It’s truly amazing how much you can downsize when you put your mind to it. Going away on a nomadic trip for a few months provides a good reason to get rid of stuff you don’t really need or use.
I have recently come back from a five month trip away and moved out of my flat lock stock and barrel. The charity shops near where I lived certainly benefited from this move as I offloaded much of my stuff.
I managed to get everything into a my medium sized car apart from my surfboard on the roof. I then drove across my city and parked my car in a friend’s garage for the northern winter.
From there I left carrying a mere 12 kg in a main pack and about 3 kg in a smaller pack, and even then I felt like I had too much stuff!
It makes you wonder how little you actually need to exist. Even with a mere 15 kg of gear I felt I had more than I needed.
Here is a list of some of my gear to illustrate I didn’t go without…
– Laptop, for work and entertainment
– Kindle / Ebook reader, the only book I carried
– Samsung S Galaxy smart phone and local simcards for all countries I travelled through providing me with mobile internet, a decent camera, entertainment, communications etc
– More than enough clothing for tropical and summer climates
– All required toiletries
– Spare pillow (I have a thing about poor quality hotel/guesthouses pillows offering no support!)
– Flip flops and converse sneakers
– Rain proof jacket and poncho
– Softball glove!
This is not the full list but you get the idea.
The biggest change has been in technology and it’s now possible to pretty much work and travel with a small laptop or even a large smart phone, if you are just updating blogs for instance.
Gone are the days of carrying around ipods, lonely planet and other books, cameras. Perhaps in the future a smartphone, the shirt on your back and passport will be enough.