For the past couple of years I’ve been considering living out of my car. Sometimes it takes me a while to come around to some of my crazier ideas, but this one’s finally being taken seriously. I’ve racked my brain and taken notes each night before I fall asleep and recently contacted my friend Glenn who has been doing this for a while. I think I have enough information to finally give this a go.
I’ve always been intrigued by the homeless. From an innocent -ignorant- concerned young age, apparently I was already questioning the nature of their odd living situation. I grew up in a house, and I had to take baths and eat food, and doesn’t it get cold at night? As I got older, especially later in high school and college, I began to spend more time interacting with the homeless and eventually having remarkable heart-to-hearts.
- The Three Things I Find Most Fascinating About Homeless People
- Many of them claim to be homeless by choice.
- They can make a surprising amount of money by begging.
- Their life stories are reliably more interesting than people with homes.
In Southern California, it’s not difficult for me to understand why someone may opt to be homeless. In paradise, I mean Santa Barbara, I imagine homelessness is fit for a king. Of course, my imagination likes to paint rosy pictures of a struggle that’s easy to underestimate. Though as I’ve mentioned, from San Diego to Venice Beach and as far North as San Francisco, it’s not hard to find happy hobos.
Last year while working in El Segundo near Manhattan Beach, I considered living out of my Camry. I was living in Redondo Beach and sleeping on the floor at the time – I hadn’t bothered to buy or find a bed as I knew I’d be leaving again soon. But before I gathered the motivation to abandon my little room on Ruhland, I met a girl and ended up spending most of my time in Santa Monica before abandoning the West Coast for several weeks in Paris, Berlin and Tokyo – stories for another time.
Now I live in Texas and am nearly free of social obligations and so have no real need for a home. The question has become, what do I actually need? The ground rules are that I work at a respectable job in Plano as an engineer and must be present for work each day – showered and prepared to handle a full day of work 4-5 days per week. Otherwise, anything goes.
- What do I actually need?
- Storage – stuff
- Food – food and water
- Hygiene – toilet, teeth, shower, laundry
- Internet – laptop and cell phone
- Transportation – car and bike
The list above is derived from a few notebook pages full of charts, maps and diagrams that I may share with you as this story develops. For now, the list above should suffice. Also, no one truly needs internet or even storage for that matter, but let’s be realistic – how long will this feel like a good idea without internet? All kidding aside, I find a deep joy and inner peace in prolonged isolation or rather absence of internet, laptop and mobile phone – but this is yet another story for another time.
In my case, food and internet can be handled at work, but for the sake of this article, let’s assume joblessness since not all of the homeless people that read this article will be homeless by choice. My first thoughts focused on what to do with my stuff – rent a storage facility. Can I live out of a storage facility? No, except in very special cases – not a story for another time. If I can’t live out of a storage facility (for very long) then having a bike to replace my car is not so brilliant. If you have no home and no car, you need to find another article. Try any of these.
Storage
Once all of my things are in storage, besides work clothes, a shaving bag and a good book, it’s time to find a good place to sleep. My homeless veteran friend Glenn suggests that I can basically sleep anywhere a vehicle would be left overnight, then drive off when I wake up. This sounds tiring, but it’ll probably be the least of the hassles to come. The worst of it will be the heat and humidity – Texas is not the warm, dry Southern California to which I’ve become accustomed.
Food
Food and water can be obtained for fairly cheap at any standard grocery store – I won’t be paying the local food kitchens a visit anytime soon. I’ll keep a gallon water jug, refill it daily and replace it every couple of weeks. I’ll have no refrigerator so I’ll be limited to eating at the grocery store or otherwise resorting to bread, peanut butter, cheese and protein bars when I’m feeling generous.
Hygiene
A guy living in his car doesn’t generally need to concern himself with whether he’s attractive – homelessness will guarantee that I’m not. That said, I have to be at work, clean, every week day. For toilet, teeth and shower, I’ll be using my 24 Hour Fitness membership which can be had for less than $350 for 2 years – that’s Cost Co membership and their 2 year 24 Hour Fitness deal. Repeated use of the toilet at the gym would become suspicious and is significantly inconvenient – last weeks gallon jug and the ability to hold it will come in quite handy. Better make that gallon jug a screw top. And laundry? Laundry can be done at a laundromat, though Glenn has some creative advice: buy new clothes at Walmart and throw them away when they’re dirty. I imagine in this case “dirty” isn’t to be taken lightly.
Internet
Here we have lots of options though Starbucks and satellite internet come to mind. If this were How To Live In The Woods it may include satellite internet and solar panels, but in this case a cell phone and free internet should suffice. If I decide public internet isn’t worth the price of a latte then I’ll run Linux and use the neighbor’s “secure” wireless internet. In this case, I’ll be able to respond to e-mails and keep you updated from work, off-the-clock in the morning and night.
Transportation
Last but not least, how am I going to get around? Since I have a job, I’ll be driving from gym to grocery store to work and to wherever I’ll be sleeping each night. If I didn’t have a job, I’d invest in a bike and be far more particular about finding a conveniently collocated set of gym, grocery store and storage facility. And of course, I’d have to be far more creative about where I stashed my car or slept each night.
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