you know when you’re almost out of water…for example – buy a 6-minute shower and set your timer for 5 minutes 30 seconds. ⏳ When the timer goes off, you’ll know you’ve only got a short time left!

Now for Question Number 2 (haha, no pun intended!)  – where do I “go” since I don’t have a toilet in the van?

I actually bought a small portable toilet 🚽 when I first acquired the van, but it took up a lot of precious real estate in the campervan, so I returned it without using it.  Last summer, I just stopped during the day at gas stations, grocery stores, Starbucks or McDonald’s along the way to use the bathrooms and at night I hopped out of the van to pee in the grass if I was wild-camping/boondocking or I used the bathroom at the campground if I was at a paid campsite.

But this summer, I got smart! For Mother’s Day, one of my daughters bought me a female pee funnel!

GAME CHANGER!

There are lots of brands out there – She Wee, Stand and Pee and Go Girl for example. They range from a few bucks to $20. The basic premise is you hold the silicone funnel up against yourself… and pee! Nothing complicated here! You don’t need to hike into the woods to find a remote spot and drop your drawers around your ankles. In fact you barely need to pull down your pants more than just enough to fit the funnel in place.  It saves you from squatting and you can use it in dirty gas station restrooms to avoid sitting down, it’s awesome for hiking, and the best part? The best part was getting up at 3 am, whipping open the slider door of the van, standing inside the van and pissing into the darkness – like a GD boss!!!    What freedom and what a feeling! And it’s easy to rinse clean too.

For the times when I was in a crowded campground or parked on someone’s personal property because I was staying at a Boondocker’s Welcome or Harvest Host location in a parking lot at a museum or brewery, I used the funnel to go in a jug while I was inside my van and then simply emptied the jug in the morning at any bathroom along the way. I felt weird carrying it into the bathroom at first, and I hoped the jug I had was inconspicuous, but after a while I stopped caring if anyone knew what was “really” inside it! And if I needed to poop (sorry – not sure how else to say this!) I’d stop at the places I mentioned above – Starbucks, rest stops, Home Depot or a grocery store.

I joined two fabulous organizations this summer – Boondocker’s Welcome https://www.boondockerswelcome.com/ and Harvest Hosts.  After paying the yearly membership fee ($49 for BW and $99 for HH – but use this HH link to get 15% off with my special code!) all your stays are free. I’ll do another separate blog about these two options for amazing, friendly, unique (think llama farms, railroad cars and lavender fields!) and cost-effective stays on the road, but here’s the kicker – they are not created for car campers (although I did see one or two people car-camping at Harvest Host locations) – and any RV or campervan must be “self-contained”.

This means they expect you to have water, cooking facilities, and…a toilet.  As a rule, the hosts do not offer porta-potties or bathrooms (although a few did!).  And they certainly didn’t pop their head into the van to see if I had a potty, but I went ahead and bought a Luggable Loo – aka a Groover.  If you’ve ever gone on a multi-day rafting trip you’ve probably used one! It’s basically a 5-gallon bucket (remember earlier I mentioned filling the bucket with water for the portable shower? Here’s that bucket!) with a snap-on toilet seat.  You can use special trash bags inside the bucket and there’s chemical powder in the bottom of the bag to solidify your liquid waste and deodorize the rest. I’m pretty sure folks who travel with this as their main bathroom source use the bag more than one time before disposing of it properly – the bags are pretty pricey to be using only once. You can also use plastic grocery bags with a couple of handfuls of kitty litter in the bottom to absorb moisture. I only used the Groover setup once – and believe me, I was glad I had the option! It did take up a lot of space though; next trip I think I’ll get the collapsible type of bucket 🪣  like the one in the picture below – that folds up to a super small footprint and can be stored more easily.

Too much information (TMI)? Sorry!  But these are the top two burning questions from people interested in trying out van life.  💩

If you have questions drop me an email or a comment below and I’ll be happy to help!

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“I am restless. Things are calling me away. My hair is being pulled by the stars again.” Anais Nin