Deciding What to Put in My Van Pt. 5 – Fixed Bed and Swivel Chairs

    Hello! Welcome back to another post about what I want to put inside of my van when I finally start building it out! I hope that you guys are liking these kinds of posts, because there will be a few more like this in the future, and then even more posts talking about these things when I finally do them!

     If you have any comments, questions, or suggestions about these kinds of posts, please leave them in the comments below so we can talk about it! I would love to hear from you and I love receiving advice from my audience. I know that there are a lot of ways that I can improve that I do not think about all the time.

     The two things I am going to be talking about in this post are my decision to have a fixed bed, and my decision to have swivel chairs in the front cab of my van. I think that both of these decisions are the right decision for me, but if you have any comments or suggestions, please let me know!

     The first thing I am going to talk about is what a fixed bed is, and what the alternative that I am not choosing is. A fixed bed is a bed that does not move, like a regular bed in a house. The alternative to this option is a convertible bed that can change into a dinette or a couch, or can lift up to see more storage under the bed.

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     I really like the idea of a convertible bed in theory, but when I think about how much effort would have to go into this, I would rather not have to go through that. If your bed is both a bed and a dining table, then you would have to convert it every time you wanted the other option. I do not want to spend all of this time changing my bed into other things when I am tired at the end of the day or for the first thing in the morning.

     I think that this is a really good idea for people who do not care that much about being tired and having to do work, or for people who are living with other people inside of their van. This would definitely save space and make the van more livable, especially when you are already low on space.

     Even though this may be a great idea for other people, I do not think that it is the right option for me. I do not want to go through the hassle of converting the bed every time I want to use it or the dining table. I think this would make me end up resenting my van and hating the design after a while.

     Some of the cons to having a fixed bed include less efficiency inside of your van, less seating area for guests, and having to find another option for a dining table. I do not think that these things will make that much of a difference to me, and these cons are definitely worth how nice the fixed bed will be for me.

     The next thing that I want to tell you guys about is my decsision to buy swivel seats to replace the original front seats in my van when I buy it. This will be one of the first conversions I make to my van, hopefully, because I think it will be pretty easy.

     A swivel seat is a front seat of a van that can turn all the way around instead of being fixed like a regular chair in the front of a van. This is really useful for a whole bunch of reasons that I will discuss shortly, and I definitely think that this is the best option for me.

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     Some of the reasons swivel chairs are great is because they can turn all the way around to double as a dining room chair, a guest chair, a lounging chair, etc. Another reason this would be nice is that it eliminates the need for other chairs in that area. Sure, I might need one or two more small chairs, but this would cover a lot of sitting area in my van.

     Even though the meximum amount of passengers I can have in my van while driving is always going to be two, having swivel chairs would increase the amount of guests I can have in my van while we are not driving by double. I think that without these chairs, I would only be able to fit 2 – 3 people in my van at one time, but since these chairs would be able to turn around, I could then fit 4 – 5 people in my van.

     These kinds of chairs are expensive, and that is pretty much the only thing I know about them at this moment in time. I know that researching the kinds of swivel chairs and the brands will take a while, and I know that installing them will probably be a little bit of a challenge, due to having to rip out the current seats and then install these new ones.

     I’m also not sure about how long these chairs will take to arrive, or even if I will have to ship them in the first place. I have a lot more research to do about these chairs, but I know that this is the path that I want to follow, so I am willing to put the work in.

     This is the end of this blog post for now, but there will be a lot more content of this type in the near future. I hope to buy my van soon, but I am encountering unexpected problems with that. I will rewrite this post once I know more information about these things, and I will rewrite it again once I have actually installed these things into my van.

     I am so excited to start my vanlife journey, and I think it is the best path for me right now in my life. I hope that you all like this kind of post, and if you have any comments or suggestions, please leave them in the comments because I love hearing from you guys!

     Thank you all so much for reading my blog post and supporting my journey! I appreciate every single one of you and everything you do for me. Just reading these blog posts helps me out a lot, but doing more like sharing helps even more!

    P.S. If you would like a custom ashtray, the general pricing for just color and glitter in my medium to small molds would be $12 locally in Vegas, and $4.25 extra if I am shipping it to you. This would be $3 extra if I am using a larger mold, since it takes more resin to make. The general pricing for color, glitter, and flowers or a picture or whatever else you want me to put in it would be $15 locally in Vegas, and $4.25 if I am shipping it to you. If you would like me to add a magnet in the bottom or the sides, that would be $5 extra. If you wanted something that had more stuff than this, the pricing varies.