No Rinse Body Bath
Picture this: You're trekking across the United States in your van and for some reason, despite all sensible logic, you've decided that you might like to spend a couple weeks living in Chicago right in the middle of summer. You line up a beautiful parking spot right downtown. After a day of wandering the city, playing at the beach and a free concert at Millenium Park, you decide life is good. Then night hits. A sweltering 85 degrees complimented with 90% humidity begin their attack on your sweat glands. After a rough night of tossing and turning, the morning greats you promptly as you stagger out of your side door and realize where you are. Hair matted, shirt soaked, smelling like that guy on the train... you know, the one who wouldn't put his arms down despite your attempts to cast your best "bitter beer face" in his direction. Yep, now YOU are THAT guy.
What are you to do? Hotel room... not an option. Gym membership... nah. Jump in Lake Michigan and go for a brisk swim... seriously? Don't worry, we've been in this exact situation and have the perfect solution: No Rinse Body Bath
So how does it work?
Simple: Mix 4 capfuls (1 oz.) with 32 oz. of water and shake it up. We like to use a Nalgene bottle
Ok, fine. But does it really work?
Short answer: YES. Longer answer: for one, we wouldn't be writing about this stuff here on our blog if we didn't use it and believe heavily in it. If you use it, you really will get clean, you really will smell fresh and you really will feel better. The soapy solution also works well as a "shampoo". We just dump a bit over our heads, scrub it around and use a towel to dry off ...and yes, we did this right in the middle of downtown Chicago. It felt great and was a lot of fun to see the expressions of morning commuters and runners, plus I didn't have to worry about being THAT guy on the train. Because a few capfuls will make 32 oz. of soap solution, No Rinse Soap also lasts an incredibly long time, making it a very economical solution for bathing while on the road or backpacking trail. If you're worried about the "green factor"... stop. It's biodegradable too 🙂
The final verdict:
Well, if you couldn't already tell... Highly recommended. In our own humble opinions, a mandatory part of any traveler or van dweller's repertoire.
Definitely give No Rinse Body Bath a try.
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How does one find the courage to just leave the hamster wheel rat race common life behind? I want so much to just run away from it all and live in a van. I am a single 47 year old female just sick of living the common everyday life. Please tell me what you did to just take the chance and make the leap. Thanks.
Alex, in the words of great advertiing slogans- just do it. I’m a woman and I wanted to take a long term bike trip just after college. All my friends bailed that were going to go with me, so I did it alone. It was great.
The real thing to get over the hump is to break intertia. If you’re currently living a regular life- do you have a van? If not, get one. Start converting it so that you can use it. Go camping on weekends and do a few shakedown tours before you rent out your house/end your lease on your apartment/etc. Jumping into full time vandwelling from scratch might be too scary at first, but the all or nothing mentality makes any kind of change nearly impossible. Just work it out in baby steps- get a van. Convert it a bit to see if it works for you. Take an extended weekend to public lands or campgrounds, see how it works. Tweak it. Sleep in the van in your driveway. Take it to some neat event the next city over. Just move in the direction you want to go in, and you’ll end up a lot happier. even if you decide that vandwelling isn’t for you after all.
It’s not just cool that you are living this lifestyle…I think it’s really special that you took the time to think and made the choice to try it. More power to you and wish you both safe travels.
Thanks for the kind words Mike. Safe travels to you as well… wherever life’s journey may lead you.