Tours
Family of 10 move into a bus and show how they make the small space work to their advantage
It's impressive to see what they've managed to do. Could you live here?
Sasha Alonzo
04.26.23

Everyone knows that tiny homes have grown in popularity over the past couple of years.

Standard RVs, tiny homes, and Airstream travel trailers are just some of the ways people are getting to live tiny.

Some of you might even own one.

What’s more unusual is converting a bus into a home.

In this case, a coach bus into a home for ten people.

The Boyd Family began their adventure of living on the road in 2013.

They sold their home, bought a trailer, and traveled for nine months.

At that time, they had five kids.

The following year, they sold their trailer, bought a new house, and returned to everyday life.

However, they couldn’t shake off the travel bug and bought an Airstream.

They didn’t sell their home this time but spent part of the year traveling.

YouTube Boyd Family Adventures
Source:
YouTube Boyd Family Adventures

When their family grew even bigger, they sold the Airstream, bought a 45-foot coach bus, and converted it into a home.

In this video, they give us a tour of their traveling home.

By the entrance of the bus is their shoe rack.

The whole family stores their shoes there, even their winter boots when they are in colder climate.

The rack where they hang their sweaters, coats, and hats is also near the driver’s area.

They even have a small space for their instruments – two guitars, a banjo, two ukeleles, and a violin.

The next area is a spacious living room with two long couches facing each other.

YouTube Boyd Family Adventures
Source:
YouTube Boyd Family Adventures

They also eat here and even have enough space for guests.

The two couches have two large pull-out beds on the bottom for guests staying over.

Under the seats are storage areas that keep the family’s homeschooling materials and books on one side and a dehydrator and sewing materials on the other.

Next is the kitchen. “Our kitchen is a good size for an RV. I have no complaints about it,” said Sabrina, the family’s mom.

YouTube Boyd Family Adventures
Source:
YouTube Boyd Family Adventures

It has a five-burner gas stove, but she opted out of including a full-size oven.

Instead, she has a countertop convection toaster oven.

Sabrina shares that it does everything she needs it to do. It sometimes just takes longer.

The kitchen also has a full-size sink and refrigerator, which Sabrina says is a must with eight children.

The bottom area of the kitchen counters has full drawers that store dry goods, plates, utensils, and pots and pans.

The bottom drawer of one side keeps Sabrina’s sewing machine.

YouTube Boyd Family Adventures
Source:
YouTube Boyd Family Adventures

One fantastic feature of the kitchen is that a special drawer keeps the family’s plug-in piano.

When they turn it on, the kids can practice piano where it is, and there’s no need to remove it from the drawer or set it up elsewhere.

The kitchen is also where the family keeps its gravity-fed water filter system.

They take this water filter everywhere with them.

When they first started traveling, they would bring bottled water because the water in RV parks is typically heavily chlorinated, which affects the water’s taste.

YouTube Boyd Family Adventures
Source:
YouTube Boyd Family Adventures

However, storing enough bottled water for ten people is hard, so they have this water filter system instead.

“We have actually filtered water out of a river when we got stuck at the side of a highway and there was a creek right there. We filtered our drinking water out of that,” Sabrina said.

The kitchen also has a Vitamix, which she considers essential.

She makes nut butters and smoothies almost every day.

The bus also has a large washer and dryer.

Sabrina says it has a large capacity, and she only has to do laundry every few days, which she finds much more manageable than bringing their laundry to a laundromat.

YouTube Boyd Family Adventures
Source:
YouTube Boyd Family Adventures

Each child gets a cubby for their clothes and can only get as many clothes as they can fit inside.

During the winter, they store their summer clothes under the bus to have enough space for their winter clothes.

There is also another food cupboard beside the clothes cubbies.

YouTube Boyd Family Adventures
Source:
YouTube Boyd Family Adventures

The bus also has three large fans that keep it well-ventilated.

The bathroom is also a good size, and it contains a composting toilet and shower.

They used to have a sink but it was taking up too much space.

They removed it and put the tap right above the bathtub instead.

YouTube Boyd Family Adventures
Source:
YouTube Boyd Family Adventures

The bedroom area contains three sets of double bunks.

Each child can comfortably sit up in their bed, except for Toby who is getting a little too tall to sit up in his bunk.

Each bed has its own storage shelf where the kids can keep their books, toys, or other personal items.

Each bunk also has an outlet where they can charge gadgets or plug in some lights.

YouTube Boyd Family Adventures
Source:
YouTube Boyd Family Adventures

The back of the bus is the master’s bedroom with a full-size Queen bed that fits dad six-foot-tall Michael comfortably.

When they had their youngest baby, their toddler needed to move out of bed to make space for the new baby.

They built him another bunk bed across their foot area, which will last him comfortably for a few more years.

We love how spacious the bus looks and how the Boyd family makes it work for them and their lifestyle!

See the family of 10’s bus home tour in the video below. It’s pretty incredible what they’ve managed to do.

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

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