Deciding What to Put in My Van Pt. 5 – Under Bed Storage/Ceiling Storage and Decorations

    Hello! This is yet another installment in the Deciding What to Put in My Van series! I really love making these posts, because I get to share all of these ideas with you guys and I usually come up with more ideas while writing them! I know I am still going to have to do a whole lot more research for all of these things, but writing about them to begin with is a good start.

     This post is going to be about what kind of storage I will have under my bed and on the underside of my ceiling and also the kinds of decorations I want to put inside of my van. For the under bed storage, I will mainly be talking about the storage that will be accessible from the back of the van when the back doors are open.

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     I already talked about all of the storage under my bed that will be accessible from the inside of the van, and that was most of my closet. If you would like to read that post, here is a link: Deciding What to Put in My Van Pt. 3 – Closet and Shoe Storage I really appreciate every single view I get from you guys, since it helps out a lot!

    The first thing I will be speaking about in this post is the storage under my bed that is accessible from the back. This is a really important section, because this is where a lot of important things will be stored, like tools, table and chairs, camping supplies, etc.

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     I know that a lot of people who live in a van use this space to store things they do not need on a daily basis, and I think that is a really good idea. I will be back here often, but not super often, so this really works out. I think there are a lot of supplies that I could store back here, but I will have to choose only a few.

     I would love to have all the storage that a house provides, but since living in a van makes it very difficult to find storage for everything you want, I will have to make a lot of hard decisions about what things I can take with me. I know that this storage area will be one with a lot of hard decisions.

     In this area, I will be storing tarps, outside cooking gear, a collapsible table, a couple small folding chairs, helpful survival items like a firestarter and sharp things, a lantern, a jumpstart battery, thermal blankets in case I’m somewhere super cold and my heat in my van is not working, etc.

     There are so many things that I can think of to fit back there, but since it will be a small space, I’m not sure what things I will end up with inside of my van. Once I do finish my van, I will take a complete inventory of the whole van, including this area, and I will compare it to this original list that I have made here.

     Another very small, but very necessary area of storage is the ceiling. This is an even smaller area of storage then under the back of my bed, because one, there is just surface area, and two, I plan on having a skylight in the middle of my roof. There will still be some space on the sides, back, and front of the skylight.

     I do not plan on putting many things on my ceiling besides a surfboard, maybe a small plant or two, and some extra small, skinny cabinets along the ceiling by the walls. I think that these extra small cabinets will be able to store a lot of small things that would just end up taking up space in other cabinets or drawers.

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     I would really like to store a surfboard on the top of my van because that is one of the things I would love to do more, but just do not live close enough to the ocean to do it as much as I would like. I think that this is a great place to store it, since it would be long and flat.

     The plants are a maybe, only because they would be hanging and that would be a little bit of a safety hazard if I ever came to an abrupt stop or even got into an accident. I might try it with one small plant that hangs close to the ceiling, but I am not sure about that yet.

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     If you have any suggestions about what else to store under my bed or on my ceiling, please send me a message or leave a comment at the end of this post, because I would love to hear from you and I need all the help and inspiration I can get!

    The next thing that I will be talking about is decorations for my van. The vibe I want, the kinds of decorations I want, and the limitations of decorating a van. I know that this is not really the same category of stuff as the rest of these posts have been, but I still wanted to mention it in the beginning to both see what I want and to compare it to what really happens when I finally do deocrate my van.

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     The main kind of vibe that I want in my van is a very casual, comfortable, colorful vibe. I really want people to feel comfortable in my van, and I want to feel as comfortable as possible while living in my van. I think that choosing decorations is a really important part of this process for me, because I will be living in my van for so long.

     At first, I wanted to decorate my whole van with black, spooky imagery and decorations, but I do not think that will be great in the long run. I realized that I want my van to feel spacious and light, and I do not think that all black, spooky decorations will help that.

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     I’ve also been recently getting into more colorful decorations and styles, so I would like my van to be pretty colorful on the inside. I love color and I think that having the inside of my van be creative and colorful will make me feel more creative and productive while in it, compared to how I would feel with an all black interior.

     I want decorations like maybe a colorful tapestry to hang on a wall, different kinds of wall art, lots of painting on the inside, maybe painting my furniture different colors, a lot of lights around the van like adhesive strip lights and fairy lights, and a few windows with colorful curtains to let in the light every day.

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     I also want a few lights inside of the van that are versatile, like a hanging lamp above my bed and some lights installed in the ceiling for when I want light when the sun has already set. I also think that it would be a good idea to have a few portable lights so I can put them wherever I want.

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     These light sources are hopefully going to be made and designed in a way that makes them colorful and unique to add to the vibe of the van. When I am designing the interior of my van to be build, I want to have a lot of cool and unique designs that I think are going to look really cool when I finally implement them.

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     The main way that I am going to look for decorations is through inspiration in social media, and then I am going to look at Etsy first to try and support as many small businesses as possible through my van journey, and then Amazon if Etsy does not have what I want.

     I know that Etsy is going to be a lot more expensive than Amazon, since most things are handmade, and everyone is a small business, but I am willing to pay the extra price to support people like me. If there are any other website that you would suggest for me to look at inspiration or to look for decorations to put in my van, please leave them in the comments!

     Since the space in my van is so small, I know that there is going to be very limited space for unecessary things such as decorations. However, I am going to try my best to make this seem like my home and to decorate it to the best of my abilty so that I, and everyone that visits me, feels comfortable in my van.

     I am looking forward to finding all of these things to fit my vibe, but I am really not looking forward to paying for them. I know that a lot of the things that I have now that I could use to decorate do not really fit the vibe that I want to create in my van.

     Since I am planning on living in this van for so long, I really want to put as much effort as possible into making it exactly what I want so I like living in it. I am willing to put money into this so I do not end up resenting or hating my van for not being what I wanted.

     This is all very ideal, and I really hope that I can work hard enough and make enough money in the next year to get what I want for my van. This is the end of this post, and I hope you guys enjoyed it! There will be another post of this kind next week, since I still have a lot more to talk about having to do with my van!

     Thank you all so much for reading my blog post and supporting my journey! It means so much to me that you take the time out of your day to read my blog posts!

      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 extra 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.