Things to Consider When Planning Your Van Build Kitchen

VanLife

Mar 24

My lack of a full kitchen has been getting to me lately, so I figured I might as well channel that into a blog post. Having a small van means limited prep space, food storage, and kitchen materials. This isn’t always a problem, but lately it seems to be affecting my healthy food choices. I’ve been eating less due to the inconvenience of cooking and clean up in my van. I also have to cook outside so cooking is out of the picture on a rainy day or if I am in the city. There are a lot of things that I am hoping to improve in the future.

Heating up/cooking food- What will you use to cook or at least heat up your food?

I cook with a Coleman Two Burner camp stove which runs off of propane. I’ve been using the small green propane tanks that can be picked up at a lot of gas stations or grocery stores. This is the same fuel that powers my Buddy Heater when I need that in cold places, so they’ve got a dual purpose. However, you’re supposed to dispose of them in a specific way which I have not done- I have 3 empty ones sitting in my van in hopes that I can find the proper way to get rid of them. This is something that I can probably figure out quite easily, but have not taking the time to.

Other cooking options are induction stovetops, cooking over the fire or just eating cold meals.

Water Source/Washing Dishes- How will you store water and do you need running water?

I don’t mind doing dishes when I’m in a house, but doing them in the van is a pain. I have a water tank with a spout, a plastic collapsible sink, a brush, and some liquid dish soap. The sink has become helpful to store my dishes until I do them, but I don’t usually fill it with water, I just scrub the dishes with the brush then rinse them off with the water tank/spout. Not a horrible process, but running water would make it a lot easier. A lot of van builds have sinks and water tanks, but I really don’t have the space for that in my build.

Storing Food/Refrigeration- How will you store food and will you need to keep it cold?

As I said before, I don’t have a lot of food storage options either. Keeping dry foods has been easy, I’ve just got a wooden crate under my bed to store cans of soup and fruit, boxes of rice, etc. Cold foods have been a struggle. I bought a small cooler from Walmart (rookie mistake) and the insulation is so bad on it that the condensation builds up and creates a puddle on my floor. And it doesn’t keep my ice for very long so I find myself needing to drain and refill it quite often. This has led to foods getting bogged down in water. I know that I need to change this and either get a better cooler or a small fridge. A lot of van builds have nice 12v refrigerators. I was worried about getting a fridge due to the power needed to keep it running, but am starting to look at my options again.