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If the question bothers you, you are just not in the state of mind for this experience, that's all.

If you choose to travel in a van, you decided upfront that this type of life was worth the expected inconveniences, and even some unexpected ones.

I lived in Mali for 2 years, didn't have hot water, sometime no running water at all. Electricity shut down regularly. I got Malaria. When the war arrived, I lost all my money, and my company.

I had a great time there.

E.G: I remember warmly about the generosity of a Malian family sharing with me their (disgusting) fish and rice diner in a dirty court, on the floor, all hands in the same big wooden bowl.

On the other hand, a friend of mine recently had lunch with me, returning from hollidays in Cuba. She was horrified by the experience, seing only the totalitarian state and the poverty. She didn't have hot water, so she decided not to shower for the whole trip.

She couldn't find a way to enjoy anything there.

E.G: she felt so sad about the omelette a local made for her, thinking it was depressing he had so little, and yet felt obligated to share the few precious eggs he had.

It's all about what experience you wish to have, what are the things you really value. There is no right answer for that of course, and yours is no better than mine.

All that to say: the toilets are not really an issue. Just a constraint.

EDIT: reading again my post, it felt a bit pretentious. I added more nuances in the following one.

I travel for 8 weeks every, single, year. I've shit in plenty of buckets, gone for many days without showering, I've tent camped, DIY trailer camped - shit gets old ... fast. The ability for you to enjoy your trip, your family and small moments is severely hampered when even the easiest things (going to the bathroom) become a chore.

Sounds like you're young & single and looking for adventure. I have kids, have to work to support them and the novelty of crapping in a bucket, or in figuring how to wash my dishes with no running water isn't fun, or adventurous.

We now have a modest travel trailer with full bathroom and kitchen. We can cook meals, poop in peace and always choose "full hookup" campgrounds. Dry camping is fun ... for like 3 days and then everyone gets smelly, grumpy and wants some comfort.

What you are saying is that the experience you want now differs.

I wouldn't go back to live in Mali myself. I've done it. Enjoyed it. Now I like my life malaria and war free.

My answer is not some romantic vision of the bohemian life style. Simply an explanation that the question of the toilets doesn't make sense: you don't look for vans if it's important to you. Like you said, you rather choose a trailer. You would not go on the specific type of trip that requires a van anyway.

I edited my previous post from "you are not the type of person" to "you are not in the state of mind". After all, it doesn't define you as a person but rather, reflect your current expectations of life.

We're talking about people living in a van ... not on vacation, not on a road trip.

>you don't look for vans if it's important to you

Everybody shits, everyday! How is going to the bathroom "not important"? What is okay "on vacation" is not always okay when you're just trying to live and work and enjoy yourself.

Lastly, I didn't "choose a trailer" I worked my way up to one (financially), suffering along the way with all the inconveniences that come with no bathroom, kitchen or running water.

> Everybody shits, everyday! How is going to the bathroom "not important"?

You also eat every day. Some people eat outside, some cook, some skip meals. Some people don't have fridge. Some have fancy knives.

A constraint is a constraint for everybody, but making that constraint an entry in your pros / cons list for doing something is not universal.

> Lastly, I didn't "choose a trailer" I worked my way up to one (financially), suffering along the way with all the inconveniences that come with no bathroom, kitchen or running water.

I have no idea what to make of that, but, ok, I guess ?

> You also eat every day.

You know what else is a giant pain with no running water or electricity (beyond a battery)? Cooking!

> I have no idea what to make of that, but, ok, I guess ?

My point was that I always wanted a trailer I wasn't romanced by the thought of van living, my priorities didn't change - I just simply dealt with it. Live on the road is much better now, I just want people considering tiny homes, or vans to understand ALL that's involved.

Oooooohhhhhh.

Sorry, I completely missed that.

I didn't consider somebody might be forced to compromised for a van. I never could afford a van when I was at the time where I would have wanted one, and now that I can, I don't want the van life style, so I did not understand your point.

That was short sighted of me, apologies.

Haha @ your edit. I spent 3.5 years living in Burkina Faso and thought about making a similar response but decided there was no way it would come off as anything other than pretentious (:

Pretty similar experience, but without the money issue as I was a Peace Corps volunteer. I was in the north and we took in some Mali PCVs when things got too crazy there. Sadly, PC is also out of Burkina now ): Some really wonderful communities in the Sahel and it sucks watching things slowly get worse and worse.

Preach. I have been to Burkina Faso, it is a beautiful country.

I have come to terms with the fact that, at least at my age, I will probably never go back to Bangui, Central African Republic again. I always imagined I would walk by the Peace Corps office and the central market one last time.

I'm just coming off a 7 month stint in an RV myself, and you speak the truth, and it's clear you've actually done full time living on the road.

Dealing with sewage is a huge pain in the ass - especially if you're in the northern regions during winter, finding a place to dump out can be a real nightmare (not to mention frozen tanks, etc).

Another thing people don't really think about is cooking - you can do it, but as someone who enjoys cooking I ate like shit a lot of the time because it was more convenient not to have to worry about prep on a tiny counter, cooking on basically a single burner (I have 3, but if you use one it covers the other two ️), and then doing dishes by hand with hot water you need to wait for.

Recently moving back into a house has made me appreciate a lot more of the little things like how I can just go jump in the shower real quick (and not bump my head while showering), easily get amazon packages, etc. Traveling was a whole lot of fun and definitely had its upsides, but it also has downsides a lot of people don't think about (or try to write off as not a big deal).

I spent most of last year travelling, and getting an apartment where I had hot water whenever I wanted was heavenly. You don't realize how convenient things are until you don't have them for a long period of time. A hot shower now is a daily recognition that life is good

Meanwhile, I experienced the opposite while doing a 3 week long camper trip. Showering for two minutes to save water, being mindful of the amount of stuff you can bring, being able to go anywhere I wanted was great. Sure, there were some annoyances, but I was kinda sad I had to get back to my stationary home.

I’d like to introduce to the invention of marine toilets. They are small, portable, self-contained flushing toilets with a sealed waste chamber that is detachable and can be emptied (ideally into a permanent toilet). My in-laws have one on their boat that stores enough water for 27 “flushes” and it works great. 27 flushes is easily a weekend of waste management for a couple or small family, or could last a single person a week perhaps.

This is the toilet in question: https://www.westmarine.com/buy/thetford--porta-potti-135-por...

Oh look, a glorified bucket! Cool cool. Hey I had one of these, I also had a bucket with a toilet seat which is essentially the same thing. My point remains; dealing with your waste if you're living in a van, or dry camping is a giant pain.

I also live on the coast, and know many fishermen/lobstermen etc. - do you know where they shit? Not in a "marine toilet" Hang your ass over the edge of the boat and be ready for a round of jokes and pranks by your shipmates. Why? Because dumping your shitter is a giant pain (I feel like a broken record)

So something that's an afterthought in a real home, becomes a weekly, or every other day chore of finding a public toilet, removing your toilet (full of shit and piss) from your van, then dumping shit in said toilet without spilling (not easy) all the while avoiding police/public works employees who would rather you not dump your shit into their facilities. Sounds fun.

I think you're being intentionally dismissive at the cost of realizing that basic, essential waste management (at a small scale) is more or less a solvable problem for people who want to live nomadic lifestyles. Is it a tedious chore from time to time? Sure. Is a marine toilet the same as a open-top bucket full of shit? No (and something tells me you do, in fact, know this to be true).

Here's the reality. People choose, sometimes, to live aboard a moving vessel - either by land or by sea. These people take an audit of the pros and the cons, and they decide that dumping out a compost toilet once a day (if that) while the coffee is brewing is worth the benefit of living in nature or at a low cost, or whatever their bigger rationale is.

What you are saying is basically: "Oh BROTHER! You thought you'd like to have a dog? Good choice, nimwit, bet you never considered they have to EAT and POOP and be TRAINED." The fact is that most dog owners enjoy the companionship so much that they actually have no problem taking on these chores, because the positive outweighs the negative. Of course no one enjoys picking up dog shit, but it's a price to pay and it has to be done, so most of the time good people who like dogs do it.

> So something that's an afterthought in a real home, becomes a weekly, or every other day chore of finding a public toilet, removing your toilet (full of shit and piss) from your van, then dumping shit in said toilet without spilling (not easy) all the while avoiding police/public works employees who would rather you not dump your shit into their facilities. Sounds fun.

Or worse, you get the inconsiderate people who will just unload their toilet into the nearest storm drain and make all vandwellers look bad.

Also people who leave their "grey water" open (small trickle to avoid detection) - people can be terrible - it's why we have zoning laws and building codes.

That depends what the water was used for before it became grey water. If it was taking a shower or washing dishes with environmentally-friendly soap, then big whoop.

Did you know that in the UK narrowboaters on the canals just dump their grey water into the canal? The canal system in the UK is huge, and their are tens of thousands of people who live on narrowboats year round. Narrowboats are boats narrow enough (5'10") and short enough (max 52' or 72' long) that they can fit through all the locks and bridges.

Yeah, I have one of those on my boat and they do work fine but you definitely can not wait 27 craploads to empty it out. Those "27 flushes" is how much the clean water tank can hold, not an indication of the waste tank capacity which is nowhere near 27 jobs. It's more of a daily thing - every time you dock if it's been used you gotta lug it down to the clubhouse, and emptying it is no fun either. For landlubbers a composting unit that separates solids and liquids would be way better for anything that you don't want to empty on an almost daily basis.

To be more clear, I didn't say 27 craploads. I said 27 flushes. I would say most healthy people take ~1 crap per day. And, of course, this is one of the smaller and more compact marine toilets at West Marine.

And of course, emptying a toilet is never going to be fun. But would you sell your boat just because you have to use a marine toilet while adift? No, it's a minor inconvenience that you deal with to enjoy the multitude reasons you have the boat in the first place (but, if you talk to my father in law, the joys of owning a 20 year old Boston Whaler get fewer every year!).

Which is why it makes sense for a boat, but as for this article about van life, not so much.

In my opinion this is an awful solution.

You want a urine-diverter with separate containers. Storing and handling feces is infinitely easier and more pleasant when covered and dry. Separated urine is similarly advantageous; you can store it in a lightweight bottle w/cap and tidily pour out its contents at the appropriate time and place if free of solids.

It exits your body separated, you're not doing yourself any favors mixing it all back together again.

See my reply to the parent for details.

> So you're in your van, parked at the beach, or a beautiful park and you gotta poop - what now?

Well, if you're "parked," there's a good chance that there are restrooms.

You can carry a portable toilet. Or a bucket and kitchen trash bags. I'm an over the road trucker, and in an "emergency" I have just closed the curtains, squatted down in the back and pooped into a 13 gal kitchen trash bag. Not at all comfortable, but workable in an emergency.

Store the bag outside in the spare tire, until I get to a suitable dumpster/trash can. (And I doubt that my rare, once or twice a year "dump" compares at all to the daily disposal of diapers on the road and at home on garbage day.)

Yeah so I've done the "shit in a bucket" thing. When I was towing an enclosed trailer I converted to a "camper", our only bathroom was a bucket (with a toilet seat). This is not sustainable! This works in a pinch, it does not, and should not work full time. Dumping your poo in a kitchen trash bag in dumpsters doesn't work if everyone, or even "a lot" of people are doing it. Towns and the townspeople do not want van dwellers dumping their shit bags in local trash cans.

I don’t think there is any danger of hordes of people starting to live in vans. Try not to let such concerns stress you out too much.

Depends where you live. I can most certainly attest to the rising popularity of "vanlife", and the associated downsides of long term unmanaged camping/squatting.

In my case there's a popular area for climbers on a fire road near a river close to me. Many of these folks just shit arbitrarily in the woods, and don't even bury it. It stinks, attracts animals, and makes it impossible to go on hikes. A friend's dog even ate some which had THC in it from someone who ate a marijuana edible. And let's not get started about the risk of forest fires in the dry season.

There are some that are better about managing their waste and overall footprint, but there is an outsized impact from the less considerate.

There are places where these concerns are real and are having actual and increasing impact. Dismissing these concerns is not helpful.

People living in vans/RV and disposing of their fecal matter and urine with unsafe methods is a big problem for many communities along the California coast from San Francisco to San Diego and also along corridors in Silicon Valley based on local news around Mountain View and San Jose. The temperatures are moderate 10 months of the year or more.

Condescending speculation.

No, frustrated reaction to irrational “what if everyone did this!!!???” concern trolling.

I read it as personal experience. There are such communities.

>Towns and the townspeople do not want van dwellers dumping their shit bags in local trash cans.

God forbid someone talks to them about what we do with dog and human baby shit.

Baby shit isn't typically dumped in street trash cans, and if it is it's one diaper, not several trash bags of adult shit.

I hate to break it to you, but having a baby means you are dumping 5 shitty diapers a day for first few months, then at least two a day for next six or 9 months. Yes lots of people go for reusable diapers, but lots is probably not more than 3% of parents in the US.....

> but having a baby means you are dumping 5 shitty diapers a day for first few months

There might be something wrong with your baby, or maybe you have babies? When I had my first child I naively thought they shit all the time (like all day - I was an idiot). In reality, they typically shit once a day (like us!), so maybe 5 total diapers, but not all are shit filled.

Site note: We used cloth diapers for both our children and urine (that's been sitting in a diaper pale) is by far worse than shit smell.

Lucky you if you only had one shitty diaper per day, it’s absolutely normal to have many more than that in the first few months. Check with your local pediatrician about what normal is before you extrapolate from your own experience and start assuming there is something wrong with other babies that shit more often.

Have you considered the possibility that not all children have the same BM frequency? I have two children. They both pooped quite a bit more than once a day for several months after they were born.

In reality, they typically shit once a day

I don't even have kids, and I know that's not true.

Source: might not be a parent, but I'm a hell of a babysitter.

But isn't that in your home trash can, with only a couple dumped into a restroom trash can at a restaurant or whatever? I think that's a different scale than showing up with a couple days worth of adult trash bag poos.

This is important.

I sometimes go on vacation and sleep in the back of my car. Cosier than it sounds, but no van. The money I save I spend on dining in a restaurant.

The stereotype of surfers who stay on the beach for weeks developed a system for that: They litter the beach, until it's all dirty.

I was amazed how much "van life" suddenly comes back to normal camping except for the litter left behind.

I live in a bus I converted. I have an Airhead composting toilet with the urine diverted to my 42 gal waste water tank. I also have a 42 gal fresh water tank. Most RVs have small tanks making it hard to dry camp or boondock.

I go 3-4 weeks before I need to refill my water and dump my waste. My composting toilet goes for months between emptying. It's not hard, time consuming, or a big deal.

About your toilet; Does it smell at all? I've been interested for my travel trailer but the traditional RV community is very down on them. Seems like it would be more convenient than black tanks.

It does not smell inside. It has a small vent fan that runs 24/7 that prevents odors and helps reduce the moisture content. Even when emptying it there isn't much of a smell. It's kind of earthy.

I believe having a urine diverter like most commercial composting toilets have is a must. Urine will make it smell.

Let's see. As a child, some family lived on a farm. No running water. No indoor plumbing. Coal stove. So you heated water for bathing on the stove. At night, and especially in the winter, you used a chamber pot. But hey, they had electricity!

And a couple decades ago, living off the grid in the US, it was sometimes pretty much the same. One winter, I lived in a tipi. There was a communal outhouse. But hey, I did have a down bag.

So whatever, any well-equipped van would have a composting toilet. And a solar-heated water tank, with a portable shower. Just like RV stuff, but on a smaller scale.

I have many rock climbing friends who live in vans and tents the majority of the year. I’ve spent significant time crashing with them.

Nobody shits in a bucket. You find a place that has toilets of some kind. For example, in Indian Creek, UT, people camp in vans on unimproved BLM land. There is no water. But there are toilets where the roads turn off toward the camping, about a mile away. Every morning, people have coffee, and do a toilet run as you get ready for the day. In an emergency you drive over to the toilet.

People definitely do pee in jars, but usually you can just pee outside somewhere.

It’s not all instagram models. The lifestyle does work. But you spend some of the year crashing with friends, staying in nicer camps with cabins, etc

I don't believe the typical vanlife or tinyhome scenario is a family having such high-throughput septic, water, and food requirements.

For an individual with a sane diet, altering their behavior slightly by using a simple urine-diverting waterless toilet with a bucket and whatever's convenient for dry cover material like a human-scale cat box sans urine is actually a very simple and effective solution to an individual's human waste problem.

A gallon milk bottle holds multiple days worth of urine, tidily emptied where and when appropriate without any drama. In my experience you don't need that large of a container, one day capacity for urine is good enough and lighter to carry.

The bucket stays dry, and is a waste disposal problem no different from a cat box. You can bury its contents in a field, or you can send it to the landfill in a bag, line the bucket with a bag like a cat box for greater convenience if you wish. In my experience a 5-gallon bucket used in this manner is good for a week.

Keeping the urine and feces separate is key. A bucket containing just poop and dirt or sand/litter doesn't even have an odor and there's no splashing or other mess to worry about when handling it, it's dry. Cat boxes smell predominately of urine, by separating the urine and keeping your solids covered, the negative characteristics of a cat box are eliminated.

The real challenge people embracing this lifestyle have to contend with is the judgement and ignorance of society. Don't expect the average American to come by for beers and be happy to poop in your glorified cat box. They very likely won't be coming back. Nor will your minimalist storage capacity accomodate a few beer-drinking guests; they're pissing outside. Women are often uncomfortable with anyone witnessing their menstrual waste in the urine container, and will want to wash residual blood down the diverter further increasing storage demands. It can be a very solitary life.

But if you have a brain and some ability to adapt to the situation, sanitation is simply not a problem. It's just a minor inconvenience like having to clean a bathroom, plunge a toilet, or take out the trash is.

RV toilets work well, thus flush into a tank with a cup of water. The tank will hold a few days worth of waste. If you know what to look for places to dump are all over. Camping websites often have lists. Many rest areas have a dump station. Camping/sporting stores will have a place to dump. Many cities sewage departments have a public dump... If you are not looking for a place to dump you won't see all this, but if you are looking there are plenty of places.

Have dumped plenty, and looked for dumping places... plenty. Not always easy to find. Luckily, our local campground allows us to dump for $15 which we do when returning from any "dry camping" exp. Calls to campgrounds in other cities/states didn't always produce the same result. Furthermore, the process of "dumping" requires proper plumbing from your shitter to the opening for dumping. You can't simply tip your bucket of shit into an open hole and expect it to go well.

My point was that if you're living in a van, and shitting into a "glorified bucket" - dealing with your waste becomes a significant element of your day. This point is often glossed over in tiny home, or van articles. The focus is usually on the build, and not on the "living" part, which includes things like showers, dishes, poo etc.

You could try something like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rdkGUFzvfc . It burns your waste and you'll have to empty the ash tray every 2+ weeks. It's more expensive initially but is also much more convenient.

From the comments it looks like it requires 1900 watts.

Not van friendly, but maybe tiny house friendly assuming you have full electricity hookup.

Of course as another YT commenter put it, this doesn't handle "grey water" - another element of tiny living that isn't ever discussed.

Incinerating toilets also work with propane, which makes more sense for vans etc. I didn't check this specific one but they all work similar no matter what creates the heat.

I spent four months in a van this last summer with a proper black water tank. That makes the experience really easy.

When I was in Arizona & Utah, I was mostly camping out in the wilderness. The rhythm I got into was to pay for an RV park about once a month for luxuries: an uncramped shower, laundry, easy access to empty my tanks. Technically, you can empty your tanks at many gas stations, but I enjoyed the full service amenities of the RV parks.

When I was in a city, I almost always ended up camping at a Walmart and working from a coffee shop. So I used my tanks much less often.

there are lots of places to dump "blackwater waste" but not letting it build up is an important habit. commercial campgrounds may let you dump for a small dump fee, but it can be more efficient to book a day in to clean up purge and tidy things. There is a technique called "cat holeing" find an out of the way place deposit the dumpling in a shallow hole 6-8 inches from the surface, include the topsoil and organic debris, and soil microbes decompose it quickly. Do this at least 200 feet from water for sanitary reasons and all is good for practical sense. There are ordinances of aesthetics regarding dumping, i very often include a few apple seeds in the hole, in the high probability there will be a well established tree for all to partake in, human and beast alike.

There are plenty of custom vans out there that have showers/toilets.

That's why you bring a small shovel.

If you're just burying your waste at the beach you making it worse than if you just left it lying there

...but also please don't leave it lying there, in case that needed to be said.

It definitely needed to be said, sadly.

That's fine if you're practicing "distributed camping", so that nature has a chance to process the poo.

People often congregate at the same sites however, and it doesn't take long before that strategy starts to fail.

And like others said - this doesn't work so well on a beach.