hello Aelita

The question I get asked most, usually with a slightly horrified look, is some version of: but how do you stay clean? Four years in and I can say with confidence – just like everyone else. The routine looks different from what I had back home and feels more like a chore, but it works.

How do you shower in a van?

We have a shower in the van and a 120-litre water tank. This can last us up to 10 days, with one shower for me and one for Tomas included. The shower is also where we keep our drinking water jugs, which means every shower day starts with moving things around before you can even start. Then the boiler goes on. Our boiler is small, so it heats enough for one person – if Tomas showers after me, he’s waiting thirty minutes for it to heat up again. The shower itself is military-style: water on to wet yourself, water off while you soap and shampoo, water on to rinse. You cannot leave it running. And in winter, even with the boiler, you get cold. The gap between turning the water off to soap and turning it back on to rinse is genuinely unpleasant in January.

In summer it’s different. We’ll often skip the boiler entirely and have a cold shower. But the honest description of a van shower in winter is: a chore you’re glad is over.

Between showers

We shower about once a week. Between showers, a cloth wash with warm water from the hob does the job – fill a bowl, add a bit of soap, wash it. It takes five minutes and works better than most people expect. Baby wipes are the backup for long climbing days or anywhere water is harder to access.

I wash my hair once a week and dry shampoo carries me through the days in between. One thing worth saying clearly: you cannot wash your hair in a river, lake or any natural water source, no matter how natural you think your shampoo is. It still contains chemicals that don’t belong in those ecosystems.

We use Park4Night to find water points – more on the apps we use here.

I bought an IPL device a few months before we left the UK and it’s one of the best pre-van life investments I made. After consistent use I can go seven to ten days without needing to shave. Three years on from starting van life I still use it and still recommend it. I no longer need to shave my legs daily, and thats a huge win for me.

If you want to see our setup – the shower, the boiler, and the van, I did a full van tour on YouTube!

It all depends on the season and country

Summer in Spain or Italy is a completely different experience from winter in northern Europe. In Spain there are beach showers everywhere, water points are abundant, and we are swimming in the rivers and lakes most days. In that context staying clean is easy and the van shower becomes almost irrelevant.

Wild swimming is a bigger part of our hygiene routine than most people would expect. When we end up near water we make the most of it. It’s also one of the best parts of van life and I’d do it regardless of any hygiene logic.

Campsite showers

Unlimited hot showers at a campsite feel like a genuine treat, and I say that without irony. We’ve experienced the full spectrum. On one end: open showers with no walls between them and water that was freezing cold regardless of which tap you turned. On the other: a campsite in Venice with private cubicles, hot water, and music playing loud enough that you stood there longer than necessary. Most fall somewhere in between. When we find a good one we make use of it.

Do van lifers have a toilet?

We have a chemical toilet and use it every day, specifically for number twos. For everything else we use a pee jar, which sounds unglamorous but is genuinely the most practical system for anyone wanting to stay remote for extended periods without needing to find facilities constantly.

Does a chemical toilet smell?

One thing I want to address because it comes up constantly on Reddit: does a van smell of toilet? if you’re using the right chemical fluid, a chemical toilet does not smell. We use Thetford Aqua Kem Blue and eliminates odour completely, even when you’re emptying it. The smell people complain about online is almost always the result of not using any fluid at all, or using the wrong one. Some van lifers choose to skip the chemical fluid entirely – that’s their call, but when they empty their toilet at the dump station, the whole parking area knows about it. It is not a pleasant experience for anyone nearby.

And the most important rule of all, which apparently needs saying: never fill your drinking water at the same point where people rinse their chemical toilets. The signs say drinking water only – no toilets – and people ignore them constantly. We have watched van lifers rinsing their chemical toilets directly in drinking water taps more times than I can count. Our rule is – if the drinking water tap shares a wall or the same area with the dump station, we buy water instead.

How do you manage periods in a van?

I switched to a menstrual cup before starting van life and it’s the best decision I made. No waste, easy to clean with minimal water, no dependency on finding shops to restock mid-trip. I keep menstrual underwear as backup for heavier days, though hand-washing them in the van is awkward enough that I make sure I have enough pairs to last until laundry day.

Skincare on the road and managing rosacea

I never had a skincare routine before van life. It took being diagnosed with rosacea on the road to actually start one, which is not the order most people do things but here we are.

My routine is minimal by necessity – rosacea doesn’t respond well to products with fragrance, so most of what’s on the market is off the table. I use a face wash, a moisturiser, and exfoliate twice a week.

The SPF is non-negotiable. SPF 50 whenever there’s sun, SPF 30 in winter. I see a dermatologist once or twice a year – if you’ve never been to one, go, they will tell you things that no skincare blog ever will.

The other thing I manage on the road is Polymorphic Light Eruption, which I’ve had for seven or eight years and which is getting worse every year. It’s a sun allergy that affects my hands and chest – I react to UV exposure in those areas and it’s not subtle. Managing it in van life means a specific SPF 50 sunscreen and pills that add an additional layer of protection. I also cover my hands and chest when I’m going to be out in strong sun. Now you know why we spend all summers in the Alps 😊 well that, and we don’t have aircon, so can’t be baking in the van.

It’s not something I see other van lifers talk about much, which is part of why I’m mentioning it. If you have a sun sensitivity condition and you’re wondering whether van life in Europe is compatible with it – it is, but it requires more intention than slapping on a regular SPF and hoping for the best.

How do you do laundry in a van?

Laundry is the part of van life I like least. We do it roughly once a month and when we do, it’s three machines loaded at once at a launderette. It takes most of a morning, it’s boring, and there’s no hack that makes it fun. The practical approach is having enough of everything to stretch comfortably to a month. That means particularly socks, underwear and base layers – enough that laundry becomes a monthly admin task rather than a constant anxiety Quick-dry fabrics help because if something needs a wash mid-month, you can rinse it by hand and it dries in a few hours.