DAYS UNTIL TRIP: 5
…and I have no privacy!
I used to think Rockwell was paranoid when he wrote that song. But maybe he was just living in a van.
My van has shades on all the windows, which I thought would give me total privacy on the nights where I sleep in the vehicle. But the shades are so flimsy, I’m starting to wonder if people can see through them. I can easily see the cars and houses when looking out the shades from inside the vehicle:
I don’t think it’s possible to see in, however. I’ve gone outside and tried to look in, and all you see is the glare of the sunlight on the windows, and darkness inside. So it appears I’m safe.
I’ve read that some folks who travel in their vans put up heavy curtains or black tape on all the windows. That’s way too much work for me. The one thing I did was buy a curtain to hang behind the front seats. That way, the back part of the van is sealed off completely and there is no way to see into my living quarters. I can put up the curtain, pull the shades, and be in my own little world.
9000 Miles 
My parents van used to have those shades. Theirs actually had 2 shades. The bottom one was semi transparent and then if you pulled the next bar down the top shade was fully opague.
Interesting… I just have the one pair of shades. But they look sufficient for now!
I was tooling around the vandweller links on your page and most of them have this bungee cording wrapped around things in the back of the van, like the shelves/drawer unit you have. you might want to invest in some rope to hold things in place.