Every year, Oprah compiles and releases a list of items known as Oprah’s Favorite Things. I’ve looked at her lists before and question how many of the items she has actually used or even seen in real life, much less are her “favorite things.” I mean, maybe Oprah really does walk around her mansion wearing Beats Pro Headphones (from this year’s list), but it’s hard to imagine. A lot of items on her list feel more like sponsored links than actual products she uses.
Inspired by Oprah, I decided to come up with my own list of vanlife-related favorite things. Unlike Oprah’s list, every single item that appears in my video is something I (a) personally own, (b) paid for with my own money, and (c) will vouch for. Trust me, there are plenty of things I’ve purchased that turned out to be junk and didn’t make the list.
In the description of the YouTube video, I added Amazon links to pretty much every item. They are (of course) Amazon Affiliate Links, which cost you nothing extra and get me approximately 3% of the sale price. I also compiled every item and tool I’ve purchased for the van on a single page, BigRobsVan’s Amazon Links. (There’s a link to it at the top of this page, too.) When people ask me how much money I’ve made off of BigRobsVan so far, my standard answer is “about negative $10 grand.” Don’t get me wrong, making money was not the goal nor the inspiration for any of this, but I like to be transparent when it comes to things like that.
My main incentive for making this list was to share some of the things I’ve purchased that others might find useful. Most of the items I’ve purchased for this project came after seeing them in other people’s videos or hearing about them on podcasts, so I am just trying to do the same thing for others.
The other reason I made this video is because if you are into vanlife, you probably have family and friends who are looking for gift ideas this time of year. You might find something in this video that you haven’t purchased yet, but could use.
There’s an irony in here somewhere — “vanlife” is often about downsizing and owning only the necessities, and here I am linking to Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals. Shortly after buying my van (and truth be told, even before that) I began acquiring things I just knew I would need for my van. A year or so later I’d say about 2/3 of those things were a good idea, and 1/3 are still sitting in boxes. It’s super easy to buy things just because they’re on sale, especially this time of year. My intent is not to prevent your junk drawer from closing! Be responsible with your shopping — memories are always more fun than things.
(Unless it’s that brand new Steam Deck, that thing looks awesome!)