Tips For Making a Good Stealthy Urban Van "Apartment"

So out here in Los Angeles, there is a growing trend of millennials taking to the vanlife to cope with high rents -- a subject I happen to be intimately familiar with. I have been vanning it up for over two years, and I ran a van rental business by putting mattress equipped minivans on Airbnb for about a year.

For at least a year, I was a proud vanlord. The official outfit of a vanlord is a red velvet robe, crocs with knee-high socks, a Burger King crown, and a scepter crafted from a radio antenna with a tennis ball on it (In case you wanted to know).

With the advent of good co-working spaces and gym memberships, there are some of us who are out here hustling on their business ideas who realize, "I don't really need an apartment, I have a bunch of other places I hang out.. what I really need is just a nice cheap place to sleep."

A big plus if that place can be near whatever you want it to be near -- location, location, location.

And so the vanlife is born!

The ultimate way to skip the commute and be frugal with your rental dollars.

I'm considering doing an extensive post about vanny and the vanlife. It's just going to take a little time to do it.

For now, I'll just talk about some of the basics of what's in a good urban vanlife van.

Get a newer van that doesn't look weird

The goal of a good urban camper van is to be unremarkable. Don't get an RV. Don't get something with a high roof. Don't get something rusty and weird looking from 20 years ago. The goal is to have a van that people say "Oh, someone must be working on something" and walk right on by without a second thought.

For this purpose, any post-2005 clean looking work van will do. Either a Ford Econoline or a Chevy Express. If you want to be fancy and get a newer Dodge Ramvan, by all means. In my case, vanny is a 2012 Chevy Express that I acquired from another vanlifer who had already applied some pretty cool fixins to it.

Queen size bed

To make this thing comfortable, you absolutely don't want to compromise your sleep situation. Your average work van is totally capable of housing a Queen size bed. Take advantage of this.

Windows optional

You don't really want windows, they just make you paranoid, because you probably are going to have lights and stuff in your van, and the last thing you want to do is be changing and realize that you forgot to close a curtain and there's a well lit version of naked you visible from outside the van.

Ceiling vent

The fantastic fan is necessary for ventilating the back of the van. This requires actually cutting a hole in the roof to install it. Totally worth it though

Solar panels

It's pretty easy to put a solar panel and some car batteries in the back of the van and set yourself up to charge phones, laptops, and run some nice LED lights in the back of the van. Definitely do this.

Hardwood floors

It's pretty cheap to set this up, and it has an odd psychological effect of making the space feel cooler and a bit higher class and slightly ironic.

Forget cooking

Seriously, you just saved your entire rent check. Eat out more and don't make your sleeping space smell like food. This is LA.

If you're interested in hearing more about what I've learned in the last 2 years of vanning it up full time, let me know. I'm totally interested in posting more about this, just not sure how much interest there may be in hearing about it from the community. Let me know! Totally glad to generate photos, video, and offer vanlife insights.