Why I’m Scared Of Living In A Campervan For A Year

Maybe scared isn’t the right word.  Maybe it’s worried.  Or anxious.  Or maybe it’s even too-used-to-her-creature-comforts-to-go-without, but that’s a flipping long word.

Either way the thought of year in the camper brings out a lot of emotions in me all at once.  It’s quite a weird feeling actually.  I can be having a totally neutral moment and feeling at peace.  Or in as much peace as being surrounded by 3 children can give you.  But one thought of heading out in Optimus and I get all the feels.

I think the predominant feeling is excitement.  At least I’m pretty sure it is.  Being able to explore the tiny little towns and the glamorous cities of South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, Namibia and Mozambique is thrilling.  We’ve never gone further than Durban together (for our honeymoon) and I’m so keen to see ALL the things.  We have such a rich and diverse ladscape and cultures across our country and I’m looking forward to experiencing it.  And to be able to share that experience with Seth and the kids is freaking awesome.  It’s going to be heck of a trip and a really interesting, waderlusty one.

But if I said that this was all that I felt then I’d be a big fat liar.

Seriously.  Packing up your entire life to live in the smallest space in the World is not easy to wrap your head around.  (At least, it isn’t for me.  Seth is pretty fine with giving up almost everything but I’m still getting there in my head.)  Thinking about it makes my body do weird things.  Like really weird.  I’m going to tell you because it’s just so weird.  Guys I get goosebumps on my butt.  Like what the what?  Who gets weird tingly goosebumps on their bottom for crying out loud?!  But I do.

But the thing is, I’m keen for the trip.  (Despite how it may sound).  It’s just this next four month phase till we leave that’s leaving me feeling like I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.

So in an effort to work through it, here are some of the things that I am struggling with right now…

Clothing and fashion and just getting dressed

Yes, I’m aware that this is hella shallow and quite stupid.  But I went to the Woolies sale the other day and I just walked out with nothing.  Because what must I buy?  I quite literally can’t take anything in the campervan that needs to be ironed to be worn.  Let that sink in.  Maybe that’s not a big deal for you, but I’m used to getting dressed up a bit to go to work.  Wearing dresses and shirts that need a bit of an iron.  Even just some of my casual T-Shirts need an iron to look decent.  I can’t take any of my nice dresses with me.  There will be no dressing up.

So basically I have to change a lot of my day to day style when we’re in there.  Yoh, as I type this I realise how petty it sounds.  It’s not like I’m some super fashionable person or anything, but I am not someone who can literally just throw anything on.  I have very specific likes and dislikes and maybe that’s something that I have to lose or just adapt to.  I even went onto Pinterest to find a casual style that I like but NOTHING GUYS – nothing!

Hair today, gone tomorrow

Another very real issue for me is my hair.  I honestly feel like this grey hair is me.  I look back at all the other colours I’ve had (of which there were many) and this is the only one that I truly love.  But how can I possibly maintain this on the road?  I won’t have my awesome Stylist from Stylebar hiding in the boot of the camper.  Unless… Hmmm.  I hope she’s not reading this so when I jump her she’s not ready for my sneak attack.

But seriously, I’m at a loss of what to do here because my only option is to let it grow out (ugh) or dye it back to my natural colour (double ugh) and I actually don’t want to do either option.  Ugh.

Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer

My skin is another issue.  A great thing about the camper is that we’re probably going to eat more fresh produce than ever before and less fast food than ever before, but the Skin Renewal treatments are going to be sorely missed.  I mean I was getting a patch on my cheek over this last week and one laser genesis and PDT treatment on Tuesday cleared it right up!

I’m really going to miss them while we are away.

Packing up our life

Moving is one of the most stressful things in life.  But moving with only half your stuff, having to pack half of it away while you squeeze the other half into 7.5m2 is no joke.  I know that I really should start packing but I can’t actually bring myself to do it yet.  I don’t want to see empty book shelves or walk into my house and feel even more all over the place than I already do.  But then again, maybe that’s the push I need to actually take this all really seriously.  Because we haven’t really done much.  And that makes me anxious.  A vicious circle.

Coco and Spartan

We still haven’t really found a real solution for our dogs.  All they need is a loving home for a year – we will still pay for all their food and medical bills, so the loving person looking after them will really only enjoy the perks.  They are the sweetest dogs and very well trained.  But Coco does have a bit of a seizure problem.  Which I know is a lot to ask for someone to take on.  There’s been suggestions of putting them down but for the sake of one adventure I am NOT going to be ending the lives of two beautiful animals.  It’s not even like they are old (they are about to turn 10) or sick (except Coco and her weird seizure thing).  But I get that no one wants to take that on.  I get it but I don’t know what to do about it.  Every time I look at them my heart breaks a little!

Other creature comforts

Just little things like books.  And space.  And a couch to lie on an watch Netflix.  And a room to hide in when I want a little break from the kids.  A working toilet and a full pressured shower too.  I’m missing these things already!