Long term travel and the ‘no stuff’ mentality
What’s one of the first things that goes through your mind when you decide to pack everything up and go on the road permanently? If my experience is anything to go by, it’s “But what about all my stuff? What should I do with it?”.
Rolf has written about and shared many useful posts about what to take with you and how to travel light — but this post is about how traveling light can extend to your general attitude to possessions — both buying, having and keeping them — a ‘no stuff’ mentality, if you like.
As a permanent traveler, with no home to go back to I have got the art of ‘no stuff’ just about sorted out. Everything my husband and I own has been whittled down from a 1,400 sq ft loft apartment and a 2 bedroom house and now fits into a 45 sq ft room, a 45 liter suitcase and our two laptop backpacks. In the quest for the ‘no stuff’ mentality, here are some rules that we now live by:
“Only buy things which we know we will use extensively in the next 6 months – this applies to clothes, gadgets, travel accessories and anything else which we might have to carry.”
“If we haven’t used something in the past 6 months, we ditch it”
The feeling of freedom is immense. Knowing you can travel the world without the weight of all your possessions tugging you back anywhere is liberating. If you are looking to get rid of some of your things, here are some useful resources which are all designed to reduce environmental waste…
The Freecycle Network
SwitchPlanet
Neighborrow
October 3rd, 2007 at 9:27 pm
Do you ever miss having a permanent home to go back to? Do you ever get homesick and miss your family and friends back home?
October 4th, 2007 at 1:01 am
“The past is a property-owner’s luxury. Where should I keep mine? You can’t put your past in your pocket; you have to have a house in which to store it. I possess nothing but my body; a man on his own, with nothing but his body, can’t stop memories; they pass through him. I shouldn’t complain: all I ever wanted was to be free.”
-Jean Paul Sartre
When we carry around our pasts, it keeps us from having better futures. Nice post, Lea.
October 4th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
MH – my husband misses having his own art studio to work in and having some of his reference books etc. around him but only every now & then. I, on the other hand, don’t miss having a ‘home’ to go back to at all (I thought I would) – I love the change in environment & visual stimulation that comes with doing what we do.
We try to go back to the UK every 6 months or so for a few days – my Grandma lives there and of course likes to see us. I generally speak to most of my close family once every 2 weeks or so but they’re spread around the globe so we’re used to living on different continents. What with our blogs, email, webcams, skype etc. it’s so much easier to keep in touch nowadays and the world feels a lot smaller.
AJ – very nice quote and I absolutely agree…what we do is about learning from our past, letting go of it & then moving forward.
Lea
October 5th, 2007 at 6:17 pm
I managed to spend five years in Amsterdam with no more possessions than would fit in a large suitcase, a backpack, a duffel bag, a laptop bag and two medium-sized boxes. Of course, I was cheating somewhat, as I was renting furnished apartments 😉
But as I knew I’d always return to Australia at some point, it made leaving so much less of an issue than it would have been otherwise. And it was very simple to move apartments – just a couple of trips on a tram 🙂
October 8th, 2007 at 6:22 am
Thanks, great post. I’ve lived in nyc 7+ years, have moved a lot, and have rarely needed anything but a “several trips on the subway” move. I never want to own anything that doesn’t come apart into pieces I can easily pick up & move myself on public transportation.
Now I live in a small cheap apt but it feels very spacious since it’s not full of stuff.