‘We love it!’: Durban family ditch their brick house to live on a bus

In 2018, a Durban family made the decision to start “living small” after the idea started out as a joke. Only a short while afterward, they made the incredible decision to swap their “normal” brick house for a bus – yes you read right, a bus. One year later, the family says that they do not regret the decision at all and are experiencing “true freedom”.

After reading about the family’s decision, many South Africans pondered what it would be like to ditch the bills and stresses that come with running a home while some worried that they may not be enough space on a bus for their entire family.

Family swaps house for a bus and are loving life

Many people have dreamed about living an alternative lifestyle that doesn’t force them to conform to society’s expectations. Not everyone has had the guts to follow their – er guts when it comes to living a life other people may find weirdly wonderful though.

A Durban family has however proved that making the decision to live as you please doesn’t have to be so hard and may actually be just what you need in life.

Speaking to IOL, Liezel, her husband Jacques, and their two children, Colby, 18, and Calisra, 13 shares what it’s like living on a bus called the “Rolling Mirth.”

The decision came about after the couple started to realise that they were paying exorbitant amounts of money for a house that none of them spent much time in.

And so they set forth building their dream bus home which did come with some difficulty – especially because they moved into their bus in the midst of the 2021 July unrest.

“We moved in on Sunday, July 9, 2021, and that night the rioting in KZN started. We were stranded as the diesel pump was in for repair, so we spent the first two weeks stuck in one place, hearing all the gunshots around us with no way of getting out,” Liezel tells the publication.

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More love than regret

Despite the fact that they still need to pay to park their bus depending on where they are, the family says it’s still cheaper than living in a brick house with rent.

For now, they are sitting tight near their son’s school but often change locations to keep things interesting. The family also shares that eventually, they will install solar panels to go completely off the grid.

When asked if they had any regrets about their decision Liezel responded:

“We love living in the bus,” Liezel says, adding that “it can only get better when the proper travelling starts”.