7 Things I Love About Living In A Skoolie
There are so many more things I love about living in a skoolie, but for time's sake, we are going to talk about the 7 things we love about living in a skoolie.
The list could almost be infinite.
I suppose if we had to boil it down to seven things we love most about living in a skoolie it would center around how much space we have while spending time inside of the skoolie, the people of the community.
Maybe it is about how safe and well, how about we just talk about the 7 seven best reasons we love about living in a skoolie below?
The Space – Living In A Skoolie
When we sit here and ponder and discuss the space we love so much, other than the “space” the irony hits us hard and we begin to laugh at the notion itself, as well as each other.
There isn’t a whole lot of space in a DIY school bus conversion. If you compare it to a Sprinter van conversion or something like that, then yea, I guess there is a whole lot of room.
Still, you are only looking at something like 150 to 250 square feet at the most.
We have first-hand experience with this fact.
Traveling in a 32-foot Thomas pusher for a year gave us our first taste of skoolie life. We spent a lot of time between Florida and Wisconsin, then a few months in Colorado.
We sold that bus, then converted a Sprinter van. Less than a year after traveling over 33 states and 30,000 miles, we decided to sell it and build another skoolie.
Why would we abandon Van Life for Skoolie life?
Space.
Square footage.
Sanity
We really loved the traveling part. Great fuel economy, is easy to drive, is stealthy, and we could park it anywhere with ease.
But damn! It was small and tight on the inside. Getting two people inside of her at the same time was just a little too much, or too little rather, for us.
We look forward to having more breathing room in our next skoolie. The additional width a skoolie provides is the bonus we feel. That extra 2 to 3 foot makes all the difference in the world.
Wide and Tall – Living In A Skoolie
As we mentioned above, having more space in a skoolie is the key to living happily and comfortably. The school buses we go for are the ones with the higher ceilings. We’re not talking about a roof raise here.
No, we are talking about the school buses that have higher ceilings. These school buses are typically reserved for special needs students and wheelchair lifts, high school students, and special activity buses.
Having 7 ½ feet from window to window is enough to accommodate a king-size bed and still have room on both sides for storage or nightstands. We love the room a skoolie provides us. It’s still tiny living, but for us, it is luxurious tiny living.
By the way, if you have ever dreamt of living in a skoolie, van, or anything tiny but can't imagine building one yourself, we have the answer for you! Tiny Starry Builds can build your dream home on wheels!
Having Our Home With Us All of The Time
It hit me when we were in Wisconsin back in the summer of 2020. We had just driven up to Wisconsin from Florida to hang out with a couple of van lifer friends.
We arrived at their family’s cabin on Lake Nekoosa. It was when we were getting the bus settled and setting up our camp that it hit me. We have all of our stuff with us.
Although we were in Wisconsin, we were still at “home”. It was not until then that I realized we can go anywhere in the Western Hemisphere and still be at home!
No packing of clothes or toiletries as you would for a trip. No suitcases or overnight bags.
Nope! Everything we would need or want would be right there in our skoolie at our fingertips!
We love living and traveling nomadically like this! There is nothing better than traveling and not having to pack or unpack when you arrive at your destination! I can't imagine a more beautiful thing.
Feeling Safe – Things I Love About Living In A Skoolie
This is the one thing about not living in a house, apartment, or condominium that is most important to me.
Not just for my own safety, security, and comfort, but especially for protecting and ensuring that Nat is safe, secure, and comfortable.
One of the things we love most about living and traveling in a DIY converted school bus is that they are very safe!
Accidents and Living In A Skoolie
School buses are designed for one purpose.
That is to deliver children to and from school safely and efficiently. School buses were not engineered and designed to be economically safe. They were not engineered and designed to be disposable.
They were engineered and designed to tolerate the most extreme impacts and possible scenarios in a catastrophic road scenario.
There are crush zones to absorb impact and channel the energy around the passenger seats and compartments.
The framing in a school bus can support its own weight in the event of a rollover crash.
Unlike an RV, having a fender bender doesn't mean a total loss. They say when a traditional RV has an accident, you don't call a tow truck, you call in a dump truck
The full-frame chassis and steel ribbed walls and roof of a school bus are the safest non-military vehicle we could travel in, legally.
High Off the Ground – Living In A Skoolie
This one is really one of my favorite things about living in a skoolie. The floor of a skoolie is right at about three to four feet off of the ground. I love that and here is why.
If someone or something (a wild animal) were to approach our skoolie with an intention of getting to us or any of our property, right at the gate, we have an advantage over them.
One of the best strategies in any type of combat situation is having a higher ground. Not only are we immediately 3 to 4 feet at our feet higher, but we are also another 2 feet higher at striking distance.
Besides having the advantage of height as a security measure, the bus is made out of steel. So there is no tearing or punching through fiberglass or plastic wall you will find in some RVs.
The windows are at least 5 to 6 feet off of the ground, so there is no likelihood that anyone can enter our bus through a window.
Even if they were small or agile enough, the windows are too small for anyone I would be concerned about being able to fit through one.
Bottom line, a skoolie makes us feel very safe not only traveling in one but also living in one.
You Can Customize Your Tiny Home
We have seen and been in hundreds of skoolies. Now mind you we have never seen, in person or on the internet, a skoolie with the same interior and design.
We have our own style for interior decoration and skoolie floorplans and layout. Everyone has their own style.
You will find hundreds upon hundreds of RVs with identical floorplans, fabrics, and interior designs.
You will never find that in a skoolie.
Another one of the things we love so much about living in a skoolie is that we have designed and decorated our skoolie for our needs, personality, and flair.
Give this post we wrote on Skoolie Floorplans. We hope it will give you some ideas and inspiration.
Disconnecting from the Rat Race
While you are living and traveling in a skoolie, it just isn’t possible to stay in the frame of mind you would by waking up every morning and commuting to an office in a 9 to 5 job.
There are no HOAs to crawl up your ass about your grass being too tall or not green enough. No neighbors to compete with about anything.
Scheduling a vacation so you can spend some one-on-one quality time with your family is not even a thing.
No, breaking that cycle is one of the prerequisites of buying, converting, and living in a skoolie.
Don’t worry, it comes naturally and we can promise, you will be happier it has happened.
The Community
Everyone we know in the skoolie and van life community says this all of the time! “One of the reasons I love living in a skoolie is the skoolie community.”
It’s so damn true!
We have met some of the most quality, interesting and fun people over the last six to seven years.
There are some great friends of ours who have never seen or even understand what a skoolie is. We love our people and although our circle is small, it makes us love them all the more.
The new people we have come to respect, love, and admire come from the skoolie, van life, and nomadic lifestyle.
Skoolie life, van life, full-time RV life, or anything else a person may live and travel in is all one community. The nomadic community. We love it, we love traveling and living in a skoolie, and we love the people. (most of them) What? That's just reality!
Wrap Up To 7 Things I Love About Living In A Skoolie
Living in a skoolie is the best! For real! There isn’t anything we could imagine doing at this point in our lives that we would enjoy more.
Maybe we should write another post and name it 100 things I love about living in a skoolie. It would be an easy piece to write.
There really are so many aspects of skoolie life we love. We are about to head out west and do some boondocking in Arizona and Utah.
First, though, we are going to spend some time visiting our son in Albuquerque, New Mexico, and our other son in Tuscon, Arizona.
One of the greatest things about those visits, is there are no thoughts at all about hotel reservations, rental cars, or feeling like we are cramping our kids' style by staying with them. Living in a skoolie allows us to have a safe place to sleep regardless of where we are.
No flight schedules to live by. We stay as long as we all want and leave anytime.
Living in a skoolie and Skoolie life may not be for everybody. It sure is for us though!
If you have dreams of living in a skoolie, RV, or van and traveling full time you are probably like most other people and don't know where to start. Nat and Don in the Wild have tried to make it much easier for you!
Give this article a read, 5 Things You Need To Do Before You Can Quit Your Job and Travel Full Time.
Lets us know what you think!
