Alaska Woman Camped in a Honda Civic. Everyone Thought it Was Impossible. Now, She’s Going Smaller: ‘This is Proof That You Can Car Camp in Any Car’

Car camping seems to be reserved for people with Ford pickup trucks. But camping content creator Kelleen Seims from Alaska is pushing what it means to go car camping by showing that two people can absolutely do it, even with a sleek sedan.

It almost seems impossible—but Seims says that even a Honda Civic could also fit camping essentials for the trip. For a sedan, the Civic is rather spacious, but by no means do people think of it as a camper. Most people wouldn’t even consider the sedan for off-roading because of its stock height.

“This is proof that you can car camp in any car,” Seims told TikTok, featuring a beat-up Civic in the background. She was planning to fit her husband and her dog after refurbishing the car into the “perfect” camper.

“So many people tell me they would love to car camp, but they don’t think it’s possible for them because they drive a sedan,” Seims said. But Seims used her veteran camping experience to make more room inside the Civic.

“The first step with any car is to see how flat the seats lay. There are more workarounds if yours don’t, but it does make things a lot easier,” she said. Seims prioritized laying down the backseat of the Civic to check. Then, she removed the headrests to flatten the seats even further. She and her husband also pushed the front seats further away so that the legroom in the back could be maximized.

The legroom of the backseat would serve as a storage area. Seims took out a measuring tape to check the legroom’s height and width. She then placed two acrylic totes to fill the gap. The containers can be used as a trunk for supplies and as headrests for their makeshift bed.

Making the Honda Civic a comfy camp car

After making the adjustments, the backside of the Honda Civic has become flat, which is ideal to sleep on. But to make it even more comfortable, Seims recommended putting a foam mattress topper in the car’s trunk area to even the surface out. In the video, however, she just used thick blankets to cover the surface.

She also placed blankets on top of the luggage totes and then layered them up with two fluffy pillows.

“We have to put up string lights because that one thing alone changes the entire vibe,” she said as she draped the battery-powered lights inside the car. Seims didn’t tape the lights, though—instead, she wrapped them around the grab handles of her car. By the end of it, she had a camper that looked straight out of Pinterest.

Commenters on TikTok found the advice useful, even if they weren’t campers. One user said, “6’7 here, I might have to spend a few nights in my sedan down the road.”

Another user said, “Is it bad I’m saving this for later if life gets tough?”

To which another user shared, “I did this while homeless for almost a year. I honestly kind of miss it. It’s super cozy.” It seems that necessity is truly the mother of all invention.

But Seims isn’t finished with her experiments just yet. Despite the initial praise she got over her Honda Civic challenge, she just decided to take on a smaller and harder challenge. Recently, she posted a video of herself transforming a Mazda Protegé.

“Some of the best memories come from unideal circumstances and making it work,” Seims said. Like her Civic video, Seims’ Mazda project also turned out to be a success—even though it’s a tighter squeeze for two people.

(featured images: Anas Ahmed, Taryn Elliott)

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