A place for my head, a place for my mail and a place for my bus

[Ronigbzjr]

The move is coming closer. I have the money. Now it's time for the fun of logistics. Here are the 3 things that I'm absolutely going to need for the first month:

1. A place to put my head at night - before I move in to the bus full time (hopefully in a month I can get the basics, minimal conversion, bed, toilet, wifi and primitive electrical system relying on a generator or frequent trips to charge batteries). I could of course move to the bus earlier and try to rough it out, sleep in a sleeping bag etc. until I get sorted but I'm not sure that will be the best option, not even cost effective, and also I have a freelance project I need to keep doing remotely so wifi is a must from get go.

2. A place for my mail, or rather packages, because I'm going to be ordering supplies for the conversion and whatnot. So a mailing address would be necessary, I think. I guess I can try buying everything in stores instead? But that seems very time consuming when I can just order stuff as I go and have it delivered.

3. A place to park my bus and work on it. The initial work is going to be the most dirty and noisy so I can't do it anywhere where it's going to disturb people.

So far, I thought I could be a smart guy and find a way to combine all three. Meaning, looking on Airbnb and other such sites to find a place (like a remote farm or something outside the city) that would be willing to host me for the first month, let me use some available vacant lot to park and work on the bus (and maybe willing to share electricity for tools!) and also receive packages for me. I have yet to have luck finding such a place. Most people I turned to on Airbnb just said it's too much of an inconvenience or they don't have the space or the HOA wouldn't allow.

So now I'm trying to think of alternatives. The budget isn't big which is why I wanted everything to be in the same place, but maybe splitting these necessities is the more realistic way to do it. So maybe rent a regular Airbnb (just a room in an apartment somewhere in the city) to sleep, and maybe also convince them to receive packages for me, but then where do I park my bus and work on it?

Anyone has any ideas? Btw it's all going to happen in Phoenix AZ so if any of you happen to live around there or know someone who does and willing to help in any one of these three considerations, ya know, help a soon-to-be-skoolie-owner out, please feel free to say so

[peteg59]

Check out Quartzite BLM land to begin your conversion on. They allow free 14 day stays, and you could move to another BLM area easily from there.
You would likely cut down your heating as well, by going south.
Generator mandatory, unless you have solar...

[Rwnielsen]

I have plans similar to yours, shower, refer, stove head. I bought a powermate 2200w generator recently, on sale, and it's very quiet. I could hook 2 of them together and run an A/C unit or welder but a single 1 will allow you to charge batteries and use various smaller power tools. It becomes a matter of planning out which comes first and like Peteg59 said you can stay at some BLM spots for 2 weeks at at time.

[john61ct]

Sorry if this is not well organsnised or repeats, what follows is scraped together from some different notes and previous posts

Choose your desired State for your Legal Domicile, solve that first.

Health insurance and administration of other social*safety*net programs, varies **very** widely by state.

Best IMO is a real S&B residence, ideally with a trusted and stable friend or*family. *F&F real home address is better for the legal domicile address, even if it is not (yet) necessary.

And that address has nothing to do with receiving any mail, you still use the letterbox service for your **mailing** address.

Those living at your residential address are not in any way disturbed, once you've got things set, little to no mail arrives there.

Of course the assumption is you aren't actually breaking laws, using this system for fraudulent purposes.

The Mailing Address can then be anywhere, but a letterbox service aka CMRA (Commercial Mail Receiving Agent) near your domicile address raises fewer eyebrows.

Best if all*government*and financial databases are all consistent, just showing those two across the board.

Some like Escapees and St Brendan's Isle can in theory and at least for now provide both, but they may not offer your state of choice.

The Domicile Residential address does not receive much or any mail at all once it's set up.

Every important provider / agency's database lets you use a separate Mailing address, and don't care where it is. But IMO should be near your DR, and there are often dozens per state, can change anytime, not a critical thing like the DR.

Using any*commercial*service for the DR now may be fine for the likes of Escapees and SBI with lawyers available to help sort out occasional glitches as with voting issues recently.

But IMO as the REAL ID and*money*flow regs keep tightening up, a friend or family DR is the safest option to avoid future problems.

Note everything is up to the provider - State Dept vs IRS vs insurance vs a broker - and whether or not their database uses the blacklist services.

Each voter*registration*jurisdiction also has their own rules. I was able to use a*lease*doc & library card for mine.

Yes, never use F&F to receive / forward more that a few pieces of mail per year, asking way too much.

Property*taxes*are usually based on the location of the property, not the*legal*residence of the owner.

Any letterbox*service*will accept and forward packages, but of course that costs

Best when ordering stuff, use a Mailing address direct to a local receiver, where you plan to be then.

Your DR listed with the gov agencies and financial providers is the only one should be consistent and stable.

but yes, choose your DR state first based on tax,*medical insurance*whatever

So many posters on these topics just have no clue about the recent trends on these issues post 9/11. REAL ID ring a bell?

Lots of*government*agencies and financial providers' databases use frequently updated blacklisting filters

for the specific purpose of **refusing to accept** any*commercial*mail forwarding services address as your*legal"residential" **domicile** address.

Doesn't matter how you try to "format" it, or leave out the legally required PMB. Not under the control of the*commercialservices which agencies or companies will continue to let it slide in the future.

Again, the*legal*"residential" domicile address issue has **nothing** to do with mail*delivery*issues.

Yes, get a good **mail forwarding** service for that purpose. It should IMO be close to your domicile address, at least in the same state.

And Escapees or SBI's provided **domicile address** - if that's the state of residence you want for legal purposes - may well continue to be "good enough", with explicit State court-based acknowledgement of our Nomadic status.

But down the road, maybe not!*

No commercial service has control over which agencies or companies may blacklist them in the future. Nice thing is, they do have lawyers to help try to resolve such issues.

With SBI in the past you could just mail in a notarized "Declaration of Domicile" form to the Clay County Controller, allows you to use SBI's*

411 Walnut Street

address, good for all (I think)*government*providers. They may have needed to use a different address to resolve a recent local political flap about their customers' voting rights.

A voter's card often helps with stricter providers.

Nowadays the initial process must be done in person there.

And apparently so far so good with financial databases.

IMO best to be consistent across the board.

I agree short of F&F this gov-sanctioned method is excellent, for those happy to be FL residents. High net worth people will want to get professional advice on that of course.

But as a commercial provider, some financial databases using blacklisting services do refuse the Walnut St address.

Ideally an official Feds-approved workaround like SBI's appears that all providers are required to accept, but that may require new laws/regs.

TLR In the US, many financial institutions and gov agencies subscribe to database services and knock back mail*serviceaddresses when you try to use them as your*legal*residence.

St Brendan's Isle and Escapees seem to have figured it out though.

______
Other relevant bits here

https://www.skoolie.net/forums/f18/a...mad-32733.html

https://escapees.com/8-member-benefits/147-domicile

[gs1949]

I don't quite remember all the details, but there was something here in Oregon, a while ago, maybe a year or a little less. A case where a homelss woman was sent to jail and her kid was taken by the state, all because she had registered the kid in school using a friend's address while they were actually living in her car.

This obviously is a different situation, but this just goes to show how much importance the authorities put on domicile. This woman had no domicile so they went after her and made sure she has one.

[Drew Bru]

You might try Hipcamp, which is people renting private land for camping. Often times it's farms or ranches. Sort of an Air B&B for rv spots. If you can't find a site willing to let you build, you can try Quartzite or other BLM land out west. Lake Mead has some spots where people we working on their rigs and it's only 45 min. to the big box stores in the Vegas burbs. Packages, as long as they're not too big, can be picked up at any Post Office that accepts General Delivery mail. There's some hacks involved but it's been working for us. Amazon has their Amazon Lockers too, but there are some limits as to what they'll ship to them. If nothing else, there's always Pack 'n Ship stores.

If you need a new domicile and a mail forwarding service, there's several perfectly legal ways to accomplish this. Florida, Texas and South Dakota are the 3 big states that make it relatively easy. Lots of full-timers use them.

[Ronigbzjr]

Thanks for all the advice folks! As usual you sent me on the right track. I've rented a regular Airbnb for two weeks, which won't have a place for my bus, but that's okay because before these two weeks are over I'm planning to collect my supplies and head over to Quartzsite! The important thing I guess is to make sure I have at least a primitive electric setup with batteries, isolator, some kind of generator and maybe one solar panel as well. Then it'll be just me and the desert, but I understand it's quite a busy time in Quartzsite during the winter so I'm sure I'll have a lot of friendly people all around

And yes, of course, your points are valid. I'm probably going to buy land sometime in the next couple of months. Maybe in Florida, once my bus is ready for the trip. I'd love to have some cheap land near the ocean in Florida that I can use as a home base, that will be a dream.

[john61ct]

Quartzite is a great community for nomads lots of resources and tolerable levels of regulation.

Lots of trumpistas though, get good health insurance and take good Covid precautions

[Rock-N-Ruth]

Originally Posted by Ronigbzjr

The move is coming closer. I have the money. Now it's time for the fun of logistics. Here are the 3 things that I'm absolutely going to need for the first month:

1. A place to put my head at night - before I move in to the bus full time (hopefully in a month I can get the basics, minimal conversion, bed, toilet, wifi and primitive electrical system relying on a generator or frequent trips to charge batteries). I could of course move to the bus earlier and try to rough it out, sleep in a sleeping bag etc. until I get sorted but I'm not sure that will be the best option, not even cost effective, and also I have a freelance project I need to keep doing remotely so wifi is a must from get go.

2. A place for my mail, or rather packages, because I'm going to be ordering supplies for the conversion and whatnot. So a mailing address would be necessary, I think. I guess I can try buying everything in stores instead? But that seems very time consuming when I can just order stuff as I go and have it delivered.

3. A place to park my bus and work on it. The initial work is going to be the most dirty and noisy so I can't do it anywhere where it's going to disturb people.

So far, I thought I could be a smart guy and find a way to combine all three. Meaning, looking on Airbnb and other such sites to find a place (like a remote farm or something outside the city) that would be willing to host me for the first month, let me use some available vacant lot to park and work on the bus (and maybe willing to share electricity for tools!) and also receive packages for me. I have yet to have luck finding such a place. Most people I turned to on Airbnb just said it's too much of an inconvenience or they don't have the space or the HOA wouldn't allow.

So now I'm trying to think of alternatives. The budget isn't big which is why I wanted everything to be in the same place, but maybe splitting these necessities is the more realistic way to do it. So maybe rent a regular Airbnb (just a room in an apartment somewhere in the city) to sleep, and maybe also convince them to receive packages for me, but then where do I park my bus and work on it?

Anyone has any ideas? Btw it's all going to happen in Phoenix AZ so if any of you happen to live around there or know someone who does and willing to help in any one of these three considerations, ya know, help a soon-to-be-skoolie-owner out, please feel free to say so

We are about 300 miles from Phoenix in Deming New Mexico. We live off grid in our school bus on 40 acres and have plenty of room to host someone who wants to do a build. We even have about 1500 w of solar panels that we aren't using at the moment that you would be welcome to use your own batteries and solar controller to provide a little juice for your build. We can provide Wi-Fi as well. We won't charge you an arm and a leg, and might be able to help you in some aspects of your build. We can provide you with a place to receive mail, and deliveries as well.

[Ronigbzjr]

Originally Posted by Rock-N-Ruth

We are about 300 miles from Phoenix in Deming New Mexico. We live off grid in our school bus on 40 acres and have plenty of room to host someone who wants to do a build. We even have about 1500 w of solar panels that we aren't using at the moment that you would be welcome to use your own batteries and solar controller to provide a little juice for your build. We can provide Wi-Fi as well. We won't charge you an arm and a leg, and might be able to help you in some aspects of your build. We can provide you with a place to receive mail, and deliveries as well.

Thank you!! I'll send you a PM.

[DesertClimber]

How goes the build/move/adventure?

Where did you end up taking the bus?

As far as a mailing address goes for build supplies (or just in general while on the road), have stuff sent to the local Post Office. You don't even need an actual address if it's a one-horse town, but it helps if there's more than one location- just be sure to get the zip code correct. After your name, simply add "C/O General Delivery". We've done this lots while on the road if we needed to order something- either for the bus, or because we just needed that 'thing' from Amazon! Long-Haul hikers & cyclers do this to get supplies held for them at local US Post Office locations.

For example, here's the exact address (insert your name) we used to get mail while we were in the Moab, UT area for a month last year. It's actually a saved address on our Amazon account! LOL

Donald Duck
C/O GENERAL DELIVERY
MOAB, UT 84532-9999

[Drew Bru]

Originally Posted by DesertClimber

As far as a mailing address goes for build supplies, just have stuff sent to the local Post Office. You don't need the actual address if it's a one-horse town, but it helps if there's more than one location- just be sure to get the zip code correct. After your name, simply add "C/O General Delivery". We've done this lots while on the road if we needed to order something- either for the bus, or because we just needed that 'thing' from Amazon! Long-Haul hikers do this to get supplies held for them at local US Post Office locations.

For example, here's the exact address (minus name) we used to get mail while we were in the Moab, UT area for a month last year. It's actually a saved address on our Amazon account. LOL

My Name
C/O GENERAL DELIVERY
MOAB, UT 84532-9999

Good tip.
We've done this too, dozens of times. General Delivery is an amazing service. For Amazon orders we put PO BOX (without any PO box number) on a separate line under GENERAL DELIVERY. We've been told that doing this ensures that Amazon sends it via USPS instead of UPS or FedEx, because the system sees the PO BOX and kicks it via USPS. No idea if this is true or not but it's worked every time. USPS does have a size limit, so look into that before you order something too big or heavy.

[DesertClimber]

Originally Posted by Drew Bru

We've been told that doing this ensures that Amazon sends it via USPS instead of UPS or FedEx, because the system sees the PO BOX and kicks it via USPS.

You can do that, or use the actual hwy/street address of the Post Office. UPS & FedEx will absolutely take it to the post office and drop it off. They're required to.

Oh, EDIT: If I recall correctly, the packages that show up via UPS/FedEx incur a small fee. If that matters, you can use the PO Box 9999 to ensure it goes via USPS.

[john61ct]

UPS Store, and other known letterbox services are usually fine, but for "mailing address" only.

Government / financial databases often won't let you use them for your required "residential" aka legal domicile.

Same with voting, and "Real ID" DLs used instead of passports for boarding aircraft entering government facilities.

But St Brendan Isle and Escapees have lawyers that allow them to offer a domicile registration address for permanent nomads that have no stationary home.

Many states' SS departments provide similar for homeless / indigent citizens.

[Rock-N-Ruth]

Originally Posted by DesertClimber

How goes the build/move/adventure?

Where did you end up taking the bus?

He came to Freedom Field and spent three months here before heading out. I believe his plans are to visit family in Albuquerque, friends in Denver and then head to NYC.

You can learn more about h the s build on our boondocking and building thread.