How I Lived in a Toyota Matrix for 3 Months
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From September 2022 to January 2023, I spent three months living in my Toyota Matrix while traveling around the US.
Wait!!!! Isn’t this blog about traveling in electric vehicles? Well, yes, it is. However, I haven’t always driven an EV. I took this trip before I bought an electric car. My setup worked great for me – I felt safe, had what I needed, and slept comfortably – and so I want to share how I did that. In the next few months, I’ll set up a similar system in my Chevy Bolt. But for this post, we diverge to how I set myself up to live in a 2006 Toyota Matrix for three months.
(And, yes, I know September to January is four months – I made a side trip to the Czech Republic for a month.)
Why Live in a Toyota Matrix?
For a while, I thought I needed a van if I was going to do #vanlife, then I discovered that folks were converting cars for camping and I realized the 2006 Toyota Matrix I already owned would fit my needs just fine.
A couple of features of my Toyota Matrix made it the ideal vehicle for living in during my trip:
- I already owned it – great for the pocketbook and getting going right away
- The back seat folds absolutely flat – great for sleeping
- It’s reliable – I wasn’t worried about too much going wrong
- It’s just a car – stealth
- Decent gas mileage
I want to highlight the “I already owned it” element of my car. I am a big proponent of starting where you are. Get out there, try things out, then decide if you need more, better, or different equipment. I took that approach with my car and with most of the other gear I took with me were things I already owned.
Creating a Comfortable Bed
The most important part of sleeping in my car was having a safe and comfortable place to sleep. At 5’5” plus a little, the length was fine for me.
Extending the back
My retired-carpenter neighbor helped me make a little platform to go behind the passenger seat to extend the sleeping area. Nothing fancy – a couple of 2”x6” boards and a bit of plywood – all from his random lumber stack. We made the platform so that I could fit 2 of my bins underneath it.
The mattress
I looked at what others were using and the simplest was a piece of upholstery foam. I went for 3” thick and 30” wide. I chose 30” over 24” because I knew I’d be trimming some off to make it fit snugly against the side of the car. I also cut a couple of inches off the length to make it fit better.
I made a sleeve out of a sheet from Goodwill to cover the mattress and help keep it clean. It was a pain to put it on, but that didn’t need to be done often. On top of the foam, I added an old cotton sleeping bag for an extra bit of cush.
The bedding
For bedding, I used a twin fitted sheet on the “mattress” and tucked it in as best I could.
I brought covers and pillows from home. I used a twin, down comforter and on the coldest nights, I pulled out my down sleeping bag. For pillows, I brought my two favorites from home. When not being used as an extra cover (or camping), I kept my sleeping bag in the cotton cover that allowed it to stay lofted but contained.
On my very coldest night (13 degrees F, in Texas of all places), I used an uninsulated metal water bottle, similar to this one, as a hot water bottle. I filled it up with hot water at the fountain bar at the Buc-ees I was at and used it to help warm the bed as I was getting settled in. That night, I did also sleep in my fleece coat, turtleneck, thick leggings, and a hat (which kept falling off). In the morning, the only thing that was cold was the tip of my nose.
🚗 Triple-check that the bottle doesn’t leak before using as a hot water bottle!
Keeping the food cold
I used a cooler I already had. It has wheels and a handle for pulling. It fit best in the car with the wheels towards the door, which left the handle on the inside, where I would be sleeping. I realized the handle was going to drive me crazy. Since I have rarely pulled the cooler anywhere, I was fine sawing off the handle, so off it went!
I looked at the fancy Yeti-type coolers and also at electric coolers, but wasn’t ready to spend the money for them. Also, I was traveling in cooler weather, so keeping things cold was not going to be a herculean task. Yeah, I did end up with floating food several times, but nothing was inedible because of it. Whenever I visited someone, I put my containers of water in their freezer and that helped a lot.
The cooler lived right behind the driver’s seat, which made it easy to access from the rear passenger door.
A place for everything
One of the things I learned while living in Toyota Matrix, and learned very early in my trip, is that EVERYTHING needed a home. I would spend an hour every two days or so tidying things up… that’s just the nature of living in such a small space.
Behind the cooler, I had two stacks of Sterilite 16-quart storage bins. I like these bins because they are a good size – big enough, but not too big. The fact that they also fit exactly in the space made them ideal for me. And, I already had some of them (some things at home got dumped in boxes while I was away so I could use the bins in the car).
- Front top – food – the food one was the heaviest and one of the most often accessed, so it stayed on top. When I was getting into the bins below, I would put the food bin on top of the cooler. This was the food I was currently eating. Every three days or so, I’d dive into the depths and restock from the “deep-sixed” bins (under the bed extender – more info below).
- Front middle – kitchen – stove, fuel canister, pots, silverware, bowl, lighter, rubber spatula, Talenti ice cream jar. I backpack, so most of my camping stuff is small. It works in the backcountry and it works here.
- Front bottom – office – journal, book, pens, iPad, computer, battery pack, cords.
- Back top – toiletries – toothbrush, toothpaste, retainers, comb, nail clippers, some basic first aid supplies (Band-Aids), shampoo and conditioner, soap, sunscreen, etc.
- Back bottom – art supplies – these had a lovely tour of the US but were used only once.
Bin for Bits
Partway through my trip, I added a bin on the passenger seat. One of the great things about a Toyota Matrix is that the front seat folds flat and there is a small recess built in. I found this bin at Target and added four bits of velcro to the bottom of the basket and the back of the seat. It was great for things I used regularly: notepad, hair brush, extra charging cords, brochures, national park passbook, etc.
Clothes
All my clothes fit in a soft-sided carry-on backpack suitcase. At night I stowed it on top of the cooler. During the day, it got lined up across the back along with my pillows and sleeping bag. The comforter was folded up and put in front of those items.
The Garage
At the back of my Toyota Matrix, I had a large tote that I thought of as the garage – for all the big and seldom used stuff: tent, bear can (crammed full), poncho, bug spray (didn’t need it because of the season I was traveling), gifts for folks I was visiting, extra stuff (sunscreen, fuel canisters, TP, trash bags, meds/supplements), and who knows what else.
Water
I carried three 1-gallon jugs of water on the floor behind the driver’s seat, as well as four one-liter bottles. I would fill them every couple of days as I had access and need. I started out with four gallon jugs, but the cap on one wasn’t watertight. The jugs were just distilled water jugs left over from my mom’s CPAP machine – nothing fancy. The one-liter bottles are the same Smart water bottles I use backpacking.
As I emptied the one-liter bottles, I would refill them from the gallon jugs. The smaller bottles were easier to control and carry around. They didn’t fit in my cup holders (does anything?), but I found I could slip it under the mattress at the corner of the driver’s seat.
The Deep-Six Zone
In the space behind the front seat, under the bed extender shelf, I had two more plastic bins. These held extra food – I had a lot of food left from a backpacking trip that I didn’t finish, so brought that along. It was also a good place to store chocolate so I wouldn’t eat it all at once. 😉
Over time, as the food diminished, I stowed brochures I picked up along the way in the bins and other random stuff that got in my way.
Shoes
I kept my shoes on the floor of the front passenger seat, with one exception – I used a pair of Crocs for getting in and out at night and I was able to jam them into the space under the bed extender. Occasionally at night, I just tucked them under the car, if I was in a campground, for example.
At night, I put my regular shoes in front of the driver’s seat. If I needed to leave quickly, they’d be ready and there was space for them there.
Cargo nets
My Toyota Matrix came with a cargo net that fit across the width of the car. While living in the car, I kept the net in place and slipped the window covers in there during the day. The cover for the back window didn’t fit, so it went on top of the bedding.
A second little cargo net created a divider between the front and the back. With extra tent cordage to extend its reach, the net hung from the driver’s seat headrest to the to part fo the passenger seatbelt. I slipped my hat and a couple of other things in there. Helped me keep things from the back ending up in the front – more from me pushing things around than anything moving while driving.
Hanging Things
The Toyota Matrix has handles above both the back doors. I tied some extra tent cord between these to create a place to hang things. Mostly, I used them for my lights at night. I had both a Luci light (I had this version) and a fan/light combo.
Toyota Matrix night setup for sleeping
My night setup was different from the day setup. I did have to move a few things to make the bed usable; the first task was always to put up the window covers.
Window covers
I made my own window covers – reflective foil cut to fit, then black flannel fabric attached with spray adhesive. I jammed them in, and they stayed put… I had “bug screens socks” for all four windows. (These are the ones that fit my car the best for the front windows and back windows.) I only ever used the back two. I scored the window covers on the back two windows so I could fold the top few inches down to get better airflow. Many nights, I didn’t open the windows – again, the season I was traveling didn’t require a lot of ventilation.
Having Reflectix on one side and black flannel on the other meant the covers could be reversed to help keep the heat out. I did that one afternoon to take a nap without getting baked.
Bed setup
I could put the window covers up from inside the vehicle, but if I was in a place where I felt comfortable doing it from the outside, that was easier. Same with moving the suitcase to the top of the cooler.
The next bit was to remove my shoes and toss them into the driver’s foot area. If I needed to get out in the night, I used the Crocs that I kept jammed under the bed extender shelf.
Once I was in the car, I likely had to put a few things away – books, camera, extra clothes, etc. If I wasn’t using it as an extra cover, I stuffed my sleeping bag on top of the tote to get it out of the way. Then, plumped up my pillows and comforter and settled in.
Keys at night
I slept with my head at the back end of the car – made the space feel a lot bigger than with my head towards the front. I used a carabiner to attach my keys to one of the metal loops for the cargo nets – that way I always knew where they were.
Living in a Toyota Matrix – Home Sweet Home
And that is how I lived in my 2006 Toyota Matrix for three months while I traveled around the US.
If you have specific questions about my setup, feel free to contact me directly.
If you want to read more about some of my adventures, you can find them at Peregrination Cultivation.
Go explore!