50+ Must-Have Van Life Essentials to Make the Most of Your VanLife Adventure in 2024

So you’ve found the perfect van and finally finished your build. Now, it’s time to load up with all the van life essentials and hit the road!

Space is the ultimate luxury in van life, especially if you live in your van full-time. Choosing the most essential items has a whole new meaning when everything you own has to fit inside a modified cargo van.

You don’t want to fill up your van with tons of junk, but you also want to make sure you have everything you need to enjoy your next road trip. The trouble is, it’s impossible to be entirely sure about what you need until you move in and realize what you don’t have.

That’s where we step in. After spending years living in a van, learning the hard way what you can’t do without, and constantly tinkering with our packing list, we’ve found top van life essentials that turn living in a van into a fulfilling lifestyle.

Through hours of real-world trial and error, research, and campsite tours inside vans across all budgets, we came up with this list of a few things we rarely find any van dweller without.

Van Life Essentials: Power Essentials 

We like to say that the top van life essentials typically revolve around the idea of power, water and food. After all, van life essentials mimic actual life essentials.

So we’ll start with the power essentials that will keep your battery bank topped off so you never have to worry about running out of power as you’re out exploring! Of course, the standard battery, solar panel and inverter components make the shortlist.

But there is more to your camper van electrical system than just these. Read on for some great van life gear that will keep you powered up in all circumstances!

Deep Cycle Batteries

All power in your van comes down to the size and quality of your battery bank. It should go without saying that you should only consider deep cycle batteries for your van living, regardless of which type you choose.

While it is great to save money on all sorts of van life gear, one thing we don’t recommend is that you skimp on your battery bank. So whether you can afford lithium or AGM is up to you.

But we’d say plan to put in as much battery capacity as you can afford and fit in such a small space as a van, especially if you plan to live off-grid with solar panels for any amount of time.

There are 2 primary types of batteries we’d recommend you consider.