Minimalism and the fully Nomadic life
Three years ago, we had a 2400 square foot house full of furniture, TVs, electronics, kitchen appliances, tools, clothes, and an assortment of what can only be called junk.
That happens when you raise a family in one house over 20+ years.
What is Minimalism?
As a buzz word, minimalism can mean different things to different people.
Maybe it means getting rid of junk that collected in the garage so you can park there.
Or reducing the quantity of certain categories of items, like fewer clothes or shoes or cars.
It could relate to empty nesters downsizing from a house to a condo, because they just don't need that much space anymore.
For us, minimalism means reducing our stuff down to what we can travel with. That was not overnight.
Phase 1
First, we put our house on the market. Nothing motivates you to downsize as much as the desire to be ready for an offer, especially when you don't have a new home.
We threw away tons of files and miscellaneous stuff that was not worth selling or donating as a first step toward downsizing.
Phase 2
We went through the rest, which was most of our stuff, and picked the stuff we wanted to keep, but could not travel with. Things like some files, boxes of pictures, home movies, musical instruments, and a couple of pieces of furniture.
We got a small storage unit to place these things in, and moved our “keep for later” stuff.
Phase 3
The next part was getting rid of everything else, and there was a ton of furniture, electronics, clothes, and tools among other things.
We hired an estate sale company to manage everything from pricing to running the sale to clearing out what does not sell for Good Will. They took a percentage of the take, and it was money well spent.
Phase 4
We moved to temporary, furnished housing next, and waited for the house to sell. We chose the Landing service, which allowed for open ended dates on our rental.
It was a hot market, so it only took about a month or so to close on the sale of our house.
Phase 5
Next we planned the first phase of our travel, while also finalizing our clothes and luggage from our short term housing.
Doing this while still near our storage unit meant we could decide on final things to take or leave, and pick if storage or donation was the right choice for each item.
Phase 6
As our first travel date approached, which was for Italy, we prepared for the sale of both our cars. We saved this for the last couple of weeks before travel.
Once the cars were sold, we got a rental car for just the last few days.
Phase 7
We packed all of our remaining stuff, closed out our temporary housing, and got on a plane to Italy with almost everything we own.
2 large suitcases.
2 carry-on bags
2 backpacks.
2 years later…
We are now going for another downsizing, currently a work in progress.
The hope is that by the time we leave the UK, we will be down to this:
1 large carry-on (goes underneath on planes)
2 carry-ons
2 backpacks.
Summary
After 2 years of travel, we have discovered that less is better. There is great freedom in minimalism.
And for the train travel and bus travel, fewer bags just makes it all easier.
Walking from a bus station to your accommodations rather than catching a cab saves money, but the more you have, the harder it is to walk.
Bottom line, nomadic living and minimalism go hand in hand. I hope this has been helpful.
Until next time, have a good one!