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<keyword id="393597" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="refrigerators" source="Orion">Refrigerators</keyword> have become a <keyword id="790603" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="necessity" source="Orion">necessity</keyword> rather than a <keyword id="6363239" type="General" weightage="20" keywordseo="luxury" source="Orion">luxury</keyword> in today's time. Double door refrigerators are considered an essential appliance for a medium to large size family, as they provide extra storage space. The two compartments help save energy and allow you to keep edibles in an organized manner. The refrigerators help you to keep the food fresh and healthy by preserving all its <keyword id="93279" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="nutrients" source="Orion">nutrients</keyword>. To help you choose the best double door refrigerator, we have curated a list.<br /><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B0BTHKXJXW" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B0BTHKXJXW_head">  <div type="image" title="B0BTHKXJXW" height="900" width="1200" msid="104731833" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B0BTHKXJXW</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B0BTHKXJXW_body"><bulletContentRow name="B0BTHKXJXW_1527269256396846"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">Haier 237 L 3 Star Frost Free Inverter Double Door Bottom Mount Refrigerator</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">237-liter frost-free refrigerator, designed for families of 2 to 3 members or bachelors. With a 66-liter freezer and a 171-liter fresh food capacity, it offers versatile storage options. This appliance boasts a 3-star energy rating and an inverter compressor for energy efficiency and quiet operation. It features twin inverter technology, an 8-in-1 convertible mode, toughened glass shelves, 2 spacious vegetable boxes, and innovative extras like Turbo Icing and a Twist Ice Maker. Plus, with the "Jhukna Mat" feature, it reduces bending by up to 90%, enhancing convenience and comfort.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B08X711N4H" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B08X711N4H_head">      <div type="image" title="Convertible" msid="83870476" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B08X711N4H</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B08X711N4H_body"><bulletContentRow name="B08X711N4H_2268170863588592"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">LG 260L 3 Star Smart Inverter Frost-Free Double Door Refrigerator</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This convertible double door refrigerator from LG claims to have revolutionary technology that converts the freezer into the fridge, which helps provide more space to store edibles. The voltage range of 100V- 310V makes the refrigerator work even without a stabiliser. The multiple air vents ensure the fridge with proper cooling. The trimless tempered glass shelves allow you to carry heavy load. The refrigerator is said to connect itself with the inverter after a power cut.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B08X711N4H_4286932860690204"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"></bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">The smart inverter technology allows it to save energy.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B08346545V" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B08346545V_head">      <div type="image" title="Stabilizer free operation" msid="83870523" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B08346545V</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B08346545V_body"><bulletContentRow name="B08346545V_0688018935677607"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">Samsung 253L 3 Star Inverter Frost Free Double Door Refrigerator</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This double door refrigerator by Samsung comes with 3-in-1 convertible technology that helps create extra storage space with cooling retention. The smart digital inverter feature allows it to adjust its speed according to the cooling. To keep the food fresh and healthy, multi air vents provide evenly cooling with a constant temperature. It has a stabilizer free operation that automatically cuts down the voltage when exceeded to avoid fluctuations. The toughened glass shelves allow it to keep ample food items and containers. Also, the LED light feature helps you find things easily.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B08346545V_6354322340471573"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"></bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">Stabilizer free operation allows you to save energy.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B0924HTRR5" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B0924HTRR5_head">      <div type="image" title="Moisture Lock Technology" msid="83870552" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B0924HTRR5</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B0924HTRR5_body"><bulletContentRow name="B0924HTRR5_0769597036404695"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">Godrej 265 L 3 Star Inverter Frost-Free Double Door Refrigerator</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This double door refrigerator by Godrej claims to provide you with the best cooling retention with PUF insulation to keep the food fresh for a longer period. The multi-level inverter technology is said to double the cooling performance. Its intelligent performance automatically adjusts the defrost process and the moisture lock technology keeps your food fresh and healthy. It comes with ample space that helps you store things with no hassle.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B0924HTRR5_3884829440756801"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"></bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">The food stays fresh for a longer time with PUF insulation.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br /><br /><bulletContentEmbed name="B083JP4765" columns="1"><bulletContentHeading name="B083JP4765_head">      <div type="image" title="Microblock Technology" msid="83870571" hostid="261"></div></columnHeadThumb>B083JP4765</columnHeadTitle></columnHead></bulletContentHeading><bulleteContentBody name="B083JP4765_body"><bulletContentRow name="B083JP4765_9270220890499560"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1">Whirlpool 265 L 2 Star Frost-Free Double Door Refrigerator</bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">This frost-free refrigerator from Whirlpool comes with a honeycomb design moisture control system that keeps the food fresh for a longer time. The microblock technology ensures to prevent up to 99% of bacterial growth with its anti-microbial additives. The placing of the air tower and vents allow cool air to spread in all sections. During power cut, the chilling gel keeps the temperature level constant.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow><bulletContentRow name="B083JP4765_5857224028196838"><bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowHead col="1"></bulletContentRowHead></bulletContentRowHeading><bulletContentRowBody><bulletContentRowCell col="1">The air vents help to distribute the cooling air evenly.</bulletContentRowCell></bulletContentRowBody></bulletContentRow></bulleteContentBody></bulletContentEmbed><br />

Best double door refrigerators under ₹25000 in India

Business Insider Awards and Recognition 

<ul class="summary-list"><li><strong>I received a job offer for $95,000 in an industry that didn't align with my values.</strong></li><li><strong>After thinking the offer over, I turned it down and chose to prioritize my happiness.</strong></li></ul><p>When the $95,000 job offer landed in my inbox, I audibly gasped.</p><p>I never expected to make a livable wage as a copywriter, let alone the kind of money that would change my life. But no amount of money could make up for the fact that it was in an industry that didn't align with my values.</p><p>I'd like to say that I immediately turned down the offer — that I'm the kind of person who is so self-aware that I didn't even consider taking a job that weighed heavily on my conscience. But that's not true. </p><p>Over the course of two days, I floundered, writing the same pro-con list over and over. I kept willing a new tiebreaker to appear, like trying to manifest a snack in an empty fridge when an odd craving strikes.</p><p>After all, maybe I could use this job as a means to an end. I had long harbored a dream of moving to France to attend a year-long, intensive pastry program at a prestigious <keyword id="13690714" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="culinary-school" source="Orion">culinary school</keyword>. Maybe, I could swallow my morals and make this high-stress job work for two years, then quit after I'd saved the $25,000 I needed for tuition.</p><p>In the end, I never added my e-signature to the offer letter. Instead, I turned down the life-changing salary to attend <a href="https://www.insider.com/ways-to-make-cake-mix-better-from-pastry-cook-2022-3">the baking and pastry arts program</a> at my local community college.</p><h2><strong>Instead of putting off my happiness, I'm choosing to experience it now </strong></h2><div type="image" title="braided pastry" height="3043" width="3024" msid="91579148" hostid="261"></div><p>Maybe this is my millennial-Gen Z cusp showing, but putting my happiness first with no moral or financial strings attached is the best decision I've ever made. </p><p>The program at my community college will cost me just under $6,000. In two and a half years, I'll be walking across the stage to receive my diploma in baking and pastry arts.</p><p>If I'd taken the copywriting job, I'd probably still be trying to save $25,000 to <a href="https://www.insider.com/lost-job-as-a-chef-never-want-to-go-back-2021-8">begin my pastry-school experience</a>, maybe boarding a flight to Paris in 2024. </p><p>Because I'm in school part-time, I haven't had to stop working or uproot my life, which is a good thing because I moved from Brooklyn to Asheville, <a href="https://www.insider.com/places-to-visit-interstate-40-trip-north-carolina-arizona-photos-2022-4">North Carolina</a>, less than a year ago. </p><div type="image" title="knot-shaped rolls on a blue and white plate" height="1024" width="1024" msid="91579153" hostid="261"></div><p>Instead of spending 40 hours a week hunched over my computer, I divide my time. </p><p>Two days a week, I throw on my <keyword id="11898849" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="chef" source="Orion">chef</keyword>'s whites and head to school where I'm learning <a href="https://www.insider.com/chef-bolognese-sauce-everyone-should-know-how-to-make-recipe-2021-12">the science behind sauces</a> and how to make a perfectly Parisian souffle.</p><p>I spend the other three days at home or in coffee shops, working as a freelance copywriter. I make my own hours and only take on projects that align with my personal values. </p><h2><strong>Now, I shape my life around the things that bring me joy rather than further my career</strong></h2><p>The most revolutionary part of designing my own schedules has been building in time that's just for me.</p><p>I feel really lucky to have the freedom to do the things purely for pleasure — like taking a casual walk or reading on my porch with my girlfriend and our dogs.</p><div type="image" title="cheese and raspberry danishes on a light green plate" height="2274" width="3024" msid="91579157" hostid="261"></div><p>I may not be making the kind of money that enables a constant stream of takeout without denting my bank account, but that's fine by me. These days, I'm happier than I have ever been. Part of that is by chance — but most of it is by design. </p><p>For so much of my life, I've been driven by a blind ambition that I thought might ease me up the corporate ladder — instead, it completely wore me down.</p><p>It took a lot of therapy and even more journaling to unlearn my capitalist instincts for the sake of my well-being. </p><p>For the first time in my life, I'm not sure what the next five years hold for me professionally. But I know that wherever I end up, <a href="https://www.insider.com/pastry-cook-favorite-ingredients-upgrade-boxed-brownies-2022-2">I'm bringing dessert</a>.</p><p><em>Editor's Note: Susie Heller worked at Insider as a reporter until 2019.</em></p>

I turned down a desk job with a $95,000 salary to attend pastry school. It was the best decision I ever made.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Anzelika Akimova and her daughter, Arina, left Ukraine at the start of the invasion and landed in Los Angeles.</li><li>Akimova found her footing in a boxing gym run by a Russian trainer who became a grounding force.</li></ul><p>A Ukrainian refugee named Anzelika Akimova enters her fighting stance at the Eastern Block Boxing gym in Los Angeles.</p><p>In front of a neon logo of a screaming Eurasian brown bear, she's channeling a hypnotic rhythm that's interrupted only by booming drill instructions or the beep of a timer. The gym has the brutalist black-and-white aesthetic of a Russian nightclub.</p><p>Akimova, her blue eyes laser-focused, cannons her left-handed jab, and a tattoo of angel wings sprawled across her back contracts and expands. She got the tattoo months after arriving in the US as a nod to both her name, rooted from the word "angel," and her new home, Los Angeles.</p><p>In Los Angeles and across California, front yards don Ukrainian flags and cars are adorned with bumper stickers extending solidarity to the population under Russia's assault, which intensified after the country's full-scale invasion in February 2022 and <a href="https://data.unhcr.org/en/situations/ukraine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">has displaced over 6 million people.</a></p><p>The outpour of American support for Ukrainian refugees has been profound, mainly through a sponsorship program rolled out in April 2022 by President Joe Biden's administration, through which 1.7 million Americans have offered to help resettle Ukrainians.</p><p>But beyond the gestures and political efforts, Akimova and many new Ukrainian immigrants hold trauma from the raging war and are now grappling with slow bureaucracy and anxiety around fragile immigration statuses, as well as a heightened cost of living in the US.</p><p>Many, like Akimova, are feeling the crushing weight of starting over.</p><p>It wasn't until she discovered a Russian-speaking gym that she started to find her footing again.</p><div type="image" title="Inside a non-discriminatory boxing gym." height="1667" width="2500" msid="104260072" hostid="261" sizebytes="171166"></div><div type="image" title="Images framed and hanging in wall, inside a boxing gym." height="1667" width="2500" msid="104260074" hostid="261" sizebytes="264000"></div><h2><strong>Akimova never wanted to leave Ukraine </strong></h2><p>It was only 18 months ago when Akimova, 33, thought her days were numbered, first because of the war and later, in the US, the paralyzing limbo of losing her sense of place.</p><p>After Russia's invasion in early 2022, and during her first months in the US, Akimova said, she hated that Americans could keep a positive outlook on life while she stayed up late, sending WhatsApp messages to relatives in Odesa and Kyiv, trying to start her new life after resettling.</p><p>She missed the mundane in Odesa, even how the acrid smell of her neighbors frying tinned goby fish would waft through the calm seaside air and into her home, uninvited. She missed the rigor of her daily Karate practice and often thought about her and her 12-year-old daughter, Arina's, karate coach, who once told her the only time it was OK to miss a workout was when you die.</p><p>She felt close enough to that, she said.</p><p>No matter how excited her daughter was about Disneyland and life in the US, depression ate away at Akimova. </p><p>But five months into her time in the US, she met someone who reinvigorated that sense of adrenalized regiment and purpose into her life. Without much to do, and too much time to doomscroll, Akimova followed an algorithmic thread on Instagram that led her to the page of a boxing gym that was set to open in Toluca Lake, near North Hollywood, where she resettled.</p><p>That's where she met her boxing trainer, Salman Poddubnov, 35, a man who came from — who escaped — the same country that invaded her homeland.</p><p>By January 2023, Akimova joined his gym and felt born again.</p><p>"It was like being underwater for a long time, and then coming up for air," she remembered telling her sister, still in Ukraine, over a late-night phone call through which air sirens could be heard in the background.</p><h2><strong>At the outset of the war, Akimova sought refuge in an underground parking garage</strong></h2><p>Akimova's sing-songy voice shifts from a bubbly tone to exasperation in seconds as she reflects on her journey from a war that has raged in some form since 2014.</p><p>Ten days into Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Akimova found herself and her daughter sheltering from warplanes in the underground parking garage of their apartment building in Odesa, she told Insider. </p><p>She was sick with a cold, and her fridge was empty. Within 24 hours, grocery stores in her city were out of food, and the pharmacies, which she hadn't had time to pass by in the days before the invasion, were out of medicine.</p><p>She worried, too, that her daughter would get pneumonia sleeping on the frigid concrete where cars parked, with just a few blankets to keep her warm.</p><p>Her idyllic lifestyle — working as a teacher, later designing floral arrangements, and finally as a makeup artist — faded away, and she decided to create the safest possible life for herself and her daughter. </p><p>They trudged 5 miles by foot from a border crossing backed up with cars to the other side of the Moldovan border, where they were met by some of her karate teammates from Ukraine, who helped them get tickets aboard a rickety train to Romania.</p><p>The train was repurposed to help resettle migrants at the start of the full-scale invasion. Its roof was riddled with holes. </p><p>It was the first time they could fall asleep — on each other's shoulders, with no fear of bombardment — in days.</p><p>In Romania, Akimova and her daughter waited for half a day until a Czech relative arrived and invited them to live with them in Prague for a month.</p><p>Then, Akimova and her daughter took the leap and decided to try to gain entry into the US and join Akimova's partner, a Ukrainian who lives in Los Angeles.</p><p>They flew to Mexico, where they first tried to cross the border at Tijuana, but turned away when they saw the crowds at the crossing. They were later driven by Ukrainian volunteers to the Mexicali-Calexico border, where, after four hours, they were granted humanitarian parole in the US.</p><p>The journey was arduous, and the following months weighed heavily on Akimova as she tried to make sense of her new immigration status and navigate with minimal English skills.</p><p>After enlisting in ESL classes and registering her daughter in a public school, her day-to-day life in Los Angeles felt more stable. </p><p>Still, she ached for her homeland. Her attempts to make tvarog, a pillowy fermented farmer's cheese popular in Ukraine, didn't help.</p><p>Begrudgingly picking up ingredients from a Russian store, she mixed the warmed milk with vinegar as she always had, watching the whey separate and the cheese curdle. But when she strained the fluffy mixture with cheesecloth and added buttermilk, something was off — either the American buttermilk or the absence of Odesa's water.</p><p>It wasn't until she set foot in Poddubnov's gym that she felt at home. </p><p>"In my country when I practiced karate, I was really organized: If you have a problem, you should go work out; if you're happy, you should go work out; if you need to solve a problem, you should work out," Akimova told Insider. "It was like medicine for everything. And here, it's the same."</p><div type="image" title="Woman wearing mouth guard and boxing gloves." height="1667" width="2500" msid="104260075" hostid="261" sizebytes="223680"></div><h2><strong>Like many Ukrainians, Akimova has fought for her place in the US</strong></h2><p>Akimova is one of the more than 270,000 Ukrainians who have arrived in the US since Russia invaded Ukraine. </p><p>At least 25,000 of them entered the US through the southern border in 2022, before the US government established the Uniting for Ukraine program in April of that year, according to the nonprofit Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.</p><p>But the bulk of new Ukrainians — at least 146,000 fleeing the war — have been resettled through the parole program, according to LIRS. The sponsorship program allows Ukrainians to live in the US for two years on a faster track to citizenship.</p><p>More than 1.7 million Americans have applied to be sponsors, LIRS told Insider.</p><p>Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, the president of LIRS, told Insider that parole status did not necessarily create a clear path to be granted asylum and later permanent residency. So in August, the Department of Homeland Security<a href="https://www.dhs.gov/news/2023/08/18/secretary-mayorkas-extends-and-redesignates-temporary-protected-status-ukraine" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> extended</a> Temporary Protected Status for Ukrainians until April 2025, providing more options for Ukrainians to try to extend their refuge in the US. </p><p>In July 2022, Akimova and Arina were granted TPS, which made their place in the US slightly more rooted.</p><p>But there are still uniting factors making life in the US difficult for many new Ukrainians like Akimova, regardless of immigration status. </p><p>For one, Akimova and Arina arrived at a time when <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/11/cpi-april-2022.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">historic 8.3% inflation</a> caused the cost of living in the US to skyrocket, especially compared to the cost of living in Ukraine. And many parolees that arrived are women and children, according to LIRS, creating issues in terms of securing childcare and employment.</p><p>On a weekly basis, Akimova has been working against the clock with her immigration lawyer, trying to secure an extension to her and Arina's TPS status.</p><p>"In general, we've seen the Ukrainians we serve struggle with the uncertainty of what will happen after parole and whether they will be approved for another status like TPS or asylum," Vignarajah told Insider. "Ukrainians are also experiencing the trauma of losing their homes and being separated from family and loved ones."</p><p>Increasingly, Akimova's future here is materializing after a relative shipped Akimova's master's degree to her home in Los Angeles — which allowed her to begin community college classes in English and art in the late summer. </p><div type="image" title="Woman and man standing next to each other in doorway." height="2500" width="1667" msid="104260077" hostid="261" sizebytes="189628"></div><h2><strong>Poddubnov was a target of Russia's government too, in a different way</strong></h2><p>The gym, too, has been Poddubnov's place of refuge. It's marked with the slogan "no nationality, no skin color, no politics: only boxing."</p><p>He cuts a stoic and alert figure in the gym, in one breath shouting instructions, cracking a joke in the next, over a rotating soundtrack of Russian tech house or American gangster rap. </p><p>Before their paths aligned at Eastern Block Boxing, Poddubnov fought as an amateur boxer in Russia. He later entered local politics, getting a job as a vice mayor in the industrial Russian city of Volzhsky, a dozen miles from the famed World War II Battle of Stalingrad.</p><p>"My life was pretty good," Poddubnov told Insider. "If it wasn't for politics, maybe I'd still be there. In Russia, if you don't agree with something, you will go to jail; you have a choice: jail or USA."</p><p>Poddubnov told Insider he was run out as Volzhsky's vice mayor in 2016, after that year's legislative and state elections, as Vladimir Putin's allies took over the region's governorship and brought a corruption case against him and local mayors, clearing house and ensuring that allies took their spots.</p><p>The same year, what he felt was a phony corruption case against him was heating up, Poddubnov would kiss his young daughter one last time late at night and take a flight to the US with $3,000 and hopes of reviving his boxing career.</p><p>But soon after arriving in the US, he mixed with the wrong crowd, he told Insider, and served close to two years across six federal prisons after he became a driver involved in a 25-person money-laundering ring run by Eastern Europeans across the US, according to court documents.</p><p>While in the prison system, Poddubnov trained groups of men and was encouraged by fellow prisoners to open his own gym after his release.</p><p>In December of last year, after over a year of freedom and training clients in his backyard, Poddubnov opened Eastern Block Boxing.</p><p>The Soviet style is characterized by long-distance jabs and straight right hands, hooks with palms facing down, a pendulum step, and shifty angular footwork. It was popularized by the height of the cold war and shared by former members of the Soviet Union and is still used by Ukrainian and Russian fighters, as well as fighters from other former Soviet countries.</p><p>"Beautiful," Poddubnov says to Akimova during their training one balmy summer morning. "This is Soviet Union boxing, keeping your distance." </p><div type="image" title="Man wearing boxing gloves leaning over a boxing ring." height="1667" width="2500" msid="104260078" hostid="261" sizebytes="206860"></div><h2><strong>Each day, they keep space to talk about the realities of the war</strong></h2><p>Multiple times a week, Akimova tells Poddubnov what is going on with her community in Ukraine, and they lament how close many Russians and Ukrainians were before the war. </p><p>On her Instagram, Akimova routinely speaks out against the war, calling Russia a "terrorist state" for its actions. Poddubnov agrees with the political assessment.</p><p>"It's very good that we live here, on the other side," Poddubnov told Insider. "Here you see it like a tennis match, and you can understand what is going on. In Russia, people don't see this, they see the 'special military operation.'"</p><p>Poddubnov doesn't plan to go back to Russia any time soon, in part because he fears he may be conscripted.</p><p>"For what would I go? To kill her family? What did they do to me?" Poddubnov said as Akimova looked down solemnly.</p><p>By August, Akimova secured full travel authorization outside the US — and she considered visiting relatives in Odesa and Kyiv for two weeks. Instead, she registered for more community college classes.</p><p>Her home is now in Los Angeles and in the boxing gym.</p><div type="image" title="Woman training with trainer at boxing gym." height="1667" width="2500" msid="104260081" hostid="261" sizebytes="236534"></div>

She fled Ukraine and found belonging with her Russian boxing coach in America

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Tyler Hjorting, 30, and Lexi O'Brien, 28, were bartenders in Los Angeles, California, who felt that they were spending too much money on rent for their tiny one-bedroom apartment.</li><li>They started looking into alternative ways of living and stumbled across "bus life," in which people convert buses into tiny homes on wheels.</li><li>They turned an old <keyword id="6394228" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="school-bus">school bus</keyword> into a wood-paneled, airy, and plant-filled space they call "One Wild Ride."</li><li>After 1.5 years on the road, they recently settled in Texas, where they plan to open a tiny-home community.</li></ul><p>You've probably heard of the <a href="https://www.insider.com/category/tiny-home">tiny home movement</a> and <a href="https://www.insider.com/van-tiny-home-business-sara-alex-james-2020-2https://www.insider.com/category/van-life">van life</a>, but did you know that "bus life" is also a thing?</p><p>Instead of <a href="https://www.insider.com/van-tiny-home-business-sara-alex-james-2020-2">converting vans into tiny homes on wheels</a>, bus lifers turn buses into moveable abodes. Often, these are former school buses, which are affectionately known as "skoolies."</p><p>Tyler Hjorting, 30, and Lexi O'Brien, 28, did just that, turning an old school bus into a bright and airy, plant-filled home they call "<a href="https://www.instagram.com/onewildridebus/">One Wild Ride</a>."</p><p>The two met through mutual friends in Los Angeles, California, where Hjorting was bartending and O'Brien did makeup for photo shoots, before starting to bartend with Tyler.</p><h2><strong>Tyler Hjorting and Lexi O'Brien said they were spending too much money on renting their small LA apartment, so they researched 'alternative ways of living' and wound up buying a bus</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="One Wild Ride Bus couple inside" height="2274" width="3032" msid="76699539" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p>That's when they "stumbled across the whole <keyword id="6894034" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="van-life">van life</keyword> thing," Hjorting told Insider.</p><p>When Hjorting remembered seeing a converted school bus out camping, they started looking into bus conversions. Turns out, these were "blowing up all over YouTube and Instagram" Hjorting said. "We didn't realize that there was such a huge movement with it, and we just kind of decided to start going that route."</p><p><div type="image" title="One Wild Ride Bus" height="1080" width="1440" msid="76699543" hostid="261"></div></p><p>In 2017, after over a year of researching the idea and saving up money, they said they bought a bus off Craigslist for $10,000. While they say that's on the steep end for old school buses, they added that they bought it from someone who had already started converting the bus by putting in a new motor, getting new tires, and painting the exterior, so they don't regret it.</p><h2><strong>They then spent 8 months renovating the bus on weekends and after work, doing most of it themselves, save for the electrical and plumbing</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="One Wild Ride Bus" height="2268" width="3024" msid="76699545" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p>"It was just a huge learning process. It was a lot of YouTube and asking other Instagram pages how they did certain stuff, a lot of trial and error," Hjorting said, adding that they frequently started a project before tearing it out and starting fresh.</p><p>They ended up spending another $25,000 to renovate and decorate their dream home on wheels.</p><p>"We wanted to try to have all the amenities that our apartment had, which wasn't really much bigger than this at the time," Hjorting said. "We wanted to have a little eating area and a shower, definitely room for at least a queen-sized bed, and a stove."</p><p><div type="image" title="Photo May 31, 4 30 44 PM" height="4032" width="3024" msid="76699555" hostid="261"></div></p><p>They played around with the layout, taping off the floor to see where things would fit and where they would make the most sense.</p><p>"We're pretty happy with the layout still. I don't think we would have changed anything," he said.</p><h2><strong>They fit a lot into approximately 185 square feet of space</strong></h2><p><strong><div type="image" title="One Wild Ride Bus" height="2274" width="3032" msid="76699557" hostid="261"></div></strong></p><p>In fact, the two said that three months into their travels, they realized they could have gone with a smaller bus or even a van.</p><p>One Wild Ride has a dinette eating area, a three-top stove, an oven, a regular-sized fridge, a compost toilet, a shower, a queen-sized bed, a seven-foot couch, a "decent-size closet," and a dresser. Storage is also cleverly hidden under the couch and bed.</p><p>They say that building the dinette and opting for an oven and three-top stove (as opposed to a two-top or hot plate, which many van and bus-lifers opt for) were some of the best decisions they made, as they cook often and spend a lot of time in the dinette area, both eating and working.</p><p><div type="image" title="One Wild Ride Bus" height="4032" width="3024" msid="76699560" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Before hitting the road, the two said they sold everything they had, from their car to their furniture, and spent three months living with Hjorting's sister to save on rent. They also budgeted out a year of expenses so that they could <keyword id="6354692" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Travel">travel</keyword> comfortably without having to work or stress about money.</p><p>"A lot of things that we were reading from other nomad people was about trying to find part-time gigs or jobs, or to have some sort of online income, and that it can be really tough. So we wanted to at least give ourselves 12 months of time to make sure we can go out and enjoy it and not be super stressed," Hjorting said.</p><p>A year later, O'Brien started doing online marketing to supplement their income, while Hjorting began working odd jobs he found on Craigslist. By then, however, they had grown a big enough following on Instagram to start getting paid for posts, which helped them get by for the most part.</p><h2><strong>After spending a year-and-half traveling to 22 states, the couple settled in Texas, living in their renovated bus</strong></h2><p><div type="image" title="One Wild Ride Bus" height="901" width="1202" msid="76699563" hostid="261"></div></p><p>"We kept ending up in Texas," Hjorting said. "That's why we chose to stay here. We did Texas three separate times through that year-and-a-half. And every time it was in the middle of the summer, so it was really hot. And we were like, 'well, if we love it while it's 105 degrees and humid, then we're going to like it for the rest of the year.'"</p><p>O'Brien's mother, who runs a wedding venue in LA, had been planning to expand the company in the east for a while. When she learned that the two wanted to move to Texas, and an opportunity for a venue there cropped up, she took it, launching <a href="https://www.instagram.com/theiceplantbldg/">The Ice Plant Bldg</a>.</p><p>That's how Hjorting and O'Brien ended up around an hour outside of Austin, in La Grange, which they fell in love with immediately. They bought 25 acres of land near the venue, and have been living on it in their parked bus since.</p><p>Currently, they're helping O'Brien's mother run the venue, are building a house for themselves, and have plans to create <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thepondcollective/">The Pond Collective</a>, a tiny-home community, which they say will eventually have tiny homes, yurts, and their bus for rent.</p><h2><strong>The one thing they miss about being on the road is the people<div type="image" title="One Wild Ride Bus" height="2249" width="2999" msid="76699566" hostid="261"></div></strong></h2><p>While they don't miss sleeping in Walmart parking lots, conserving water and electricity while on the road for fear of running out, and the stress of driving a huge, loud bus with a tendency to overheat, they do miss the people they met while traveling.</p><p>"It's the community of people that are doing the same thing. We've met some lifelong friends that changed our lives," Hjorting said. "Everyone's so like-minded. Everyone wanted to get out of their normal grind and get rid of all their stuff and things like that. So you tend to bond with those people pretty easily."</p><p><div type="image" title="One Wild Ride Bus surfboards" height="2268" width="3024" msid="76699569" hostid="261"></div></p><p>Their main advice to people considering the <keyword id="15482" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="lifestyle">lifestyle</keyword>? "Just get on and do it," Hjorting said.</p><p>"Just go for it. Stop thinking about it, because it's awesome," he continued. "I love the bus life. Like, I'm probably going to be sad to move into the house once we finally get to."</p><ul class="read-more-links"><li>Read more:</li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/camper-van-overnight-van-life-reality-what-its-like-2020-5">I spent a single night in a camper van with my husband and have a newfound appreciation for people who do it full-time</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/rv-parks-campgrounds-closed-nonessential-leaving-people-homeless-2020-4">RV parks and campgrounds are being forced to close amid the pandemic, leaving many van-lifers without a place to stay</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/what-its-like-living-working-in-airstream-during-pandemic-2020-4">A couple stuck living and working in a 23-foot trailer together during lockdown reveal what it's like</a></li><li><a href="https://www.insider.com/van-tiny-home-business-sara-alex-james-2020-2">A couple quit their jobs and sold everything to live in a van. Now, they make money by building tiny homes on wheels for others.</a></li></ul>

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