Using our Campervan’s Smallest Room

There are lots of choices when you buy a campervan and an important one is size and whether you need a bathroom or not. When we bought Blue Bus Three we had the experience of living with our two previous ‘vans and a bathroom had sneaked onto our priority list. While Blue Bus One had been a simple traditional VW conversion and merely had a porta potti in a cupboard, Blue Bus Two had felt luxurious with a screened-off flushing toilet at the back. The layout of our middle campervan had worked really well for us but we wanted to try going the whole way and buying a campervan with a small room that would be dedicated to our ablutions.

We only have a campervan [no car] and so also never wanted our ‘van to be too large. The Devon Tempest is still under 5.5m and, although we think it is enormous, is fairly petit by today’s standards but the converters have managed to fit in a whole bathroom. We made our choice but always in the back of our minds we wondered if we would actually use the bathroom or would it just become a neat storeroom that we hardly used for its real purpose.

From the start, the toilet and sink have had plenty of use and the privacy in the bathroom makes this a usable and fairly comfortable space. It was the shower that we never made full use of, the number of times we had used it before 2020 and coronavirus could be counted on two hands and we had occasionally discussed if it was worth having. On our camping trips we usually wild camp or free camp for just one night between campsites and on those nights we would manage with a spit-wash at the sink. The shower was a great fallback if a site had no facilities or the showers were cold or unsanitary. Then along came Covid-19 and all manner of restrictions on campsites and suddenly carrying a shower around with us didn’t seem so stupid. Last summer we used the shower more than ever and we have just returned from a four-week tour where showers were closed on every campsite we stayed on. How has that been?

I think the bathroom in the Tempest is better than many, particularly because of the ‘proper’ sink [not a fold up one] that is set in a worktop. This is always there, it feels substantial and is effortless to use. The only problem it has given us is the tiny plug; this kept popping out of the plug hole just when you had filled it with water! We shaved slivers off the plastic plug and this has helped and when we don’t want a shower, having an all-over flannel wash at the sink is easy.

Having a shower takes a bit more planning than a wash but it is such a refreshing feeling after a full rinse within the warmth and comfort of your own ‘van and so it is worth doing right. The first step is make sure we have heated up the hot water. We find it is best if we put this on an hour or so before we shower, any later and we get a tepid shower which is so disappointing. We have experimented with heating the water to 40C and 60C [the only two options on our ‘van] and find that 40C works best for us. We are keen to use as little water as possible and 40C is the perfect temperature with the hot tap fully on. This means there is no need to waste water while we adjust the tap to add cold water to get a acceptable temperature.

Once the water is heated up and the campervan heating on if it is cold, the next thing to do is remove anything from the bathroom that could suffer if it got wet. We take out the towels that hang on the back of the bathroom door and the toilet roll. Our bathroom did come with a shower curtain but we both loath these clingy things and don’t use it. This does mean the bathroom leaks slightly during our showers so we move any mats in front of the door.

Then it comes to the showering. The main objective for a campervan shower is to get clean while using as little water as possible. We don’t want to be filling the tank all the time, or emptying the waste tank and it is only fair to leave enough hot water for the second person in the shower. And so, with the shower on we get wet all over, then switch off the shower. After soaping up with a flannel we can quickly rinse off. This way we keep our shower usage as low as between two and three litres of water each [on hair washing night we use more].

My top tip when you are having a shower is don’t drop anything! In a small ‘van the bathroom is never going to be spacious and it’s best to take care never to drop your flannel or the soap as bending down to pick anything up in such a small space is nigh on impossible even for a short, reasonably trim person.

Because we don’t use much water on a campsite we can capture it in a bucket under the waste tap, rather than filling the waste tank. This is much easier to dispose of cleanly on site.

After we have both showered we wipe the whole shower room down with a J-cloth to dry it thoroughly and then keep the door open to let it air for an hour or so. Using our campervan shower means that both of us and our bathroom are always clean!