There is a growing number of people turning old school buses, vans, and transport buses into mobile tiny homes. If you are one of these people you may have seen some of the many articles out there and many, many videos on YouTube with lists of things you will need to complete your tiny home adventure and enjoy your time travelling.

Those articles and videos typically center around things like Tools, Tips and Tricks, and Advice on how to do things. Tools are important, and it’s always nice to learn a trick or two to make the job a little bit easier (or done the right way). But there is more to building your dream home and living the nomadic lifestyle than just a list of tools and advice from others.

This is a list of 3 equally important things you will need if you are looking to finish your project and become one of the hundreds of people choosing the nomadic lifestyle. The best part is they are all totally free. That’s right, completely FREE!

People are building school buses and van conversions for a myriad of reasons. Some just want to escape the mundane everyday life that has become tired and beaten, they seek new adventures. Others seek this way of life for an economical reason; living nomadic can have some beneficial points money wise. There are as many reasons as there are people.

Whatever your reason to start on your build or travel the world in your mobile tiny home there may come some unforeseen circumstances and issues that will stop you in your tracks. Setbacks happen and not everything can be bulletproof from issues. Mistakes can happen, and we need to know how to recognize those mistakes and mitigate them or let them pass and be okay with them. Despite the many reasons and circumstances, you must have the determination to continue in the face of those adversities.

The first thing you need to have is the determination to finish. You need tenacity.

In our own build we came upon some issues with our electrical system that kept us from being able to start the engine. Our batteries were loosing their power and we couldn’t figure out why. Despair started to creep in. Did we just buy a broken bus? Is this how our dream dies? We never stopped moving forward. When the bus wouldn’t start we set out to start other projects. We began the next steps in building our home. The subfloor and insulation went in and we had no idea if we would even get to drive it. We had hope, and determination. We called in the professionals who were able to diagnose the issue and we resolved it without too much more trouble. There is a parasitic draw on our batteries, so we installed an external battery disconnect switch which keeps our batteries power levels from dwindling while we are finishing the build out. We knew from the beginning that there could be issues like this and we kept cool heads about the whole thing, not allowing that doubt to set in far enough to stop us or drain our resolve to complete what we have started.

Now saying that there may be issues and problems that come up sounds like it goes against the next thing on my list. The best thing about the is next one is that it can be (should be) applied to life in general. It is a hard one to accomplish sometimes but I can tell you it makes a world of difference.

The second item on this list is to remain positive throughout the building process and into the journey you are making for yourself. Life gets in the way sometimes. Things don’t always go to plan and sometimes things fall apart very quickly around us.

But, keeping a positive attitude will help you resolve to see this through to the end. Keeping a clear head in the midst of chaos -Yes, there will be chaos- will enable you to work through the problems quicker and with much less frustration. When we hit that wall of bad circumstances and it seems like everything is on hold we like to find the positives in the situation.

Recently we put our traditional home up for sale. The first two weeks we didn’t hear a thing from our realtor. A few showings took place, an offer was placed and we countered, they declined on the counter and moved on. We have had very few showings since and more than once have had a showing scheduled only for it to be cancelled.We found that disheartening but remained committed that the right person or family will come along at the right time and everything will work out, and if not we will readjust come September (that is my soft deadline for completion).

You can also try listening to positive thought speeches and lessons online. I (Travis) prefer Alan Watts and my wife Destoni enjoys Abraham Hicks. Both of them have a message of positivity, turning bad emotions or thoughts into good emotions or thoughts. I would also recommend Sensory Deprivation Therapy (Floating). See our video on this subject on YouTube by clicking here.

This last one may also seem counter to the other 2 but it has a lot of benefits and it does compliment the others, if your mindset is right.

Be okay with failure.

No one is an expert at all things. No one can go through life without a single failure. Not a single bus converter or van dweller out there hasn’t experienced failure at some point. Go ahead ask around… I’ll wait.

Whether the failure comes in the form of materials not working as you want them, mechanical issues, time management, execution of the plans not working out right, or any number of reasons, being okay with these failures doesn’t mean give up. It is realizing that the failure has a reason and that reason can be rectified.

Sometimes the best course is to step away for a little while to clear your head, or consult with someone who knows more on the ways the project should go together, maybe grab a few friends and figure things out with them. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Most of our failures come from a lack of knowledge on things like plumbing and woodworking. So we take more time researching how to do things than the job usually takes. These failures are being slowly diminished by learning and doing.

Whether or not you will be living full-time in your bus or van, travelling around the world or just using your tiny home as a vacation camper these 3 free things will help along in the process. These tools will help beyond hammers and screwdrivers and their payoff is greater than any tips or tricks to getting the process done quickly. They all play off of one another to create a better equipped you.

We all have in our ability to keep a positive attitude, remain committed to the goal and to accept the failures and faults that we have or will be confronted with. No one ever said this would be easy. But we all know you can do it.

Sloth High Five.