How We Shower | A Family Approach to Keeping Clean on the Road
Adjusting to the road life comes with a number of sacrifices - one of the most notable being a shower a day to a shower a week - maybe. While bathing is necessary, it falls down the priority list as there are a number of factors that must align for the conditions to be just right for a shower on the road. In this blog post, we are going to cover our approach to keeping ourselves clean and fresh without the freedom of a standard shower.
To set the stage as to why this is not as straightforward as it is for some of you - here are a few considerations that we have as a family of four:
Water
Do we have enough? We used to travel with just 16.5 gallons, about three days of cooking/drinking rations so blowing 3-5 gallons on washing hair, children and bodies was not an option unless we had a reliable water source close by.
Propane
Do we have enough? In the winter months we would heat water in a pot on the stove and use this along with fresh water from the tap to wash our hair and the kids bodies. So ensuring we had enough propane was a consideration.
Weather
We have two solar Showers, the Nemo Equipment Helio 5 gallon and the RoadShower 10 gallon. Both of these are wonderful options if the weather is right - full sun for 8 hours and a non windy day and you’ll be so thankful for these tools. You’ll also either have to park to face the Roadshower into the sun for the heat of the day or pull the Nemo out and set it in the right spot - both of which may not work with urban parking constraints or tree cover, etc..
Privacy
For the full outdoor shower, is it going to be in the birthday suit or bathing suit? That depends on your comfort level and rally your surroundings. If it’s done inside the van, than this is really a non issue.
Time & Need
With four people and four heads of hair needing a wash at any point in time sometimes it makes sense to do everyone at once - at least a one hour full team commitment, or if either Sofi or I have a rare morning to ourselves in the van, we may opt to use 15 minutes of our solo time to at the very least wash our hair.
So with the main considerations stated up front, here are the ways we clean up:
The Baby Wipe
A baby wipe can do so much more than clean poop off a baby’s ass. In the van life world a wipe at the end of a hot day can feel like an Austrian steam bath. Pretty self explanatory here, but a wipe is a quick and cheap way to keep everyone’s skin fresh no matter what the conditions.
The Sink Shower
This is probably our go to shower as it takes care of the most important part - our hair. With the stove right there, we can heat a half gallon of water, clean the sink and do a hair scrub in about 15 minutes prior to a meeting, an event or just to feel like a normal human once a week - maybe. The kids also fit in the kitchen sink,so they can get a full body scrub if necessary.
The Nemo
The Nemo Helio is a super versatile piece of kit that packs down in a footprint small enough for anyone living the mobile life could spare. With 5 or 7 gallon options, you can have enough water to wash the full family, the dog and the dishes. Just fill it up, leave it next to your tire, for extra radiant heat, and wash the salt, dirt and grime off at the end of the day. As I said, we also use this to just hose off sandy feet, do extra dirty dishes, wash the dog or to carry drinking water in some cases. It’s a year round go to for sure - especially in the winter when the water pump freezes and this is the only functional tap!
This is definitely a step up from the Nemo as you can shower without holding a sprayer above your head. However, there are a few considerations to using the Road Shower - such as parking correctly, filling water, attaching and putting away the hose/nozzle and pressurizing. For us the filling, pressurizing and set up/break down can feel like a bit of extra work because climbing onto and off of our rig is particularly dangerous. Sofi doesn’t do it and getting the tire pump out to run the shower is annoying. Without a ladder, it’s just more difficult than imagined and the Road Shower doesn’t get used as much as we imagined. However, when the conditions are right and we set aside the time to use it, we love having it and the utility it offers.
The Public Shower
Outside of Canada and the beach, these are rare to find and never can be relied upon. Yet when one does appear on Ioverlander or by chance, it certainly is used and abused by us. Just don’t forget your thongs.
Fresh or Salt Water
Winter or summer, hot or cold - water is water and when you don’t get a shower daily, a dip into an icy stream is as good as it gets. We typically will just swim in these situations, but on the rare occasion we may portage water inland to shampoo our hair using organic soap like Dr. Bronner’s to allow some absorption in the Earth before going right back into the watershed.
Friends and Family
Staying with friends and family happened more in the past than it does now, but whenever we do, we always take the generous offers to use the shower, do laundry and enjoy the comforts of a home. Simply sitting on a sofa after a hot shower and a shave would make you wonder why you would ever want to live in a van, but se la vi.
So that’s our approach to keeping clean on the road. If ya’ll have any other pro tips for us, please send them along our way so we can add options to our quiver. Or if we can advise you, please send any questions our way!
