• etchinghillside@reddthat.com
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    1 month ago

    I move every 2 weeks in an RV. So I roughly wake up in 26 different places over the year.

    Internet is rough. But has gotten better over the years since I started.

    I could imagine that socially it might be difficult for some.

    But largely my routine is similar to if I were in a house/apartment:

    Weekdays: work, cook/eat, walk/hike/explore, games, sleep. Weekends: groceries, cook/eat, chores/maintenance, relocate if needed, walk/hike/explore, games, sleep.

    Oh - I usually remind people they’re giving up a dishwasher and laundry machines unless they’re going pretty big on their RV purchase.

    Recently I’ve been parking during the summer and flying to different countries. It’s more or less the same - solid internet is a challenge and you get to work on a potential language barrier.

    • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      1 month ago

      StarLink has been a game changer for me. Expensive as frick but so worth not having to find cell towers or monitor data caps anymore.

      • etchinghillside@reddthat.com
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        1 month ago

        Verizon wouldn’t sell anything larger than a 15gb plan - glad those days of juggling SIM cards are past.

        But yeah - Starlink has helped a lot. I still have 3 big cell prover SIM cards and modems/router for redundancy.

    • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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      1 month ago

      How do you deal with permanent addresses? I know like some jobs want you to have a permanent address and bank accounts want you to have a permanent address.

      • jet@hackertalks.com
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        1 month ago

        There are mailbox services, you get a permanent address, they can email you your mail.

        Banks are more sticky, they don’t just want a permanent address, they want your place of residence. If you’re always on the move, you can have an intended place of residence… They may not accept the commercial mailbox service addresses, and in that case most people use a friend or a relative as their official banking location, but use the mailbox service for all of the mail. I live here, but I get mail there. That works for most people

        • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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          1 month ago

          Okay, that’s good to know. Until we can ditch the entire banking system for crypto wallets on our phone, that bank account issue is going to be a bit of a noose around people’s necks.

        • ganymede@lemmy.ml
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          1 month ago

          out of interest, whats the deal with banks needing to know where you sleep at night?

          is it a serfdom thing?

          or is it only in the case of eg. that being the place you hold a mortgage with them on?

          • jet@hackertalks.com
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            1 month ago

            The Patriot act required banks to know their customers, explicitly knowing their place of residence. For people who have a non-standard place of residence, digital nomads, homeless people, etc it becomes difficult

            • ganymede@lemmy.ml
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              1 month ago

              fascinating, thanks.

              no doubt ushered in under some notion of “protecting” us from well funded groups, yet mysteriously didn’t include a minimum threshold so poor folks with $4.25 in their account are still included in these broad sweeping laws.

      • etchinghillside@reddthat.com
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        1 month ago

        My residence is registered at my parents house. I’m fortunate for that – not sure what I’ll do when they pass.

        The companies I work for are typically smaller - my bosses and teams usually know I’m a bit of a vagrant. When I get acquired by larger companies I’m a little more tight lipped and vigilant with VPN use.

      • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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        1 month ago

        I’d consider getting a really cheap, small chunk of rural land and boondocking there sometimes (so nobody can claim it’s not actually a residence of yours).

        • shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip
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          1 month ago

          That’s a good point. Wouldn’t it have to have a mailbox though? Or is that something that the post office just does if you buy a piece of property without one already there?

          • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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            1 month ago

            The latter, I think. At least in rural towns in my jurisdiction, if you can prove you’re a resident, you get assigned a box. There’s definitely communal boxes in the middle of nowhere for people, although I’m not sure which office you go to to get set up.

    • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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      1 month ago

      If I ever go that route, you bet I’m getting a dishwasher put in at the very least. I know my limits, haha.

      • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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        1 month ago

        They’re available on the bigger rigs. It’s just worth noting that space on any RV/trailer is a tradeoff, and appliances tend to be limited for space and weight.

        • CandleTiger@programming.dev
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          1 month ago

          Countertop dishwashers are a thing. I found one that fits on the tiny counter I have, and do my chopping and slicing on the kitchen table instead.

          • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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            1 month ago

            Yeah, but it’s different in an RV. With a countertop unit, you’d have to either secure it for travel, losing limited counter space in the process, or find somewhere to stow it, and storage in a camper is already at a premium. There’s also the fact that any form of dishwasher operates on 120vac, meaning you can only use it when you’re on shore power or running a genny (whereas a refrigerator can auto switch between propane and 120v). Again, not saying it can’t be done, but there are logistical concerns that mean dishwashers and other large appliances are the first to be forgone.

            • CandleTiger@programming.dev
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              1 month ago

              Mine just stays on the counter. At the spot it’s in, if I had an accident and it tried to go flying, the wall of the retracted slide room would block it. But in 3 years of driving with it, it hasn’t flown off.

              • bobs_monkey@lemm.ee
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                1 month ago

                Ah gotcha, didn’t realize you weren’t talking about an apartment. Power to you for finding a solution!

        • CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org
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          1 month ago

          Yup. I’d probably be tearing out couches to make space for a drawer-type machine or two. The washer-dryer can open to outdoors if needed, and I’ve pretty much figured out how to make that work on one model I’ve looked at.

  • Sir_Kevin@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 month ago

    Hardest thing for me has been finding actual remote work. Look on any job board these days and everyone’s claiming “remote*” when they’re nothing of the sort.

  • jet@hackertalks.com
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    1 month ago

    I spent about 4 years traveling the world working remotely, as a digital nomad you might say. Before the name was popular

    Put things I didn’t want to throw away into long-term storage. Had a laptop. Flew from place to place. The most important thing was securing a good internet connection in a place. If I couldn’t get a good connection move on to another place, or back to a known good place.

    Libraries, coffee shops, hotels, co-working spaces, all viable options for internet requirements.

    Mail digitized through a mailbox service, and emailed to me.

    Google voice for an international phone number that just needed internet connection

    The day to day living was pretty cool. You could stay in a place as long as you want, you could leave as quick as you want. Finding people was fun. Sometimes you weren’t sure about where you would be, could you book the hotel for more time? If you couldn’t you had to find the next place. So you always had a plan of where you are, and where you want to go next.

  • CandleTiger@programming.dev
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    1 month ago

    I’ve been living in a motor home for five years. It’s pretty good for me, I work from home and have spent a good long time at dozens of national parks and other awesome places.

    Also boring places. Moving all the time and fixing broken things can be stressful and staying in nice places can be expensive. But overall it’s been way better for me than sitting in a house and staring at the walls.

  • tarius@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    I move around every 4 months in the US. I stay in long-term Airbnbs (min 1 month stay). I work remote; so, the issue I mostly deal with is my working setup. No standing desk, comfortable chair, multi-monitor setup (using portable external monitor), etc.

    Otherwise, the surroundings of the place I stay at is always a gamble. You never know if its a loud or safe neighborhood just by looking at the posting or street view on google maps. Sometimes there could be construction going on next door.

    Eating around and exploring the country is the best part.

  • UltraGiGaGigantic@lemmy.ml
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    1 month ago

    Terrible as I only find joy in a few things and the van life makes almost all of them impossible. I guess that’s the difference between choosing the van life, and the van life choosing you.

    What is life worth if you cannot do what is most important to you?

    Absolutely nothing. Less then nothing. Negative Nothing (sweet band name)

  • fmstrat@lemmy.nowsci.com
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    1 month ago

    Planet Fitness is your friend.

    Don’t treat places like your backyard. Thats why everyone stopped allowing overnight parking.